Star Wars history in the French Capital: Star Wars Reunion convention

He�s on remarkable fellow � that David Guivant.

David Guivant?

The name may actually sound familiar and that wouldn�t surprise me too much. Filmmaker David Guivant, from New Caledonia, South Pacific and his friends from the L-Cheapo film crew have managed to bring their fan-made movies to a large audience through a vast network of contacts. If David would be a character in the Star Wars Universe, he would be a Bothan � no doubt.

The story that you�ll read here is his � I was so sure more fans would like to share this experiences with him that I took the opportunity of writing it down from the numerous mail exchanges I had with him.

Read on and see how David traveled from New Caledonia to Paris to promote his fan-made movies. The story is, at the same time, a tale about the unique Star Wars Reunion convention.

To suitably celebrate the release of the last Star Wars movie that will ever be made by George Lucas, a special event was planned to be held in Paris.
Place? The prestigious Grand Rex cinema in the heart of the French capital.
Time? Three days of undiluted Star Wars fun from May 13th to May 15th.

For a citizen of New Caledonia like David Guivant, France is pretty far away place. Yet, he ended up with a number of fellow New Caledonian fans visiting this convention with a particular interesting mission.

David has been a Star Wars fan and illustrator for many years now and has a big admiration for self-made man George Lucas. The way he climbed up from young nobody to one of the biggest film moguls of this time is indeed inspiring and David wouldn't mind at all if he could repeat that same stunt.

David�s first fan-movie ever, "George Lucas; Legend of the Force" dealt with the answer to the pressing questions: does George himself believe in the Force? How did George Lucas and Steven Spielberg meet each other?

Many of our fellow fans throughout the world were made aware of the existence of this fan-movie and most of them adored it immediately. David built an extensive website to promote the fan-movie and tell the details of how it was put together. Many Star Wars news sites, such as Jedi Temple Archives here, picked up on David�s efforts and started running news reports on the story.

In December 2004 David submitted his movie to Patrice Girod, editor of Lucasfilm Magazine in France and much to his surprise Patrice liked it and informed him about the Reunion convention in Paris. His movie was selected to be screened at the Grand Rex Theatre. David and Abel got VIP tickets to attend the convention.

Never was the decision to make a trip to France made quicker than that day! May 13th, David and his friend Abel Lasserre landed in France, ventured into the center of Paris and checked into the "Bonne Nouvelle" hotel, which was very cheap, real comfy and only 5 minutes away from the convention area and the heart of the city. It would be his home for the next three days.

The convention was quite unique in its kind because Lucasfilm had put the stamp "official fan event" to it, so you won't be surprised that the program was particularly enticing. In addition, an Anakin Skywalker Hasbro figure in special packaging was released as a convention exclusive.

That same day, Friday the 13th, the fun started in the evening with a costumed fan parade in the main streets of Paris. It was certainly an extra treat for the tourists that happened to visit the city that day; for the ones actually knowing what was going on, this was the starting sign to get the cameras rolling. There was a big deal of shoving and pushing around the trajectory of the parade; there were so many people wanting to capture this moment on photo or video that it seemed unreal.

It goes without saying that most of the costumes on display that evening were of an astounding quality. You could tell our fellow fans had put their hearts into making them. Of one we were sure of that anyway. Abel donned his extraordinary Boba Fett suit that was used during the "Prime of the Jedi" shoot.

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