Today I went to the French Film Festival at Palace Balwyn, where I got to experience a film called ‘The Sisters Brothers’. Before I go into expressing my sentiments about that particular event, let’s take a step back and talk about Richard Sowada’s speech back in week 1.

When Richard was talking about the development of a film festival, I was excited. Beginning from him glueing the posters around the neighbourhood and fighting off the competitor flyposters to hosting sizeable events that attract thousands of people, it amazes me how you can turn a small local event into a big deal. Not going to lie, as much as I respect authentic filmmakers and their creations, I am mostly interested in the commercial and organisational side of film festivals. Organising a festival that brings in a big audience and generates a high income, developing marketing and advertising strategies and positioning the event as a brand. Now that sounds exciting and I loved hearing Richard’s professional insights on the matter.

Now, considering that the French Film Festival runs for almost a month and hosts hundreds of screenings across Australia, I expected it to be a big kind of deal, something unique that’s different from our everyday cinema experience and I was excited to see the way it’s run and presented. After attending the festival, however, I only have one question:

Why?

There was nothing different about this experience from going to watch some American-Pie-type-of-film at my local cinema. Except for I would’ve probably enjoyed American Pie more because that movie was one of the most boring, borderline suicide-inclining movies I have ever seen. The cinema was nearly empty with the exception of 5 old people who clearly had nothing better to do on a Tuesday afternoon, and I wouldn’t even guess that there was a festival going on in the first place because there was nothing signalising it. Okay, there was a couple of sad posters in the corner that were practically invisible next to a colourful ‘Captain Marvel’ ad, but that was it.

So, if there is nothing different about a film festival that makes it an experience you couldn’t otherwise participate in, why even bother setting it up?

According to Peranson’s article, there are 2 models of film festivals, a business one and an audience one, where the former focuses on revenue, corporate presence and overall glam and the latter on simply sharing their low-budget films with the audience (Peranson 2008). Again, judging by the amount of high-budget films, corporate sponsorship and major competition, I would classify the French Film Festival as the business model, but it certainly didn’t feel that way. It didn’t feel like an audience-orientated festival either, because it was so broad and heavily marketed and because it lacked soul. It didn’t feel like anything to me and, frankly, it made me not want to go to a film festival ever again.

So, my key insight from my festival experience and from Sowada’s guest lecture was that simply choosing a number of authentic movies and screening them over a set period of time under a certain logo doesn’t make it a film festival. It has to mean something and it has to be a unique experience for the audience to engage with. Otherwise, what’s the point of it’s meaningless?

I hope that MIYFF won’t be nearly that shallow and dead and will actually make an impact on the guests. I will certainly do everything I can to make sure of it.

Cited:

Mark Peranson, “First You Get the Power, Then You Get the Money: Two Models of Film Festivals “, Cinéaste, 1 July 2008, Vol.33(3), pp. 37-43.