THE FESTIVALISTS

The festival started in Sydney on Thursday 6th November at 6am. We drove to Sydney Domestic Airport with 60 kg of luggage (including a video projector and a betaplayer) - on a strict 20 kg /pp allowance, tapes that could not be X-Rayed, and oversized banners that had to go through special, fragile / oversize check-in.  It was a miracle we got on the plane in time to get cosy in a 25 seater airplane to Lismore.
Arriving in Lismore we met with Craig, the most hard working and cheeky projectionist we have ever met. We spend our first 4 hours plugging in and hooking up the betaplayer to the cinema system, only to realise that the one we had brought in with us was not capable of playing back the audio-description track.
We went back to the hotel and spent the entire afternoon on the phone trying to locate a betaplayer in the Lismore surroundings. Not a very easy task.  However to our most satisfaction, we did locate a player in Brisbane, and organised it’s shipping to us.
The next morning we got to the cinema early to prepare the information desk, put our banners up around the place, and … just be ready! Adrian from Birch  Carroll and Coyle was awesome helping us get what we needed, chatting with patrons and asking millions of questions about the festival.
Finally the first patrons started arriving, and we filled the cinema with 80 people. It was a very good screening. As The Castle played we were able to realise fully that the AAA film festival had started and the tour was on. It was a wonderful feeling.
Louise Alston, Director of feature film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, drove from Brisbane to meet us, and introduced and answered many questions from the audience in the Saturday afternoon screening.
Our Auslan interpreter Dave came with Deaf friends who all expressed a genuine satisfaction in the event, and gave us great feedback and valuable positive comments. We talked about their frustration that films in cinemas are not captioned and how rare it can be for them to go out to the movies. We hope AAAFF will help this cause.
We left Lismore on Sunday morning, satisfied but sad that the first stop of the tour was already over. We were mentally preparing for the drive to Merimbula!
Marianne

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