Vanishing Tattoo --
Trip Updates
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Apparently I've lost the ability to sleep. I get up at 5:30am for my interview with Kim. What am I thinking? Am I going to cram for an interview?
Kim Baldwin has already sent me a list of the questions she's going to ask. Apparently the entire interview will take approximately ten minutes and be edited down to one minute. Please, please, oh please God, let there really be 80 million viewers out there who are dying to find out about the history and cultural traditions of tattooing around the world.... I read over the questions for the hundredth time. Not even I can screw this up... 1. State your name and the name (not URL) of your website. 2. Tell us why you started your site. 3. Talk about your favorite section. 4. If there's one thing you hope a person gets (or takes away) from your site, what would that be? This should be a cakewalk, as long as I don't fall face first into the cream pie... The phone rings. It's Kim and we have a terrible connection.... The first words of Kim's that register with me are, "We have a problem, Vince." My brilliant response is something along the lines of "Huh?". "I don't know how to tell you this." Kim continues. "How about by just telling me" I say with the inevitable sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "You have nudity on your website, Vince." I struggle to breathe, "Kim, it's a documentary film about tattooing. You know, ink on skin..." I cannot believe what I'm hearing. "I know, I feel terrible getting you to go to all that way for nothing." Nothing? Nothing, I am screaming to myself. I struggle to remain calm. "What do you mean, for nothing?" "We have a strictly no nudity policy" replies Kim. I can hear the regret in her voice. I can tell she is on my side or maybe that's just desperate wishful thinking on my part. I take a deep breath, "Kim, what about the National Geographic magazine, they've been showing breasts in every elementary school and high school for the last seventy-five years. They're full of breasts!" There's a long pause. "I'll talk to my producer" There is a long silence and I pray for deliverance from this entirely unforeseen dilemma. Kim returns and we agree to do the interview. Kim is on my side. She is totally against censorship. She is, in a word, wonderful. I promise to work with her and our fabulous webmaster, Doug Cook to try and solve the breast problem. I think the interview goes well. I cannot for the life of me remember what I said. Kim later e-mails me and tells me she's thrilled with the result. She thinks it will edit together really well. I am on the verge of collapse yet again. God, I LOVE the film business. At that moment all I can think of is the fact that when I was at the Cannes Film Festival this year, all I saw were wall to wall breasts on the Riviera beaches. And as a devotee of Wreck Beach in Vancouver, BC, Canada, I can't help but wonder what all the fuss is about... Can anybody explain this to me? Vince Hemingson in Kuching |
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