Saturday Comes TOO Soon at SouthSide Film Fest

So, as I stated in my previous post, I ended up doing the venue set-up at Godfrey's in the wee hours of Saturday morning, finally finishing that task at around 3am. I had really hoped that by getting these duties done before I slept, that I'd be able to grab a few more hours of sleep today.... NOT! This damn internal clock wasn't about to let that happen. I'm beginning to think that after 6 days of less than 4 hours sleep each night that I am conditioning my body to a VERY bad routine... living on much less sleep. But eventually the body MUST shut down in response to all this abuse without any recovery. We'll see.

So I ended up waking by 6am, as I tossed and turned and TRIED to stay in bed, hoping for a few more minutes of rest. The gentle serinade of birds outside my window sounded more like an unwanted marching band, and the body responded by saying "get up you lazy thing". So I did. I chugged the morning coffee and guzzled my daily OJ, showered, and headed out the door by 8am. I dropped off my car and swapped it out for my two-wheeled chariot, the Segway on loan from Segway of the Lehigh Valley. Helmet strapped on and my goody bag over my shoulder, I headed off to Godfrey Daniels. To try to energize my body a bit, i turned on the sound system and BLASTED The Who's "Quadrophenia". Soon the team covering the Kids' Film Series arrived, I turned down the blairing music, and hung out for awhile at Godfrey's.

Once all the volunteers were in house and settled into their positions, I exited for other parts. I headed up to Deja Brew to check in with Festival President Jeff Vaclavik. We chatted awhile, discussed Friday's successes and prepared for the final day of SouthSide Film Festival 2008. I blogged a bit and then jumped back onboard my Segway and cruised up to Wilbur Labs, where Mel Halbach was busy at work finalizing the various details of the workshop films, and wrapping up remaining gear, etc.. We chatted and soon I headed out for more "touring" of the venues, headquarters, and Godfrey's. But there was a slight glitch in my plans... though I was able to tour the venues and stop by Deja Brew, I could NOT get to Godfrey's. The Puerto Rican Parade had cut off any possible route to GD. I stood across the street, but could not cross the path of the parade. As WC Fields used to say: "Godfrey Daniels!"

Eventually the parade's end was in sight and i was able to get across the street. All was perking like a well-oiled machine. Have we finally settled into a comfortable routine? Do we finally have things under control? I certainly would like to think so. And though my daily routine has been jam-packed, 20 hours each day, I don't really feel the same stress level as in previous years. Maybe I'm just numb or maybe it's the lack of sleep which is creating this delusional outlook. In any case, I'm going to continue to run with it, even if it is a false assumption. If you believe... it can BE!

My responsibilities were fewer today, as all our educational programs had wrapped up by Friday evening. I spent some time in front of my laptop, catching up on e-mails and tidying up my blogs. I returned some overdue phone calls, and continued cruising from venue to venue. Mel, Clayton and I took a little "down" time to move the camera equipment from Wilbur to our Festival office, and then went downtown for some cigar shopping and light lunch enjoyed at curbside along Main Street. But alas, soon I needed to return to the SouthSide, where my first film block commitment was slated for 3pm. The 3pm block at Neville was chock-full of interesting programming. We were scheduuled to screen the films done during the Documentary Filmmaking Workshop, along with 3 films frm Pawel Partyka's Se-Ma-For Productions.

I have an annual tradition to screen the Doc Workshop films during the first class screening on the final day of class. However, because of my busy schedule and the overlapping of the Workshop with the Festival this year, I was unable to be there. I felt guilty, but what could I do? I had responsibilities and that was that. So I was ever so anxious to screen these films at Neville today. The three films did not disappoint. This year we diverted from many traditions and the workshop films were no exception, as the subjects of each film were not local businesses or people of interest, but instead were all focused on the heartbeat of the Festival itself. I was amazed and brought to tears as I listened to testament after testament from returning and first-time filmmakers, and other interviews from fellow Board members, volunteers, workshop students, and leaders in the business community. I guess we ARE making a difference here

The Workshop films were followed by three short films brought to us by our friend Pawel Partyka: "Joyets", "Return", and this year's Oscar Winner in Animated Shorts, "Peter and the Wolf". Amazing stuff. I sat through the first two, but had to rush off before "Peter", as I needed to strike the equipment from Godfrey Daniels and return it to our office storage space. I zipped along the streets on my Segway, swapped out for my car, drove to Godfrey's, loaded the equipment, and returned it all to to its home in our office. I did all this within a 30 minute time frame. Tuckered and somewhat out of breath I jumped back aboard the Segway and returned to Neville in time for the end of Pawel's Q&A. I was to introduce the next block of films.

more later kiddies...