Mid-Term Report-Part 1

I just had to complete my midterm report for the US government grant I am receiving that allows me to live in Romania. This grant is essentially providing me with nine months of complete freedom to do whatever I want. Yes, the project I wrote the grant for is to make a documentary film. But there is no firm deadline, no required presentation of an end product. There is no accountability to speak of, except to oneself. So theoretically, I could lie around on the couch for nine months watching the Hallmark Channel. I could just lock my nice camera in the wood veneer armoire in my bedroom, put my jammies on, drag the bedcovers out to the living room, and settle in for the winter. I could eat chocolate until my teeth all fell out and I went into a diabetic coma. But since these are your taxpayer dollars, I feel like that just wouldn't be right.

I reported, in my mid-term report, that I had in fact completed pre-production, was well into production, was logging and transcribing tapes. I indicated that I was adjusting well socially and culturally and that I had enough money to cover the basics but not enough to hire a professional crew. I reported that the U.S. Embassy Staff and Commission facilitators were extremely helpful and accessible. But a mid-term report one makes for a granting organization is of course different from the one you make for your friends. So using the same categories provided by the official report, here is the Unofficial Midterm Report for Amynescu, Halfbright Grantee to Romania in Filmmaking.

I. Application and Pre-Application Process
As my close friends know, I really struggled with the decision about whether to take the grant this year. It's a long application process, and if it weren't for Sorinescu and my desire to learn his native language and do a project together in Romania, I probably wouldn't have applied in the first place. The application itself is a pain; it takes a long time and requires a huge amount of supporting materials (letters of recommendation, work samples, transcripts, letters of invitation from host country expressing interest in your project.) To be honest, I was kind of hoping I wouldn't get it! I had just moved to California, was rather liking it there, and was enjoying not being a student anymore. And after finishing my expensive thesis film, I was ready to work for a while--earn some money and work on other people's projects. I felt a bit burned out on being a film school graduate student, running on the engine of my own creativity with limited funding. I wanted to hang out around the "industry," figure out how people get more substantial financing, and let my next project idea gestate. I was enjoying going to film festivals and screenings and renting documentaries on Netflix. But then I got the grant, and Sorinescu got into graduate school at MIT in Boston, and so a move was imminent either way, whether it was to Los Angeles (without Sorinescu), Boston (with Sorinescu), or Romania (with Sorinescu for half the time). Being offered a grant like this is hard to refuse. I love to travel, I love being in Europe, I loved Romania when I had been there before. Nine months of total freedom to be creative and learn another language? How can you pass that up? Lots of people said that to me, and it's a good point. But I have to say that in the core of my being, I felt like I was being offered a big hunk of chocolate cake after a rich six-course meal (of free time and creativity, i.e., graduate school) and being the sugar fiend I am, I didn't want to turn it down. The problem is, the Halfbright isn't something you can wrap up and take home for later. You either eat it then and there or they give it to someone else.

So, the grant itself has been a lovely and generous treat that has made me feel rather nauseous. I highly recommend to anyone who is longing to move to another country to do their own project to apply for this grant. It's wonderful under the right circumstances, despite the fact that the health insurance sucks. But here are my two pearls of wisdom for the day:

1) Only you know what is best for you, even if everyone else thinks you're crazy. One person's delicious desert is another person's recipe for a diabetic coma. Listen to your intuition.
2) Assuming you didn't listen to your intuition, try to make the best of it anyway.

I'm working on #2. I'll follow up with the next section of my mid-term report in the following post.