Cannes in a Van Film Festival 2013: blog 8

Day 8

Soon after we awoke, our Israeli neighbour, filmmaker Yanai Lein popped round for coffee to discuss some of the key themes around his mesmerising debut The Hidden Spring. He spoke at length about his intriguing background and the origins of his movie.

As the day moved on, and Yanai left to meet in Cannes with producers, we heard a crash from the heavens, shortly followed by (unsurprisingly) more torrential rain. Sitting in the campsite ‘media hub’ the core CIAV team worked through the downpour. We thought we’d made it out of the woods (metaphorically speaking) only to have our hearts sink at the thought of doing more screenings in the rain.

Racing down to the wet Croisette with the Transit radio set to Cherie FM (arguably the best radio station in France), we were preparing for a screening with US indie b-movie distributor TROMA. Whilst in Cannes, Troma had been sticking two proverbial fingers up to the Cannes Film Festival by running their ‘Occupy Cannes’ movement. Aside from a handful of screenings to critics and distributors, Troma had been hosting events and publicity stunts across Cannes including zombie walks and a lesbian wedding ceremony   – which was quickly shut down by the ‘Film Festival Police’, as founder of Troma Lloyd Kaufman puts it.

We arrived on the rain soaked streets and we were flagged down by a couple of the Troma team who in true guerrilla style had secured a spot for us right next to the Carlton Hotel. The green carpet and chairs were rolled out as the crowd grew ever-larger. We were about to screen independent cult-movie legend Lloyd Kaufman’s latest Troma release Return To Nuke ‘Em High which was to be the only feature film we’d screen this year. We were fortunate to grab an interview with Lloyd as he presented the movie and we were ourselves interviewed for the upcoming Occupy Cannes documentary (directed by Kaufman’s daughter Charlotte) which looks how independent film is overshadowed but the big studios.

Lloyd provided some great insight into how Cannes is today. He said: “I don’t think we need the Cannes Film Festival to tell us that Gatsby is around, I think there has been a fair amount of publicity, I would venture that fifty to one hundred million dollars has been spent to publicise it. I don’t think Cannes Film Festival has to join the call for it, the public knows – if an old guy like me knows about Gatsby, everyone knows about Gatsby, what they don’t know about are all the wonderful young people, thousands of them here in Cannes, hoping to get just a little bit of encouragement and I think this van is a great thing. We’ve seen it here at the festival bringing art to the people, probably bringing better that Gatsby art to the people.”

With the crowd swarming the back of the van, Return To Nuke ‘Em High grabbed the attention of almost everyone passing by – even the police parked up to watch. With the director, producer and a hand full of the cast all together to celebrate forty years of Troma the atmosphere was electric.

Thanks to Lloyd and Troma for coming down and supporting the van as we screened their recent endeavour. Once again bringing cinema back to the people on the street.