In praise of blagging - how to Be Important

I got a taste of what it feels like to be Important this weekend... My friend Helen (a film maker and part of Undercurrents) was up this weekend from Swansea as one of her latest films is showing this Tuesday at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. However seeing as she couldn't get away on Tuesday she came to a reception/networking opportunity for Short Film Makers (some of whom were quite tall...erhm...sorry Fisch) on Saturday to get a feel/buzz of the festival.

I got to go along to something that frankly I thought only existed in books: the professional networking party. The festival organisers provided the alcohol in the Green Room and everyone else talked. I met someone who does films for Channel 4, a woman whose pictures are regularly exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, first time film makers who shot their piece on a mother's holiday camera and edited the film on iMovie and got into the festival (there is hope for us all!), a very funny stand up comedien(ne?), one of the festival programmers, and loads more film makers... So I was horrendously out of place, but everything was fabulously interesting. An insight into such a different world. And to top it all off we managed to talk ourselves into having a car drive us all the way from South Bank to Richmond - I think I said "I can't believe this..." a few times.

Undercurrents are soon launching a peer-to-peer TV channel over the internet and so Helen and I took the opportunity to interview some of the women film makers for the women's channel Broad Horizons. Interviewing people is such interesting work as people have such interesting things to say. I love asking about something a person is passionate about and then listen. I found it really inspiring to listen to these women. It is nice to have something to do at a party...and there's nothing like casually holding a fluffy microphone and a camera to feel like you might be blending in.

The next day I somehow got signed up as a delegate. Now I own a bit of plastic with my picture on it and it says: FILM MAKER on it! It's completely undeserved as I did nothing in Helen's film, but it does get me into all the screenings at the festival for free plus some various other perks. So I shall go and be an Undercurrents presence on Tuesday for Helen and hope that no one will ask me any questions about being a film maker. The film world is not one inhabited by a majority of people, but it is an interesting one I was glad to dip into for a moment.