Yesterday was a blast here in sunny (to the point of sun stroke) La Rochelle, with a full hive-like day of pitching and such, ending in a night of dancing and karaoke. Among the french classics (Yves Montand’s Bicyclette) and the American sentimental songbook favoured by the host Finns from YLE (Sittin’ by the Dock of the Bay) I found one song in (more or less) my vocal range and age demographic, White Wedding by Billy Idol. I could have used some rehearsal but it was an experience. The DJ kicked off the night with Jive Bunny (?) and ended it with Beck’s “Loser” with a whole lotta “I like to Move it Move it” in between. I can’t say I danced much, but it’s great to dance to Daft Punk along with the fine people from ZDF/ARTE.
So Yung woke up bright and early with his voice restored, as if by miracle, and got on the panel “The Future of Documentary” with John Walker (the filmmaker, not the beverage) and moderated by NFB film czar Tom Perlmutter. It started off as a kind of standard conversation about motivation and process (Yung explained how he initially wanted to hire actors to play all the roles in Up the Yangtze, concieving it as some kind of bizarre british upstairs/downstairs comedy – I can’t believe he likes to say that in public) and almost turned into a full-on fight when John Walker told Tom he was wrong and that “new media” is not “new” it’s old – the internet is just a typewriter connected to a TV, and I think I saw steam shoot out of Tom’s ears: “it is new! it just hasn’t found it’s grammer yet!” and Yung had to defend exactly why his new film on fruit should be shot in 3-D (he said it as if it was self evident). John Walker lobbied in Yung’s defense: “have you ever picked fruit, on a tree? that’s 3-D!” but I still don’t know if I buy it.
Anyway, we then had lunch with Elizabeth Radshaw from TDF (who just might be the most super-organized person in the world) who sent me and Yung on an errand to fetch her water at a market for her Hot Docs boat party (which we weren’t even invited to) and we went to buy some but the market was closed for mid-day (it seems like the French also siesta) so me and Yung split up and scoured for a market. We bought 6 large bottles from the market – but they wouldn’t give us a shopping bag! With yung on a bike, I was left carrying them all, so Ally Derks saw me and helped me carry. She said she would get herself invited to the boat party.
~from www.eyesteelfilm.com