Filmmakers to Love: Caroline Martel (Phantom of the Operator)
I first saw The Phantom of the Operator at a 2005 screening during the (now apparently defunkt?) Brooklyn Underground Film Festival. I was a volunteer promoter/usher, full of heady film festival love vibes.
Question: How does one make friends and connections in a new city?
Answer: Volunteer at film festivals. Do not sit in your room and eat sour patch kids. That does not work.
Largely in part because of Phantom, that was probably one of the best experiences I ever had at a fest, and I hope that B.U.F.F returns again… perhaps better than ever? *crosses fingers*
Caroline Martel was present for a Q&A after the screening, and she graciously answered my questions and signed the poster I had stolen off of a wall in the Brooklyn Lyceum (a great place to hold any event, fyi).
Her documentary on the roles of women behind emerging technologies of the 20th century was like a personal harbinger of my interest and involvement in the increasing democratization of the media.
…Since that fateful day, every once in a while, I google Ms. Martel in the hopes that I discover another one of her beautiful creations is screening someplace close to me.
<3