Day two of the Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) proper, and it hasn't gotten better. In fact, it's gone from bad to worse. To begin with: today, there was supposed to be an opening (starting at 15 hr, or 3 PM) of "Cinema City", three installations by artists from India. But when i got there, nothing; instead, the lobby of the Kino Arsenal seemed to become a lounge for film industry people, more specifically, buyers.

I waited around, and i was supposed to meet people from the Center, but... no one showed up (and i waited for 40 minutes) so i left. However, i did run into Stephen Kent Jusick, who has been running MIX for the last few years. Turns out my horror story about the Berlin Film Festival is not unusual: he also had a horrible run-in, and he just got here!

I'm so relieved! Berlin IS a horrible city! The Berlin Film Festival IS a horror story! It's not just me!

Stephen and Matthew Fox (from London) were telling me that their "film festival" badges get them into... nothing. You have to get tickets, no matter what. And most of the tickets at their official "home" are available a day in advance, and are mostly gone.

So what's the use?

However, i did go to the Akademie der Kunste on Wednesday night, to see the opening of the exhibition "Traces the Sand Left In the Machine", a series of installations by: Christian Giroux an d Daniel Young ("50 Light Fixtures From Home Depot"), Angela Melitopoulos and Maurizio Lazzarate ("Assemblages"), Brigitte Kuster ("Entkolonisierung"), Joao Maria Gusmao and Pedro Paiva ("Tarciso (seeries of 3)/Atom") and James Benning ("Tulare Road"). Oddly enough, Robert Koehler just wrote about this show (he's here in Berlin for the festival) on Doug Cummings' film journey blogsite.

Yesterday, i tried to get to the Hamburger Bahnhof for the opening of the Heinz Emigholz exhibit, but, as usual, i got the directions from Googlemaps, but once i got off the Ubahn, i went in the wrong direction; when i retraced my steps... it was so cold and it was snowing, and i decided to just get back on the Ubahn and go back home.

But tonight, it's the DAAD Galerie and Galerie Barbara Weiss, and if i miss those, i'm really in bad shape, because (according to the maps) they're about two blocks away from the Veneklasen Werner Gallery, and i know how to get there!