Toată lumea-mi spune cât de mult semăn cu taică-miu. Nu-i adevărat. De-ar fi așa, aș fi fost și eu ceva mai productiv în perioada asta. Însă dumisale, Horațiu Stamatin, n-a stat degeaba, ci din exilul său oareșcum forțat, din Bogdănești, Vaslui, a publicat două cărți: "Inimă pe partea dreaptă" (de "poezie în proză") și "Niobe" (cel de-al doilea volum dintr-o colecție de eseuri literare eterogene despre Eminescu, Mark Twain, Selma Meerbau Eisinger, Costache Conachi, Lawrence Durell sau Ferlinghetti).

Da, nu semănăm deloc. Eu cred c-ar trebui să se zbată puțin, să urce-n trenul social media, să-și promoveze munca, lui i se pare comic. De aceea dacă vreți să m-ajutați să-i dovedesc cât de cât contrariul și sunteți curioși să citiți munca unui profesor de engleză / poet / eseist devenit agricultor trimiteți-mi un mesaj. M-ar bucura extraordinar să-l bombardăm pe domn profesor cu niște comenzi sosite din senin! 

Covid be damned, Câmpulung Film Fest 5 is on.
Poster by one and only Mélody Boulissière.

Aaand today, in the missed opportunities' news, we continue our 2020 march to God-knows-where with a response from the European Cultural Foundation, in regards to a financing call where I registered the Important Videoshow

Dear Bogdan Stamatin,

Thank you very much for your application for the first open call of the Culture of Solidarity Fund.

We were delighted to see so many strong applications that relate to the call criteria, reinforcing a culture of solidarity in Europe. However, due to the exceptionally high volume of incoming proposals and our limited financial resources we had to make difficult choices. 

We regret to inform you hereby, that your proposal was not selected for a grant in the Culture of Solidarity call. Unfortunately we cannot go into communication about any individual proposal assessments, seen the overwhelming number of applications. We thank you for your understanding.

The hope-fever inducing paragraph follows swiftly:

We would also like to call your attention to the upcoming second submission round of the Culture of Solidarity Fund, which will open on 22 June. You are welcome to resubmit your application or apply with a new project.

Got this in the mail today.

"Bonjour,

J’ai le regret de vous informer que le projet de film de court métrage intitulé L'IRREEL APRES-MIDI DU PÈRE LUCIAN n’a pas été retenu pour être examiné  à la prochaine séance plénière de la commission des aides avant réalisation. Vous recevrez prochainement une notification officielle de ce refus par courrier.

Toutefois, compte tenu du potentiel artistique du projet, le comité de lecture a proposé qu’un réexamen puisse être envisagé après un travail de réécriture du scénario"

It's from the French CNC. It basically translates to "you didn't get the money, but you did get a second chance."

The vast majority of all days in the life of the small-town filmmaker, actually. We lost a funding today, for which hopes were at an all time high. This one would have shifted the project into production, after 4 years of development. We ran against 16 other projects, out of which at least two were feature films (the ones to win top 2 spots), and came out at no 6.

There's talk of a new call later in the year, for which we can compete again. In a couple of days, new hopes will spring once more. Until then, it's one of those days.