RON FALZONE writes:
We're now in something of a home stretch. The festival runs until this coming Sunday, but truthfully the work part of it will pretty much die out by Saturday.
I continue to be impressed with this group of students. Their work ethic is remarkable and their willingness to try everything is great fun to watch. At the same time, you can see the fatigue begin to creep in. Many of them are at parties every night and these frequently go until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. The parties are a fundamental part of this experience. To an outsider they must sound like fun, and sometimes they are. Mostly, though, they are just an extension of the business that is transacted during the day.
All of the parties seem to play the same music and always at excessive length. For reasons that have never been clear to me, this is invariably music from the high end of the Disco era. I'm already convinced that Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is the Muzak that we will all hear on the elevator to hell. For the students, the only effect of this music is that they all have sore throats from shouting over it.
Right now, the biggest challenge for all of them appears to be finding distributors who handle short films. They are certainly around here, but they require some digging. One of the best aspects of this search is the way that these students have come to rely on each other and to share their leads. In such a competitive business world as Cannes, it is refreshing to see a group of people who are constantly looking out for each other. This extends to the inevitable problems that arise.
Several nights ago, one of the students found himself alone and lost in an unfamiliar part of town. The buses around here are infrequent at best and nearly nonexistent after 10 p.m. He was able to get a hold of one of the other students before his phone died and that student in turn marshaled the forces. They were finally able to get back in contact with him, arranged for his transportation back, and mercilessly kidded him about if for days. Still, the search was an act of comradeship and the doing of it was a bonding experience.
Another equally memorable moment came this past Sunday. Nine of our students were due to walk down the aisle at graduation but chose to come here instead. One of them, Jennifer Nelson, organized a graduation ceremony to be held at the same time (accounting for the time change) on Majestic Beach in front of the American Pavilion.
In the absence of diplomas, Jen provided individual baguettes and I was given the honor of handing them out. When it was over, the baguettes were thrown with great ceremony into the air. In the midst of this, a filmmaker from Nigeria wandered up the beach and watched the ceremony. Afterward, when he asked me what was going on, he beamed. "I was the only one to see! I was their parents!" he said to me. And he did a fine job of standing in at that.
Class of 2008 graduates with their baguette diplomas on the beach at Cannes.
Ron Falzone is a professor in the Film + Video department.
Posted by awiens at May 21, 2008 8:53 AM
