24-Hour Film Festival

So you brought your video camera with you to Cambodia, and then did a lot of great shooting around that little village.
And you met the kid who was striving to get to the United States, but he’d never actually been out of the village. And
all he could talk about was leaving to get to Phnom Penh, but his family was distraught because he was leaving for the
city, like so many of the other kids in the village, like the one daughter from another family who became a prostitute,
and this whole drama played out while you were there and thank goodness you had your video camera…

Why?
because you can now cut the whole tragic drama together and enter the Travel Film
Festival
. Well, you’ll have to wait a little while because the festival doesn’t actually get going
until September, but I saw this announcement in an old Worldhum post, and thought, heck, maybe now is the time to start
thinking about making a travel movie. So there you go. I’ve given you both an idea and an early heads up.

Berlin Film Festival

I know I mentioned Sundance earlier and it may seem like I’m all about film festivals right now, but I promise you it is just a coincidence. It is a coincidence that I am mentioning to you the coming of the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. This is another one of the big ones and it is happening in one of the most happening cities in all of Europe. A buddy of mine just got back from Berlin and he said it is electrified. The nightlife is excellent, the art scene is thriving and the economy, well, if not booming, at least Berlin is the heart of what growth there is taking place.

The fact is that the Berlin Film Festival allegedly has the largest audience of any film festival on the globe, with some 180,000 tickets sold for over 700 different movie screenings. Does this mean everything shown is good. No. But if you’re into documentaries about East Angolan Snake Charming school, well, Berlin is the place for you. The festival, should you speak German, is called the Berlinale, and it runs this year from February 9 to 19. Some of the hot films being shown include “The Elementary Particles”, based on a book by Michel Houellebecqas well as a all new British-Canuck film called “Snow Cake,” that stars Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.