Edinburgh Film Festival: Day Four

After last night, I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, before going off to a lunch organised by the festival to hook up British filmmakers and US and British agents. I wasn't really firing on all cylinders, having had about four hours sleep and with the adrenalin from last night now fully exhausted, so I don't think I was the best advocate for myself or the film - one agent said that he'd like to come and see 'Mum & Dad', then said he was worried because he was a bit squeamish and I told him he probably shouldn't then. Not really the best selling technique.

In the afternoon, I went to see Errol Morris's documentary 'Standard Operating Procedure'- his film about the soldiers who took the photos of the torturing and humiliating of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Gharib - which was great - fantastic interviews, beautifully shot and graded - brilliant slow-motion visuals and a real sense of him trying to humanize the people involved. It seems that his attempt to humanize has pissed a few people off (at least judging by the introduction and by some of the questions directed at him afterwards) which I can't really understand. The film clearly points the finger at the people higher up, and makes clear his belief that these people - though not lilywhite or 'innocent' - have been scapegoated by the American government to deflect attention from the themselves. Morris himself seemed to be getting a bit pissed-off during the Q and A session, when it was suggested that he had gone soft on the interviewees. To me, his attempt to humanize these people (who themselves have been villified for the dehumanization of the Iraqi prisoners) makes the film, and I don't think the fim suffers from not interviewing anyone higher up - that seems to be to be another film.

Went to bed early, hoping not to have another anxiety dream like last night, when my nightmare - about the second screening of the film - included the entire audience walking out to go and see Morrissey and my executive producers cutting bits of 'Mum & Dad' into episodes of 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch'. I don't even want to think which part of my brain all this is coming from.