“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” -Thomas Jefferson

I often have trouble finding a good place to start. The beginning of my involvement with Cucalorus can be traced back to my freshman year when I volunteered as a projectionist. Or maybe even further back to my old manager at the Galaxy Cinema-also an alumnus of UNCW’s film studies program-who said to look up Dan Brawley when I got to Wilmington. Or maybe even further back to my decision to work for less pay and fewer hours at the Galaxy Cinema instead of the local Carmike googleplex. Or maybe it can be traced back to fifteen years ago when a bunch of filmmakers showed their films in a bar one night. Or maybe, just like working on Cucalorus, there is no beginning and there is no end.
Working for Cucalorus is an amazing and transformative experience. You really have no idea what you’re doing for the festival if you’ve never attended before (and even if you have it’s a stretch at times). I could very easily fill this paper with all the tasks I’ve had to do at Cucalorus, all the new skills I’ve gathered and polished over the years, but it would only be a very small part of what I’ve learned from that bunion of a film festival. I could tell you all the stories I’ve grown and plucked over the years but that bouquet would be nothing compared to the friendship, inspiration, art and community that blooms at Cucalorus.
I’ve learned all those corny sayings the hard way—that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar; that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; that a bird in the had is worth two in the bush; beer before liquor, never been sicker. But there are three things that stand out more than any saying, that are ingrained in my heart from working at the festival and that will stay with me far longer than the smell of a perpetually cold week in November.