From 'Campbell Live' 2005-06-27 Courtesy of TV3

Presenter (John Campbell): Now regular viewers of the show will remember that we were very excited when a short film co-written by our very own Jaquie Brown was accepted for the Cannes Film Festival. Well Jaquie hoped to go to the festival but in the end she couldn't get there. Still her friend and co-writer and the film's director Helena Brooks did.

Image: Alison Routledge and Lliam Powell in Nothing Special.From 'Campbell Live' 2005-06-27 Courtesy of TV3

Presenter (John Campbell): Now regular viewers of the show will remember that we were very excited when a short film co-written by our very own Jaquie Brown was accepted for the Cannes Film Festival. Well Jaquie hoped to go to the festival but in the end she couldn't get there. Still her friend and co-writer and the film's director Helena Brooks did.

Image: Alison Routledge and Lliam Powell in Nothing Special.Helena took a camera with her and filed her impressions of one of the most exciting weeks in her life.

Helena Brooks (New Zealand filmmaker): I guess ever since I heard that film festivals existed I'd wanted to go to one just because the idea of everyone coming together and being interested in the same thing was really appealing to me. Being here has just been amazing because everyone you meet is passionate about film, they want to talk about films, or watch films, or make films, or pitch their ideas to each other and it's just . . . if you're into film it's amazing. I kind of feel like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the golden ticket; it's like this girl from small town Auckland going to the other side of the world and being allowed to walk the red carpet with Woody Allen and Scarlet Johansson and Natalie Portman. It's weird but really exciting and I feel incredibly lucky and kind of I guess trying to drink it all in, every single moment, my eyes are bulging with just the stimulation and the excitement of the whole place. New Zealand films seem to have a really strong presence here which is really exciting. You've got The World's Fastest Indian which is doing really well, and Perfect Creature which apparently has sold better than any other New Zealand film in the history of New Zealand film and it hasn't even been released yet.

Florian Habicht (New Zealand filmmaker): Kia ora New Zealand. Florian here, New Zealand film maker with not very much sleep at the moment in Cannes. I'm just here, I'm actually in Amsterdam developing a new film, script and part of my class, other film makers from . . . we're all just here together watching films, doing workshops and meeting people.

Broooks: I guess one of the great things about coming to Cannes is the networking opportunities that you get that you wouldn't get in New Zealand and probably not even in their own country 'cause you meet people at parties and on the street that you . . . I don't think you'd even get a meeting with them in their own country but because you're all in Cannes together the hierarchy kind of dissolves and you get to talk to them about films and get their business card and then hassle them later, by e-mail. I think because New Zealand is so far away from the rest of the world international actors and directors quickly attain this hero status. One of the most inspiring things for me about being here at Cannes and seeing them so close is that you realise that, yes, Woody Allen is a legend but he's also just a person like you and me and that making big movies is a real possibility.

Presenter: Hmm, Helena Brooks with that report from Cannes.

"Nothing Special screens as part of the Homegrown: Works on Film at the Telecom 2005 New Zealand International Film Festivals. For screenings times, see: www.mic.org.nz www.nzff.telecom.co.nz