Annecy

I am slightly less jet-lagged than I was on Monday. Slightly. This post may not make much sense. My apologies.

I saved up some money, booked on a few travel sites, and packed my bags. Four panic attacks later, I was on a plane to France. One more panic attack after that, I fell asleep and woke up in the air. No sense panicking then. What was I gonna do, jump out of the plane? Too much effort to climb over the guy in the next seat.

So there I was. I had a few hiccups making the right train, but eventually I ended up at the home of a very lovely French woman and her goldfish.

I saw some really great films, and some not-so-great ones. Some of my favorite shorts included: "Astigmatismo (Nicolaï Troshinsky)," "Zounk! (Billy Roisz)," "The Blue Umbrella (Saschka Unseld)," and the winner, "Subconscious Password (Chris Landreth)." There were a lot more. Way more. Same with the features. I didn't see as many as I could have, but I got into some great ones. I caught a great documentary on Saturday about Richard Williams, called "Persistence of Vision (Kevin Schreck)," about his lifetime of work on his unfinished film, "The Thief and the Cobbler." It was both intriguing and disheartening. Maybe heartening. Mostly disheartening. Williams contributed so much to the world of animation, but he was never able to complete his masterpiece.

I originally went there to watch films all week. I did, but I spent just as much time sketching. Here are a few:

 Line at the airport from Philly. Everyone's on a phone.

Purple chairs on the train to Gare de Lyon.

 Humans.

 I sat in a bar late one night, waiting for the last bus out to where I was staying. There was a two-man band playing from Trinidad and Tobego. They were great.

 Farmer's Market outside the apartment. It was mostly a shifting mass of pretty hijabs.

More humans. They were everywhere.

And here's where I was:

 Calming view outside the TGV (the super fast train to Annecy). There were cows, but I couldn't get a good picture. :(

 The mascot for The Legend of Sarila, a new French TV show being promoted at the festival.

 People doing live painting in the mall.

 The Mifa Talks, set in The Imperial Palace. I attended "The Animated Short Film Market." It was quite informative.

 The lake.

The people, all wating for the outdoor film to start. There was a different film playing outdoors every night.

I'm still fairly tired. But "tired" is my usual state, so I guess it's not anything too extraordinary. The trip was amazing, though.