Anyone who knows me knows I’m a ‘lil bit of a
TV junkie…and seeing as there is no TV to be had on this lovely island, imagine
my excitement at an INTERNATIONAL Film Festival!! (After all, it’s not a huge
leap from TV to film…ya? ;) I figured I’d make believe I was at Cannes, or at least Sundance, or, barring that, Telluride…and
surely I’d rub shoulders (or share breathing room) with at least one
celeb…right?!?! At the very least, we’d see a few movies, before most of the
rest of the world got to see them. So we excitedly Googled everything we could
about ZIFF and planned
to stay in Stone Town the two weekends of the festival to ensure we didn’t miss
any of the fun…Woop!! We pored excitedly
over the program – @500 Tanzanian shillings/~USD$0.31, splurged for two (gotta
think about scrap-booking…), and mentally noted which films we [thought we]
wanted to see. As it happened, one of Stephanie’s and my professors was
visiting – partly to make sure that we were actually working at the hospital,
and not just living it up in Stone Town – so we got to share part of this
exciting experience with her and her daughter.
I was especially proud of two Kenyan films (and
they even won awards…yay!) – Nairobi Half Life & Ni Sisi – both a realistic depiction of lives one may live in
Nairobi/Kenya. Sadly, we didn’t get to see quite as many films as I/we
envisioned, but Maggie, Steph, and I did get to see one awesomely bad film…which
we will never ever EVER forget. It’s
been a few weeks, but we still talk/wonder about it occasionally…usually when
some aspect of life in Stone Town is so puzzling, that the only thing we can
relate it to is the film. I guess, in the big scheme of things, it was worth
every bit of our time and free entry in that it still entertains every once in
a while as we try to decipher the (or
any) point of the story. Maybe it will be available on NetFlix someday, so
y’all can watch it too!
ZIFF verdict: I’m glad I got to experience an
actual film festival, but I still wanna go to Cannes…or Sundance…or Telluride…or a movie
theater…. Heck…I’d settle for a teensy, tiny, handheld, battery-operated TV at
this point – even one that only worked at the beach. Or, just a radio. Even if
it just had baseball…. :-/
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