Where in the world is Erik Daarstad?

(Anyone who knows Erik Daarstad will tell you that he is a man of few words and carries a big camera. I experienced that fact a couple of months ago. I dropped Erik off at his house after having lunch and asked, “Same time next week?” He mumbled, “Can’t -going to (what sounded like), Pollard. I’ll call you.” As I drove away, I wondered why in the world he was going to Pollard, Alabama. About 27 days later, he calls and says. “I’m back.” I asked how he enjoyed his trip to Pollard and he said, “Not Pollard — Poland, I went to Poland, as in Europe.” I would like to share with you the story he told me, after some cajoling on my part.)

“I left Sandpoint about a week before Thanksgiving to go to LA for a screening of “Sing, China,” a film I shot a year or so ago. On Thanksgiving Day, I joined my friend, Terry Sanders, for a nine-hour flight to Amsterdam and another three hours to Warsaw. Our final destination was Lodz, the second largest town in Poland. It is an old city and dates back to 1332. 

“I was invited to attend a film festival called, “Pluscamerimage, an International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.” The festival got its start in Poland 17 years ago and it is primarily for cinematographers but other filmmakers, directors, producers, and actors attend. I would say about 500 people from around the world attended the festival. Some of the countries represented were The United States, Poland, various European countries like, Germany, France, England, Spain, Italy, and others. There were not too many from the Far East. I was there about 10 days — the festival lasted eight days.

“I have worked with Terry Sanders, and his wife Freida, for many years. Terry was there to receive a Life Achievement Award for his work in documentary films. It is called the Golden Frog Award. I was invited to the festival because I have done so many films for Terry through the years. They decided that I was the one to present him with the award so I had to get up in front of 1200 people and say a few words about our relationship down through the years. Then Terry came out and I presented him with the award.

“During the festival, they showed a lot of the films that we have done together like, Fighting for Life, Portrait of Zubin Mehta, and a film about the silent screen actress Lillian Gish called, “An Actor’s Life for Me.”  We spent time going to those screenings and answering questions at the end of the film. There were many young film students that attended the screenings and they were interested in how the films were made and produced.

“It is also a competitive film festival. There were feature films, documentary films, and I was on the jury for the short documentary film competition. I spent several hours each afternoon viewing the films that were in competition. It was a hectic schedule. The festival started at 9:30 a.m., went all through the day, and ended each night with a big dinner at 10:30 p.m. I did not get back to my hotel until after midnight, a long day.

“I enjoyed being with all the other cinematographers and filmmakers. I knew some of them, heard about others, and met some for the first time. It was a high quality type festival with many good films being screened. There were a lot of feature films and documentary films that I enjoyed very much. I had never been to Poland and I enjoyed being able to do some short side trips in the limited time that was available. I returned home on Dec. 11, 2009.”

(Next week, Erik will share about some of the side trips he took dating back to World War II.)