Tuesday, March 01, 2005

from the "taxi! water taxi!!" dept.

It’s the first day of March (!) and also my last day in Belize City. It is time to move on – and over to Caye Caulker, the Gilligan’s Island that lies about 45 minutes by water taxi from Belize City. Yet it is a world away. Much quieter, much less threatening, much nicer.

Sure, there are some hustlers over there too, but nothing like Belize City.

Last night was the closing of the Belize Film Festival. It’s been an interesting experience and very hit-and-miss with the films.

Brent and I spent the day running around doing errands before heading to the Festival and the free bar. Even in the tropics, I can always find the free stuff.

There were about 40 people there. There are a lot of reasons for the light attendance (one film had 3 people, most had no more than 10). Politics, personality clashes, and the fact that a small country is trying to put on a big festival with little experience. But really: it is mostly about infighting and politics.

However – back to the reception. I met the Nicaraguan filmmaker behind the film on prostitution. She told me she was heading for Hot Docs in Toronto in April.

She explained how she got her subjects to be so candid – which involved shooting stills with them first, and hanging out with them – until they felt comfortable with her. It certainly worked in the judging by the film that resulted.

Grandmaster showed up and headed for the bar. Brent and I hung out with him and enjoyed something rare in Belize: scotch.

It was hot and humid, and we were dressed in long pants for the reception, so it was a little hard to keep cool.

At one point Brent’s shoe blew out and he had to run off to find some duct tape to fix it. Bad timing as he was up for an award, and a duct taped shoe wouldn’t be best indicator of success.

After a bit more schmoozing, including with Emory King, the film commissioner… we headed inside for the awards. It seemed like many others remained at the bar.

The awards were given with some winners a complete shock. Could the balloting have been rigged? The TERRIBLE “film” about Montserrat’s Volcano won best documentary. Sigh…

For best Belizean Doc… the winner was Brent Toombs and The Hammock!

Up Brent went, blown out duct taped shoe and all. He made a short speech thanking everyone in the BZ film industry and received a nice award (paper). His short was definitely the best of the bunch, and certainly the best Belizean entry on many levels. One would hope this would be a launch pad of sorts.

Brent has applied for funding from the Canada Council for the Grandmaster film. It’s given me an idea to apply for funding for a book/project about the worlds borderlands when the next round of application are accepted Oct 1.

Following the short awards presentation, there were two films scheduled. One was from Mexico and the other from Cuba. We were told that the Cuba film wouldn’t have English subtitles… so we decided to leave after the first movie.

We left even before that. The Mexican movie, titled something like Heart of Oak was set in Cuba in the 1800s. It centered on a German man and a Cuban woman and their plan to create the coffee growing industry in Cuba. But it sucked.

Not only that, but the festival bar must have closed, because about 15 minutes into the film, a bunch of people came into the theater and proceeded to be noisy.

We bolted.

Back at the house we watched a little TV before calling it a night.

Roh was off to work very early, followed by Brent. After a nice breakfast of eggs, tortillas and mango jam (!), I am now preparing to go to Caye Caulker.

It’s funny, but I feel bored. I guess after working so much, having an open schedule takes a bit of getting used to. Caulker will be even slower, with no movies to go to… and no Brent & Roh until Friday.

I’ve been advised that there is ADSL at the Cabana’s and that means I can continue to work on ANJ related stuff, should I desire.

What I will try and do is read a bunch. Shoot a bunch of stills (ie. Start learning more about my camera), and maybe some creative writing.

Until the next entry…

Cheers!
[Scroll down for the photos!]

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