I just arrived home from the second annual Tidal Wave Film Festival in Fredericton. I had a great time last year and I had a great time this year as well. The festival has grown quite fast in a year, but the big highlight was seeing the short NB films where all the filmmakers who were present lined up on the stage. It was great to see a new generation of filmmakers who are part of the NB Filmmakers Coop. Some of the other highlights were seeing Deborah Day’s film “Expecting” starring Valerie Buhagiar. “Expecting” tells the story of an expectant woman (with Valerie Buhagiar actually near the end of her own pregnancy) who goes through labour surrounded by her friends. The film was improvised by the great cast which also featured Angela Gei, Derwin Jordan, Debra McGrath, Tom Melissis, Colin Mochrie, Karl Pruner, and Barbara Radecki. One of the cool things was being able to talk with Bruce McDonald who was around for a screening of Hard Core Logo last night. He’s working on the DVD release which I’m looking forward to picking up when it comes out soon. It was neat to see “Hard Core Logo” in the theatre where I was going to kick off a season of the UNB Film Society years ago with McDonald’s “Roadkill” years ago. But it didn’t end up screening in that room, but that’s a whole other story.
The whole thing wrapped up with a great party in the former provincial jail. I was able to do a lot of catching up with friends and saw some great films too…I’m just really tired now.