IFC report wednesday september 3

"She woke up and felt terrible."

...a possible first sentence of a feature, offered during an exercise assigned to the group attending Ljubo Pauzin and Chris Brooke's informative, provocative and yes, also entertaining NARRATION workshop.

But also perhaps an accurate description for one half of this year's conference participants, after the excellent feast in the sky last night, at the top of the CN Tower. The wine flowed, as the restaurant slowly rotated around the tower through the sunset and well into the evening. Now to be fair (and accurate)let's give the other half its due too - "He woke up and felt terrible".

Onward. With feet squarely on the ground, slowly everyone came back to life this morning... To hear about tragedy, conflict and miracles. From recordings of live disaster scenes (the hindenburg explosion and lost miners in nova scotia) in the narration workshop to the features listened to throughout the day - [with the morning programs exploring the Israeli/Palestinian situation (If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem from Ireland) and coping with loss and memory (Spring in Zagreb, 2002 from Finland)and then the afternoon's Ake Blomstrom selections offering glimpses into natural healing methods (Diagnosis: MS from Austria and a spiritual quest in India (Even Miracles from Canada) to Rene Farabet's selected "Classic" - 'Foreigner in Denmark', by Niels Peter Juel Larsen - which, in addition to discussing cultural and familial issues faced by Turkish immigrants living now in Denmark, also put forth the startling (to some) sounds of blood pouring from a lamb's throat, and very succintly spoke to the week's discussions about the use of narration in the feature.

Ljubo also asked a question at the beginning of his and Chris's workshop:
What exists for a story before the first sentence is written? In other words, what is brought to the story's genesis?? A good question to ask in a different context: What are the stories/experiences that IFC attendees bring to the conference each year?
This question is answered over the course of the week - in the sessions and at the coffee breaks and over shared lunches and dinners, sustaining one of the richest aspects of the IFC experience - the connections made with new/old radio friends and colleagues, in the midst of so many lessons learned and ideas generated and beautiful sounds heard by so many ears.

Year after year after year...such energy from planners, organizers and participants.
"By the end of the day (and many liters of water later) she felt much better."

Rgds,

Julie Shapiro

Third Coast International Audio Festival

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