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
- +1

"Busy like a bee, actually. Bee-like"

For the last couple of months I've been blogging less and less. Actually that's not entirely true, as I'm blogging for Filmhoek.nl as well. But I've been blogging here less and less. It's not something I want to give up, because here I can write anything I want and talk about anything I can think of. And I love doing it. So I'm not gonna stop, I'm just saying that it's gonna happen like twice a month instead of three to four times a month.

In case you'd like to know why I've been so busy:
If you're a Dutchie by any chance (or you understand Dutch) you can always keep up with my latest movie reviews on www.filmhoek.nl (we're also on facebook and twitter) as well as the blogs I write for them. The cool thing about this is that I get to go to press viewings, which I absolutely LOVE! Lately we've also started a site for television news, for which I'll also be blogging and hopefully reviewing some of my favorite shows as well.

When I'm not writing for them, I'll be writing (three to four times a year) for the Dutch magazine Integrand - a magazine for students to prepare them for the business world out there. Here I won't just write reviews but sometimes I'll simply be writing articles about a theme/topic related to the issue.

Lately I've also been very busy tweeting. Not just my own tweets (though you can find me @Aivy88 if you like), but also for a movie website that focuses on teens who are either interested in movies or interested in making them theirselves. We share movie reviews from these inspired teens as well as background information about a movie that we feel deserves some extra attention. I'm kinda proud because I advised (more like stalked, but hey... it's me) them to do the same for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing which just hit the theatres over here (YAY). I also just started tweeting again for this Film Festival which starts in the beginning of April and I can't wait for it! The only non-movie related tweets are the ones I do for my job.

Then there's the political party I'm a member of. As the elections are coming up in two months we are working on some pretty nice activities, while there are also a lot of new rules and new board members. So I'm pretty busy with figuring all of that out as well ;-).

Live like a veggie - maybe even a little longer

On June 30th the Viva Las Vega's Food Festival took place. It was the last day of the Veggie Challenge for me (though you can also try a month longer or start on July first) and it was a day to look at all the delicious alternatives there are for animal food products... and more!

That's a month

The Veggie Challenge ended for me that weekend. A month without any meat at all and once a week as a vegan. As mentioned in my previous blogs (note: two links here :P), it doesn't have to be so difficult. But there were some challenges that I failed to conquer. One of them was one I spend a couple of days with my parents. My mother knows I love this very difficult and time consuming recipe with fish and she made it for me. I then told her that I really love it, but that I couldn't eat it because I entered the Challenge. She looked so hurt and tired that I said I'd make an exception and just pick the pieces of fish out. But as it turned out, they were really small and I ended up eating some.
There was another incident, also at my parents house. We got home late after the Viva Las Vega's Food Festival and ordered Chinese. I ordered some things that could have been veggie, but we forgot to say it and I ended up eating some chicken :S. I found out to late, and we had people over, so I couldn't exactly spit it out... So I ate it, even if I didn't really like it. So those are my little challenges/mistakes during the past month. But all in all I think I did really well. Unfortunatly - and I'm really bummed about this - I didn't succeed in the Challenge :(, but I did eat less meat and other animal products (like honey, eggs and cheese) than I would have so that's still a win in my book.

As for my last vegan meal. I loved it. I made Mexican wraps, with very easy products and it was very nice. I did make it with soy product instead of meat of course, but it was really good. It had a lot of taste and I'll definitely make it again. Other than that, I love the different spreads and salades I had during this month. So even though the Challenge ended, I'll keep eating something vegan every now and then. Just because it's good for the environment, the animals and of course my own body. I also like being creative with food and finding new recipes and these are all fun things to be busy with when you have the time (and of course money). Because I entered this Challenge I know where to find some recipes and I'm really excited to try some of those out. So that's another reason for doing it. I don't think I'll ever eat completely vegan, I won't overdo it (in my own words and no offense), but within my limits I'll keep eating/drinking vegan food and drinks. Because they are just as delicious and every little bit helps ;-). It will also keep me healthy (more vegetables for one), which is always good in my book. One thing I learned and will probably keep doing is looking at ingredients. Just knowing what I'm actually eating was very interesting for me. So that's what I'm taking with me from this past month.

Food, Films and other Festivities!

But of course the main activity was the festival. An initiative of young vegans to introduce people to a vegan and/or veggie life style. And even though it was a Food Festival it had so much more. It started around noon and until five there would be stands. Then at six o'clock they organised a vegan BBQ, after which there was time to party at Club V. Now that's a full day!

The market was free for everyone, but they also organised several workshops in which professional cooks would teach the people who signed up for it (bought tickets) to make certain delicious foods. Like cupcakes, but also some kind of vegan pigs in a blanket. It was sold out weeks before the festival, with the exception of kid workshops. So it was a very busy day for some people. 
The 'market' (?) consisted of stands with a lot of people promoting their business. Most of them were for food: delicious cupcakes, burgers, sushi, chocolates, spreads, popsicles and much more. Some of them you could try out for free, but others you had to pay for. And it proved to be a succes, because some had sold out or had to get extra because they didn't bring enough. We also had really good weather, and that's always a plus. It was outside and rain wouldn't help with that. But - as I said - it wasn't just about food. One stand sold vegan shoes! Can you believe that? You could also traid your clothes for other ones (kind of second hand, but you wouldn't have to pay for it) and there were natural beauty products. I don't remember all the names, but one of them was LUSH. A brand/company I've know for a couple of years now. They have really amazing things!

 (for more information: check www.lush.nl)

Then there's my (extra) reason for being there: My sister got in touch with this company in New York that makes totally vegan clothing (they even use PET-bottles for some of the clothes). It's called Vaute Couture and it's so cool! Anyway, they are thinking about branching out I believe and my sister arranged for them to get a stand. Her boyfriend and me would stand there and sell it for them. That way we could see if people were interested. And that's what we did. We had a lot of smaller sizes, so that was a little unfortunate, but we sold about half of what we had. I'd say it was a succes! It was so much fun to talk to people about it and see how other people also cared so much about this cause. And the clothes were absolutely amazing, so why wouldn't people like it ;-).
One other thing I helped my sister with was the movies. They showed a film program, because after walking all day or taking part in the workshops people may want to sit down for a while. So I helped to find some (short) movies that put vegans and/or animals in a positive light (instead of all those documentaries that would scare you out of eating fish or meat). I really wanted to see them myself (of course!), but unfortunately I was so busy selling clothes that I just didn't have the time. Several titles were Tegan the Vegan, Charlotte's Web and Vegan Love. The maker of this movie has his own blog and tries to use vegan film material as well, which is really interesting.

 Check out his blog www.veganfilmmaker.com,
you can also see Vegan Love there! 

My sister was a volunteer and in the organisation, so she was busy a lot of the time. Good thing we could help her out. I was there around eleven in the morning and helped out until half past three. Then I walked around a bit myself (with my parents who had just finished with a workshop/meal themselves) and them we went home. So I didn't go to the BBQ, even though I was really curious and it sounded heavenly. And I didn't go to Club V, but then again, it wasn't really for me I think. Could have been fun, but I had a lot of busy days (with graduating, my dad's birthday and helping out at the festival) so I could use an early night.

The festival was definitely a succes and I really hope there will be another one next year! It really succeded my expectations, because they showed how much is out there and how easy and fun all this veggie/vegan stuff can be. They really deserve a round of applause and I'm glad I was a part of it.

Guilty Pleasures

Everyone has them, right? And probably more then one... So do I. One of mine is still Disney movies, specifically animated: I think they are amazing. I just watched Rapunzel (aka Tangled) last week and it made me remember just how much I love them. In my oppinion they are even better when they give a more educated audience something to watch as well and that is why I LOVE the movie Hercules.

(so funny)

First impressions

The first time I went to the movie theatre my parents took me and my two sisters to the Disney movie Aladdin. We came in late and had to sit on the balcony, on the floor. And I can't even remember that much, but I do remember that. Besides the obvious: the songs. Who doesn't know 'A Whole New World'? Other movies I grew up with were Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Dumbo (to name a few). When you're a kid, you don't really think about them. You simply enjoy the story, the music and how it looks. It's entertaiment... But I really fell in love with Pocahontas. More specifically when I found out that it was based on a true story. I found out that I am really interested in the true story and a few years ago I took a course about the history and culture of America and I finally read about it. 

Layers, layers, layers
Disney movies can teach you a lot and I think they taught me a lot. Like with Pocahontas, they give a sense of history. Different cultures, the discovery of new land, the diferences there are and how even though people might be different, it doens't mean one is better than the other. You would think that a lot of us would already know that, but some people don't. There are lessons, which I think you should learn from your family. But not all people think the same. And of course that's not a problem, because it's good that they are and it should be respected. But children should grow up knowing the differences in the world and how when one person has an opinion it doesn't have to be the same as yours. And that is where Disney movies can help. My parents are very open minded, but the movies made me ask the questions. So there are many layers in a movie and they can inspire children at a very young age to start thinking for themselves and aks questions. 

Also for adults
Like I said, one of my favorites is Hercules. I watched this one when I didn't know anything about the ancient Greeks or Greek Gods. When I went to high school I got lessons in Greek and Latin. We had to translate myths and that's how I learned a lot about it. But I always came back to that movie, because it introduced it to me. And when I watch it again, I notice so much more than when I was younger and 'unknowing'. Of course this goes for many movies, but in this one you get to learn about an entire new world with Olympos, Cerberus and fauns. When you meet Phil he talks about heroes like Achilles, you see Theseus with Medusa's head, and he mentions Cleopatra. Not to mention that a lot of the mythology comes by. Like his birth, all the other Gods, twelve labours, Lydra and the Titans. Seeing the subject of the movie, it isn't all that weird. But you can see it in other movies as well, such as Anastasia.

The message
Now, usually it's about happy endings and finding Prince Charming. Defenseless girls who need a man to save them. That isn't such a good message for young girls... or maybe it is, it just isn't a very strong empowering one. In Anastasia, Mulan and Rapunzel the main characters are female and much stronger than the man. They end up saving them or at least fighting next to each other as equals. So Disney movies have changed over the years, but they always leave you with a message. Themes that keep coming back is overcoming differences, never giving up on your dreams and fighting for what you want. Whether that is a love interest, being independent, finding and/or proving yourself, but most of all believing in yourself. And that is part of the reason why I love them. I like Disney movies, so sue me... They can teach you more than you even know when you're watching it, they are funny, intertextual and a lot of the time also inspiring. If they keep making them this way, I'm just gonna keep watchin' them!  

Other tips that I haven't mentioned: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Little Mermaid, Lady and the Tramp, Robin Hood, Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Bambi and the Hunchback of the Notre Dame... To name but a few. And very different ones, but amazing: Wall-E, Up.

Btw: Enjoy the vids!