Yesterday felt a lot more like the Cannes I remember from 2005, chiefly because I kept bumping into people I knew. Two such people were Jim Groom (director of Room 36) and Michael Booth (director of Diary of a Bad Lad). Both were seeking distribution for their films when I saw them at Cannes 2005; both are still working to get those same films out there. Jim has self-distributed theatrically, a massive challenge – and one not helped by his lab trashing his entire neg – but is now looking to sell Room 36 internationally. Michael has shot another feature since 2005, but his producer, Jon, has only just succeeded in securing a theatrical and DVD release for Bad Lad.
In the evening I attended a screening of Born of Hope, a Lord of the Rings fan film which I briefly helped out on, just before we started building the Dark Side pilot set. Although, of course, I was not surprised to bump into cast and crew members that I knew, I was surprised to find that an actor I know from a number of recent corporate videos was sitting behind me, and in fact is in Born of Hope, though I had previously failed to recognise him in it due to his long wig and lack of a French accent.