Paris L'Etrange is rockin'!

Have just returned on a sleeper train from the L'Etrange Festival in Paris for the European premiere of L'AUTRE MONDE which was a blast! Forgive me here for being a little half-assed and sleep deprived, but I wanted to get this down before life gets in the way and I start to forget.

These kind of events are often nerve wracking at first, but this one was doubly so because the documentary is such an intimate piece of work for me, containing many years of research, and it's the first time I appear on the big screen telling a rather fantastical, yet true story. People who have supernatural encounters and talk openly about them are generally treated with derision, or like lunatics. This thought has been a faint echo in the back of my mind since I first gave the interview to camera. Still, I think being honest about these kinds of experiences is more important than a few jeers and sneers at the end of the day. We live in a magical universe. It permeates the gray of our existence. It is there just beyond reach, and it is waiting. Sometimes, the unseen can be seen. If this documentary makes someone look at their world in a different way, or helps them give voice to their own experiences in the borderlands, then I'm thrilled. These were the thoughts swirling around in my head before the screening. I didn't know I was going to be presenting on stage as generally screen writers are pretty much left in the shadows, so I didn't really prepare anything and just sort of rambled thank you a bunch of times. But I meant everyone of those thank you's even if they were not my most eloquent. And thanks to the train delays, and barely getting there in time, I was still wearing flip flops as I hadn't made it back to the hotel to change my shoes, hence the last minute decision to go barefoot. Trés bohemian, non?

The after parties (notice the usage of the plural) went on into the small hours of the morning. I think we must have closed at least four different places, but the last one is admittedly a little fuzzy. What a strange and amazing posse we accrued that night of old friends, new friends, assorted film makers, musicians and producers. It was a little like stepping out of time into this fantastical and strangely protected bubble, where the surreal was the norm, and chance encounters happened every time you turned around. I love nights like this when it feels like anything is possible. The world was our oyster, and that's literally the last thing I had before we made our way back to the hotel through the winding side streets as dawn was just beginning to make her presence known.

Self, Matthieu Boulard, Richard Stanley, and Simon Boswell

I'll quickly write up some of the highlights as I could easily right a novel on all the reasons I love Paris. I caught Adan Jodorowsky's short film, THE VOICE THIEF, which completely floored me. In this day in age of shrinking budgets, and making the best you can on the shortest amount of time available, it was such a pleasure to see a film so beautifully and meticulously crafted, and with so much style. It really is visual feast for the senses and is very keeping in the aesthetic started by his father so many years ago. I can't wait to see more from Adan as he's shown himself to be enormously talented. If you get the chance to see it run, don't walk. I don't want to give away any more, but I can't recommend it highly enough.

Scene from THE VOICE THIEF directed by Adan Jodorowsky. Starring Asia Argento & Cristobal Jodorowsky.

Other highlights included having lunch with Jello Biafra and Pakito Bolino and being attacked by bombastic pigeons at the table while trading Wesley Willis anecdotes. Being coerced at the last minute to see the band Ghost Dance play who were quite fabulous, and then stealing the group after their set and going back to our friend Matthieu's place to continue the concert on and on until the wee hours of the morning. Friday the 13th started the second screening of L'AUTRE MONDE in which some of the audience members had some surprisingly touching comments and observations after the film. Our last night in Paris ended with one of the posse who shall remain nameless (although a video does exist!) getting the number 13 temporarily branded on their arm with a wood burning pen.

Adventures aside, I'd like to thank the everyone connected to the L'Etrange Festival for being awesome hosts and putting together such an amazing event, and our friend Matthieu Boulard for sharing some of his beautiful city and many adventures with us, and everyone involved with the film for making L'AUTRE MONDE a reality.  

Photo by Fred Ambroisine

I think the smile pretty much says it all...

Much love from where the worlds touch,

S - xx