VISIONS Response

I was generally pleased with how Visions turned out. There were a few minor bumps here and there, and I tend to exaggerate those in my head, but overall I’m very pleased with the final outcome. I am not the best public speaker and somehow I ended up signing up for three things to moderate but it kept me busy and I’m happy that I was actually able to do it well. In the first block there were a few hitches, such as Sightseers skipping and having to be replayed, which in my head was the end of the world but it turned out alright in the end. I think my main fear was offending a filmmaker or scholar who came all this way and did all this work. I didn’t want Noah to feel like his film wasn’t being appreciated and that was something I tried to avoid for all filmmakers and scholars during the Q+A. I wanted each person to feel like their work was being appreciated and I hope that I accomplished that.

My personality is not well-suited to the Video Race, I was a nervous wreck when I had to do it last year, but this year was a lot of fun and Hillary was incredible to work with. I don’t do well with second-hand embarrassment but since I knew everybody on the staff and all the teams, it was much more fun to participate (or maybe I’ve just grown up a little who knows). Overall I felt like Visions was pretty professional and honestly just a fun experience for everyone involved. There’s not much I would change about how things wrapped up other than mingling a little bit more (something I’ve never been good at and will have to continue to work on for the rest of my life). There was that one time that I told everyone to come to a private dinner but we won’t mention that again I’ve already thought about it every second of my life since then.

Probably my favorite part was Felix's Keynote Speech. I was extremely moved and inspired by everything he had to say. I also loved the way the Second Film Block concluded the day. It’s mostly just weird to have something that you’ve spent a year working on be over and done with in a single day; however, I’m proud of all the work I put in.