1000 Journals Documentary

Once the Cubix ushers had cut-off the overtime Q+A's and herded us out of the cinema, quite a few people stayed in the lobby to see more of the journals we brought. Among them was Frank, a writer for the iheartberlin blog, who took pictures, and then posted a story in the blog, in German, and English. He sent me an email the next day with the link. Frank has a great eye: he photographed random pages in Journal 987, and along with Tracy Moore's and Seelenbücher's entry, ended up posting the page LindA Zacks created while Ralph and I were filming her in Brooklyn, March 2006. That day marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship, and collaboration on the animated title sequence... I heart LindA!

Sunshine and blue skies, 10 degrees centigrade (50F), people sitting in street cafes or walking around with ice-cream, that's the new Berlin in February. Our house at twelve noon was packed. This was our first screening to an audience of non-English speakers, our first outside of Los Angeles, our third ever. Dieter Kosslick, the Berlinale director, introduced the films and the new screening slot we were inaugurating: the Sunday Matinee. A short film (Bruce Weber's Wine and Cupcakes), followed by the feature. Dieter's charming and loving welcome, and Bruce Weber's shots of Central Park in the Fall, helped me settle in my seat and relax and enjoy those two hours that mean so much to me, and I felt profoundly happy: Ralph and Nic on my side, Louise in the row behind, four journals in the audience, and most wonderfully, several of our German interview subjects who had traveled to Berlin: Elfy from Cologne, and Eva, Chris, Gerald and Heiner from Braunschweig. If only Someguy could have made it, too…

Elfy and her Berlin friend, Gerald and Heiner, Chris, and Louise...

... and Eva with Journal 878.

There are many more photos but so little time right now in between the screenings... Just this: it went really well!