Shanghai

Ah, its not what you think:

I'm going to do things a little backwards here, and start with the film that won our "Best in Fest" award, The Reverie by Natalie James, a high school senior at the Shanghai American School Pudong campus. Maybe I'm reading into it, but her video seems to capture that "stranger in a strange land" feeling that comes with expat life. Moreover, what strikes me is the way that feeling is built almost entirely through subtextual camera shots and editing.

The excitement of having a new material to work with is nowhere more evident than when kids get to build their first snowman.  Now, imagine what happens when a city that rarely sees snow and almost never gets any accumulation suddenly gets a good coating?   Well, yes.   It is *very* hard to get around, since there isn't a snow shovel in sight, and people are on the streets clearing the snow with regular shovels and brooms.