Imagine that...

So it has been a while... But last April the EYE Film Institute was the hub of Imagine Film Festival again. It celebrated it's 30th year and I got to volunteer again! Ten days filled with movies, masterclasses, symposia, even a Geek-Q Test to find out who the biggest geeks in the Netherlands are. I needed the entire Easter weekend to get my energy back. And as it turned out a whole lot more time to finally write about everything that happened. Enjoy my experience of this year on one of the most awesome Film Festivals of Holland!

From fairytales to postapocalyptic worlds
The opening of the festival was awesome: Belle et la Bete (or Beauty and the Beast in English) made for a fantastic fairytale opening of the film festival. With a speech by the various department heads the festival could finally begin. Only one day later at noon I already had my first interview with none other than Stephanie Leonidas, Irisa, from the SyFy show Defiance. Therefore watching movies had to wait a little while for me. It took some time to write the interview - which was amazing! - but after a start like that, it couldn't go wrong for me :-). The premiere of Defiance (in the Netherlands) was on Friday. After a workshop about what fantastical movies really are and how to write a movie review, we got to visit the premiere with the entire class. Not only did we get to watch the first ep on the big screen, but Stephanie was also there for a Q&A. During my interview, the previous day, I asked her the question what fans of the show or Irisa would be called. But she didn't have an answer and asked me to ask again during the premiere. So I did... and I was happy to find out that she still remembered me. Or in her words "Oh, it's you! You're a cheeky one!" But I did get the answer to my question, which I'll share with you when I finally write out an unofficial English version of my interview. Other than the Q&A there was also a green screen, where you could take a picture of yourself in the postapocalyptic San Francisco! 

A short break
During the weekend I had to have an Imagine-less day. While on Saturday the festival goers could enjoy a day of CJP Serves, which is a schedule/program where some of the best movies of the festival have been picked out, I stayed in Utrecht for a day. We happened to have a member meeting of my political party (PINK! - the youth party for the animals). Afterwards I went to Brabant in the south for a party. But missing this day of awesome movies, I was determined to catch up on all the things I missed out on.

Die-hard movie watching
To my surprise I was able to watch quite a few movies. After the festival ended I counted my tickets (yes, I'm one of those persons who saves them) and I've seen about 28 movies!!! I did have to combine this with tweeting for the festival, as I was the one official person for the job. Which I still consider to be a great honor. This meant that in between movies I would send out a tweet, while walking from one room to the other. I even had a day that went like: Movie, tweeting, movie, tweeting, attending a masterclass while live tweeting about it, writing an article about the masterclass for the website, have a quick bite to eat and... watching another movie. If every festival day could have been like that, I would be a very happy person :D. Although I have to admit... It was a VERY busy day.  

Fanstastic Science
As the ‘official’ tweeter of the festival I got all sorts of questions from our visitors, but the most important thing I had to do was attending all the extra activities. As I mentioned before, I got to attend the masterclasses, but Imagine also organised symposia, readings, even a Geek-Q Quiz. My job was to give a live report of these programs for all of those who couldn't attend themselves or for those interested who simply followed us on Twitter. As the theme of the year was Fantastic Science, this was all very interesting. The best part of this was when followers started to respond or interact from home, which was a lot of fun. As Twittter is a 24/7 service it kept me busy all day and I got to see the best pictures, opinions and enthusiastic stories.

The closing ceremony
But unfortunately everything comes to an end. Due to the Easter weekend I couldn't go to the festival on the final day (which was a Best of Program). Luckily I did end up joining for the closing ceremony. Here all the awards were given out and we closed off with an hilarioius horror movie. Afterwards I went from the futuristic building at the IJ back to Brabant. Even if I didn't get to watch all the Best Of movies, I think I did manage to watch about 50% of them during the festival itself. 

I could be much more extensive about all of the activities or review all of the 28 movies I've seen, long and/or short, but that would make for one very, very long blog. Maybe that I'll write a future blog about some of them, but seeing how I apparently aren't the best time manager at the moment, I don't think it'll be soon. Even though I personally think the supply of movies was less this year, it has been one fan-tas-tic festival and I hope to be a part of it again next year :-)

For my Dutch version, please check Filmhoek.nl

(Stephanie Leonidas Q&A)

For who's interested, my overview of Imagine movies I've seen:
- Coherence (must-see! - with Nicky Brendon)
- Witching & Bitching (must see!)
- I Am A Ghost (Must see)
- Jodorowsky’s Dune (MUST SEE!)
- Patema Inverted (must see)
- Belle en het Beest/ Beauty and the Best
- The Wind Rises
- Young Detective Dee 3D
- The Creep Behind the Camera
- Asphalt Watches
- Defiance (double episode/premiere)
- Wu Xia
- Fantastic Science Shorts
- European Fanstastic Shorts (1 or 2)
- Worldwide Fantastic Shorts (1 or 2)
- Enemy
- HAL
- The Garden of Words
- Ikarie XB1
- L’étrange couleur
– Zero Charisma
- Ragnarok
- Cosmos (premiere episode by National Geographic)
- Willow Creek
- De Poel (it's a Dutch movie)
- Oculus
- Sneak: Aux yeux des vivants
- The Machine
- Dune (even if I only watched half of it)
Extra:
- Masterclass Labcoats in Hollywood
- Masterclass Filmtrailers
- Masterclass: The Science of Hollywood
- Symposium: Van HAL tot GERTY/ From HAL to GERTY
- De Grote Geek-Q Test/The Great Geek-Q Test
Films that are still on my list, but I unfortunately had to miss out on:
- The Zero Theorem
- Escape From tomorrow
- Filth
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