Film festivals and the use of “unusual screening spaces are becoming ubiquitous” (Stevens, 2016), so it takes a team to put on a festival that is different from the rest, and doing so often requires a niche. After much debate surrounding what this niche might be, our studio settled on showcasing notable firsts in film – as its broad enough for everyone involved to input ideas of films that they’re passionate about, while still being unique and marketable.
Before fleshing out our mission statement, we reflected on the studio’s ideation surrounding possible themes for the festival. Not everyone was on board with the word ‘debut’ being in our name, but the idea of screening and celebrating the first works of filmmakers, as originally thought of by Jordan, was something we all seemed to be drawn to. Having this overarching theme allowed us all to consider what genre or decade of films we wish to program, creating room for both a retrospective and contemporary selection.
In drafting the mission statement, Maya and I wanted to highlight our endeavours to put on an accessible, inclusive, and diverse event. As the ideas for our theme were still fresh, it was difficult to articulate our mission at first. Who are we? What are we doing and why? Who are we doing it for? These are questions that we had to ask ourselves, and after considering what is important to our festival in a contemporary context, we put together a statement that we’re proud of. We noted that our festival aims to showcase first films by First Nations directors, as it’s important that we “bring them to attention” and “emphasise the importance of festivals as educational platforms” (Pnacekova, Nicola and Pritchard, 2012). While this mission statement is, as its entitled, a mission, I hope that we do follow through with it and utilise the statement in the production, programming, publicity, and marketing of our festival.
As discussed by Stevens in ‘A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche Programming, Event Culture, and Vertically Integrated Film Festivals’ (2016), “there is a demand that still exists for new events”. No other festival in Melbourne is doing what DIFF is doing, and a festival dedicated to showcasing directors’ first works was unheard of to me before creating plans to do it ourselves. This is a great selling point, as we’re offering something that might otherwise be unavailable to audiences. In discussing good selling points, getting our hands on 35mm film print is definitely one of them, and this might be available to us if we talk to the right people, which is really exciting.
References
‘A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche Programming, Event Culture, and Vertically Integrated Film Festivals’ in Kirsten Stevens, Australian Film Festivals: Audience, Place, and Exhibition Culture, Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2016, pp. 171-199.
Participants of the Bright Young Screens Workshop, ‘Festivals Focused on Disadvantaged Groups (Ethnic, Sexual and Other Minorities)’ in Michaela Pnacekova, Mirona Nicola & Melissa Pritchard (eds), Bright Young Screens: Developing Intercultural Dialogue and Non-Formal Education Through Youth Film Festivals, NISI MASA and FEST, Espinho, 2012, pp. 10-13.