Sisters Kara Smith and Karli Powell’s short film Blotter, screened at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival last week. They shared their respective blogs about their five days on the French Riviera with Lifestyle. Look out for more next week.

In many ways, the filmmaker’s journey to success is like travelling a lone desert; shifting sands constantly redefining the line between all that is possible and an illusion.

And yet, sometimes (perhaps truly in cinematic fashion) the industry makes things a little less bleak — colouring the edges with fanfare and circumstance. One such occasion is the Cannes International Film Festival.

When travelling from Bermuda, I always think it good practice to put things into perspective. That is to say, I had no idea what to think of the famed Rivera other than my vintage imagination fuelled by Somerset Maugham and F Scott Fitzgerald. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t too prescribed in my ideas, but then I certainly didn’t want to be unprepared.

Sometimes I think that Bermuda’s geographical status — an oasis in the middle of the sea — is also psychological. And that travelling beyond our shores is like reaching out from the void.

It’s altogether thrilling and daunting.

I boarded the night flight to London — supported by the generous patronage of the Bermuda Arts Council — excited and weighed down by great expectations.

It’s often said about creative partnerships that however much one is, the other is definitively less so and more of in something else. And this can be said of my partnership with my sister Kara.

As filmmakers, our polar perspectives give foundation to our creative process. We know we’re on to something good when we’re both happy. I caught what felt like a ceremoniously long train to her flat, in the still-too-early hours for commuters. She met me with good coffee and a comfortable sofa, and I could see that she was happy, too. We’re on to something good.