PechaKucha v15 celebrated Motion Pictures on February 6th 2015. The talks were by several members of Florida’s thriving film and video community as well as lovers of the medium. I had sketched a rehearsal which allowed me to promote the event. On the evening of the performances, I decided to focus my attention on the speakers as they were waiting for their turn behind the microphone. Having given a PechaKucha talk myself, I know how nerve wracking that wait can be. I’m just glad to have survived.
PechaKucha, means chit chat in Japanese, and it has become a global phenomenon. Presenters can show 2O Power Point slides but they can only speak for 20 seconds for each slide. There is no stopping, no going back, the slides run automatically and you need to keep up. The result is concise fast paced and entertaining presentations that are never boring.
While doing this sketch, I bumped into Mackensey Moor and her mom Carolyn. Carolyn had been a presenter the evening I gave my talk at PechaKucha. She presented a heart felt moving story of love found and then tragically lost. She found strength in helping others. It was a hard talk to follow since every time I heard the story I would get choked up. It is so easy to get distracted when you first stand in front of a sea of faces. I spotted Mack and froze that evening, because I recognized her from Carolyn’s slides. It took me a moment to slip back into presentation mode. Anyway Mack is an artist herself so I’m always happy to talk about art with her. They had seats front and center and as I was finishing my sketch, Mackenzey told me she had to leave and she offered me her seat.
I squeezed down the isle, sat down and had a blast since Carolyn whooped and hollered with a childish joy during a very funny PechaKuche presentation. An arbitrary series of Power Point slides had been assembled and people were pulled from the audience to improvise a presentation based on the 20 Movie scenes. I’ve never laughed so hard. I don’t know if it was the presentation, or Carolyn’s magnificently outrageous reactions that made me laugh. Regardless it was fun to finally experience PechaKucha from the audience rather from the sidelines.
