drunk

So Berlin wasn't all work and no fun of course. Seeing as there were five Australians we quickly gravitated towards eachother and took up the national past time of crawlinf from bar to bar and drinking ourselves into oblivion. Of course this results in lots of really bad blurry drunk photos. I think there are about 400 of these on my camera so I'll give you a wee sample. I like to think of them being more evocative than just bad photos but you be the judge :)


Berlin really is the home of cool bars. Every one better that the last one and each has its own thing going on. Highlights were "White Trash", "Tacchilus", The Green Door" and this other little bar that was in like a caravan and could only hold about 10 people. I don't know what it was called but there were some very friendly drunk Germans in there and a very friendly German Shepard.


Even the homo bars were cool! My new friend Dean and I made it a mission to chat to heaps of cute German boys and chose random conversation starters from our useless phrase book. We didn't have much luck with this tactic seeing as we didn't really know what people were saying when they actually responded. Better luck was had in the seedier bars where you can get by with the international gay language of sleazy looks and dancefloor action.


The phrase book did come in handy later though, when Dean's watch got stolen and we had to go report it to the police. We had a nice chat with an old crazy lady about the various sports she played when she was younger and more mobile.

The Talent Campus

So I went to Berlin for the Belinale Talent Campus. 500 emerging filmmakers from around the world are invited to spend a week mixing with eachother and participating in seminars and workshops with established filmmakers who are attending the Berlin Film festival. It was truly awesome. It was held at the House of World Cultures in the middle of the Tier Garden (check the picture) and was a total frenzy of activity.

Some highlights of the week... Michel Gondry presented his new film "Science of Sleep" with the extremely watchable Gael Garcia Bernal. Great film and full of the exciting imagery that you would expect from Gondry. I won't say too much about it so I don't spoil it, but if you're a fan you're gonna love it.

Wim Wenders led a panel discussion about Kiesloski and showed segments of his work. Sabine Krayenbuhl, editor from "Mad Hot Ballroom" and "the Bridge" did a great seminar on constructing truth in documentary editting. Cinematographers, Christopher Doyle and Anthony Dod Mantle did a pretty colourful comparison of their own working styles.

I saw some excellent films which are worth keeping an eye out for if they turn up in a cinema near you. "Acts of Men (Atos Dos Homens)" - a docco about out of control vigilantes and dodgy cops in Brazil. "Free Will (Der Freie Wille)" a german film that follows the story of a sex offender as he tries to rehabilitate himself in the world after spending time in prison. This film was really interesting and disturbing and again I won't say much only that it really pushes the audience and takes you places that challenge in ways that cinema so often doesn't these days. It was great to see such a focus on political filmmaking in this years program and a really strong presence of different voices to the usual films that get wide release.

back from oscurity

So I've been missing in action for a while now. I'm a bad blogger. I've been in Europe and although I thought I should update my blog it seemed I never got the time to sit down and do it. So to make ammends I'm going to summarise whats been happening in the next few posts.

snotty

So as expected, we didn't win any awards last night at Flickerfest :( which is always a bummer but I've come to realize it is not good to invest too much anticipation in these things and so when they do come they are always a great surprise. The films that did win were all really great and deserving though and I'm not even just saying that, cause if they weren't I'd be bitchin! :P


I did manage to pick up a cold though. Sam came along with me and we had a great time schmoozing and drinking red wine but the room was kind of small and the only place to go outside for a bit of air was on the balcony overlooking the beach. Outside there was a fine spray of rain that was really nice to stand in and watch the waves on Bondi Beach. So we got pretty damp without realizing it and then we went inside for the award ceremony and screenings and it was air-conditioned and pretty cool. So subsequently I woke up this morning feeling really crappy and didn't go to work.

Phoenix's niece Jess is staying with us at the moment from Central Queensland so we hung out and chatted and I managed to drag myself down the street with her to the video store to try to get a DVD to watch. But there was nothing inspiring so I gave up looking and we went and looked in clothes shops instead. She was all excited about being in the city and being able to shop and I think I was a total drag just standing there looking like I wanted to go home and drop on the couch and drown in my own snot. It's always really boring having a cold in Summer. It just seems so wrong. You just want to crawl into bed under the blankets and eat chicken soup and do all those good cold remedy things but it just doesn't work in Summer. I'm feeling a bit better now but still have a cracker of a headache. back to the couch now.

Succulent

I'm going along to the Flickerfest Short Film Awards night tonight. It should be fun. I love a good awards night. Nervous speeches and glamourous types getting all schmoozy drunk and crazy! I know we're up for a couple of awards but I'm pretty confident we won't be winning anything. There is some pretty stiff competition and some really great films this year. I'm really looking forward to it.


On another note, Phoenix has been painting a portrait of me. It's so cool, although maybe a little flattering :)
He says that's how he sees me and I love it. There is this cool desert scape behind me, a bit of a nod to my Western Queensland roots perhaps, and not my emotional landscape, although we don't really get cacti like that in Australia. Phoenix says its coz he thinks I am succulent (like a cactus). He is so sweet.

crazy town

I feel insane. It has been a week since I stopped smoking and I am completely manic. I really though it should be getting easy after a week but I am more deadly to be around than ever. Phoenix has stopped as well which is making things really interesting. We are both really sensitive and the slightest misplaced word will result in snarling arguments that go pretty much nowhere. Fortunately we both realize that this is all addiction related and we haven't come to blows yet although there has been a bit of drawer slamming action!
Today I am sucking on a lozenge that is supposed to reduce the cravings but it is disgusting and feels like bull-ants have crawled in my mouth and stung the back of my throat.
Apart from the psychosis though, I am feeling really great. It is truly amazing how quickly after stopping, the smell of cigarette smoke becomes really disgusting. Having said that I would still murder for a cigarette. But this too shall pass, maybe.

Festival fun

Flickerfest short film festival opened on Friday night so I went along to the Opening Night Screening and Party with my friends Bonnie and Gen. Sometimes these filmy events can be a bit dull but it was a really fun night. I got pretty wasted, in spite of my new healthy living agenda, and chatted to some fun people.

The films were pretty great too, Although Bonnie and I had to leave half way through because it was so cold. I had forgotten that it was an outdoor screening and because it is right on Bondi Beach there was a serious ocean wind ripping into the screening area. I guess it had just been so hot lately that I couldn't even imagine it getting cold. But we were freezing our asses off, so we headed in doors and warmed up with many red wines. All in all a big fun night. My film screened last night and again today, but I didn't go along because I wasn't feeling very well. Hopefully the punters enjoyed it.

Packin' my bags

I'm so excited I could shit. I finally heard back from the Talent Campus in Berlin (uber film school that is part of the Berlin Film Festival in February) and i was accepted!! 3600 applicants from 121 countries and 500 were chosen and only 6 from Australia, and I'm going! I can't wait it's going to be freezing and snowy and there will be heaps of filmmakers from all over the world and it's gonna be great. What is even better is that my good buddies Gen and Bonnie are going too, so I will have filmy-type pals to hang with, and we can all be excited about running around in the snow like only snow starved Australians can.

I was in Berlin last year at this time with Gen and Phoenix coz we had a film in the festival and it is a really exciting time for filmmakers. The festival is awesome and has a really great spread of international works and visitors and I got to see a lot of film that wouldn't normally get to the screens here. My old house mate Jett also lives in Berlin so I'll get to see him which is real cool as well. So now I guess I should start borrowing everybody's warm coats because i know I was completely unprepared for the cold last time and really need to take warmer stuff with me this time!

Straightening Out Sam

My friend Sam wanted to relax his hair. Usually his hair is really curly but this Summer he decided it was all about Seth Cohen from the OC and he wanted a more gentle wave rather than his natural tight curls. He enlisted my help knowing that like every good gay man I was a hairdresser in a past incarnation and am always up for a makeover. So we headed into the city to get supplies. It was post Christmas sale time so we had to kick and bite and scratch but eventually we got the goods. The plan was to perm his hair with really big fat rollers so that his usual tight curl would be a more relaxed Seth-Cohen-esque do. Unfortunately all the hairdressing supply places were closed for the holidays so we had to resort to bargain basement products (nothing over $3 - bound to give good results). We decided on a perm kit in a suspiciously unmarked yellow box with "Home Perm Kit" printed on it it black letters. I was a little afraid of the generic packaging but we decided to show no fear and not be beaten by our own product snobbery. Home hair perming is no place for the timid.



So we got the stuff and got busy. I was quite impressed that I still remembered how to roll hair up into rollers and keep the tension even. I could hear the ghost of my master hairdresser Sharna whispering in my ear "I taught you well, my young apprentice". So we smoked cigarettes and drank coffee and looked at trashy magazines while Sam's hair baked, it was all just like a real salon experience.



Then the unveiling. It worked! The curls were tamed and were now big and loopy instead of tight and frizzy. It wasn't quite Seth Cohen but I assured Sam, with my fingers crossed behind my back like a real hairdresser, that the curls would relax even more in a day or two and give the look we were after. He was convinced and so was I.



Later I got a phone call from Sam saying that he couldn't deal with the lack of curl and had cut it all off and was now sporting a new summer short do. He did keep a bit of fringe though so it wasn't a complete waste of time and he assures me that it is great. I'm seeing him tomorrow so we shall see.