Hoping for Well Cushioned Seats

Film festivals are tests of one’s endurance and love for watching films. I have been going to or organizing film festivals since my mid-teens, so I know. They tempt you with great discounts on passes that let you watch all the films that you want. All that you to have go on is a large program with hundreds of films, each has but a brief description. The choosing of films to see is made with a combination of chance and faith. Sometimes you want to see one film but the theatre is on the other side of town so you cannot make it; or, more frequently, one film starts before the other ends. And most of the time you know nothing about the film and the filmmakers beyond the hundred words in the book. You just hope that whoever wrote it had at least seen the film. You just have to trust the program like the bible. Most important of all, though, is mental and physical endurance. You plan to see three films a day for two weeks or so. Soon, they starts to blend together and you are not sure which ending goes with which beginning. By the tenth day, you just hope you are not snoring too loudly in the theatre. I do not even know how smokers get through it these days.

In about a week the Vancouver International Film Festival will begin. I hope I am going to be ready.