10 Days till Udine Far East Film Festival!

boarding pass, passport and Euro’s all ready to go

It’s just ten days until I’ll be flying off to Italy with seven other members of Coventry East Asian Film Society to go to Udine Far East Film Festival.

Everything’s organised as far as I’m aware; the plane tickets are booked, the accommodation has been confirmed and we’ve all paid for our accreditation, just €30 for a press pass t0 get us into all the screenings. While there we’ll be working non-stop, it will be tiring and we probably won’t even have time to eat but it’s very exciting all the same!

I’m there predominantly as a writer, I will have to write a minimum of two film reviews a day, and also write ups to cover other events at the festival. We also have a target to interview every guest at the festival. These will be directors, producers, actors and other important people in East Asian cinema, although I’ve yet to see the guest list.

 

This will actually be the first time I’ve been abroad since I was about seven and went to Disney Land Paris, and although it’s not really a holiday I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m pretty useless at this ‘life’ malarkey…even getting the Euro’s was a nightmare because apparently to pay for them with a card
you have to have ID…and in my naivety I hadn’t taken my passport because I wasn’t aware I’d need it until I crossed the border! So I had to walk down to the Post Office two days in a row…not that the dog was complaining!

Growing up was not something I did particularly gracefully! I’m self sufficient and I can look after myself pretty well, save the odd clumsy accident like when I poured boiling water on my foot the other day! But when it comes to more complicated things like travelling I’m useless…mainly because I like to do everything at break neck speed and I hate faffing around reading small print and details. Ultimately this habit of wanting to do everything so quickly will probably get me killed, but I’m willing to take that chance!

Everything’s still up in the air in terms of Udine, we applied for funding from the university (up to £150 towards the trip) and are yet to hear back, so that will probably be left till last minute, and I don’t think we know where we’re staying yet! We get allocated accommodation by the festival, who are providing four nights for a small cost of €5 a night, and the other four nights we
have to pay for…but as yet I don’t think we know where we’re staying! I don’t even know where Udine is, so I’m just going with the flow at the moment.

It will be a tough ten days, with lots of work to do. We’re competing with other press so the turn around for film reviews, interviews and photography has to be quick so it can be online asap…I’m a pretty quick worker and I work my best when I’m under pressure, I stress LOTS but when I’m stressing I’m much more efficient. As I’ve found out over this Easter holiday, when I have no work to do and no pressure I get lazy!

On a slightly different note, I’ve put myself forward for next years secretary of CUEAFS, the deadline is Tuesday 11th and then there will be a closed ballot via email, so I won’t know until round about Tuesday whether I’ve been voted in but as yet no one else has put themselves forward. I wanted to challenge myself, and also have something else to add to my CV. I love the society and of course East Asian Cinema, and for some strange and perhaps suicidal reason I like to add pressure to my workload because it keeps my mind going…if I have another year at uni with very little pressure from work or other commitments I’ll probably go mad!