From: Raymond Salvatore Harmon (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Feb 16 2011 - 16:00:57 PST
Tom,
I fully agree that there is always another perspective, but functionally festivals that rely on "live music" and beer to attract an audience fully do fall into the category I mention of social engagement and networking. Of course there is nothing wrong with social gatherings and in any context in which one enjoys cinema is better than none. But 10 or more years ago I may never have seen literally thousands of films I do now online. What I would see is the things that a specific group choose to show. Youtube is fully democratic in that there is no rejection (short of copyright issues). Put it up and all can watch.
I agree that cinema is best experienced on the big screen but reality dictates that most people see less and less of the big screen every year. Festivals are not want for an audience, but filmmakers often find the festival experience lacking. I appreciate festivals, especially the ones that do so without funding. But the model of festivals as the source for experimental film presentation is past us. I would be willing to bet that more people have seen crappy resolution Brakhage online in the past ten years than all of the audiences for all of the fests Brakhage has shown at combined. That may or may not be a good thing but its just a matter of economics and distribution.
>From the perspective of a young filmmaker trying to find an audience for their work festivals offer very limited opportunities compared to online websites. A solid film blog like Badlit has a bigger viewer base than most festivals. A single twitter post might generate a 1000 views in an afternoon, festivals can not compete with that.
To me personally the cinematic experience is close to a religion. The darken theater like a church. But there are less and less people coming to worship these days and more and more coming to socialize. There is nothing wrong with that reasoning, its just not the same thing really.
Yours
RSH
--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: email suppressed
To: email suppressed
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:22:41 -0500
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Current situation with Film Festivals
I disagree with both of the statements below (excerpted from a longer post.) I am not saying this person is wrong, but there is certainly another point of view. In my experience film festivals are still a pretty good thing, and they are not “over.” In fact, Strange Beauty Film Festival starts Thursday in Durham at Manbites Dog Theater, and if you want to be there you have to be on time…… Oh sorry, I think it’s sold out, seems there are too many people who don’t agree that “the basic fundamentals of a time restricted festival (are) over.” Can you see some of this work online? No doubt. When you do that, will you miss the live music performances? Yep. Will you get to talk about the films over a beer with other folks who’ve also just seen it for the first time? Nope. One might dismiss such activity as “social engagement and networking,” but all of the arts activities I have been involved with over the years – symphony orchestras, rock bands, film making - have included some element of that. It’s not a bad thing. What’s next, the end of music? Come on folks, cultural institutions change, but they don’t disappear just because of new technology. I’ve watched “The Wizard of Oz” with my family at home on tv, it’s great; I’ve watched “The Wizard of Oz” with a full house at the Castro, it’s better. - Tom >No one goes to a fest (like Toronto or Sundance) to see films, its about social enagement, parties and networking.
>Curration may create cohesion or thematic ideas in programming but the basic fundamentals of a time restricted festival (be here at this time to see these films in this >order) is over.
>Long live cinema.
>Yours
>RSH
On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Tom Whiteside <email suppressed> wrote:
I disagree with both of the statements below (excerpted from a longer post.) I am not saying this person is wrong, but there is certainly another point of view. In my experience film festivals are still a pretty good thing, and they are not “over.” In fact, Strange Beauty Film Festival starts Thursday in Durham at Manbites Dog Theater, and if you want to be there you have to be on time…… Oh sorry, I think it’s sold out, seems there are too many people who don’t agree that “the basic fundamentals of a time restricted festival (are) over.” Can you see some of this work online? No doubt. When you do that, will you miss the live music performances? Yep. Will you get to talk about the films over a beer with other folks who’ve also just seen it for the first time? Nope. One might dismiss such activity as “social engagement and networking,” but all of the arts activities I have been involved with over the years – symphony orchestras, rock bands, film making - have included some element of that. It’s not a bad thing.
What’s next, the end of music? Come on folks, cultural institutions change, but they don’t disappear just because of new technology. I’ve watched “The Wizard of Oz” with my family at home on tv, it’s great; I’ve watched “The Wizard of Oz” with a full house at the Castro, it’s better.
- Tom
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