[Frameworks] Film Festivals in General.

Sat May 31 01:36:16 UTC 2014

I have ignored the festival circuit (and the ego gratification that comes
with being at screenings of my own work) for most of my time making movies.
I have no idea if this has helped me or simply hindered my ability to make
connections with other, like minded film makers. There is a community
aspect that comes from meeting other film makers that is not readily
reproduced outside of these events. I can see how it could be very
important to someone just starting out, having these connections meeting
like-minded people. I generally have more fun when I'm not showing work for
exactly that reason.

Michael Betancourt
Savannah, GA USA

michaelbetancourt.com
twitter.com/cinegraphic | vimeo.com/cinegraphic
www.cinegraphic.net | the avant-garde film & video blog

On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:29 PM, Dominic Angerame <
dominic.angerame at gmail.com> wrote:

> PS. In a consumer society the only power the consumer has is to boycott
> purchasing. In France general strikes shut down governments. The same can
> happen in the underground filmmaking community. Boycott those organizations
> that do not really help filmmakers as a whole community.
>
> Dominic
>
>
> On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:26 PM, Dominic Angerame <
> dominic.angerame at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> FrameWorks mailing list
>>>> FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
>>>> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FrameWorks mailing list
>>> FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
>>> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> FrameWorks mailing list
> FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/pipermail/frameworks/attachments/20140530/c137cf3b/attachment.html>