Director Stuart Grieg in Q & A at World Premiere of The Holyrood Files. The doc charts the controversy around the new Scottish parliament building.
Edinburgh International Film Festival, Wednesday, 24 August, 2005
I'm starting to forget what it feels like to not be tired, or to wake up in the morning and not immediately wonder what I ate at 2am to make me feel this bad. Oh well. Wednesday was not a day to be feeling under the weather, or to be wearing uncomfortably high strappy wedge sandals, but luckily I had to go to the office and do proper work, so was able to sit and stare at a computer blankly until I'd recovered.
Cadaver for brekkie, anyone?
In the morning I went down to the Filmhouse to see the final results of this year's Bridging the Gap programme - 6 short documentaries on the theme of Silence. The highlights were Fine, an entertainingly upbeat look at dealing with aphasia (loss of ability to speak or understand speech) after a stroke, and A Difficult Case, which explored a bizarre medical case where ghosts told a woman with mental problems that she had a tumour and should get a brain scan. And they were right. Weird. The other one which sticks in my memory was The Rest Is Silence, but this is for all the wrong reasons. It is not nice to look at dead bodies being cut up before breakfast.
I spent the rest of the day carrying bags of ice around Edinburgh, mixing dodgy cocktails and trying to find my keys.
In the afternoon there was a panel discussion on new digital opportunities for documentary makers, followed by a happening drinks reception hosted by the SDI and UK theatrical documentary network Docspace.
On the subject of you-know-who
Instead of doing anything interesting in the evening, like go to premieres, go dancing with celebrities or watch fabulous films, I sat in a bar and drank wine. So, in the absence of anything else to write about, here are a few fascinating Joss Whedon facts that came up yesterday (yes, I do know you are all sick of the sound of his name, but I don't really care. I'm not making you read this).
Joss went to Winchester and does a great English accent. His wife is always right about everything, and he has learned to accept this. His mother was also right about everything, so it was only when he went to college that he realised that not all men understand that women are in charge of the whole world. Most of the cast of Serenity turned up to provide some moral support and the occasional heckle.
There may be a film about Spike in the near(ish) future. Every mention of Spike elicited delighted if slightly scary squeals. Joss is a third generation screenwriter and at film school was taunted with the nickname 3GTV. He used to be a script doctor and has worked on X-Men and Waterworld. There, that's your lot. Buy the DVD and try to forget that God was ever involved, even in a very minor way with a film that starred Kevin Costner. The knowledge scars my soul.
More from the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
