So, a day of rest became a day of fun and turmoil. A last minute gift from an utter stranger, due, of course, to the weather, lead to a surprise arrival on the Red Carpet for the two of us at the world premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour.  Though thrilled to be invited, the last minute madness lead to make-up being applied with fingers in the taxi and a shuffle of clothes and luggage from seaside to city centre in the midst of what feels like the laid-back French version of a hurricane – Le Mistral.  Hair whipping and black tie fastened on the fly, we made it into the screening with seconds to spare, racing up the steps to avoid the deluge with such scroddy sodden companions as Isabelle Huppert, Vanessa Paradis and Gael Garcia Bernal.  Haneke said, in his press conference today, that he was relieved to have made such a simple film, and it was only after watching that we understood what he meant – this was an exercise in sentiment and abject horror, but without any interjection from Haneke’s usual wagging finger or cautionary glare.  Haneke’s Amour is, simply stated, the inevitable horror of the end of a life well-lived.

All the mad dashing and streaky licks on finery of various kinds lead us to a too-hip local where we hatched a healthy plan for tomorrow.  Rainy Red Carpet pix to follow, we have a big day to plan, starting with Alain Resnais’ Vous n’avez encore rien voir at the ungodly hour of 8am.  À demain!

Woke up early to be poised and ready to book for Dario Argento’s midnight premiere screening of Dracula (in 3D!), and Michael Haneke’s premiere of Amour at precisely 0800.  We got lucky with Argento, less so for the Haneke, but made our way into town early for a very full day of cinema related activities.  Our screening, although not full, went well and we were heartened by the presence of all those who came out at 9.30 on a Saturday morning after the host of crazy parties (we tried unsuccessfully to crash) the night before.  Everyone who saw Achantè said very nice things about it, and we were pleased to find that people continued to request to view the film throughout the day.

Making a beeline from our screening to the final-run of Benh Zeitlin’s first feature Beasts of the Southern Wild, we were absolutely stunned by what we saw.  A beautifully acted and directed movie about a little girl living with her homeless father in the swampy outer regions of New Orleans, Beasts was by far the best film we have seen here to date.  For a very difficult subject, and an obviously limited budget, Zeitlin’s first film has inspired us tremendously and ensured that we will be following his career very closely.  From the screening we darted over to the UK pavilion to catch a fundraising seminar hosted by a spectrum of funding bodies that was packed, and very informative – equal measures of encouraging and daunting as far as actually finding funding is concerned.  Starving now, headed over to Apeechatpong Weerasethkul’s open discussion in the Court Metrage conference where we listend to one of our favourite directors (yesterday’s Mekong Hotel is also among the highlights of our trip so far) talk about his process – his most emphatic piece of advice for young directors: if you want to be successful, don’t fall in love!  Presented with a wistful smile of course.  AW spoke calmly and openly about focus, commitment and the necessity to continue to make work when you’re skinnt, and most importantly confirmed some of our suspicions about the benefits of the crossover between conceptual art and feature filmmaking.  This was perhaps the most encouraging.  We hung around a bit at the end, and spoke with him again about our project.  He remembered us, and our project, so let’s hope he actually watches it!  We would be so honoured to have his eyes on our work.  Finally, after an entire day of fingerfood eaten on the run, we sat down to dinner in what is quickly becoming our favourite hole in the wall restaurant in Cannes.  Delicious and much needed nourishment was topped by a lovely convo with some young British filmmakers who have just completed their first feature.

Flash forward a few hours, and there we are looking fabulous on the Tapis Rouge for the world premiere of Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D.  A very late and bumpy start meant that we will never beat ourselves up again for technical difficulties experienced at screenings, and the film was, of course, ridiculous and wonderful.  Let’s call it a non-traditional retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (unless – was there a giant Preying Mantis in the original? we forget), that demonstrated once again just how weird the Argento family dynamic must be.

The film Mekong Hotel by Apeechatpong Weerasethakul is terrific and well worth a watch. At 57 minutes it is an non-standard length for a film, something we are familiar with (Achante at 35 minutes was difficult to schedule into many festivals). Emily met with Apeechatpong after the screening and chatted briefly about our similar approaches to filmmaking.

In a strange set of coincidences we met RAM in the evening shortly before they were meant to perform for some assembled glitterati. We are very pleased to see Haitian music embraced by a wider audience.

We are very excited to screen on Saturday morning at 9:45 in the Short Film Corner!

We visited the Short Film Corner area in the morning to install our new poster. We set the plan for the day, aiming to book some red carpet events and catch a Kazakh film based on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, called ‘Student’. Dutifully we waited in the cue for the Debussy Cinema and walked the ‘petit Tapis Rouge’.

The film was largely shot with non-actors and had some very interesting elements but was let down by the editing and as a result fell short of its potential.

Following the film, we had an opportunity to view some of the International Village though not yet the Canadian office. We had the good fortune to meet (very briefly) with Raoul Peck, the Jurist from Haiti. We passed on an excited greeting from our friends, collaborators and supporters in Haiti and gave him as much information about our work as he could carry.

Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac premiered in the evening, and we brushed shoulders with Jane Fonda (unrelated events?). Jane looked terrific as she was bustled into a waiting car by her handlers in a hail of camera flashes. If you see any photos of Jane from this event, have a look in the background for some stunned (and grinning) Canadians.

Thank you Maria, Sam, George, Michael, and everyone else we met yesterday for showing us a great time!

We crashed the opening of Wes Anderson’s new film, Moonrise Kingdom, but the closest we got to Bruce Willis and co. was the 20 ft tall TVs showing their faces.

Nevertheless, we cruised the strip and pounded the tapis rouge after picking up our accreditations.

Achante received a Special Mention from the Vues d’Afrique festival in Montreal:

“Mention spéciale: Pour nous avoir livré une oeuvre audacieuse avec un point de vue d’auteur sans compromis et néanmoins dénué de tout jugement; une mention spéciale est attribuée à Achanté d’Emily McMehen.”

“Special mention: For having delivered an audacious work with a point of view of an author that is without compromise and without judgement; a special mention is given to Achantè.”

Please visit our new website: http://www.mazibel.com.

Thanks Marinda and Yorodeo for your help in putting our new website together, and for making us look so good!  It is a pleasure to work with such capable and talented people.

Recently nominated for Best Young Director at the Festival Vues D’Afrique in Montreal!   We at Mazibel are thrilled about the nomination, and sorry to miss the screening but we had pressing engagements at the BWA Gallery in Wroclaw, Poland where the show was also screened for a receptive audience in the exhibition “Fleurs de Mal – New Art from London” curated by Cedar Lewisohn.  We were able to send our dear friend, colleague and collaborator Nadine Dominique to the screening, and show our support for a brilliant festival.

Coming up in May we have Achantè screening at the Festivale de Cannes Court Mètrage so please come and find us for a glass of wine and a quick look.  When we return, we will be taking the film to the Sheffield Doc/Fest where we are participating the Videothèque – a great opportunity to be inspired by the doc-savants who are screening new work, and to get some more eyes on the project.  This summer we will be screening in Dakar, Cameroon, and Johannesburg with more screenings cropping up all the time, so stay tuned for the next screening near you.

We’ve had some good results over the last few months. ‘Achante’ won the award for Best Experimental Film at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris (http://www.ecufilmfestival.com/en/2012/04/check-out-the-winners-of-ecu-2012/) and we are participating in the Court Metrage at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The film will next be screened as part of the Vues D’Afrique 2012 Film Festival in Montreal on 28 April 2012 at 1:00 (http://www.vuesdafrique.org/programmation-general/programmation-2012/2619/achante/).

Please do go if you get the chance!

We are still in the process of raising funds for our next film project in Haiti, so please get the word out to anyone you think may be interested.

Finally, our good buddy (and candidate for nicest person I know) Nick Zammuto has just released a killer new record (http://zammutosound.com/home.cfm) and is touring. Check his website to see if he’s coming near you and buy the ever-loving hell out of his  album!

Achante has been nominated for the Sheffield Doc/Fest Award for Best Documentary Short at the 9th London Short Film Festival. The film was shortlisted by Charlie Philips from Doc/Fest, and was chosen from a selection of short documentaries screening across the 9th London Short Film Festival.

We would like to thank the folks at the LSFF and the Sheffield Doc/Fest for the nomination and look forward to attending the awards ceremony!

The Ghetto Biennale is over, as is our most recent visit to Haiti. Many thanks to all of our friends who worked so hard to make the Biennale happen, and to those who have been so kind and supportive in the development of our next project. We have built a strong network of friends and creative people in recent months, and together we hope the new year will bring us all success and fruitful collaboration! Thank you all for your hard work, and for all the hard work still to come. Kenbe fèm, tout moun!