Month: May 2012

Today, a little treat we’ve been promising ourselves for quite some time: a trip to the Kröller-Müller Museum. Located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park (which provides 1700 free white bikes and many kilometers of paved paths for visitors to ride through its forests, sand dunes and fields), the Museum houses the impressive art collection of Helene Kröller-Müller, who was an avid early collector of work by Vincent van Gogh. After taking in the museum and sculpture park, we are lucky enough to see a rather magnificent group of red deer on our 10 km ride back to the park entrance. Another perfect day…

An Amsterdam afternoon at Cineco (matching the soundtrack to the film in preparation for the making of the final release print) followed by a delightful dinner with our friends Florence, Gus, Baby Anton and Boris the Cat. The late night milk run back to Rotterdam lulls us to sleep…

Just one week left in Rotterdam and everything is starting to take on that “one last time” feeling. I’m even getting sentimental about the odd little dancing couple statue in the overgrown lot we bicycle past each day on our way to the city center…

Although we have one more public screening coming up on Thursday, today is the last official class session for The Sound We See: Rotterdam. This moment is always a little bittersweet… What a joy to see everyone grow as individual artists and form such a strong bond.  The group wants to continue meeting and working together as an informal artists collective and I can’t wait to see what they create next. The seeds have been planted and the garden is beginning to grow.

Afterwards, we check out the Dunya Festival (the Dutch love a festival!) and meander back to Delfshaven for a double date double feature of Invasion USA and RoboCop with Florian and Mariette… “I work alone.” Fantastic!

Still basking in the afterglow of last night’s cinematic magic, we hop a boat and spend a dreamy afternoon wandering around Dordrecht followed by a lovely home-cooked Bulgarian dinner at our Karel’s house… An absolutely perfect summer Saturday.

Can an event you’ve been working towards for four intense months ever live up to expectation?

Yes, it can. And then some.

The Sound We See: Rotterdam Premiere was a night full of love, positive energy and community spirit beyond our wildest dreams. The weather was perfect, the hall at Scots International Church was standing room only, the projected film looked absolutely stunning, the musicians performed a fantastic live score and as the end credits rolled, there was thunderous applause for 17 happy filmmakers and their very proud instructors. A night that will be fondly remembered by all in attendance for a very, very long time…

We spend the afternoon at home, making the program and taking care of other last minute details for tomorrow night’s big screening. The windows are open, the birds are flying here and there, the leaves are making beautiful patterns on the walls, the neighbor on the left is playing the clarinet, the neighbor on the right is playing Moroccan trance music, the neighbor at the back is playing Beyonce, and downstairs there’s a constant hum of conversation… It’s a great day in the neighborhood…

In the past couple of days it’s gone from rain and mitten weather to full on summertime… Clear blue skies, temperatures in the high 70s, the odd slight breeze. The whole city is out in the streets, soaking up the sunshine like drunken bumblebees… We celebrate by slowly strolling from afternoon tea at Hopper to an early evening twilight vegan feast canal-side at Bla Bla and back to the city center for a screening of handmade work by our Film Bee friends at WORM… life is good!

Fresh off the plane from Hollywood, California… Miss Shauna McGarry!

After four months of living in Rotterdam, at last we meet the woman who made our fantastic housing situation possible: Miss Marijke Appelman! Marijke is a talented and beloved local artist who graciously vacated her flat when the call came out that two crazy California filmmakers needed a place to crash. While we’ve been working on The Sound We See, Marijke’s been making work at residencies in Iceland, Denmark and, for the last few days of our stay, Berlin. Over coffee and strawberries at the table where we’ve spent so many happy hours, we get all caught up on life, love, travel, art, politics, gardening and the goings on in the ‘hood. Another kindred spirit and a true inspiration!