Hello. It's been an awful while since I last blogged. I'm aware I may have lost all readership by now but I've made the decision to continue blogging for my sanity as a writer, even if it's just for my close friends who I don't spend enough time catching up with to read. I'm making no false promises about regular posts or what is to come for kindlytreasures, I'll just decide as I go along.

Since I last posted my life has changed significantly. I've stepped into the real grown up world of juggling full time work, relationships, house keeping and trying to hold onto my passions. After a complete disaster of planning to move in with my best friend, I now rent my own flat in Sheffield. I'm slowly piecing things together to make it feel like home and now that I've finally installed the internet and re-joined the twenty-first century I can share my progress with anybody who cares to read. My new job requires a 4.30 AM alarm call which is a bit of a shock to the system but I enjoy it and I'm very grateful to all my wonderful new work friends who've welcomed me into their little family. Tired is certainly a feeling that I'm growing accustomed to. Everything seems a little unfamiliar and new right now, but it all seems to be falling into place and so far I think I've made the best decisions that I could have. There are definitely still huge aspects of my life that need sorting out, I have no concept of what the future holds right now, but I think that will come in time, once I've become completely comfortable with the right now.

I'll leave it there for now, with a short update post and a few photographs of my tired face. And don't worry, I haven't turned to heroin however much it may look like it.

Snippets of Instagram Doc/Fest love in no coherent order.

What a blast. I am genuinely blown away by how much I've enjoyed working Doc/Fest this year. Perfect timing to coincide with my frets about which direction my life was heading in, this is the field that I have fallen for. After I've fixed the whole housing situation the plan is to apply like crazy for as many internships as I can get my claws into. Before I get too carried away, here is a little more of a round-up of the rest of my Doc/Fest week:

#daythree

Friday was the first day that I started to feel like part of the furniture, my fantastic little crucible team and I pretty much had the mornings down. I got the absolutely wonderful experience of sitting in on the Channel 4 First Cut Pitch, where five finalists each showed a three minute doc and had a short Q&A with the panel to try to win an array of excellent prizes, including channel 4 commissioning their very own hour slot. Each one of the finalists were incredible, and I'm super excited to see what the joint winners, Clare and Jamie end up directing! Later on that evening I reviewed Peaks, Heart-Ships and Holy Esque for Now Then Mag, which you'll be able to read online next month, so although I didn't get a chance to catch any more events, I did have loads of fun partying at The Bowery.

#dayfour

The day when I met the almighty Walter Murch, who for any of you who don't know has an incredible editing repertoire including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. I chatted to his wife for a little while and gave her some of the adorable personalised cakes that Fancie supplied to the festival, as you can see above. Walter's had his face on them, his wife thought it was quite hilarious. I also later on met Larry Lamb, who is an absolute sweetheart as well as a bit of a silver fox! If only his son had have been there too, swoon. Again I only really got a chance to sit in the sessions that I was stewarding, but they were all so brilliant that I didn't mind at all. 

#dayfive

Sunday, being the final day, was much more quiet as many of the delegates had headed home. It was also quite sad as we had come to the end! I finally got a chance to catch a documentary, and chose to see Basically Johnny Moped, directed by Fred Burns, the son of Captain Sensible. The drummer from the band Dave Berk was there too (fourth photo).  Always exciting to see somebody who has lived the punk dream. Although there were a couple of other documentaries I could have caught I rushed back to doll myself up for the grand finale of the festival - the infamous Volunteers party. Free wine, live music, and loads of chatting to faces you'd seen running about the place all week was the perfect end to a fantastic event. I got totally hammered and ended the evening hanging out with the two guys I'd been working with all week, and my dream boat of a stage manager. 

God, I can't wait for Doc/Fest 21!

Many apologies for the terrifically pixelated and exhausted face

Doc/Fest is well under way now and I'm having so much fun being a part of it, regardless of how shattered I am already. Waking up at 7am this morning with a splitting head ache was a bit of a shock to the system but it does feel quite nice to be doing something productive. Not only have I managed to catch some incredible sessions but I've been speaking to a lot of people in the media field - it's been a fabulous excuse to network and let people know that I'm looking for both job and freelance writing opportunities. Here's a little run down of my first couple of days;

#day1

Although I had every intention of blogging when I got home from my first shift yesterday I really was too tired - the opening events I worked on were absolutely mental and packed out, so I didn't get a chance to see lovely Jarvis, nor catch Pussy Riot. That being said, I could hear the music from The Big Melt and it sounded fantastic. 

#day2

Today has been much more organised and now I actually know what I'm doing it was easy enough to run about and flit between jobs, I've done everything from running mics in Q&As to herding delegates in and out of the theatres. This also meant I got a chance to sit in the sessions and hear some great things about the industry. My favourite session of the day was The Art of The Interview which was all about journalism documentaries - something that is pretty much my life dream. I can't wait to catch up on all of the docs that we got to see snippets of in that class.

Once I'd finished working I also had the pleasure of actually attending The Best of BUG: The Evolution of Music Video which was presented by comedian, radio presenter, and all round genius Adam Buxton. It was absolutely fantastic, I literally cried my eyes out laughing the whole way through, alongside appreciating some really great music videos that were shows, my favourite being the flick for Bonobo - Cirrus created by the brilliant mind of Cyriak, which I'll post below. Its very MC Escher. Anyway, if you get a chance to see this guy, I strongly urge you do, he was brilliant.

Keep your eyes peeled for my posts on the days to come! Probably won't be tomorrow as I have a live review for Now Then to get to after work, but soon my friends, soon.

Doc/Fest

 

Today I start my five day stint of volunteering for the fantastic annual Sheffield Doc/Fest, a celebration of the arts here in the Steel City. This year is set to be absolutely brilliant with a tonne of exciting new films, documentaries and sessions filled with all of the up-and-coming important names in the industry. We're lucky enough to use the volunteer passes to our full advantage and catch as many of the showings as we'd like once we're off shift, so this evening I'll hopefully catch Pussy Riot - A Punk's Prayer after working a very exciting live event, The Big Melt directed by Martin Wallace and Sheffield super star Jarvis Cocker.

Look how exciting it is!

There is so much going on I'm going to spend the rest of my evening drawing up a schedule of what I want to catch for the rest of the week. The media partners this year are the absolutely brilliant Now Then Magazine (not biased, I swear) who have put together a great selection of what they reckon is worth catching:
http://nowthenmagazine.com/issue-63/filmreel/

And of course all of the details and full listings are on the official website:
http://sheffdocfest.com/

I'll keep you up to date with what has been good and bad, and of course the intricate details of the love affair that Jarvis and I will inevitably begin.

I am fighting a post-university melancholia with all of the cherry coke and menthol cigarettes that I can afford in my current monetary predicament. This is the part where things can only get better I believe. Life has certainly taken a sharp turn in an unknown direction and there doesn't seem to be a beginners guide for what-to-do-next in sight. After a couple of days of indulging in self-pity I think its time to give myself a shake and get my act together, starting with tidying this shit-tip of a bedroom that I practically live in. One month until I have to part ways with my adorable little cave, I may as well give it a little spruce and enjoy my luxurious living quarters. I've also decided to teach myself yoga in efforts to fill my wild little mind full of peace, and regain my flexibility. Tidy room, tidy mind - perhaps this evening won't be so bad after all.