When I arrived at the Hyatt Regency at 10am Thursday morning to register for Filmapalooza (that was the official name) I found that I had no reservation, nor had the Hyatt ever heard of a Mr. David Zwolenski (can you believe it-). I quickly double checked to make sure I was actually in the right New Mexico, just in case there were several (don't laugh, there's 3 Las Vegas'), and as it turned out they simply had not booked me a room. An easy mistake, but one that would turn into a great opportunity, for not having a room meant that I would stay with the organisers of the festival for the first night, then be switched to my own suite for the next two nights. Thus began a beautiful relationship between myself and the group who had organised Filmapalooza. People who were genuinely in love with their jobs and in love with film. I felt like Maculay Culkin at the end of Home Alone when he's finally found his family and they're all together in the hotel room with the cold snow coming down outside and his brother Buzz hugs him. There was no snow, or Buzz to hug, but it was cold outside and one guy was called Ben, that's kinda like Buzz

The first night was the meet and greet at the local bar where we were dazzled with free food and beer. On the agenda was Karaoke, which would have intimidated me slightly if it had not dawned on me to change Louis Armstrong's, 'What a wonderful World' into 'What a wonderful Albuquerque'. Needless to say it was a major hit and they're considering changing the Anthem to that.

This first night I met three French film makers, J.C., Christelle and Oliviet, the only other team that had travelled from another Country to be at Filmapalooza. Surprisingly, I found that I had an instant connection with this French mob. Perhaps it was our foreign identity that brought us together, perhaps it was a similar sense of humour, or perhaps it was the fact that I could make bad jokes and they would just assume it was a language thing. In any case, it was these 3 people that turned my trip from interesting and fun, to amazing and unforgettable.

The next few days involved workshops where film festival organisers, film makers, producers and directors would sit at the front of a room and discuss their business and how they manage to keep it running. Some people discussed the process of creating low-budget effects. Others spoke about what it takes to organise, promote and run a film festival. Film makers would discuss their process of making a 48 hour film, which ranged from procedural, documented and controlled processes to getting drunk on wine and eating pizza while watching westerns (the French guys). The underlying factor shone through was dedication, passion and street smarts, without all three of these I failed to see how any film venture would take off.

The icing on the proverbial New Mexican cake was the filmmakers Olympics which included such sports as Trivia Challenge, The Writer's Event and The 100m Filmshoot. Combining forces with the French team, we took the U.S. teams by storm, but were discriminated against due to our sporting prowess and natural artistic ability, much like the Jews were during their Olympics. We failed to win, but succeeded to not lose in our hearts.

The one event which outshone all others at this festival however was discussion time with Mr. Alexander Payne. This guy has directed 4 feature films, all of which received either academy award nominations or won academy awards. The four films are: Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt and Sideways. He has also recently been involved in a short film project alongside a selection of other influential directors in a new film called Paris Je T'aime. Payne discussed why he does what he does, which is to write, cast, direct and edit a film. Basically he's a purist filmmaker who would be considered independent if not for the fact that his films are backed by huge production companies. A guy whose passion for filmmaking goes so deep that he was living life as a student on no money and with very few friends who weren't engaged or getting married until he was 35, just so he could keep making his films (sound familiar anyone- Anyone- No, just me, ok then, we'll continue) It was when he finally got recognised for a short film he entered into Sundance film festival that he was able to secure his name as a thought provoking and original filmmaker and continue to create beautiful cinematic masterpieces that are cleverly crafted and, best of all, entirely his own. This guy was just so cool too. I mean when someone in the audience asked him how he resolves on-set issues, in the case when perhaps people are arguing with him over the way a certain shot should be taken or the dialogue should go, he answered “how can I put this delicately- (pause) Nobody fucks with me”. How cool is that- It was Alexander Payne who convinced me that the life we lead is one that should not be wasted on considering, worrying and being too shy to attempt the things we love to do, but instead continue to do those things that make us happy, for in the end that's all we ever had.

When awards night came upon us I truly had forgotten that we had come to Albuquerque to compete against one another. The camaraderie that the filmmakers shared was far greater than any trophy or award that could have been won. As you can guess, we didn't win anything and this is purely my justification for our unfulfilled dreams, but honestly, at this point it really didn't matter.  I had found something that I didn't need to carry home in my bag, I was happy, and that's a lot more than I had expected from 4 days in New Mexico.

Thanks Crumpler. Thanks PFTC. Thanks Mike, my co-writer and director.