ÉCU-The European Independent Film Festival

 by Andrea Armellini

Nobody told me that the night before the Festival I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. I guess I will remember for a while those hours in the night while I was staring at the ceiling with my mind overwhelmed with a mix of concern and excitement.

The months before the Festival I was working at ÉCU as an intern, trying to capture every detail, every lesson; committing everyday to a new challenge. After all my expectations, finally the weekend of the Festival arrived and I don’t deny I was a bit scared, like every time I am facing something new. In a babel of languages, we found ourselves meant to address so many people who came to watch the films in competition, but who were there also to see our work, that results from a strong passion towards cinema and from the independent spirit that belongs to us.

I had the chance to meet experts of the industry from all over the world, and I was fascinated by the friendliness and humbleness they had in approaching us interns, in a very informal way and always ready to accept any of our suggestions. The possibility to chat with people that “make cinema”, for a student of cinema like me is the perfect chance to grow and put into practice what I have studied for years in books.

During the weekend, while running in every direction all around the cinema, while the audience – unaware of everything and cuddled by the darkness of the movie theater – was admiring the films, I could test in first person the fears, the waitings and some of the delusions of those in competition. From the different stories I perceived the willingness and the passion in which, despite the low budgets, filmmakers invested to make their dreams come true.