Aspiring film-maker Zeina Durra is showing her NYU film thesis, The Seventh Dog, as part of this year's Edinburgh Film Festival. We asked her to do a blog post about the experience:
When I got the invitation to show my film at Edinburgh, I didn't open the email for two days, assuming it was a rejection. My film is a black comedy which tries to portray the poignant - sometimes funny, sometimes tragic - truths about Arabs living in New York City after 9/11.
I've had difficulty getting the film shown in the US, so I called them to check that they hadn't made a mistake. But the festival assured me they wanted it. Overjoyed, I briefly thought about moving to Scotland and writing in a hut in the Highlands.
So, three months on, here I am in Edinburgh, my film playing as part of the Liberty's Century programme, a part of the festival dedicated to "questioning George W Bush's notion that 'this young century will be liberty's century'".
At the first industry screening (9am), one person turned up - and promptly vomited (the opening party was the night before). But since she actually bothered to show, she's now my festival buddy. I felt sick too. I persuaded myself that this is a way of empathising with Cassavetes.
In comparison, the second screening was a hit. The cinema was packed. The capacity in Filmhouse 2 is about 100 (Filmhouse 3, which fits about 15 people, can be a little depressing - you've gone without food for a year to get your 35mm print and then it's shown on a screen the size of a large TV). Beforehand I stalked the cafe, dragging innocents along, swearing to them that they would be able to say they had caught my earlier work when I was unknown.
I had mixed feelings about my third screening, last Sunday. My parents and two friends came. My mother, full of pride, counted the audience. The headcount came to 38; the cinema fits a little more. Yet they laughed at all the right places. They were 38, but a receptive 38. The next day I got an email from a kind person who thanked me for making an "incredible film". I was immediately suspicious: fanmail or just male fan?
Yesterday evening ended nicely. I was psychoanalysed by a director who said exactly what my tarot card reader says about me (naturally she's never wrong). This was followed by an intense discussion about Claire Denis' new film over chips into the early hours of the morning.
So, now that my screenings are over, I can relax a little - except for recommending, of course, that people see my film at the videotech. Myself, I'm going back to New York knowing that 123 people (minus those I forced, and not including family or friends) saw my film.
