EDITOR’S NOTE: West Givens was selected to participate in the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival. He was among eight students from the U.S., Mexico an Canada. Below is his personal account of the experience.

Two weeks ago, I experienced some of the best times of my life. I was able to attend the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco, CA, through the Youth 4 German Cinema program.

The second I met up with the rest of the group at the San Francisco International Airport, everyone was incredibly welcoming. I first met Alisa, the intern who basically ran this whole thing, and then I met Dunia, another student accepted to the program, from California. The next people to show up were Glenn from Kentucky, and Patrick from Wisconsin. We then met up with Zoé from Canada, and Marcus, the filmmaker whom we would be working with over the next three days. The group soon discovered that I was the only one who did not speak any German. Much to my relief, this turned out to not be an issue, as everyone was fluent in English.

After unpacking at our hotel, we got ready for the opening night party at the Castro theater. We met up with Renata and Rafael, both from Mexico, at the opening party. While at the party, I met and spoke with Tom Schilling, a German actor and star of the opening night’s movie “Who Am I.” I asked Tom if this was the first movie he had ever acted in, and he told me that he has actually been acting in films for 15 years. I then made a mental note to Google people before I ask them dumb questions. “Who Am I” was amazing; we all loved it.

When we arrived back at the hostel, we decided to get pizza from a pizza place a block from the Hostel. Mitch from Canada had still not arrived, as his flight had been delayed, so we stayed up well past midnight and waited. Once Mitch arrived, we all enjoyed the pizza and many laughs.

Over the next two days, we saw another movie at the Castro theater, presented our award to Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt, the director of the movie “Im Spinnwebhaus” (aka Spiderwebhouse), worked on producing a short documentary and toured San Francisco

This trip held many firsts for me:

• first time being in San Francisco
• first film festival I have ever attended
• first time riding a public bus
• first time riding a public train
• first time being in a two-story Burger King.

All of these experiences were amazing, but my favorite thing about this trip was, by far, our group. Everyone in our group was very welcoming and our dynamic group clicked immediately.

The most important thing I learned on this trip was that the saying, “It’s a small world” is one of the most untrue sayings in the book. The world is incredibly big and scary, but it is a lot less big and scary if you have friends to explore it with.

Gallery • 6 Photos

West Givens/ The Vision

Something that West Givens sketched in his notebook while he was bored on a flight to San Francisco