Ânûû-rû Âboro Festival – 1
Xiaoping and I are now in New Caledonia at Ânûû-rû Âboro film Festival.
After a 5 hour crowded bus ride from Nouméa north and across the mountains – I am the only whitefella and seemingly the only English speaker – I arrive at Poindimié this afternoon in drizzling rain.
The bus drops me at the rather salubrious Festival hotel on the beach – Tiéti Tera.
Xiaoping (who arrived 3 days ago) and I are sharing a small but pleasant room – the last time we shared a room was at the Maningrida Community accommodation in Arnhem Land.
They say they will move us to a bigger bungalow tomorrow, so we hope they do!
The screening of OCHRE AND INK goes very well in Bayes (Nägèè) village tonight under a big community shelter in the pouring rain! The audience love it, and ask some perceptive questions.
It is quite a contrast to the state-of-the-art projection at the new cinema XXI in Bali last week!
Here it is in the open air, people sitting on mats and screening from DVD. Luckily the French subtitles can’t be drowned out by the loud rain!
After the screening we use our festival currency to buy food cooked by the people in the village – local fish, prawns, veggies, fruit etc; and then chat in broken Frenglish with audience members as we dine together.
But it is unseasonably wet & cold!! Hope it warms up in the next few days so we can get to enjoy the pool and the ocean…
