It’s the first class for this studio and we had guest speaker, Richard Sowada, give us a talk about what it’s like to put together a film festival, the good, the bad and the ugly. This was the perfect opportunity for all of us to understand what we were about to get ourselves into over the next 12 weeks of this studio. I went in with an open mind and zero knowledge of what it would be like to put a film festival together.
From Richard’s lecture at our first class, he basically explained to us how the film festival culture has changed overtime and how important it is to be up to date with technology audiences whilst staying in line and faithful to the festival’s ideals. Having started out in Western Australia, he started out by working alone when putting together a film festival and took him 6 years (if i’m not mistaken) before he started employing people to help him out. It was no easy feat for him to admit that he needed help.
Another thing Richard mentioned was how technology has played such an integral role in the film and film festival. Because of this, industries have made it difficult to operate a festival without changing aspects of it. As festivals are not really part of a film’s release strategy, and any film can be viewed online within a matter of months once it is posted, festivals must fight by giving the general public an experience that one cannot mimic at home (unless they can afford their own cinema with quality surround sound system and a massive screen, then yes). Richard alluded that some festivals are forking out into various kinds of media such as art installations, interactive media and VR (he is also diving into this for his own festival).
Coming out of Richard’s talk made me realise that putting together a film festival is not an easy task. It requires a lot of collaboration, communication, long hours to in search of what works will be showcased in the festival, logistics etc. Film festivals are organisations that seek to illustrate cinema as crucial social relics and artistic achievements, in which is honestly antagonistic to the commercial industry’s treatment of films as purely for profit with small amount for novelty unless it is 100% pledged to make them money.
In relation to Richard’s talk, attended the 14th Indonesian Film Festival event: Through The Lens. This event was held at 148, Royal Parade Forum Theatre (Arts West) in Parkville from 5:30-9:00pm on March 28th. The event screened two short films: I Am Zal, winner of the Indonesian Short Film Competition and Sepatu Baru (In Stopping The Rain), directed by Aditya Ahmad. Guests included Indonesian director, Aditya Ahmad, Siobhan Jackson and Andrew O’Keefe as panelists and moderator, Arsisto Ambyo. This was my first film festival and I enjoyed myself, but there were some things I believed could’ve been improved on.
Firstly, finding the venue was such a challenge. There were no signs or posters around. My friend & i spent a solid 30 minutes trying to find the place. By the time we found the venue, there were two staff members just sitting outside the venue. Initially, we thought they were just sitting down but when we asked for directions, they stood up & we noticed that they were wearing t-shirts of the event. The venue was located inside one of the buildings in the University of Melbourne. It didn’t scream “film festival” vibes to me whatsoever.
Outside the cinema hall, there were staff members handing out program about the Indonesian Film Festival and what movies would be screened on each day at ACMI. In my opinion, I found it rather hard to read the text because of how light the text colour was or the printing in my program in particular wasn’t all that great. In general, it was a very informative program about the entirety of the film festival.
Entering the screening, it was a lecture theatre. On each seat, there were some pamphlets and a free gift (card holder from the sponsors for IFF, such as discount cards for Chatime & Gotcha (both milk tea places) and Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart. Aside from food related gifts, they also gave flyers for YNJ Migration Services as majority of the people attending this event would be internationals.
The actual event did not start till an hour later so my friend & I were just seated in the hall, just waiting for it to start. Once it started, an emcee introduced the guest speakers and gave us a run down of the overall event. There was a short 15 minute intermission between the first screening & moderation before the second part of the session began.
Overall, the experience was good but I did not get that festival vibe from it. It felt like I was attending a cinema screening and getting a lecture from the guest speakers.
