Aspen Day two

Me trying to talk to 200 kids
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Early start this morning after a jet lagged sleep. I had an enormous breakfast to ready myself for the onslaught ahead. Met some other film makers in the festival lounge and then straight into a round table intro at 10.

At lunchtime I went to a local school with three other film makers to screen our work, talk and do Q&As with two groups of students at a local middle school. It was good but nerve wracking! The kids were very responsive and asked some good questions. Co-directors Dave Edwardz and Gareth Cowen’s animated film Burley! went down really well and the Turkish director Ismet Ergun got a Turkish boy from the audience to help translate questions about her film It’s My Turn which made him a star for the day!

The school exterior. Look, yellow buses!
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We returned to Aspen and went into the next screening. I think I’ve welled up in every screening so far at least once - there is some heart rending work being screened (often the documentaries) as well as some good comedy. I then had 30 mins left before the next screening and rushed back to the hotel for a quick dinner and then decided to ditch the evening screening in favour of chilling out and eating chocolate.

I feel shattered, probably combination of altitude (8,000 ft) and jet lag. I don’t want to stop as I feel that the way to justify leaving my family so far away is to see as many films as I can and get as much out of the festival as I can. However, tomorrow will be busy and I have my main screening, so there you go. I’ll do extra networking tomorrow...