1.7.13: A Little Drama

Start the day with some 8 am rush hour action… First the bus with Hang (again!), then the train with “German” Duc (as differentiated from other SWS: Hanoi students “Lady” Duc and “Baby” Duc, who is actually the youngest member of the class and not Linh as previously erroneously reported… thanks for the heads up on that, Thi!). Then some grant writing (oh, the fun never ends when it comes to raising money for a non-profit!), then shooting the last remaining sequence of the film at 3 pm with the aforementioned Linh up on the balcony and down in the park while Paolo hangs out with the rest of Linh’s family, drinking mountain wine and listening to avant-garde/traditional music in their stunning living room filled with beautiful paintings by Linh’s father and the most gorgeous 700 year old Vietnamese (“Not Chinese!”) ceramics. Then back to DocLab to process the last roll of film. Then projecting all the films together for the class and everything is going fantastically well and everyone is so happy! Until the second to last roll…when… the film starts to burn! Yes! THE FILM STARTS TO BURN!!!!!

Of course we stop the projector right away. Luckily for us all, this is no Cinema Paradiso but just one scorched frame of Super 8 film: 1/18th of a second to the human eye. A busted belt is the culprit. Which normally would not be that big a deal except… in all the hubbub surrounding our LA departure we forgot to bring a replacement. And remember, this is the ONLY working (er, make that formerly working) Super 8 projector in all of Vietnam! Hmmm. So now the hunt is on! The first person to get a replacement belt for the Eumig 610D Dual 8 Projector to DocLab c/o The Goethe Institute Hanoi will get a VERY special prize! Stay tuned friends, and keep your fingers crossed!