Hope is a Dream that Never Sleeps

Getting that email about the Palo Alto International Film Festival was a stroke of fate. Destiny. Or maybe it was just a door that opened for me. Boy, am I glad I walked through. I actually wish I’d found out about the film festival earlier so I could have put in even more volunteer hours (lack of publicity is one of my few criticisms).

I found out about it, promptly signed up to volunteer, attended orientation, and a couple of days later, it began. I had no idea what to expect. I’d never so much as attended a film festival before (and I’m embarrassed to admit that my knowledge of film festivals was basically limited to Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, Berlin, and Busan).

It was spectacular, dream-like even.

As soon as I found out about the festival, I decided I wanted to be involved in it, not just attend it. It was a good choice, especially considering that my degree is in Communication.

Perhaps it’s because this was the inaugural festival that there seemed to be less of a distinction between staff and volunteers. It was all trial-and-error. I had no problem throwing in my two cents. I did whatever I could to help decrease their work and help everything work smoothly.

The staff and volunteers alike were some of the most welcoming and some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They were also incredibly interesting. There was the girl who came back from two years in Cameroon with the Peace Corps and settled here after getting married. There was the woman who grew up here and then moved to Switzerland when she married a Swiss man, only to come back here for six months while her husband was on a sabbatical at Stanford. There was the woman who worked at a traveling physical therapist, only to take a permanent job at Stanford a month ago. The staff members were people who’d worked at Sundance and San Francisco International Film Festival among others.

I volunteered at headquarters the first day - headquarters being in a banquet hall at the lovely Garden Court Hotel. It consisted of moving in boxes, unpacking boxes, setting up the tables, and putting together VIP gift bags. Beth, one of the staff members, very kindly brought us a bag of bagels. PAIFF staff, volunteers, and hotel staff kept milling in and out. They were always busy, often harried, but there was such an energy. This was something they’d been working on for months and here it was, coming to fruition. It made me want to do anything in my power to make this successful.

After that, I stayed at the VIP/Filmmaker/Speaker Check-In table. It was pretty slow that first day. Not many people came to pick up their passes, but there were a few.

That evening was a free screening of Life in a Day on the street in Downtown Palo Alto. Vidya and I went, stopping by a couple of hours after it began. Part of Ramona Avenue was blocked off, a large screen set up with rows of chairs in front of it. By the time we arrived, many of the chairs were already taken. A stage was erected on the other side of the chairs. Tents with food lined the sides. Off to the right was a roped off area for VIPs. Filmmakers, speakers, sponsors were gathered there, chatting with each other and with the staff.

The movie was incredible. It was worth standing an hour-and-a-half to watch. It’s unbelievable how it was made from a series of videos submitted by people from all over the world. It was amazing how united the world is without ever knowing it. It’s never been so clear to me as when I was watching that film. One of my favorite moments was the Korean man (“North or South, doesn’t matter,” he said) who biked all over the world and created the camera with, “Namaste.” I still need to find and watch the ending of that film. We had to duck out a bit early because Vidya had work to do and I still had to drive home.

I got back to Palo Alto the next day, expecting to work in the office, where I was signed up to work. I got there and waited outside for a few minutes before being let in by Alf, the Programming Director. Alex, the Managing Director, who had been handling the box office at headquarters the previous day, sent me back to headquarters. They only had clean-up to do at the office, she told me, so she was sending me back to headquarters.

The second day was even more eventful. There was no set up left to do, so we launched directly into working. More people came to check in that day than the day before. There were speakers and filmmakers and all of them were so kind and friendly. Many of them were so incredibly excited to be at the festival.

I helped set up cameras in the Blogger’s Lounge where people would be interviewed. A guy walked in with a friendly, “Hey,” and grabbed something to eat. We started talking, and the girl who was manning the cameras, Chelsy, said, “You’ll be the first one up.” That was when I found out he was Cedric, filmmaker from Malta, who was receiving an award at PAIFF for his film YouTube My Facebook. He was here for the first time and asked about what a tourist should do in San Francisco.

I went back to the main headquarters room and took over the press check-in while Tarrah, who was in charge of press, went to do the interviews. A few press people came in, including Mike Cassidy from the San Jose Mercury News, which was super exciting for me because I always see his name in the Merc. He came off a little bit like an absentminded writer.

The filmmakers and speakers filtered into headquarters from the Blogger’s Lounge to get photographed. I watched and chatted with them while waiting for more press people to check in. There were two women speakers from Iceland who were so cute. They were so excited to be at the festival - they asked for a picture on their iPhones of every single thing they did so they could tweet it. I’m not sure if this is by virtue of this being the inaugural festival or if it’s a quality of film festivals in general, but being able to speak and interact with filmmakers and speakers was just amazing.

Saturday morning, I got CPR and First Aid certified, which is a completely different story.

I went back to Palo Alto in the evening, to the Aquarius Theater this time. I would be taking tickets, ushering people in, helping with box office, helping with merchandise, etc.

The film was Here, starring Ben Foster. The filmmaker, Braden King, was wandering around, looking busy and serious and important. I suspected from the beginning that he was someone important to the film, but it took me awhile to realize he was actually the filmmaker (when I figured it out, I did tell him I wanted to see his film). I listened to his Q&A session. I was awed. It was unreal to hear what he had to say about his vision and what he wanted to convey through this film. I also came to the conclusion that he is an incredibly intelligent guy.

There was an adorable short shown before the feature film: Take Your Child to Work Day by Billy Draper. Billy Draper was there too, excited by the amount of people who would be watching his short. There were filmmaker seats reserved at the front of the theater and, according to the girl who was ushering, he and his group were absolutely thrilled to find the seats saved for them (so cute!). I was waiting outside, making sure no one went in to the screening without a ticket. Billy and another guy snuck out, Billy telling me, “We’re going to the Stanford game.” All I could do was giggle like an idiot. I smacked myself later, thinking, “I should have told him how cute his film was.”

Ah well - can’t win them all.

My last day was the least hectic. I was at the Children’s Theater, a bit cut off from the rest of the venues. Pam, who was the theater manager, is actually a UCSD alumna and also graduated with a degree in Communication. I was excited to hear that. This venue was very slow - we spent a great deal of time just chatting.

I had the opportunity to make use of my knowledge of French. One of the films being screened was Le journal d’Aurélie Laflamme and the tech guy, Umber, needed to help figuring out how to play the film and put on subtitles. We managed to make it work (which also gave me a chance to check out the projection booth) and got a free Post-It pad for my troubles (it came with the film).

We had a little bit of a problem because people came in with tickets for a screening that wasn’t supposed to be happening. We managed to smooth it over, however, and I sat in on the screening to make sure it never got too loud or too quiet. It was a series of shorts aimed at 6-8 year olds. They were adorable, funny, touching, and one of them even made me tear up (it was about a snowman and rabbits O_O).

I helped get people into the next screening after that and a new volunteer came in, so I basically took off. It was the end of my last volunteering session at the first Palo Alto International Film Festival.

That evening, my parents and I went to Palo Alto Square to catch the 3D screening of Cave of Forgotten Dreams (had to use at least a few of the ticket vouchers I got for volunteering). It was amazing and amazingly done. It was the perfect way to end my time at the festival.

Honestly, this is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, hands down.