Yesterday was the NaVloPoMo screening in Brighton, as organised by my housemate Beth. NaVloPoMo was a project by a group of videobloggers who aimed to post a video for every day in November 2007. The screening showed a selection of these videos, featuring participants from around the world.
Events like this have a beautiful combination of intimacy and distance. A room in Brighton has about 40 people watching videos made by about 40 people around the world, some showing intimate glimpses into their lives. The films ranged from experimental shorts to video diaries to people talking to camera to… Afterwards people had an opportunity to chat to some of the filmmakers over a drink and I got to talk to some interesting people.
Among my favourite shorts:
The night before I’d been dreaming about listening to the sea with shells. Sitting next to Ruth and I at the screening was a woman with a bag of shells. She’d bought them at the beach, as she said she collected them. I listened to the shell she had, but it was the wrong shape to hear the sea clearly.