Help Get Nathan To CannesFilmFest



We are fully funded! A lot of people warned me to not get my hopes up on this and they were right to do so. This was very unlikely to be a success but it’s done and I’m going to Cannes on the 14th!

Love you all!

Original Post
—————————————————————————

The "3 Days In Cannes" program is a brand new section of the Cannes Film Festival for young people ages 18-28 who love film. I, Nathan Velasquez, was one of the last to be given a pass for the program. 

If this succeeds, I will be going to the Cannes Film Festival. That has been a dream of mine since I was 14 years old and it has only gotten stronger in time. 

Cannes does not allow the public into the festival, invitation only. This is the first time they allow outsiders or film-lovers into the crowd.

For my application to be accepted is such an honor and, with only 10 days till I have to purchase plane tickets and make a hotel arrangement, I am doing everything I can to raise the $4,000 I need to get to and from the festival and get by with modest housing and meals.

The Cannes Film Festival holds a dear place in my heart, look below to see the letter I wrote for my application. I do not come from wealth and traveling out of the country is not something that can be done easily. If this campaign is successful it will be the first time I travel outside of the Americas. If my love of film can inspire people to share this campaign, that will mean the world to me. If my love of film can inspire someone to donate a couple of dollars to the campaign, that means more than I can put into words. 

If you feel like adding a little bit to the fund and this works, you will be contributing to a life changing experience. 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.


The Letter I Submitted To The Cannes Film Festival
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Reader,

If film is Allah then the Cannes Film Festival is the Mecca. I am a film lover first and a filmmaker second. I hope this letter makes that clear. Richard Ayoade once said that he imagines a young Truffaut must have walked the streets of his hometown humming his favorite songs and pretending to be the protagonist of the film playing in his head. I think of this several times a week because I do the same thing, I think all cinephiles do. I collect soundtracks from films that stand out and they become my soundtrack in life. Right now, Theodorakis’ score for “Z” is my soundtrack and I am listening to it as I write you this letter. My name is Nathan Velasquez and I am twenty two years old.

My father showed my “28 Days Later” at the age of six. We had to turn it off after twenty minutes. It was a shock to my system that I’ve never forgotten. It terrified me so deeply that I was unable to look at our DVD shelf without becoming terrified. At the age of eight, I began reading articles about the movie and watching “The Making Of” videos of the film to build up courage for another viewing. I watched it later that year and “28 Days Later” is still one of my favorite horror movies.

For the next five years, my love of films and filmmaking grew. I began to keep a notebook of each movie I saw, watch behind the scenes docs, listen to director’s commentaries, and recreate scenes from movies that I could remember, The “Lawrence of Arabia” “The Nefud Desert Rescue” scene was the best recreation I ever did.

A “perfect storm” in September of 2009 first made me aware of The Cannes Film Festival. Mark Kermode of the BBC and The Guardian was and still is my favorite living critic. His review of “Inglorious Basterds” mentioned that the film had been “In Competition” for the Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. Other than the Oscars, I hadn’t ever taken notice of film competitions or festivals but “Palme d'Or” stuck with me. I was not sure exactly what it was but I knew that thing is only given to “the greats”.

  In 2011 I was 15 years old, and I knew the importance of Cannes mainly by the award, it’s a symbol of entertainment, high artistry, and pushing the medium of film. “Tree of Life” was half of the straw that broke the camels back in my being a full-blooded cinephile and filmmaker, and since it was such a notorious Cannes winner, in my mind, The Cannes Film Festival was the other half of that straw. I subscribed to every streaming service there was, renewed my library card to get unlimited Criterion films, started reading everything by Pauline Kael, writing screenplays, etc.

  It is now 2018 and I am 22 years old. My favorite film is “2001: A Space Odyssey” and has been for six years. I run Foxtale Productions, a production company, with three of my life long friends. We create films, commercials, write films reviews, and have our own podcast about new film releases. We will be covering the Louisiana International Film Festival and the Overlook Horror Festival this month.

I am writing to you while working as a crew member on the set of the new Tom Hanks film “Greyhound”. Since I heard about this opportunity to attend the 71st Cannes Film Festival this morning and have done nothing but daydream of catching Christopher Nolan’s 70mm mastered print screening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, finding my seat for Godard’s “The Picture Book” or Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”, and seeing a film I’ve yet to hear of by a filmmaker I have yet to discover.

The qualifications for entry are “being aged between 18-28” and “being passionate about film”. I sit here in a sweat hoping I have shown you that passion. Film gives me the air I need to breathe, it challenges me in all areas of life, it gives me hope for the future and fuels my interest in the past. I am a filmmaker because if all I did was watch films all day I would starve, but I would die happy. This is a letter thanking you for seventy-one years of championing the greatest art form we have and this is a letter asking you to allow me a seat at the greatest festival in the world.


Cordialement,

Nathan Velasquez