Film Festival

The cheery red kiosks and the white double line with Vision de Réel written between that wended its way on the sidewalks of the old Roman city of Nyon set the perfect mood for the Nyon Vision de Réel, an international week-long festival of documentaries. For years I have missed because of work or not being in the country. And today I finally had a chance to go. I met up with a writer friend who is covering it, we ran into another writer/photographer, and by chance picked up a Parisian photographer who joined us for a quick lunch near the lake. All the better to discuss the films.

The three films we saw were:

Operation Filmaker: An Iraqi student who wants to be a film maker doesn’t take advantages of tremendous opportunities. The film maker’s last lines were: I wanted a happy ending, now I just want an exit strategy.

Pa’Lante by a Venezuelan film maker interviews Cubans about their country. During the question and answer period following, the director when asked about freedoms in his country and Cuba he insisted that under Chavez there was great freedom of speech and freedom of the media.

Summerchild was a Finnish film. An 11-year old child who lives in an orphanage spends the summer with a Finnish couple. Her feelings rung from joy to homesicknesses.

And even if there were lots more that I wanted to see, I will plan better next year. Inshalla