For the past couple years, my main film festivals have been
Edinburgh, Berlinale and Cannes. This past year I had to drop Edinburgh since we picked up
Tregor Film Fest. Edinburgh and Berlinale were my 'feature film' festivals while Cannes is where I would watch my fill of shorts as a comparative study to ensure
Strasbourg International Film Festival was receiving a well-rounded, top-of-the-line selection of submissions. What I've learned, particularly this past year, is that there are no holes in our submission options. SiFF is doing just fine.
Last year I was a little disenchanted with both Cannes and Berlinale.
First, since Cannes wasn't offering anything better than I already had there was little justification for me to be there. According to short film filmmakers, their shorts were being viewed between 2-6 times... total. Although, on a good note for filmmakers, there was more interest in the viewing booths this past year compared to the year before. Which didn't impact our waiting time negatively once the Short Film Corner staff asked if we'd like to go into the Buyer's Booths so we didn't have to wait and could more readily resume our film watching. This was helpful until Cannes informed me due to a 'technical' glitch all our records and notes on the shorts screened had been lost - which would have made all that effort useless had I not taken diligent manual notes. (Always keep a back-up!)
Basically, Cannes ended-up being a relaxing (albeit, unnecessary) trip. I realized I wasn't in need of anything so there was no stress, no anxiety. In fact, I felt at peace, calm and reassured that SiFF was were it was supposed to be in the submission process. Sophie and I walked along the beach, and watched Inglorious Basterds! We tried to see Tetro but no one but press was allowed in. Shame. Sophie waited forever for the first two screenings. I hate cattle call bullshit but we met some cool people in line.
Ahhh... Berlinale. We had switched up Berlinale. Two years ago I purchased all of our tickets directly online at full price. It was a huge pain in the ass and dictated that I be at the computer at 10am, know exactly what I want beforehand and make a made bash through the purchasing process to ensure tickets didn't sell out of what I wanted. Thankfully, I'm not into Competition films or it would have been a solely lacking experience. We got tickets to everything we wanted to see purchasing well over 30 sets of tickets. The online ticket booth in the Potzdamer Platz mall was a complete nightmare. Apparently it didn't occur to management to teach the workers how to use the software. Yikes!
Since the purchase buying and ticket retrieving experiences were a bit of a nightmare I decided to get delegate passes this past year in hopes of improving this aspect of the Berlinale experience - instead it ended up being a complete waste of time and energy and not worth the hundreds of dollars saved. Bottom-line if you're not in line by 8am you're not going to see anything you want to see. Who the fuck wants to see a whole bunch of shit just because they aren't up by the crack of dawn??? Not me. I was fairly turned off by the whole experience and decided it was time to try another approach - like, perhaps a different festival!
Basically, I want to have a good time. I want to enjoy my experience, be treated kindly and with respect (not deal with a bunch of snobby assholes) and watch cool and kick ass films. Let's put it this way. Out of the 30 films I saw at Berlinale this past year 4 were worth seeing. What I learned is that it pissed me off to no end to travel to another city for days on end to watch films that aren't nearly as good as what is being sent to me directly. I love to travel but every trip should be worthwhile. If I see a film with a star, I want it to be a good film. I don't just want to say hey I saw so-and-so in a film. I want to say I saw so-and-so and the film kicked ass! That really didn't happen at Berlinale this past year.
So then, what's the point of going? I'm not into networking. I don't need to shmooze or try to sell or buy anything. The markets aren't fun - maybe I just don't have the look of profession desperation which sales reps seem to yearn for. Filmmakers send us kickass films, so we're covered. I'm not at festivals looking for features.
If I can't see really cool films at a film fest then I don't want to waste my time. I was a tad bit angered by the mediocre films that played at Berlinale. Okay, there were some good ones too but I didn't get up at the crack of dawn for those tickets... and you know what... I never will. I'd rather miss them. I'm not a morning person and I'm not corporate so my job doesn't depend on me suiting up and showing up at god awful hours of the morning.
What to do? I spoke to a man at Berlinale who has been running a Eastern European film festival for about 20+ years now. He looked young. Guess he's been running it since he was 12. Nonetheless, he got me thinking. He said he liked Cannes for features. I was unimpressed. Anything at Cannes (not speaking of the market) can be seen anywhere. So what's the point of seeing it there? Okay... love Tarintino and since I very rarely go to regular cinemas - unless I'm atending a festival - I was pleased to have the opportunity to experience his latest. Even waiting in line was fun! The film was 2hrs and 40 mins long. The director's cut. Not something I'd want to miss.
The Eastern European Festival Director said he looks to other fests for grittier films. He liked
Rotterdam and
Viennale claiming they were more in line with the Forum films of Berlinale. Ahhh... choices.
This year I've picked up two new fests - Viennale and
Raindance.
When I go to a film festival I'm looking for two things.
1. A comfortable environment. Edinburgh is very comfortable, informal and easy. Plus, the Festival Director, Hannah, is an absolutely lovely dish of something wonderfully added to the festival - as though she were your favorite sprinkles on your favorite sundae. I've never met her. Have no real desire to. But if you go, you'll watch her flutter in fear of addressing crowds and she tries her best to speak about films she loves and wants to portray in the absolute best light. She loves her retrospectives and we're all the better for it.
2. Good films. Fuck everything else. Just show me something interesting that I can't see in the cinema and might not have the opportunity to see at all if I don't see it there. Berlinale is good at this. Cannes is impossible to include in this definition. Edinburgh needs to work on it. I don't know how EIFF was this year, but the year before the brand new Under the Radar category needed a little perfecting. Honestly, that's not knocking Edinburgh. It's a festival that is willing to try, willing to take a risk, willing to test the waters and experiment and most certainly willing to show films you've not seen before!
Since Edinburgh fell from from my list of festivals this year, I wanted to pick up another 'features' fest so I started looking in the direction of Raindance - a festival I've wanted to attend over the past couple years but simply haven't been able to make time for it. The Festival Director, Elliot Grove, has been running Raindance for 17 years now. He seems passionate and directed. He has had some very kick ass musicians (Think Iggy Pop and Lou Reed) involved which means the festival has a certain bend, or focus, which differs from the other festivals I've attended. Plus, Raindance is slightly smaller which I view as a very strong attribute.
These cattle call mass produced film festivals are so washed down to absolute nothingness that the only thing left is snobbery and long lines for films you don't want to see! People run around with like depraved maniacs in such a need of the miracle cure for some ailment that certainly can't be healed at such hollow events.
