This year tickets collection

This year, I went to 11 movies and a lecture. Seven different venues, lots of running around (late and denied entry to one screening), and even more fun in the process. If you’re wondering how I get tickets and how I chose the movies, check my post about 5 Myths of Berlinale here.

I’m not sure I’ve said this before. What’s always great about watching a movie in Berlinale is when you get to be in the same room with the director / actors / crews. Not (just) because of bragging rights, but most importantly when you applaud in the end, you really feel like you’re showing them your appreciation. How much you love their work and really thankful for them producing such amazing movies! So, thank you!!

My impressions of the movies weren’t meant to be a critique, it was just thoughts I have after the movie and how I remembered them.

Competition Section

Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) – D: Wong Kai Wai, C: Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen

It’s a very beautiful piece of art, which makes up for the so so storyline. It’s a delight to see on a big screen and there are a couple of scenes that really stood out in my mind. During the fights, when instead of zooming in on the fight, the movie would zoom in on the effect of the fight on the surroundings. Like how it affects a certain water drop, etc. Very beautiful. Also I love Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. Great choice to start the Berlinale.

Before Midnight – D: Richard Linklater, C: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

I love this series. Every 9 years they came out with a new movie following the life of the two main character, Jesse and Céline. The first one, Before Sunrise (1995), was the innocent, magical love story. Before Sunset (2004) was more of the realist, sort of sick of romance, and now comes Before Midnight. I don’t have kids, so sometimes I don’t get the jokes, but my friend who does, thinks it’s really spot on. It’s really a funny and honest movie about love and relationship and everything else going on in the world. So rare to see a good movie like this one. No action, just talking. I’m totally recommending this, even if it’s not your usual cup of tea… because it’s best of its kind.

Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza (An Episode in the life of an Iron Picker) – D: Danis Tanovic, C: Senada Almanovic, Nazif Mujic

If you read my experience with pickpockets and angels in Paris, you know why I’m skeptical with Roma families. I knew I was being unfair and I wanted to have another perspective on them, and I thought the theme of this film would be good for that. I am really glad I went to see it! It such a sweet simple movie about this family who can’t afford the wife’s surgery. (spoiler: I said sweet because it has a happy ending). It’s very honest and real with all its problems and the love between all of them. Somehow it felt like you were invited into their house and experience their day to day life. You can’t help but love them too. Just because people didn’t show their love like you do, doesn’t mean they don’t love you!

This movie happens to win two Berlinale awards, the Silver Bear, as well! Nazif Mujic won best actor (Silver Bear) and the movie won Jury Grand Prix award. Recommended!

Panorama Section

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard – D: Simon Klose

It’s a documentary about the Pirate Bay founders, how they hold themselves against the court proceedings. It gives me a different perspective on their way of thinking and what was actually going on. The founders were not bad people. All they wanted to do was to make a platform where it’s easy for people to share files. This is my point of view: I don’t like to steal either, but isn’t there something wrong when those people convicted as the thief was living a modest life and the people they steal from rides in Mercedes and live in Millions of euros mansions? Does anyone really realize that the artist only get a tiny fraction of money compared to the middle man?

This documentary is also available on YouTube for free. Here it is:

If you would like to support the film makers and applaud them for their great work, please go to www.tpbafk.tv.

Something in the Way – D: Teddy Soeriaatmadja, C: Reza Rahadian, Ratu Felisha, Verdi Solaiman

I went to see this without expectations. I just wanted to support Indonesian filmmakers. I was really pleasantly surprised. The story itself isn’t that unique, it’s basically follows a guy-falls-in-love-with-a-girl-and-do-everything-to-get-her plot. The interesting thing about it is the contrasting view of the guy’s porn addiction and his daytime moral values, which happens to be a very religious one. What I like most is how it’s portraying the problem. I could feel that in Indonesia, people tends to lead a dual life somehow (at least I did). On the surface they are maintaining “good” moral values, and behind it, who knows. And it’s a constant battle between them.

The movie tends to be very candid with all the sex scenes, which is pretty cool for an Indonesian film. Also, I get to shake hands with the director and the casts. Hee… job well done guys!

(To be continued…)

Tickets queue at Potsdamer Arkaden

Another year of Berlinale, another great time with the festival. Intense two weeks as usual. Organizing which movies I wanted to see, getting the tickets, running around town to get to the venues. It’s one of the reasons why I love living in Berlin!

This is my 5th time doing the Berlinale. (Yeah, I didn’t realize it’s been that long either… I just keep track from the bags.) I realized this year, there are some myths going around about this festival, which is kind of too bad because I think it’s a festival for all the movie goers in Berlin. So if you’ve been putting off it because of these myths, I hope you’ll rethink it next year!

1. It’s impossible to get tickets to Berlinale.

It could be hard, but it’s not impossible. Just like any other great events that needs tickets. Online tickets are almost impossible to get, that’s true (unless you’re used to this process of knowing exactly when to click buy). But luckily in Berlinale there are allocations of amounts for tickets sold on each venues. So, when one sold out, the others might still be available. Here’s how you can get them:

• Online through www.berlinale.de. Toughest one to get, most convenient because you can just be in your pyjamas/office/warmth of a building. Extra 1.5 € charge per ticket.
• Queuing at the pre-sale booth. Most chance to get one, depending on the day, you could queue up to 3-4 hours. It’s also a fun chance to bond with other movie goers (usually pensioners). If you really wanted a certain ticket, be there at least 1-2 hours before the booth opens (10am). There’s no extra charge per ticket, might be worth thinking if you’re getting more than 10 tickets.
• Go to an eventim booth, usually called Konzertkasse and the likes. They have a limited allocation of tickets too. No lines, and usually still available after the other two options are sold out. They charge 2 € per ticket, and an extra 1-1.5 € for going at a person in a booth. Which is why I always avoid this option when possible.
• At the cinema on the day of showing. If it’s a sold out movie, make sure you get there as early as possible. They do seem to have another different allocation for this, so there’s still hope.
• Especially nearing the end of Berlinale, you could also find people selling their tickets. Most of them are actually selling it at a normal price. Usually they just realized they had conflicting time schedule or a friend of theirs cancelled out.

2. There are only arthouse movies.

Not true. There are plenty of great storytelling going on here. While it is true that it is not usually a place for big bang no brainer Hollywood blockbusters, that doesn’t mean the filmmakers are less great and entertaining. Also it gave me a certain satisfaction when I could actually see the filmmakers on stage, answering your questions. It made me root for the movie even more. Or perhaps getting a signed poster of the movie!

3. It’s overwhelming to look through the program.

Of course it is. There are around 400 movies showing this year, and to be honest I also never read all the programs. I know I run the risk of missing a couple of great movies, but we all only have limited time and resources . Some of my tips are:

• Berlinale movies are divided into sections. Every section has their own characteristics, for instance, the Generation would be movies for the younger audience from 4-17 years old. Usually there’s lots of fun movies there from all over the world. If you’re into the high profile ones, definitely check out the Competition section. Or documentary, and so on.
• Go through countries section. I’m always interested in movies from Southeast Asia or Japan, because it’s quite rare to find them in local cinemas. I also somehow tend to like Italian, Swedish, and Norwegian movies, so I could just go and filter by country.
• Or if you have only a certain time you can go, then look for the timetable and which movies are available for the time slot.
• Do register and make use of their time planner. It’s a very useful tool for planning your schedule. And remember to allocate time running from one venue to another.
• If you’re indecisive, you can also go to the Publikumpreise section where they will show a winning movie from the festival.

4. Languages are only in French/English/German.

As you see from my note before, this is actually a great place to find film from all over the world. As an Indonesian living in Berlin, I always love to see Indonesian movies and how the audience perceived them. There’s always nuances that you think was normal and people would see it as very bizarre. Also if you don’t speak German, don’t worry, there’s a lot of movies with English subs as well. Do look for the subtitle notes though!

5. Everyone dies in the end.

While there is a saying that you haven’t really been to Berlinale if you haven’t seen a truly depressing movie there, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. True, Berlin in February is a great backdrop for such things, but if you do a bit of research on the synopsis, you could definitely avoid it.

Again, the Generation section is full of delightful stuff. Trust your instinct, if you like the synopsis and the pictures, go for it. Sometimes if you’re unlucky and still get to such movie, just enjoy it, at least you’ve been to a true Berlinale movie. Besides, we are all going to die in the end. If it doesn’t justify the ending, then it’s the storyteller’s fault .

Signed movie poster by the director, Saschka Unseld. Thank you <3

Sometimes in life, you’re lucky enough to stumble upon a sign, a small token which made you realized how much you’ve changed. A book is a perfect small token, something unchanged by time, and yet, I, the reader, might change.

The first time I read this book, in 2007, I was simply unmoved. I remembered being fascinated by the story of the zoo animals, but nothing more. I was bored the minute Pi was in the water. I didn’t really get the “magical” part of the adventure (I still didn’t get that much of it now, but I like the book in a different way, so it’s perfectly alright).

This time, I found something about it. Something that resonates with me. Not so much about the mood I was in when I was reading the book, but more of my standing point. I like Pi more. I like how observant he is with the zoo animals, and I love how he would embrace religions without judging them. In a story where the main character is so dominant, I found I have to love them in order to want to read the whole book.

The Review: Life of Pi – Yann Martel
There are many ways to describe the story. Some said it was a proof of finding God, restoring the faith to God, some said it was a magical journey. I chose to view it as a survival adventure, and a very compelling and colorful one at that.

Pi Patel, the main character, was an unusual boy. He was the second son of a zoo owner, an avid observer of animals, and someone who was fascinated by God and religion (in fact, he took up three at once: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam).

The story started in Pondicherry, India, giving a lush description of the fragrant life there. It was all good until one day the father decided they were to move to Canada, along with some animals on a big cargo ship. We all know what happened. On a stormy night, the ship sank. Leaving Pi as the only human on a lifeboat.

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This part down you might not want to read if you haven’t read the book. It’s not much of a spoiler, because we already know what happened anyways, but you might want to have your opinion first before reading mine.
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If this book had a main character of a straight forward, rational, National Geographic-y adventurer, then it wouldn’t be half as interesting. But we’re talking about a boy who was used to so many colors, smells, and people. The sea was vast, food and water were scarce, and his only company was a bengal tiger. (PS: I absolutely love the part where he discovered the joy of Norwegian biscuits )

The interesting part was, Pi was never mentioned as a storyteller, a fiction writer. So when he told his story of survival, you would believe him. Until the end, when he told another version of the story. A more realistic one, perhaps, because it consisted humans rather than animals. Then you’d wonder if Pi had made it up all along. True, he was not a writer. But on the other hand, he loves religious, metaphorical stories. So, was it possible? That all of his journey, the creatures he encountered and the survival was also metaphorical?

I guess, for me, that was why I like this book a whole lot more this time around. The vagueness with a hint on reality of it made it a more compelling story after I chose to see it as it is. It is a great journey. And sometimes, in order to make life more interesting, you just need to add a tiger so you would focus on the more important things instead of worrying about that small tore in your clothes.

Would I recommend this book? Wholeheartedly yes. Unless you’re looking for romance, because there’s absolutely none in here. Also I have a hunch the movie would be even better than the book (which is rare). I’ll be looking forward to it in the next days!

The ideal writing setting. Nice view of passers-by, a cup of warm beverage, and a working machine.

November is over, you basked in post-glow in crossing a big thing off your checklist. And now what?

First up, I’d like to share my experience writing on the iPad. This year I completely did the NaNoWriMo on the iPad. Turned out to be a really great tool for the first drafts and here’s why:

• It’s light (around 1 kg with the external keyboard), so it doesn’t break my back. My back has enough strain from sitting around doing computer work all day, this doesn’t have to add up to it.
• The battery lasts forever… at least a whole working day, which would be around 8-10 hours.
• Less procrastinating. Because… well you know, iPad can’t multitask so you really felt it when switching windows. In this case: It’s perfect.

Convinced yet? Now in order to write comfortably on the iPad, I would need a real keyboard.

What I have is a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. It is quite pricey, but it’s a very good keyboard (one of the most comfortable one I’ve used – and I’m picky). Also it doubled as an iPad cover and stand. It also looks very pretty and well designed to fit with the iPad. Totally recommending this one.

And then, of course it would not be possible without the apps on top of it. Being a software geek, I tested a handful of them, and here are the ones I used in November:

1. Dropbox. This is very important for me. Cannot stress enough of BACKING UP your work. Things could get broken, stolen, or just plain not working anymore. Plus if you syncing things with Dropbox, you could continue writing on your phone for those 15 minutes window waiting for someone or sitting on the train.
2. PlainText. It’s my favorite writing tool, also on the iPhone. It’s not fancy but it works wonderfully. It syncs with Dropbox, you can work completely offline, the display type is perfect. You can have a full screen or a split screen where you can see your file list on the folder you’re in, in alphabetical order (very important for my workflow!)
3. iA Writer. Also a good writing tool, it also syncs with Dropbox but you can’t access the Dropbox files when you’re offline (it accessed Dropbox directly vs creating a local storage). It sorted out files based on last modified, not really ideal for me. But one thing I love about it was when I don’t have the keyboard on. iA Writer provided extra symbols on top of the virtual keyboard which made typing stories easier.
4. Google Drive. I need to mention this just in case you would like to have something with some fancier text capability. Bold, italics, change of fonts, etc. It’s free, sync with Google Drive (which has a free 5GB storage). The only downside is you can’t work offline. Dealbreaker, but good enough for viewing your synopsis, for example, as you can view saved documents offline.

Those are the tools I used for November. Is it enough to produce a real novel? I have yet to see that, but it’s definitely enough to chug out 50.000 words.

Because, yes, I MADE IT THROUGH NANOWRIMO!

Astrid (1) : Excuses (0).

Which brought me to the second point: What have I learned from it this time around?

• I can’t work full time and write a 50k novel. There are people who can do this, but I’m not one of them. I could finish this one because I have one week off and dedicated myself to writing 5k a day for 6 days in a row.
• Writing a full synopsis before the month helped A LOT. I could ask my friends for opinions and possible plot holes are visible. Yes, things could change along the way, but the “no plot no problem” attitude would just not work for me.
• My comfortable working pace, setting aside 1-2 h a day for writing, would be between 500-1000 words a day. And I need a break without feeling guilty on the weekend.
• NaNoWriMo is also good to just write different possibilities of a scene (they all counted as word count!) and just write down the expansion of the synopsis. I do a lot of telling this way, but it’s okay, work on that on the next iteration (I hope).
• Having friends who cheered you up is great, but sometimes having someone who constantly bragging about their word count is not. I always felt like I’m lagging behind (which I am). But the point is, everyone has their own pace, stick to yours, don’t compare yourself with others.
• I always tend to write half of the novel on the last week. I accepted that now, I see it as my brain needed to simmer the idea before throwing it up on the last days.
• My NaNoWriMo drafts were never going to be near readable to anyone. It’s also okay. As long as I would keep working on it (which was the part I failed miserably in the past years… this will change this year, I have plans, people!)

I am perfect for being myself.

When I posted about being imperfect, my husband’s comment was this “It is great, but I think you should also do a blog post about being perfect.”

I cocked my head towards him, dismissing his remarks, simply believing it would not make sense to do that. First, I thought it would be easier than admitting about my own imperfection. Second, it would be quite obvious, wouldn’t it? Especially given that I actually have some narcissistic tendencies.

But then, as I gave it more thoughts, I realized that it’s actually much harder. Much much harder.

Why? Partially because I am afraid that people would think I’m bragging, or even worse, delusional. In my native land, we were thought to be modest. There was a saying we should behave like good rice crops. The more rice you have, the lower you bowed (a.k.a. keep your head down and be humble). Or this proverb: The empty cans sound the loudest. Only the stupid talks loudly and brag about themselves. So in a way it felt like it’s more forbidden to actually say good things about yourself.

Would this actually make you feel like you’re inadequate? I’m starting to feel like that, even though I know l shouldn’t.

Deep inside, I do believe we are all perfect beings. Perfectly perfect in our own imperfections. Every traits we have is a blessing, and every perfection has its imperfections (which made it perfect). So why is it easier to write about your imperfection but I felt like I needed the permission to say things I am perfect in? Shouldn’t be like that, should it?

With that in mind, I took a deep breath, be brave, and share my perfections here. I am owning up to it as a way for me to be thankful for it. I will try not to give excuses for my perfection, just admitting and accepting it as they are. I really hope it will inspire you to admit your own perfection.

• I am smart. My IQ is somewhat above average (last time when I got it tested). I’m your typical nerd who’d rather solve puzzles, read, or do a math homework rather than playing balls outdoor. PS: my absolute favorite subject in school is math .
• I am creative and I am always overflowing with ideas. When I couldn’t do a project it’s not because I’m running out of ideas, but it’s because I’m already bored with it.
• I am the sunshine type. I inspire people around me.
• I am open minded. I tend to accept people as they are (my imperfection is: only if they also except me for who I am).
• I can eat whatever I want and I have never had a problem with my weight. That being said, I do make an conscious choice to eat healthy things and I am mostly vegetarian.
• I am healthy and I do sports regularly, between 2 – 4 times a week.
• I am easily inspired and touched whenever I heard a story about people who went after their dreams. Their stories always make my day.
• It takes so little to make me smile when I’m down. A promise of cake, a warm hug, a smile, or simply a “you go girl!” encouragement.
• I have a great taste in food, design, and fashion.
• I dare to follow my bliss. Be it being a writer, a freelancer, or doing my own projects. Even if sometimes my bliss confused me.
• I’m a good gamer and could earn myself a high score in sudoku, minesweeper, killing several guards, or a racing game.
• I am confident in how I look and how I carry myself around people.
• I am easy going when it comes to making friends.
• I am adventurous and I would probably try everything at least once, especially if you could provide a good reason for me to do so.
• When I know what I want, I am always going for it. Yeah, I got rejections and failures too but it’s better than regret!
• I can drive and park as good as any other people other there. (I think driving skills should not be divided by gender!)
• I love myself truly and I am awesome like that! I am a believer of you should love yourself first before you could have anyone loves you.
• I am funny (sometimes) and I am easily amused like a little child (yes, I still laugh out loud at fart jokes)
• I don’t really grow up at heart. I love being a child, keeping my enthusiasm in life, in learning new things, and could easily forget the pain of yesterday and move on.
• I could easily see the good in everyone.
• I have no sleeping problems. (Yes, maybe sometimes, but 99% of the time I’m an easy sleeper).

There’s my list. I promised myself I’m going to make it at least as long as my imperfection list. I hope you will feel perfect too when you do the list! What are your perfections?