Blogging by the canal. White swans on black water. Trying to get my head around the intense day I lived yesterday. Including the jampacked festival bars of this great festival city. IDFA, Amsterdam is an amazing place to meet friends and collegues from all over the world.
Saturday morning I gave the opening speech at the International Fair Trade Towns Conference in my hometown of Malmö. Good people from 23 countries fighting for a good cause. Really inspiring. If you have the time, listen to my speech here from minute 44. After the conference I jumped on my bike and had a coffee with my sweet daugther. A few hours later, I met up with my producer Margarete Jangård and went to Amsterdam. Straight to a press conference where Morgan Spurlock and friends announced the new Cinelan short film project, where I have also been invited to do a 3-minute short. Really cool.
After a rushed dinner at a Peruvian restaurant it was time for the BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* World Premiere. A long line of people waiting to get in. Friends asking for tickets, but everything sold out...
I was seated in the first row, so close to the screen that the promise of fixing everything in post seemed to be a total lie. Hard to enjoy a film when you are only looking for mistakes. But I did my best.
Film editor Jesper Osmund was sitting in the back, and he said that people enjoyed the film, laughing and smiling. He was proud and told me to be that, too.
The question-and-answer session after the film indicated that the audience understood what I wanted to debate. The bigger story, freedom of speech, control of media. We'll soon post some video of the Q&A!
Leaving the cinema, I got many hugs. A collegue from a film festival in South Korea wanted to invite me to Seoul in September, saying that this story is also very important in his country. I love these kinds of words. Indicating that the film can be used in a debate on freedom of speech in another country.
Now it's time to jump into the festival. Check out the work of my collegues. Documentary film is a movement. Cool and fun people.
