this is what i do

i finished my internship on my birthday. i enjoy this fact. and i'm relishing the way it changes my engagement with Duluth street, one of my favorite streets in montreal, and also, incidentally, the street i took to work every morning. i can walk east now, toward the park, without the dread of work and awkward colleague interactions. i'm still "implicated" in the organization, though. strange thing: having finished my formal internship, i'm now able to fulfill some of the projects i proposed but which were never accepted. last week i traveled to Trois-Rivieres to visit one of the movement's cells. i came to present films from montreal and to "solidify the network" (thus exchanging information, checking in to see how they're doing, informing them of our projects and our new artistic direction, etc. etc.). involved was yours truly on stage, in her best (or worst) french accent, fielding questions about the films and about my government's involvement in Israel and Iraq. these were the good times. but literally, the good times. it finally felt right, the internship. and this project (the first of hopefully 4 before i leave in may) redeemed all the uninspired days of lethargy and boredom at the office.


to further root myself in the Canadian film scene, I've been working at the Festival International de Film sur l'Art (the International Festival of Films on Art), which has involved a lot of free films and free wine and black pants. and happily, pleasant interactions and new friends. today i saw a film on the music scene in Tehran, Iran, which struggles under the censorship and filtering and judgment of the Department of Culture. tonight i worked a special event involving a film on homo-erotic nude art and a cocktail hour following at the opening of an exposition on some of the art seen in the film. next week, the tone will change, as i'll begin my duties at Vues d'Afrique, an African film festival. and hopefully, i'll have some time to write. and to sled on the fresh snow (all 15 inches of it!).

today my father and sister left, after spending 5 days in montreal with me. they came with gifts from lincoln (such as the package of pig-in-a-blanket, banana bread, and freezer-section pillsbury cherry turnovers [how did they survive the flight?] sent from my grandmother) and a distaste for the lingering winter. and so we ate, and then we ate again, and then at noon we ate again, and then again at dinner. mostly we ate. and walked. and then bronwyn and i snuggled. we like that.