Screening at Big Sky

I’m sitting in Starbucks at the Seattle airport. First of all let me tell you this is the second time I have ever been in Starbucks. The only other time was in New Zealand when I had to meet a potential documentary subject, who only agreed to talk to me if we went there. This time I am in Starbucks because it is the only place I could find a power point for my laptop. Even though I still feel strange about being here, I have decided it is all part of the American experience, and Starbucks is part of this culture isn’t it? Well sorry for all this digression but I am just getting warmed up. You see, I am actually in Starbucks, at Seattle airport, writing this post, because I am on my way to Montana to screen our film at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. This is the film’s USA premiere. I am feeling nervous. It is a terrifying thought that I am releasing the film out into the world. I know Lyn has already been through this in Tahiti, but since I wasn’t there it doesn’t seem that real to me. This is my first experience of the film being screened in public and in a moment like this I feel a little sentimental just to think that I am coming to the end of a process. I can’t quite believe that we’ve been working on this film for four years. If you are new to this blog you can see that our earliest posts began in 2006, but we were working on it even before then.

Although I’ve never had a child, I reckon that making a film is like having a baby. You grow with your film, you change because of your film, and you can never get rid of your film. Once the edit is finished and you think that finally you might get some rest, there is a whole new set of tasks to complete; such as festival submissions, decisions on where to screen first, getting a distributor or sales agent, the marketing and designing of flyers and posters, DVD sales, press and interviews, and the list goes on. The film just continues to follow you about. It is like it has its own life and its life takes over yours rather than the other way round. There is the pregnancy stage in which you have an idea floating around in your head that over time starts to expand into something bigger and bigger until finally you give birth to it by shooting. Then there is the teething stage, when you start the editing and you don’t know what you’ve got yourself into and you want to give up. There is the maturing stage, which is like the fine cut of an edit. And then finally you have to release your baby into the world and let go of it (which can be rather painful if you are a perfectionist like me). Maybe this is what a parent feels like when their child reaches puberty? So can’t you see, its like having a baby, and now is my turn to release it to the world. The film will screen tomorrow. Please wish me luck! - Briar