[Frameworks] Film Festivals in General.

[Dominic Angerame]

Well articulated.

Dominic


On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 5:35 PM, chris bravo <iamdirect at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is an interesting topic, maybe a few points to add, maybe not totally
> thought out, but I am currently doing festivals with a film so I have been
> spending a lot of time thinking about these issues, particularly as they
> pertain to documentary festivals.
>
> - Yes, I wish festivals didn't charge fees, it definitely feels very
> scammy, especially in the Without-a-Box era which is a debilitating
> humiliation festivals are perpetrating on filmmakers. But backrooming fee
> waivers is at the heart of the problem, right? I mean that's a serious
> structural inequality because who is going to have leverage in that system?
> A young person from a fly-over film school with an off kilter movie? And
> the (in my opinion) disturbingly conservative/repetitive/samey programming
> happening in american festivals I think bears this out. Professional
> programmers who spend all year schmoozing and glad handing (AND GETTING
> PAID) is not a system that works very well, and its not a system that
> filmmakers can access by sending plucky emails to programming directors. I
> feel that the "only fools pay entrance fees" is a bit blaming the victim.
> (You didn't say exactly that, but I have heard it). There is no real
> alternative.
>
> - I think the good news is that, while festivals have bent over backwards
> to ingratiate themselves to economic forces (True/False, Rooftop Films, Hot
> Docs), they have rendered themselves almost completely useless at actually
> helping filmmakers find an audience for their work. They are so completely
> focused on a pseudo "entrepreneurial" eco-system of media making and
> distribution that that nobody pays attention to them but themselves. EG:
> These "partnerships" that festivals are promoting with bizarre, off-brand,
> online streaming sites is sad to see. It seems to me, from my observation,
> that even though it SEEMS that festivals are indispensably important for
> filmmakers, in actuality they have never been more superfluous. Whatever
> the audience for your film, festivals (generally speaking) are not really
> going to help you build it. There are way better ways to engage communities
> of people and get your work in front of them.
>
>
> On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Medford Reinhardt <
> medfordreinhardt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This article by Sean Farnel is relevant to what you're saying:
>> http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/towards-a-filmmaker-bill-of-rights-for-festivals
>>
>> A few more thoughts:
>>
>> 1) This is just in my opinion of course, but you shouldn't ever pay a
>> festival entry fee. Send an email directly to the programer with a write-up
>> or a link to part of or the entirety of the film. Ask if they're
>> interested. If they're not, you've saved money, and if they are interested,
>> you will almost never be asked (in my experience) to supply that entry fee.
>> The dirty little secret of most film festivals is that a HUGE amount of
>> what is shown comes from solicitation and from private correspondences.
>> Only a small percentage of submissions are actually accepted. I have had
>> many conversations with programmers that have corroborated this.
>>
>> 2)  A film festival often cannot logistically expand its dates. Finding
>> the space and infrastructure to screen films often occurs the year prior to
>> the festival, and predicting the number of entries is of course impossible
>> at that time. Still, I understand your frustration. But any festival that
>> receives entries that are comparable to the number of slots they have is
>> just not getting enough entires.
>>
>> 3) Let festivals know when they are being shitty. I suspect filmmakers
>> are often timid and afraid to confront these kind of behaviours for fear of
>> being cast in a negative light, but I suspect that most festivals would
>> take it very seriously.
>>
>> 4) Something very important to remember. Amazing films get rejected from
>> festivals all the time, for a wide variety of reasons: too much
>> representation from one country, having too many films that work in the
>> same style, a film that can't be placed into any of the existing shorts
>> programs. There are many reasons and every year, programmers often will
>> pass along films to other festivals because of this. A rejection from a
>> festival is not a judgment of quality. If the programmers are worth a damn,
>> it can have many other meanings around it.
>>
>>
>> Medford
>>
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>
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