Paula & Young @ the Palm Springs Short Fest 2009

Paula @ Palm Springs Short Fest

Paula @ Palm Springs Short Fest

Paula @ Palm Springs Short Fest

Paula @ Palm Springs Short Fest

INTRO

On April 12th 2009 I woke up in my unfurnitured room in Samgakchi, Seoul, and checked my emails, one of the first things I do to start my day. I had decided I would return to Brazil more/less a month earlier, a little concerned about the political situation North x South, and very concerned with the not  very good job offers that were coming to me. Plus, I was tired  and lacking motivation with all the work I was doing eventhough I was working hard. Very hard, making all the exhibition tapes by myself in the school, the dvds, sending shorts to to film fests… And, last, but not least, I was starting to feel unhappy in Korea, aftert three years living away from my native sky and oxygen and sharing unfurnitured rooms with unknown girls.

When I checked my emails there was new mail from a “Ken Jacobson” guy, from the Palm Springs Short Fest.

I think people who are not filmmakers have no idea of the feeling we get when these emails come. You always expect an invitation, which almost always DOESN’T COME. It takes a lot of confidence and persistence to overcome all these NOs we get. I even made a folder in my mail box entitled “NOs”, from film fests. After I finish with all the festivals that my movies from Korea are invited to, I’m going to count the NOs I got for what is going to be now two years.

When I opened the email I floated. The first thing written after my name was : “Congratulations!”.

I left my laptop turned on, wore my slippers and went out for a 4 thousand won expresso con panna. I deserved it.

  

  

PREPRODUCTION

It took time to prepare the press materials, but it wasn’t hard. The good thing is that since Palm Springs is a big fest, I was lucky enough to get an 80% plane ticket refund by KOFIC and a little more than three hundred dollars as help from KNUA. That’s the second time EVER in my life I got financial help for my movies. The first time was at the LAAPFF. These incentives help so much. I know, a lot of people get help from film entities and schools in their countries, but I never got any before this, eventhough I always apply and look for potential sponsors. That’s the price you have to pay for doing something new (a co-production Brazil & South Korea). But I got it.  

This time, the posters and postcards I made in Brazil. I knew I could make them better in Sao Paulo because I knew professional designers there, contacts I didn’t have in Korea, and I would have some time to make them.

Since my mother missed me and she thought she didn’t have enough time to spend with me in Brazil (I was back in Sao Paulo for a month before Palm Springs), she decided to come to Palm Springs with me. I thought it might be a good idea, since she would finally have the opportunity to know what I had studied for nine years now, and understand that I used to come home late because I was REALLY working.

  

  

THERE

I expected something good, but casual. It was good and casual.

I expected to meet people who are Good. I met people who are Good.

I expected a few gays. I saw a chinese number of gays of all ages.

I expected to be hot. It was Hot.

I expected to watch good movies. I watched !!!!!! movies.

I expected cute guys. I met nice talented ones (why do I expect cute guys where they’re not supposed to be?). 

I also expected I would look thinner in the pictures. No, that I just hoped. Anyway… 

It was a lot of fun, very busy, a lot of networking, a lot of talent, a lot of brains that you actually don’t have the time to explore and a couple of girls in bikinis.

America is good… And I was born in Brazil. But still, I got there, right?

It’s so much better when people don’t have to work too hard just to look as if they look like directors or try to pretend they are more than they are just because of their lack of self-confidence from being from third world countries. Or plainly from not being good enough. Things just work better without politics (which in Brazil is synonym of corruption). Most people know they are not geniuses, because most people aren’t, and after they admit it, they work harder, exchange information and have better results. That’s what I saw in Palm Springs. People from different backgrounds, origins, regions and countries working hard and doing something in order to become better professionals or artists, whatever you call it.

IT WAS JUST AMAZING to meet and talk to people who think movies the same way that I do, and that have (or are willing to) suffer enough to the point they loose pretensiousness and become efficient. I saw, heard, felt, learned and connected with. The staff did an amazing job there, the atmosphere was perfect for a short film fest.

 

 

POST

Still in course.

As always, some connetions will be useful, some will be fun, some will last, some won’t.

Some connections already started helping me out, which is great. I hope I will be useful to them someday.

I can see everyone is working hard, and I just hope that everyone I met in there has a bright future, and that we keep in touch and are able to help each other.

Good luck to everyone and hope to see you around.

 

 

PS

I don’t have a job yet.