I spent most of my time at Ebertfest as a volunteer, and it was usually a long and gruelling day on most days. But what I really enjoyed about Ebertfest is that everyone seems to genuinely enjoy being there, and everyone is really friendly. I was usually stationed at the theatre doors as an usher, and people would often ask questions and engage in conversations with me. I also really enjoy the experience of being in a cinema and seeing an audience share an experience like film.

I got to see three of the films during the festival, The End of the Tour, The Motel Life and 99 Homes, and I enjoyed each of them for different reasons. I wasn’t expecting The End of the Tour (based on the meeting between David Foster Wallace and David Lipsky) to be funny, and was pleasantly surprised by that. Although I did notice that some of the laughs that the film got were because it was set in Bloomington, which didn’t seem to be the director’s intention. The Motel Life was a more creatively made film. While I didn’t care much for the slow pace of the film, I enjoyed the use of hand-drawn images being incorporated into the film as the character would tell his story. 99 Homes was a generically atypical film, since it was about the housing crisis but was shot in the style of a thriller. The film’s fast editing and quick dialogue made the movie move really quickly, but it was still beautifully shot. The talkback for 99 Homes was also the most interesting, since director Ramin Bahrani talked about the research and work that went into the film.