Cannes Days

So it has taken me a couple of days just to figure out the maze that is the Festival De Cannes. Obviously, there is the jet-lag...7 hours difference between Chicago and Cannes.  That alone has made an 8am wake-up call interesting.  But, even bigger is the absolute vastness of this festival and market.  It is a several football fields long in white-domed tents behind a Coliseum of a building, with every language under the sun being spoken, and the Mediterranean sea as its backdrop.  It can be overwhelming, until you start to break it down into manageable parts.  It felt a bit like freshman year in high school.

The first day was just getting registered, and trying to get the lay of the land.  We had a comical "Where's Waldo" episode going as we were on the hunt for electrical outlet converters that we forgot at home...only to find that the business center at the festival sold them for 20 Euros, right next door to where we had just registered.  Live and learn.  We honed our French a bit on that excursion, along with our sign language that we felt was helping our translation.  There was an invitation-only premiere that night, which caused us to cross paths with Quentin Tarantino, who is a freakin' rock star in these parts.  Seriously, he was just walking down the closed off street with his tux on, waving at people screaming his name like he was one of The Beatles.  A little surreal.

Yesterday, I went to the Short Film Corner inside the Marche Du Film at the Palais.  I found my film, The Hands, and the film I was an Executive Producer on, Kwame, among the screeners. That was a very cool moment.  There was a time, not that long ago, when I was overwhelmed at the thought of how to put together a movie production.  So, sitting here on the French Riviera with a production that I wrote and directed, felt like a tremendous milestone.

We also hit La Pizza for lunch.  Just as promised by a friend who is also a disciple, it was a religious experience.  Who knew that the best pizza a Chicago girl would ever have would be eaten on the French Riviera?

Today I snooze-buttoned my way through my alarm too many times.  I rushed to the shuttle at the apartment we are renting.  Got to my appointment just in time, including stopping off to burn a copy of my official trailer to hand over...and was then told they were running so far behind, would it be possible to come back tomorrow morning?  Of course.  No worries.  I used the downtime to make more movie posters/handouts.  My other Executive Producer, aka Husband, became the Ultimate Street Team today, driving folks to screen my film, and handing out fliers and postcards.  Got my first positive review here today.  It was in French, but from what I could decipher, it was very complimentary.  (Haven't quite finished my Rosetta Stone course).

I will check in tomorrow after my Le Pitch appointment.  It is for Short Film TV, a European entity that buys and distributes short film content.