Film Festival Reflection

week 6

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

This week we invited Mia Falstein-Rush to give us a lecture on the process of the programming film festival. Mia provides a very powerful and realistic perspective, and give us an insight into the development of the Australian film industry and her role as a programmer. What impressed me most was that Mia said she spent more than one year to organize the Seen and Heard film festival which is a film festival celebrating women in film. And Mia mentioned that ‘Seen and Heard’ is an inspiring and shocking theme because it determines the purpose and significance of the festival. As I read in one of the reading, “Programming for your festival should be purposeful, not random. It is important to nail down topics and themes before you begin looking for films” (Bartosova, Kulhankova & Rausova 2015, p 27).

So, I think a film festival should be promoted and disseminated in an attractive, purposeful and explicit way. Until this week, we’ve received hundreds of movies, and the real challenge is to watch and screen them to ensure the theme of our festival. On Thursday, we also join the film submission group to watch some Chinese movies and may present our feelings and ideas. So, it is very important to sort out the data and statistics, and classify movies when necessary, such as some movies for 15-18 years old viewers.

At the same time, when we meet before class with our group members, we also assign our jobs. We have made detailed plans, such as filming and editing trailers about the Chinese part before next weekend. To compare with last week, we have big progress in filming and the script. It’s very exciting for me. I feel that this product is being perfected little by little. I seem to be able to see its final appearance.

Reference:

Kateřina Bartošová, Hana Kulhánková & Zuzana Raušová, “Knowing Yourself and Your Audience: Programming and a Humming Rights Film Festival”,  in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 27-46.