We had a wonderful time at Full Frame 2010 two weeks ago. We saw more than 20 movies including some absolutely brilliant ones.

It really felt like a mini-vacation. On Saturday the first movie we saw started at 10.00 am and the last one ended around midnight.

John and Jane
Man Push Cart -- not a bad film, but very annoying that a fiction film made it into the programming. Sure, it says in the booklet but it has no place on Full Frame.

Here's a list of movies we saw on Saturday:

• Born Sweet -- a 15-year boy with arsenic poisoning which finds joy in karoake singing and becomes famous through his hobby.
• Today is Better than Two Tomorrows -- two boys in Laos are good friends. One of them is sent to become a monk and the two split up. Sweet movie.
• Book of Miri -- a short documentary about a girl in Sweden who was adopted and is looking for her identity. I wasn't crazy about it; Sasha loved it and apparently so did the jury because it won an award.
• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee -- a second movie about adoption. Forty years ago Cha Jung Hee, the filmmaker, was adopted from South Korea. Everybody called her Cha Jung Hee, but she knew that that wasn't her real name. A social worked had swapped the girl. The movie maker goes to South Korea to find the real Cha Jung Hee. Wonderful movie.
• Stonewall Uprising -- description and reconstruction of the riots around the Stonewall bar in New York City, which started the gay rights movement in 1969. Interesting.
• 12th & Delaware -- on an intersection in Florida an abortion clinic and a pro-live pregnancy center are located on opposite sides of the street. Very intense documentary.
• The Sixth Section -- fun, short movie about Mexican immigrants in New York City who fund projects in their hometown.
• H-2 Worker -- older documentary about guests workers from Jamaica in Florida. Not bad, but we would have preferred to watch a more recent documentary instead.

On Sunday we saw 5 short documentaries, which was great:

After the winners were announced we went to see two of them:

• The Poot -- gorgeous short on how tapestries are made in Iran.
• Surviving Hitler: A Love Story -- stunning movie about a love story in Germany during World War II, with great footage and a beautiful interview.
• Maria's Way
• Notes on the Other
• Photograph of Jesus
• Seltzer Works -- the last setlzer factory in New York City. Short, interesting, beautiful camera work and a great topic.

The festival was well organized, as always. Last year the economic situation impacted the festival, but sales this year were strong, according to the executive director. The only downside was that the curated series wasn't very good. We saw several of the curated selections and didn't really enjoy them, except for The Sixth Section.

American filmmaker Michael Bauch fell in love with the Dutch bicycling lifestyle. His movie Riding Bikes with the Dutch, created while he lived in Amsterdam for a while, premieres May 9 at the Bicycle Film Festival in Long Beach, California.

Riding Bikes with the Dutch compares the bicycling culture of Holland with the car-centered lifestyle in Southern California and provides a twist of optimism in the urban seaside location of Long Beach, California. Amsterdam streetscapes and bicycle parking structures; Los Angeles freeways and Long Beach bike paths serve as scenic backdrop for the filmmaker’s dream to create more livable communities here in the United States.

Bike riding was a favorite activity for Michael Bauch, a Long Beach resident and independent filmmaker, who noticed that many of his local errands involved short rides which were less than three miles. After installing a simple basket, Bauch’s bicycle was now equipped for runs to the grocery store, bank and post office, and cross-town meetings. Integrating the bike into his everyday life seemed effortless and often quicker than taking a car, fighting traffic congestion and finding a place to park.

"A bike is the ultimate multi-task tool. Get your local errands done, your exercise, and do your share for the environment all in one fell swoop. I didn't understand why my neighbors weren’t integrating them into their everyday lives," said Michael Bauch. "In the U.S., bicycles are perceived either as high-performance sports machines, toys for children, or a last resort. This cultural perception intrigued me as it was in direct contrast to the values shared by my family living in Europe who use bikes as daily transport—and one of my inspirations for this project."

Living in Amsterdam

An early short documentary entitled Amsterdam: the Bicycling Capital of Europe captivated him to further the endeavor. In the fall of 2007, Bauch together with his wife and 7-month old son exchanged their home in Long Beach, California for a canal-apartment near the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam. The experience allowed the filmmaker to live and film on location in the picturesque bike-filled city.

Bauch: "The first time I stepped off the train in Amsterdam I was literally speechless. As soon as I set foot on the ground I was almost run over by a mob of bikes. I turned to look up and to my amazement there was a 3 level structure dedicated to just parking bicycles. Everyone from three years old to 93 seemed to be tooling around the city on two wheels. This was too much to take in with just my own eyes. I needed to share this with everyone I could and this is why I made my film: Riding Bikes with the Dutch."

Riding Bikes with the Dutch
May 9, 2010 at the Bicycle Film Festival, Long Beach, CA
http://www.everydaybike.com
Trailer of the film (YouTube)

Jaap is stuck in Scotland. He was supposed to travel back home today but because of the volcano he won't make it.

A co-worker was planning to leave back to Europe yesterday, but he'll have to stay here the weekend.

A strange event, a volcano eruption.

The Royal Dutch Embassy announced today that votes for the Dutch parliamentary election can now also be sent to Washington D.C., instead of only to The Hague, the Netherlands.

Votes need to be received by the Dutch Embassy before June 9, 3.00 pm EST.

This is important for Dutch citizens in the United States who plan to participate via mail. Due to the short time between receiving the ballot and the deadline for it to be returned there was a significant chance that votes would not make it to the Netherlands on time.

As we wrote earlier registration is required for voting.

Full Frame Festival 2010 started today and we just came back from the first three movies. The opening movie of the festival was phenomenal: "16 chefs, 3 days, 1 chance" -- Kings of Pastry.

This documentary showed the intense examination in France to become a M.O.F. in pastry making. Very funny, beautifully made -- absolutely recommended.

The New Orleans newspaper Times-Picayune writes today about the Dutch Dialogues, conversations about water management in New Orleans.

The Dutch Dialogues workshops are interactions between Dutch experts and their Louisiana counterparts that started in March 2008; this is the third workshop in the series. David Waggonner, a local New Orleans architect, initiated the dialogues with the support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC and the American Planning Association.

When Dutch planners and designers came to New Orleans for the first time their initial reaction was “Where is the water and why is it hidden?”. The philosophy of the dialogues;

South Louisiana, like the Netherlands, must adapt to the threats inherent to living in a subsiding delta. This is not an either/or proposition -- it is an ordering principle. Safety First” is the key organizing water management principle in the Netherlands. History repeatedly shows the folly of living in a delta: disasters are common there. To ignore, however, the water’s magic – the unique, abundant opportunities that can and should be exploited for economic, societal and cultural gain —is equally foolhardy

“Living with the water” has recently become an ordering, corollary principle of Dutch policy. Dutch Dialogues participants believe that adapting a Living with the Water principle is necessary in post-Katrina New Orleans; they likewise reject the false choice posited by those who see only a choice between safety or amenity from water in the Louisiana delta. Indeed, Dutch Dialogues posits that both safety and amenity from water are crucial to a future in which New Orleans is robust, vibrant and secure.

This Sunday there will be a public presentation by the project in New Orleans. More information is available at http://dutchdialogues.com. (Source: Royal Netherlands Embassy).

(Image courtesy Waggonner & Ball Architects).

The weather here is just outstanding. Sunny, very warm -- it's summer. Not spring, summer.

A few weeks ago I bought an extra electrical burner and I finally got to use it. The burner allows me to cook on our small balcony. It's great!

I made an Dutch Indonesian meal with krupuk and telor ketjap (stir fried boiled eggs) -- wonderful dishes but very smelly. I cooked it all outdoors and it worked perfectly. The meal was well received.