Covering the #CPH:DOX – one of the spring fests to respond to #COVID-19# by moving online rather than cancel or postpone – remotely from several time zones away proved a surprising respite from the global #coronavirus chaos. Not only was I able to tune in to fascinating virtual talks (see Edward Snowden) at all hours of the day, and discover nonfiction gems (via the online CPH:MARKET, the most abundantly stocked market I’d seen in weeks) – but I was able to do it all from the comfort of home in my pajamas (and sans jet lag).
Of course, there’s the disappointment of not being able to binge on #cinema in a vibrant international city in a country with an actual functioning government. But if there’s one thing viewing so many foreign docs over the years has taught me, that’s a #First World# letdown. I’m not fearing the health crisis unfolding from inside a #refugee camp in the #Middle East#, nor from behind the bars of a US prison. I’m in a place with abundant sunshine, early spring weather and – now shed of its street-clogging tourists – plenty of space to move about safely outside.
Of course, there’s the disappointment of not being able to binge on #cinema in a vibrant international city in a country with an actual functioning government.
This isn’t to say there aren’t steep downsides to covering a festival while social distancing – most acutely laid bare by the emotional loss of offline, face-to-face connection. (That and the fact that I seem to get sucked into watching way too many films – evidenced by my recently awaking from a dream with the immediate thought, «that ending didn’t work»). I’ve long been aware that the in-person fest is a viral transmission hotspot – I used to half-joke that skipping last November’s #IDFA also meant missing my annual IDFA cold – but it’s also an idea transmission hotspot. Sure, some of that can be replicated online through digital conferences and debates (which CPH:DOX excelled at this year), but a lot occurs in spaces that require the human touch. Coffee with a colleague you haven’t seen in a year, who just happens to mention a work-in-progress he’s producing about a mind-blowing subject you weren’t aware even existed. Meeting a director whose doc you most definitely weren’t planning on checking out, but since she’s so fascinating you do – and it turns out to be the hidden find of the fest. (And then there’s the XR experience – which, unfortunately, cannot always be translated to a virtual fest.) In other words, I’ve also developed a newfound appreciation for the power of happy accidents. And for all the human desires no giant #tech company will ever be able to fulfill.
*Excerpted from an article that was originally published on documentary.org, the website of the International Documentary Association, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles.
