COVID Dystopia screened at the Cordillera International Film Festival in Reno Nevada, on September 27, 2024 in the 10:30 PM, Music Video Party Film Block at the Greater Nevada Baseball Field (250 Evans Avenue). For me this was a solid day of watching independent films. By the time the music video party started my butt hurt. There were a few booth seating tables around the edge of the room and I snagged one of those to rest by butt to watch COVID Dystopia.
There were a lot of short films in this film block. When it came time for the question and answer session there were about 10 film makers standing in front of the screen. There was still an image projected on the screen when we got up there so we were blinded by the light. I remember the woman standing next to me had a blue bar projected across her face which looked a bit menacing. I had my baseball hat on to block the light.
When asked about how my film came to be, I gave my usual answer of how I started doing a painting a day starting the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I pointed out that we are coming down off the 9th wave of the pandemic which peaked in August 2024 and was twice a severe as the early waves in 2020.The very idea that the pandemic is not over drew blank stares. It isn’t my job to preach but to entertain.
Paul Sloop the shorts programmer asked us all what our favorite music video of all time was. Most of the other filmmakers were kids and I had no idea what they were talking about when they answered. When my turn rolled around, I blurted out that I was from the MTV generation and loved Thriller with Michael Jackson. The room erupted with laughter. Then the woman next to me followed up with the fact that she saw Thriller as a child and it inspired her to start creating. I wish I had caught her name, the introductions slipped by so fast.
Cordillera really is a spectacular film festival. I learned so much from each question and answer session after each film block. So much time, energy, and money, is invested to bring these films to life. I wasn’t great at networking since I had no desire to stand in a tight enclosed room shouting into peoples faces. That is pre-pandemic behavior that makes no sense to me today. After the screening I went outside and sat in the cool open air and took my mask off for a bit. One woman approached and we had a lovely conversation. I also spoke with another animator outside and learned about a new animation software called MOJO that I have to look into. Since I am so starved for conversation, every encounter was a delight. I spent an entire year in isolation working on the film. It felt good to be among other who may have been similarly laser beam focused for so long.
There was a stage set up outside and flashing lights, but it was last call at the bar when the films stopped screening. I did have a white wine outside to wind down after the screenings. Any notion of a dance party was a myth. There was some canned music, and I swayed my hips and stretched my legs since I had been sitting all day long in dark movie theaters. My stretching calisthenics may have been the only dancing that happened that night at the dance party.