Life Lately: Covering the 68th Berlinale

So the past couple of weeks have been manic at the very least. There was just no way I could update this space even though I miss it a lot. What really kept me busy was covering the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. Yes, The Berlinale for short. Here’s a loooong rambling post about how that coverage went for me.

I’m no film expert or critic and I never claimed to be one. Heck, if someone asks me what’s a really good movie I’ve seen lately, I would probably say The Greatest Showman. And no, I’m not embarrassed to say that at all. I’m still listening to the songs over and over and singing along.

Have you seen Spots?

Nevertheless, with my background in Foreign Affairs (which ended up being quite helpful!) and Lifestyle journalism in tow, I found myself getting really excited to cover the Berlinale as a major entertainment event.

Before anything else, here’s my output

I wrote about the opening film, Isle of Dogs, which you can read about here. The Philippines had an entry to the main competition. I made a video report for it which you can watch here. I also wrote about my interview with the Philippines’ Film Development Council head. You can read about it in this link. And, there’s one more article coming up and I will update this space once it goes up.

Our friend Lee found this candid photo of us while waiting for the Ang Panahon ng Halimaw red carpet event. (To the person who took this, please message me so I can credit you! 🙂 )

Covering the Berlinale was definitely fun and quite different from what I’m used to when I was in Manila covering briefings at our Foreign Ministry and later some lifestyle events. It was even more different from my freelance stints in Kuala Lumpur where I was doing mostly interviews for profiles and when I was attending beauty events as a blogger. I was so spoiled back there, I guess. Staying true to the ‘German way’ of doing everything by yourself, I had to figure out the accreditation process. Starting from scratch is always hard work when we move. But it’s always a challenge I love to take as it always leads me to learning new things and meeting interesting people.

For the Berlinale, it was Victoria who runs the blog The British Berliner. While researching about the Berlinale and feeling like a lost puppy, I found her blog where she has a beginner’s guide to the festival. (Click here for her updated version of that post, in case you want to start preparing for next year)

Looking rather frazzled after the ‘Isle of Dogs’ press conference, but really happy!

Ah, just what I needed. I proceeded to stalk and befriend her on Twitter like a creep because hello – it’s 2018. And if people can start dating because of an app, why not meet a friend to cover an event with, right? We did hit it off pretty well, I must say. And while I don’t mind watching movies by my lonesome, it’s even more fun when you’re with a friend.

Journalists also have inner fan girls

I don’t call myself an official fan of Mr Anderson. I haven’t seen every single film of his. Although I do love The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Royal Tenenbaums. Everytime someone makes a joke about how much I love pastel for our home, I always say it’s because I feel like I’m starring in a Wes Anderson film.

Needless to say, I was quite excited to see the guy. But the one person I was there for? The one I knew I had to see and would probably leave me starstruck (something that rarely happens)?

It was Tilda Swinton.

Why? Because she’s pure perfection. I only found out she was coming during the big press conference the organisers had before the festival. It was in German though I managed to catch enough information and I was able to get the list of who’s coming. When I saw her name, I literally freaked. Well, quietly. I have a reputation to uphold in a room full of fellow press. I don’t want to be ‘that’ crazy woman.

Come opening day, I knew I had to see her. Victoria and I went for the press screening for Isle of Dogs at 11am. The press conference was at 1pm, giving us little time to run from the Berlinale Palast to the press centre at the Grand Hyatt.

But we were up for the challenge.

Re-learning to ‘blag’ my way into things

The movie was something I really enjoyed. Stop motion is one (if not the) hardest forms of animation and Anderson does it so well. By the time the movie ended, we had about half an hour till the press conference so we made our way back to the Hyatt which was right across the Palast. It was still a bit of a walk though, with that red carpet set up.

When we arrived at the venue for the press conference, they were letting people in in small numbers. The room was getting full. Eeep. When we were up next, the woman apologised and said there were already too many people inside. My face fell. I don’t want to watch the press conference through the monitor outside but I didn’t say anything. 🙁 The woman beside me went ‘my colleagues are already inside!’ and she was allowed to go in.

It was a lie, obviously. I could hear it in her voice. And I was just stunned there, thinking that old me (who worked as a TV reporter) wouldn’t have taken no for an answer. I even got into a closed-door hearing for a politician accused of corruption once! This diplomat’s wife gig Alvin put me up for is killing the resourceful journalist in me. Good thing Victoria was thinking on her feet. When the woman guarding the line looked away, she dragged me inside.

It wasn’t that full. It’s just that the seats were already taken and we had to stand on the sides. Victoria later told me that German standards for ‘full’ is pretty different from what we’re used to. So, we made our way to the far end of the room where we could blend in with the crowd and still get a good view. On our way to that corner, I found the journalist who lied to get in and she was indeed alone. That was enough to keep me from feeling guilty.

The press conference was something I only used to see on TV. Being in there was really one for the books. While I was there at the back, I saw journalists posing for photos with Tilda Swinton. I would have killed for one but alas, I was too far away. At the end of the press conference, we were able to go up front to take closer photos of the cast and at one point, I was two feet away from her. I opened my mouth to ask for a photo but it was too noisy and my voice wasn’t coming out right.

Damn it. It was a photo I wanted to send to my dad!

On the way to lunch, we saw that there were a lot of people gathering on the side of the Hyatt. Lo and behold, Wes Anderson was still there, taking photos with fans and signing autographs.

I quickly snapped a photo with him and with fumbled for a piece of paper. There was no time to rummage through my backpack for one so I handed him a piece of tissue I was holding and told him to sign it for my friend Sarah.

He did.

And now, my friend Sarah (who’s a really big fan of Wes Anderson but couldn’t come for the Berlinale because of her exams outside Berlin) owes me some Taiwanese Milk Tea.

The Red Carpet Event

It was -3 that day but I thought I’d check it out. Why not? I’ve never been to one! Maybe I can ask stars of the opening film a thing or two. Maybe I’ll get a second chance with Tilda Swinton, maybe not.

Huddled with the other members of the press, I found myself near a local TV reporter who had his own producer on the red carpet, bringing the actors toward him for a chat.

Lucky lucky! I befriended the producer and told her I would love to ask Tilda Swinton a question and she said she will try. She succeeded, by the way. I could have kissed her.

The German reporter asked her about #MeToo.

Reporter: What do you think of the #MeToo movement? It’s the most important thing right now.
TS: It’s important but it’s not the most important.
Reporter: But it’s the biggest thing!
TS: Is it? We’re turning people away who have no homes. Let’s have a bit of perspective here.

Did I already mention how much I love her?

An Australian reporter magically appeared between me and the German TV reporter and started asking her questions. Oh no. What if she runs out of time and needs to leave? The reporter was asking so many questions. But my favourite bit was:

Reporter: What makes Isle of Dogs different?
TS: You obviously haven’t seen it yet.

She proceeds to laugh and gives her an answer about the movie being an animation. I love her humour. The reporter wouldn’t let her go and ends up asking some of the questions I had on my list too. I was running out of things to ask. But when she finished, I called “Ms Swinton” and asked if I can ask her two things.

Me: You’ve worked quite a lot with Wes Anderson. What makes your relatio-your working relationship special? (Yes, I was stuttering. It was starting to snow!)
TS: He’s a friend and it’s always a good thing to work with your friends.

And she was smiling. So I knew I had to grab my one and only chance. “I’m really sorry about this and normally, I won’t even ask during a busy time like this. But I’m a big fan of yours. Can I ask for a photo?”

Ta-da!

After the first day, however, I had to take a break from covering the Berlinale as our friend Anne was visiting from Geneva. Bea, who’s also from our foreign ministry visited Berlin as well and celebrated her birthday here. Thanks for inviting me, Bea! 🙂

I didn’t get to see Robert Pattinson’s Damsel and Emily Mortimer on The Bookshop as they were premiering during that weekend and all their press conferences happened before/right after their premieres. Don’t care much about Rob except he would have made a story that would make an editor or two of mine happy with the views it will get.

Emily Mortimer, who I loved in The Newsroom, was someone I really wanted to ask questions to. But it’s not everyday Anne and Bea are in Berlin and it was so much fun getting to hang out with them. I’ll just catch The Bookshop once it comes out on theatres for regular screenings.

‘Ang Panahon ng Halimaw’

As mentioned earlier, we had an entry to the main competition! Made me so proud as a Filipino, really.

It’s a rock opera where actors sang acapella directed by Lav Diaz. A four-hour movie (much shorter than its director’s previous film at the Berlinale which ran for eight hours) set in the 70s back when the Philippines was under martial law.

Piolo Pascual and Shaina Magdayao played the lead roles. At first, I had my doubts whether Shaina can play her part well as she was never known for her singing. I think her performance was one of the movie’s pleasant surprises.

Pinky Amador and Bart Guingona were stellar, as expected. DMs Boongaling, a new actor and my former colleague back when I was working as a reporter for an English news channel in Manila, gave a great performance as one of the bad guys. For a minute or two, I was really hating him even though he’s nice and quite soft-spoken in real life.

I covered the red carpet event for the movie with some friends from ABS-CBN, Orly and Lee and saw some familiar faces. 

Ten points if you spot my husband Alvin feeling all awkward and sporting his “I didn’t think this was part of a diplomat’s job when I signed up for this” face. With him are his colleagues Ms Beth (in the long scarf) and Myls (walking in front of him) and Cathy (who managed to escape being in my frame).

Red carpet events are not their thing but to support the Philippine entry, the embassy went to the event and watched the movie.

For the awards night, the Berlinale organisers invited the embassy again and Alvin and Cathy went together.

No photos from that night though as they’re not the selfie and self-promoting kind of pair. Introverts through and through. I would have wanted a photo of both of them looking so dapper. Also, my husband in a bow-tie is such a rare occurrence. (He’s a neck-tie guy.) But I wasn’t there to push for this as I flew off to Copenhagen to spend the weekend at my dad’s.

What Else Happened?

I was able to catch a Berlinale Shorts screening which featured another Filipino entry called Babylon and the press screening for Norway’s Utøya July 22. The latter easily became one of my favourites of all time. All throughout the movie, I was just seated on the edge of my seat, gnawing on my nails.

The Philippine Embassy also hosted a talk on gender issues in the film industry as well as a lunch for the delegation attending the film festival. I attended those so I could ask questions and bug people for interviews, being quite the pesky reporter that I am.

I also got to go as Alvin’s date for Philippine Night where friends of our film industry as well as those who are actually part of it, got together for some networking and fun. It can be a bit weird changing hats so often. One day, I need to as questions for a story and the next, I’m back to being Alvin’s gracious date to events.

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I would have wanted to see a couple more films but to be honest, the winning film called Touch Me Not wasn’t one of them. It was too weird for my taste. And you all know me, I wouldn’t pretend to like something just to seem artsy or because it won something and everybody is saying it’s good. But I do plan to re-watch Isle of Dogs once it comes out in regular cinemas this May.

That’s all for now, though.

More later!

Love,

Carol