Getting Started at Fantasia…Again…

It was good to be back.

I did not know that I would really enjoy my return to the Fantasia Film Festival (July 16th to August 2nd) in Montreal. I realized that my money would last beyond the end of the college semester earlier in the year, and the private contracts that would run out over the summer…but things are not perfect. And I knew that another summer of scrounging for jobs and sending out too many applications for too little would be nothing but a sad way to enjoy it. There was the festival, and it was my fifth (?) year as a volunteer…if I decided to jump back in.

Well…

I went in on the Thursday after watching an online orientation on Zoom about emergency situations, possible roles for volunteers, and all the variables we should expect when you get a crowd of esoteric film lovers on one university campus (I often wonder what the festival would be like if they had chosen McGill University, Université de Montreal, or any of the other CEGEPs in the city instead of Concordia University and a few other sites). But I was not worried. I began as a fan long before I decided to get involved with the actually day-to-day running of the event. I knew that I would have to wear a particular t-shirt (this is the second time we have received an orange-and-black t-shirt that really did not please anyone), have enough energy to lift sandwich boards and boxes, patience to deal with questions that we could not possibly answer clearly (I have already been asked twice which film should I watch; always a pleasant distraction between checking tickets and passes and corralling people into the right buildings and away from the wrong ones).

Some old faces came back to me. I am not someone who can remember the names of all of the people in my past, but it was not too difficult to recall the head organizer, mascots, secretaries and the rare volunteer who continued to do this for as long as I did. Hugs and thank-yous abounded and I was surprised that anyone recalled my time in the previous years.

The interesting thing about being a volunteer is receiving film codes after you have given time for a session of work. You take these codes, received in your inbox, put them in as a code on the Fantasia ticket page for whichever particular film you would like to watch. I have decided to watch films on the days when I am volunteering. This means that my days have been very long, so long in fact that I have found myself typing this out after carrying around my laptop all day and handling lunches and rest time when I can.

Again, I do not mind this. This is actually my second piece on the festival, and I have already written up long piles of notes on several films, completing just one review, but my mind is working out what I will say about other things that I have seen. Not much drama on the ground, but this is Montreal in the summer. There will always be stories for those of us willing to look for them.

And I have some films to watch...

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You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

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