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My short film Birthday Girl will have its Australian premiere at the 55th Sydney Film Festival!

The festival takes place from June 4th to the 22nd. Birthday Girl will be screening twice. The first screening is at the State Theatre on Thursday June 19th at 8.45pm. The second screening will be at the George Street Cinemas on Saturday June 21st at 6.15pm.

If you’re in Sydney, be sure to check it out!

Skoda was one of the official sponsors of FilmFest Dresden. This ad was shown prior to every screening. At first I thought it was a joke but then realized it was a real TV spot.

I came to love this commercial after having seen it many, many times. (Sorry for the poor quality).

Turns out the two puppets in the commercial are Spejbl and Hurvínek - the legendary father and son duo from the Czech Republic. They first appeared in the 1920’s in amateur marionette shows performed in Pilsen cabarets, then in 1930 professor Josef Skupa established the first professional marionette theatre in their name.

Skupa was arrested by the Nazi’s for antifascist resistant activities in 1944 and the theatre was shut down. It reopened at the end of 1945 and Spejbl and Hurvínek have been entertaining children ever since.

I didn’t know puppetry was so popular in the Czech Republic.

I think I’ll have to check out a show when I’m in Prague.

I did some sightseeing while I was in Dresden. Too bad it was raining the entire time that I was there. I have seen the sun twice since I got to Germany and I’m going a little crazy. I left Montreal hoping to get spring sooner. So much for that.

Some facts about the city. Dresden is the European birthplace of porcelain. (Actually Meissen is the official birthplace but over the years the two became interchangeable seeing as the cities were so close to one another).

Dresden is also home to one of the most famous milk shops in the world, the Molkerei Pfund.

The shop opened in 1880 and the entire inside was lined with thousands of tiles hand painted by Villeroy and Boch.

The creamery was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the “prettiest milk store in the world.” I took these photos before I was told that you weren’t allowed to take pictures in the shop.

It’s really quite spectacular. Not to mention the cheese is unbelievable.

Dresden is a beautiful city with a gorgeous historic district and Baroque quarter. For more pictures of the city check out the Dresden Flickr photo gallery.

Birthday Girl screened with seven other short films from Quebec (all of which were in English), four of which were animations produced by (or in part by) the NFB.

I was blown away by the animations screened in the program.

One of the films, Come Again in Spring, was written, directed and animated by Belinda Oldford. It’s a stunning, touching and somewhat comedic film about an elderly man who is visited upon by a dark robed figure who has come to take him to his death.

The animation is beautiful and the story is simple but moving. The score, composed by Judith Gruber-Stitzer is also wonderful. The film was produced by Academy Award winner Marcy Page, who produced this year’s success Madame Tutli-Putli. It was probably my favorite film of the night.

Another great animation was called Here and There. It was written, directed and animated by Obom. It’s a personal story about Obom’s childhood, growing up with her father in Montreal and mother in Paris. It’s funny, honest and the animation is charming.

Two other filmmakers from Quebec, Karl Lemieux and Patrick Gazé, were at the festival to present their films as well. Their films, Passages and Victor Gazon were also excellent.

The Dresden Film Festival happened this past week. I was invited by the festival to present Birthday Girl, which was showing in the Panorama Quebec series curated by Etienne Desrosiers.

I Got into Dresden Friday afternoon. Picked up my festival pass and immediately sat down for some kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake). I brought my laptop so that I could blog from the festival but found out very quickly that the WLAN wasn’t compatible with my Mac. So now I’m back in Berlin but here’s what I would have been blogging about from the fest.

The film screened Friday evening at 9pm and Sunday at 5:30pm.

The response was wonderful. I was a little nervous showing the film to a foreign speaking audience but it went over very well (most Dresdeners speak excellent English). It was also a great exercise in learning that the best jokes were the ones that didn’t require language to comprehend. Even though the audience laughed at the verbal jokes, the silent ones got the best reaction.

There’s a scene in Birthday Girl where two sisters are sitting on the living room floor at the birthday party eating sandwiches. One sister gets up to get some soda and while she is gone the other sister opens her sister’s sandwich, places the cheese from the sandwich onto the floor and then back in the bread.

This scene happened to be everyone’s favorite scene during the script writing phase. When the film was finished people would tell me it was their favorite scene in the film. I think people like it because it’s full of genuine conflict. It was nice to see that even in Germany, the scene got the most laughs. My lesson: conflict is universal. Doesn’t matter what language it’s in, as long as it’s there, people will identify with it. And if it’s a gag with conflict, people will laugh as well.

A great month for my short film Birthday Girl!

The film will be showing in three festivals in April. The first one up is the Women’s International Film Festival, South Florida. The festival runs from March 28th to April 6th and takes place in Miami.

Next is The Palm Beach International Film Festival which runs from April 10th to the 17th. The film is screening in competition.

I was asked to present the film at the Dresden International Short Film Festival. The film will be screening out of competition as part of a retrospective of Quebec cinema. The festival runs from April 15th to the 20th. I’ll be there to present the film!

I don’t have the dates for any of the screenings but as soon as I know I will post the info.

Birthday Girl will have another screening in Vancouver on March 14th. The film will be showing as part of the Sistahood Celebration, a month long event that celebrates women artists from different disciplines.

This year’s festival will combine pre cinema performances, live musical scoring, interactive, experimental, and narrative filmmaking in an exploration of the origins, elements and possibilities catalyzed by telling pictures with stories.

Location: Cinema 319 (319 Main St)
Doors 6:00 / show 7:30pm
$8 (students/seniors) / $10 (adults)

If you’re in the neighbourhood, check it out. Wish I could be there.

I just found out that the FCTNM (femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des nouveaux médias) will be screening Birthday Girl as part of their Short Film Showcase series this year. The FCTNM is the Montreal branch of the WIFTI (Women In Film and Television International). I’m very honoured to have the film screening at this event.

Location: Segal Centre at the Saidye
Time: Saturday, March 8 from 7-9pm with a cocktail to follow