PAT F .
“ According to our records , you joined AWCH 30 years ago ! Congratulations ! That is loyalty !” Fellow club member Holly contacted me recently to congratulate me on being a member for three decades . It seems like just yesterday that I joined ( a refrain familiar to my generation ).
I do remember when I decided to become a member of the club ; I had a diffuse but lingering longing to connect more with my American roots . I realized I could only be an inactive member then , but still , I wanted to join . I was teaching full-time at the International School Hamburg , commuting every day , and raising a family . A few American mothers in the school community were in the club , but not many , as school activities took over their lives , as they did mine . In retrospect , it was the most loyal and the longest-serving substitute teacher at ISH who motivated me to join : Becky . It wasn ’ t that she was on an evangelical crusade to recruit members ; it was Becky ’ s effervescent enthusiasm for the AWCH which inspired me .
Karen ( L ), Pat ( C ), Nancy ( R ) in front of Bogart and Bergman at the Filmfest Hamburg , 2014
I paid my yearly dues and received and read every issue of Currents , for which I wrote a very occasional article . I followed all the events ; the articles and photographs left images in my mind so that , years later , when I finally met some of the members , they were like celebrities I had been following for years . So they did exist after all !
And it was the lure of joining the Film Group ( thanks again to Becky ). I knew even 30 years ago that upon retirement from teaching , I would be looking for a creative challenge . I retired from teaching 10 years ago and have been viewing and reviewing films and going to film festivals with a remarkable group of film lovers ever since . I just love it . Every year , I have attended the Filmfest Hamburg , for the past three years I have gone to the Berlinale , and , in 2012 , I was an accredited journalist at Michael Moore ’ s Traverse City Film Festival . Ever since then I have received almost monthly letters from Michael ( I have no illusions ; I am still on the mailing list seeking donations .) Thank you to the AWCH for making all of this possible .
Pat at the Berlinale , 2020
An optimistic Michael Moore with Susan Sarandon at the Traverse City Film Festival 2012
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