Re: festival responses

From: Adam Hyman (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Jun 04 2009 - 23:55:59 PDT


Los Angeles Filmforum isnıt a festival, which I suppose makes us a ³venue²
although we are itinerant, and we host traveling filmmakers all the time.
Itıs been like that for 30+ years, as far as I can tell. Kurt Kren once
lived with Terry Cannon for a month or two back in the 70s or early 80s
while he showed work, traveling around American by car. Pretty much every
filmmaker who screens here who doesnıt live in Los Angeles is on a tour of
some sort.

In Los Angeles, the Echo Park Film Center and Silent Movie Theater also host
people on tours of the West Coast or around the country. One can get a lot
of screenings this way. Yes, I guess some festivals might decide to exclude
your work if you tell them that youıve screened it in this way, but thatıs
their loss. And weıll show things after theyıve shown in festivals
elsewhere. You certainly have credibility screening it in venues such as
ours. And you are never guaranteed an audience anywhere, even in festivals.

Best regards,

Adam Hyman
Los Angeles Filmforum

On 6/4/09 6:05 PM, "Allen Riley" <email suppressed> wrote:

> I don't know what Joel had in mind when he suggested this route, but I have
> found it to be a fun and rewarding practice to take my films on short venue
> tours in different parts of the country.  I have screened my work to
> unsuspecting audiences in cafes, book stores, theaters, after punk shows, in
> private living rooms of people I don't know, and so on.
>
> I know that there are Christian and other "special interest" films that are
> shown in this manner.  I don't know of any "arty" filmmakers besides myself
> who do this.  I have taken this approach because I don't understand film
> festivals or how to present my work to them.
>
> One problem with this method is that you are not assured an audience.  Another
> is that this method lacks the credibility of festival screenings and will
> probably not advance your career in film circles no matter how many people
> show up.  Any work you screen in this way will also be disqualified from
> festivals that require a premiere.  It is, however, a fun way to travel and to
> introduce your work to new people.
>
> Allen Riley
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:41 AM, Caryn Cline <email suppressed> wrote:
>  
>> (My former teacher and friend Joel Schlemowitz says that venues are sometimes
>> a better path for filmmakers than festivals.  Maybe that is a big city
>> perspective, I don't know.  I'd like to hear others' thoughts about that.)
>
>  
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________ For info on
> FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.