D.C. Filmmaker Goes to Cannes, Gets Caught in Ash Layover

Life can't get much more exciting for filmmaker and former Channel 9 anchor Mike Walter at this moment. The D.C. anchor-turned-filmmaker boarded a flight last night headed for Paris to attend the Cannes Film Festival in France, where his film, "Breaking News, Breaking Down," will be shown. Trouble is those damn ashes. Walter and his wife, in a Honeymooners-esque scenario, got stuck in Charles de Gaulle Airport as of this morning. "The volcanic ash delayed our flight out of D.C. by a couple of hours and they had to take the longer way here to avoid the ash," Walter said. The couple missed their connecting flight to Nice. "So this day is blown to smithereens," he wrote me from the airport. Thankfully, Walter's first screening is tomorrow night. At the festival, Walter plans to meet with buyers and journalists to promote his film. But, he says, he'd be remiss if he didn't at least dip his toe into the waters of the French Riviera - so a day trip is likely in order. Walter's film has won him eight awards so far, including best film at the Dark River Film Festival, best film at the AOF International Film Festival and one of the top three Documentary Shorts by Moving Pictures Magazine during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film's purpose is to show journalists in a compassionate, human light (and not the insensitive pigs they are sometimes portrayed to be). In his documentary, he tells his own story of driving to work the day of September 11, 2001 and witnessing a jet crashing into the Pentagon ("It pretty much wigged me out," he said.) He tells stories of those who have covered the Columbine killings, 9-11 in Manhattan, and the Oklahoma City bombing. "People always think of journalists swooping in after a tragedy, shoving a microphone in someone's face and asking, how do you feel?" he said. "People don't consider how the journalists feel, the emotional collapse." Coming into filmmaking was serendipitous. Walter was working on the documentary while still at Channel 9. "It was a labor of love," he said. "Weekends, vacations..." As he was leaving Channel 9, he was finishing the documentary. And one by one, the awards began rolling in. Let's hope Walter gets to dip his toe into the waters of the French Riviera.

Fishbowl

D.C. Filmmaker Goes to Cannes, Gets Caught in Ash Layover

Betsy Rothstein

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Betsy Rothstein