GlobalGirls at the Sundance Film Festival!

Below is a blog post written by Lungis, one of our GlobalGirl reporters in South Africa, about her experiences reporting at the Sundance Film Festival this year:

I really didn’t know that Father Christmas issued out gifts after the festive season, well, at least to me he did.

Father Christmas visited me on the 17th of January 2011 on a rainy Monday to give me a gift I never expected .He brought a white paper scripted with lots of dates and numbers and told me that I should use it .I was puzzled in thoughts because I had never seen one and never knew how it worked but that soon had to change. He kept on telling me how essential it was to use it because it would open my mind to a world full of possibilities. Despite that he even mentioned this, I didn’t know how to react and that’s when he said…”I will meet you there.”

That was it! My journey had begun. It changed my whole perspective on life.

I know my entire introduction to the article seems to appear as a fairytale, and in actual sense it is.I am a young girl from Soweto who has been blessed with remarkable gifts that no one will ever replace .I was selected from all the extraordinary 20 young ladies from the South African Globalgirl media organization to represent them at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah,Salt lake City .

I was amazed at a lot of things. Firstly, being in an airplane for a mere 24hours without a guardian, then arriving in a country that was bitterly cold and just covered in snow. Secondly, meeting different people that an interest in sharing ideas with me about the film industry, then interviewing some of them.Thirdly, visiting another state which was serene ,where I got exposed to the manner in which American learners live and think .Fourthly, I had the misfortune of introducing myself to various people that I had to help to pronounce my name “L-U-N-G-I-L-E” Lastly, I was amazed at the things I can do!

The first day I arrived at the Sundance Film festival along with Jessica another globalgirl reporter from Los Angeles , we were introduced to Tiffany Schlian the director of a movie titled connected who we later interviewed .It was not long after we interviewed other illustrious people like: the director of Miss representation Jennifer Newsom , Lynn H Leesom the director of Women art revolution and …wait for it !wait for it!...the Sundance man himself Mr. Robert Redford .He outdone himself with his presence filled with humor and whisked me with his remarkable way of answering ,and yet I had reached my peak of happiness ,I was quickly rushed by my superviser to another room to interview Danny Glover a well actor, activist ,director ,producer and father. He made my experience worthwhile in a sense that what ever would happen after, was worthless.

Certainly, I was wrong to estimate other interviews to be worthless hence I met a whole lot of people that really changed my perspective on life just like what Father Christmas said .I was dazzled that I managed to interview Amy Goodman ,the most hardcore female journalist that still exists on Earth with just one mistake in the 15minutes allocated to speak to her.

It had soon been time to pack my bags and prepare to go to California. When I arrived there it was definitely the place I needed after the alarming , cold whether .It was sunny and evoked the naturalist side to me.

When I was there, I visited the Loyola Marymount university which rather looked more of a 5 star hotel than a school. I envied the manner in which Americans study and how they are exposed to education. The classes were allocated for 18 people which rather astonished me as South African classes range from 50 to 200 students in a lecture.

Jack Bloom the classclown made my experience fun at Hamilton High School where I had visited to see the differences and similarities of students in America and my country with his charm of entertaining the class with jokes and some two group of students who I dismally tried to solve something for them. Julia was trying to explain something to some guy and I came to her rescue .The whole argument was based on “how can it be better if it was never good.“All the kids were harassing her and I helped her win the argument with my SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION .I told them that she was right because in the rules of degrees of comparison,things start of good than better than become best.“ In South Africa what do you guys eat?”, “What kind of clothes do you wear ?”, ”Do you guys have sports?”, ”Do you listen to the same music as we do ?”.I stood in front of a class of grade 9s to basically summaries all the questions to the conclusion that South Africa is the same as America just with a lot of things to improve.

While I was there I noticed that things are really different .Firstly ,they get education for free. There are over 3000 learners in one school(talk about hectic)and they don’t seem to care .Most learners use their cellphones like its essential or never seem to in content with the topic.On the other hand ,it was interesting to see that learners could leave the classroom without notifying the teachers{I wish my school was like that}.

It was a wonderful experience being apart of the change. I am truly greatful to Father Christmas in this case being Global Girl Media for giving me this opportunity . Even though people will still want to bring me down I can choose to let them but in doing so they will never take the memories I cherised in America.

Ho HO hO …Father Christmas still issues gifts after the festive season.