Heartland Film Festival

Volunteer work for October was at the Heartland Film Festival. As a movie lover - especially of small budget film - it was exciting to be given tickets to see festival films in exchange for volunteering. I worked the Hospitality Suite.

The suite offers help for anything and everything the filmmakers and / or actors need, as well as a place to relax. That included running people to a med check on a Sunday night (and no, there are not a lot of immediate care facilities open on a Sunday night), arranging for transportation, helping with hotels when flights were cancelled, etc.

Corbin Bernsen, the gentleman who is head of CastleRock Entertainment, Quinton Aaron (who starred as Michael Orr in "The Blind Side") and others were there.

The stars of the festival for me, however, were the filmmakers who have been so dedicated to the process and their projects. One man spoke of the fact that he and his wife have spent so much money they've not been able to afford to have a family. They asked people to support film as an art and a method of storytelling. I never really thought about film as THE storytelling mechanism of this generation and those to follow, but it is true that the format of film has replaced reading or oral story / passing of history and legends.

Overall, a good experience.
www.trulymovingpictures.org/heartland-film-festival

France

Spent 9 beautiful October days in France. Road a bullet train (Paris to Dijon), went to the Palace of Versailles (opulent) and walked the beaches of Normandy (D-Day landing beaches). The bullet train runs over 200 miles an hour. I'm sure we did not go that fast, but it was quick, quiet and so smooth. We ended up sitting in what I think was first class due to ticket issues as a result of the transportation strike... lovely. They brought around juices, menus to order lunch were proferred, the seats were larger.... very nice experience.

The French people were so much more pleasant than my first experience there. A lovely surprise. These are experiences I would love for everyone to be able to have.