Eventival

Two encounters in Cannes

Two trains loaded with memories passed in front of my eyes thanks to two encounters yesterday, each leaving a distinctly different taste in my mouth.

The first was a long train - over ten years. Riding it was my former colleague from the Karlovy Vary Int'l Film Festival and then a partner with whom I spent eight exciting, adventurous and productive years building the "DataKal" brand which he, when I look away one not so sunny day ... well, it must have happened to someone you know - they put something on the table, pacified by the soothing feeling of trust (a decade of partnership has the unfortunate ability to foster that kind of feeling), then looked away... and when they look back... Let bygones be bygones. But I guess no wonder that looking at the skeletons packed like sardines in the last carriage of that long and otherwise pretty train still leave a taste of disbelief and bitterness in my mouth, and a burning emptiness in the back pocket of my pants.

Pavel Kalenda and Tomas Prasek at the premiere of Mission Impossible III during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. They probably won't be going to any more premieres together.

The second train is much shorter. It has Eventival written all over it, and I still remember its first whistle. It was in September 2008 when the guy from the first paragraph (let's call him "PK", like "Player Killer" in gaming slang) and I worked in Paris for the festival Cinema du Reel, a collaboration that began after the proposal I wrote earlier that year had won a public tender called by the Bibliotheque nationale. Adrian Johnson, a France-based British friend we met while working with the Berlinale, invited us for a beer in an Irish pub near Chatelet, and proposed to us his idea - a company called Eventival where we, as equal partners, would create an application for film festivals and similar other events - a little brother of DataKal. We finished our beers and shook hands. But I guess one of us already had something else on his mind - a very different future for the bigger brother. The rest is ... yes sure, history which will be described elsewhere in details when the time is ripe. The fact is that two months later, Eventival was founded in Paris and the third partner was, for a change, someone for whom reliability and integrity are natural qualities: our long-time friend and colleague Dawna Cha.

The two weeks in France in January 2009 during which we stayed in Adrian's house in Thommery from 9 am to 2 am, working on the first Eventival, creating our first website, discussing our logo with the famous designer Jiwon Shin, were unforgettable. I remember setting out on a trip back to Prague after I had set up a Facebook page for Eventival the night before, and waking up seeing that already several dozen people had joined it, and calling Adrian with the news ... it was the time when every little encouragement was like an infusion of new blood. Our first joint trip to the Berlinale was memorable. And it was no different the whole spring that started by our trip to Toronto where Adrian and I were given a chance to see the Bell Lightbox building's bowels . Staying in the magic La Loingtaine, a half-barn, half-concert hall hidden in the Fontainebleau forrest, fast morning drives to Adrian's house and slow night drives back (slow because it happened more than once that a procession of wild bore would suddenly block the winding road), the first festivals, the endless Skype calls with Toronto, Los Angeles, Giffoni... and also the first realisation that we might need more hands to sculpt this work of art.

The summer 2009 opened a second chapter for Eventival which ended in February when, after nearly two years of work, we completed the project, and announced the creation of the world's most versatile online festival production system, which by the time I am writing this has already become also the world's most used system. 

When the old Eventival train passed by yesterday and Adrian, Dawna and I reunited for a photo, it made me think of what a difference it is when you partner is not only a man ... but a gentleman.

Dawna Cha and Adrian Johnson in Cannes, 2011. Adrian proposed to start the original Eventival. After pursuing other projects in the film and media industries, we are now we are back at the table to discuss new collaborations.

Cannes

Tuesday, the last quiet day before the Lamborghinis revs their engines and festival begins, is almost over. Early on I went to pick up the badge, saw a few familiar faces in the queue and some obvious newcomers, collapsing under the weight of the ever thicker market catalogue.

If you are feeling lonely in the crowded streets, the best place to go is the Monoprix by the train station where sooner or later you will run into people with badges around their necks, filling their baskets with what their habit dictates them - from pasta to instant Chinese soups. And there will always pop up a familiar face and after often a slightly awkward exchange and a hurried goodbye, that is when you will realize that another year has passed.

The beach is still a constructions site but the white stands are already there, and as I was passing by the UK Pavilion, once again I was hit in the face with the undefinable but definitely unpleasant stench I always smell when passing by its doors... It is worse in the sun but even now it was there, and I promise to myself that I will find out its source.

Later I am sitting on the sidewalk that stretches along the beach and flipping through the magazines while watching the people stroll by. Again they will all be here - the sleek, quickly moving carnivorous sharks, the big lazy whales, the tiny species which never stay in one place too long.. all on the shore, and everyone of them, at least sometimes, feeling stranded.

 

Far East Film brings the summer closer

It has become a habit to pray for sunny weather during the last week in April which is when the Far East Film festival in Udine, Europe's biggest showcase of popular Asian cinema, usually takes place. However, the FEF was moved to the first week of May this year, and so far it seems that the rain won't be as daring in May as it is in April - the meadow in front of the Teatro, the festival's centre, is covered with sun chairs and those who are not in the cinema or sipping coffee from Cafe Beltrame (a cafe in Udine known for the best almond croissants in the world) are bathing in the sun.

There seems nothing unusual about this year's Far East Film, and that is the most unusual thing about this event and this place - even after more than ten years, it has kept its atmosphere despite growing in all directions and reaching for Asian film enthusiasts into more remote countries every year.

I went for a light lunch in the Udinese Cafe in front of the Teatro - two familiar faces sitting at one of the small tables, the same quizzical exchange with the bar owner, bruschette as delicious as ever... and after you step out, the same dilemma - a quick nap, or a Japanese thriller? No one lets you stay as off-guard when it comes to festival pretensions as the Far East Film.