Carrie Villeneuve

The night before the Vancouver International Film Festival officially started, I met my fest friend Shannon for beer at Cafe Crepe, which has become our fest meeting place because it's right across from Granville 7 and the beer is cheap. Every year, we dogear our catalogues to make our lists of movies we want to see, and find any movies in common so we might see one or two together. My list always includes movies from countries I've been to, like Thailand (Nymph) and Australia (My Year Without Sex), subjects I don't get to see often and love, like music and dance (Pop Star on Ice and Only When I Dance), and genres I don't watch otherwise, like film shorts (Yield).

We avoid looking at the film schedule until the end of the second pitcher because the majority of movies gets only two screenings, a few get three, and our lists quickly change from what-we-want-to-see to what-can-we-get-to? during the next 16 days. Neither one of us has ever seen all the movies on our first lists, but it feels good to start with a plan.