I need to apologize, before anything else, for my lack of blog posts. And feeling in a cheeky mood, I decided to title my daily posts as something everyone wants to hear: an intern's opinion. That's right, I have jumped on the blogging bandwagon, although I believe a certain old professor of mine would have different sentiments.

The festival officially kicked off with the volunteer screening of "Hamlet 2." A couple months ago, I was involved in my weekly ritual of viewing movie trailers on the Apple website when I discovered the trailer for "Hamlet 2." I fell in love immediately, and was elated when I discovered it would be shown during festival week. Co-written by Pam Brady, who brought us "Team America: World Police," "Hamlet 2" has the same politically incorrect outrageousness and had the entire audience laughing in their seats. A high-school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) finds out that the theater department is shutting down, and decides to make a musical sequel to Hamlet. With dialogue laced with witty profanity and songs like "Rock Me Sexy Jesus," I couldn't help but laugh at this clever comedy.

On Wednesday I sat and listened to the panel discussion, and I have to say, they are just as intellectually stimulating and entertaining as many of the movies shown. A key moment for me was when the discussion turned to how film can make a difference. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine were both on the panel and directed the movie "War Dance," which played at the festival last year. It tells the story of Uganda and how over the last twenty years, children have been ripped from their homes to be forced into a rebel army to kill neighbors, and sometimes even their parents. Dominic Akena, one of the boys from the film, and John Okellone are now living in Traverse City because one woman was so moved by the film that she raised enough money for them to come here and get an education. At the panel discussion, Dominic and John stood up to be recognized in the crowd, which resulted in the entire audience giving them a standing ovation. It was an extremely moving moment to see the effect of one film, and the impact it made on so many and on these two young boys.