Day 1 – Sat., Jan 30

ROTTERDAM — It’s my first time attending the Rotterdam Film Festival, and I’m here with the Producers Lab through Telefilm Canada. For four intense days folks from all over the world spend their time in pre-scheduled, one-on-one meetings, with the goal of securing coproducers and sales for their current projects.

It’s akin to an international film camp — full of speed-matching sessions, pitching, panels and roundtables.

I arrive at 11 a.m. and head to the festival’s home base, De Doelen, to pick up my accreditation. (I also rent a bicycle — the bike lanes in Rotterdam are brilliant!) I attend a ‘big talk’ event with François Ozon and he talks about his process and casting and the inspirations for his latest film, Le refuge.

I take a ride around the city and notice Peter Mettler’s name on Rotterdam posters alongside Tsai Ming-Liang (Madame Butterfly) and Harmony Korine (Trash Humpers). Cool! For years, Peter (Gambling, Gods and LSD) has told me that Rotterdam is a ‘filmmaker’s festival’ — intimate, informal and down-to-earth. Sounds good to me.

Day 2 – Sun., Jan. 31

Jetlagged, I arrive at the 10 a.m. lab session. We have two minutes to meet each other: ‘Hello, where are you from? Background? First time in Rotterdam?’ Canada, Hungary, Sweden, France, Mexico, Israel, Venezuela, Zambia, U.S.A., Kenya and more. Over half of the attendees are women. We’re all passionate about making good films and we’re all trying to figure out how to survive and prosper in this volatile market.

Next we have a pitch training session with Binger Filmlab’s director, Ido Abram. We practice our ‘cocktail party pitch,’ ‘formal meeting pitch’ and ‘public forum pitch.’

(As I write these words, Harmony Korine is walking by me. We are making eye contact right now. He smiles and so do I.)

After the pitch session, we head to a cocktail reception jam-packed with sales agents, festival programmers, filmmakers, distributors, commissioning editors and producers. It’s like a fantastic buffet. Last year, I attended many festivals and markets with Only and Nurse.Fighter.Boy, so some of the faces are familiar, which makes everything easier.

The highlight is reconnecting with sales agent Pascale Ramonda, who gives me a pink postcard bearing the Louise Bourgeois quote, ‘Art is a guaranty of sanity.’

Day 3 – Mon., Feb. 1

No time for breakfast. The morning session is a discussion about digital distribution with Content Republic founder Teun Hilte. Lots of insightful and practical information is shared. (Check out www.contentrepublic.com.) Then we have several roundtable talks with sales agents. My group meets with Fortissimo, Films Boutique and Coproduction Office. We ask about trends, fee structures, strategies and stories of recent successes and failures.

I am told straight out that, internationally, English-Canadian films are lumped with American films. So, the incentive for a foreign distributor to take an English-Canadian film has got to be greater than taking the latest Gus Van Sant or Coen Brothers movie, because it’s all ‘indie-American to them.’ (Of course French Canada is another story.)

All right. This news is nothing new. All we can do is make the films we can’t live without making, and give everything we’ve got to getting them seen.

Innovative ways of financing and distribution are taking shape all over the world every day. Last week a friend e-mailed me about a film called I’m Not Harry Jenson. She saw it in New Zealand and thought of me. Turns out it was produced by my fellow lab attendee Tom Hern, who came up with a very inclusive marketing campaign. (www.facebook.com/imnotharryjenson)

I head to a screening of Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist’s feature debut, Pepperminta, and, as I’m waiting in line, I overhear someone say, ‘I take a trip with the hopes of making a film.’ Exactly!

Next stop: Berlinale.

Ingrid Veninger’s first feature Only is screening as part of the Canadian Front Series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, March 17-22. Her second feature Modra has just been completed (www.modrathemovie.com).