Live…. from Scotland!

It's Monday and I'm up early for breakfast. The ladies at the B&B are very kind and gracious. I have my usual scrambled eggs and whole-wheat toast or as they say ---brown toast. That's about the most I can eat from their menu given that is filled with meat. Also, something called Black Pudding, which consists of blood from an animal---no need to go into further detail as I'm losing my appetite just thinking about it.

Martin arrives at 9:30am and picks me up to go to the radio station. Somewhere between my 2 pints of Guinness the other night I agreed to a radio interview. I'm fairly relaxed as yesterday was pretty much hanging out at the film festival. It was the film festival's first day and there were quite a few people in attendance considering the Wimbledon's finals for the men's tennis were going on and the finals for the World Cup; a massive event here in Europe.

Martin zips through morning rush hour traffic and points out various landmarks along the way. He also mentions that there was the Orange Walk the day I came to Scotland. It's a walk the Protestants take every year to show their pride for their religion. Unfortunately, there have been riots at these walks as many people are Catholic in the area and it's still a sore subject after 1,000 of years. Basically Protestant represents English. Scottish---Catholic. England has been the bully at school as far as Scotland is concern and would rather do with out them. He was afraid I would get caught up in the march, as they were to march by the tube station where I was to arrive.

He also told me how he came up with the Festival's name, Deep Fried Film Festival. Apparently, Coatsbridge is the "capitol" for heart disease in the world. Everything here is deep-fried. (Much to my dismay and chagrin) Pizza, hamburgers, steak---you name it, it can and mostly likely will be deep-fried. With this in mind, I knew it was going to be a difficult task for a vegetarian to find a meal. Hmm....I may have to load up on some fruit from breakfast possibly for my next meal.

We get to the station within 20 minutes and are greeted by the station manager who offers us tea while we wait. Shortly thereafter, the DJ comes down to greet us. He's very lively, friendly and has a bit of a lilt to his speech; it sounds like a combination of Irish and Scottish. He chats with us for quite a bit before we go on the air about the film festival, what to expect, etc. As we are about to go on the air, there is a certain amount of anticipation, excitement, and fear---as if one is about to step on stage for the first time. I take a deep breath and relax. What is there to be nervous about?

The interview went extremely well. The DJ asked me about my film, the concept, and how I heard about the Deep Fried Film Festival. We must have been on the radio for a good 20-25 minutes, which was fantastic! The radio station has been plugging the film festival for weeks and that is great news. Afterwards, we continued we talk for over an hour! The DJ was very keen on the festival and wished me the best. Many thanks to Martin and 107.9 for having us.

Martin dropped me off and I went and got ready for the film festival. The festival today was playing at Airdrie Hall, a beautiful, majestic place filled with renaissance ornamentation and decorative artwork within the entire building.

I was a bit nervous about screening Getting Lucky. I remembered when I lived in London that the British have a different sense of humor than Americans. I wasn't sure if the Scottish would have a similar sense of humor, so I hoped for the best. As the film began, I heard laughter and chuckles from both men and women --thank goodness! They were really enjoying the film and afterwards there was around of applause for all the films that were screened. Several people came up to me afterwards and told me how much they really enjoyed my film and wanted to talk to me about the film further --how I cam up with the idea, my process, being a woman filmmaker, etc. It was a great evening out!

Afterwards, Duncan, Wilma, and I went back to their flat for a celebratory glass of wine. We had a fantastic time chatting about filmmaking, the various films at the film festival, and chatting about Getting Lucky. There were many wonderful films at the festival and it was lovely to see such a wide selection of films and several different countries being represented. Wilma put in a pizza (sans the deep fried) and we had a nice late dinner. We continue to joke, have a laugh, talk about filmmaking, and learn more about each other's cultures. Great friends, great conversations and lots of laughter. It was a perfect way to end a perfect evening.