Saying Goodbye to New Friends

These photos are of Anne Aghion's film crew, who were here under the Artists & Writers Program of the NSF. Anne, Rich and Sylvestre were an absolute delight to get to know & hang with. They have been here since the first day of Winfly, were out in the field for 7 weeks, & just came back last week & left today. Anne is from Paris, Sylvestre resides in Quebec, and Rich is a Brooklynite. They were everywhere with their camera & giant boom mic, filming people eating, bag-dragging, sorting mail, washing dishes, bowling - as well as getting to go all the cool places us townies may never see as station workers - places I'll probably have to come down as a fat-walleted tourist to see. It is ironic: for one year now I have hung in ecstatic anticipation of meeting the iconic filmmaker Werner Herzog. I got to meet him, and tried not to be a sycophant slinking around trying to somehow get more deeply into his psyche - which I inevitably got to do by participating in the several talks he gave to the community, and more so by getting to visit with him a bit on a one to one basis - but he was so busy filming & flying all over the place that I didn't develop the casual friendliness that happened with Anne's crew. I was probably also holding back & not wanting to bother him with my obviously star-struck, social ineptness. But with Anne, Rich & Syl there was teasing, baudy tales, long dinners with roaring laughter & real conversation. I made some new friends - delightful, funny, creative friends. So the irony is that by the time the 120 pax left this morning, it was the filmmakers I wasn't anticipating meeting that were the hardest to say goodbye to. Herzog left too, and I waved at him feeling truly honored to have been in his aura - but Aghion's crew touched my heart...as well as my "so-well". Bon Voyage mes amis!