Cannes in a Van Film Festival 2013: blog 2

Day 2

You’d think that the south of France would be a haven of sun kissed beauty, at this point in time it isn’t, the rain has hardly stopped since the start of the festival and continues to wash memories off of the pavement. We’ve been teased with the promise of good weather and are yet to experience any vitamin D.

Waking up today with the sound of rain thrashing upon the roof of our cabin, we are still a little drained from pervious days organizing the van and filming content for the site. As rain subsided we began to prepare for the first night of short film screenings, a job easier said then done when dealing with a plethora of cables, components and screening methods.

Assimilating ourselves with the new kit has been exciting; we placed our 350w speakers in the back of the van below the LCD screen and began to run tests. The quality is impressive and we hope it’ll make our audiences on the croisette stay longer and watch more films.

We rocked up outside a rather wholesome ice-cream shop named Le Quirly (translation not provided) and managed to squeeze into a space just in front of an expensive Ferrari. The sun had set over Cannes and the streets were packed with sharply dressed, handsome men and beautiful women.

We opened up the back doors, queued up the movies, turned our speakers up to eleven and began screening our films in the hope that anyone passing would stop and allow their natural curiosity to take them into the world of independent cinema. As ever, the first film was Je Suis Un Robot – a CIAV favourite made with passion and ideas. It’s a film which sums up the Cannes in a Van ethos ‘from grass-roots to greatness’ and we love it.

There were no chairs or carpet due to the rain, but that didn’t stop a select few stopping by and sitting themselves on the bonnet of the Ferrari close-by (apologies to the owner, we accidently set off your alarm due to the bass from our speakers).

As the films rolled and we screened the best from our Van d’Or Independent Film Awards, we met several filmmakers whose work was playing in town interested in the prospect of screening their movies from the back of the van.

The evening drew to a close for us but the party continued in Cannes with many an aficionado stumbling and teetering on five-inch heels up and down the Croisette, looking for a good time or an a-list celebrity to party with.