This week we kept spending time learning from other online film festivals and tried to finalise the pre-production of NNIFF. There was a specific project called humankind presented by the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival based in Melbourne. From my perspective, there were many good takeaways from this project. Firstly, its aim is to raise the awareness of reshaping human nature in response to the current situation that everyone is isolated and a sense of “fear of missing out” has become a serious social issue. To be specific, the main concept of celebrating the resilience of the human spirit is divided into seven aspects, and films are matched to each of the aspects. Moreover, each film is not only having a keyword but also having a blur which briefly introduces the film to viewers, it allows viewers to choose films based on their tastes. I also noticed that it is always clarified when a film is presented in partnership with other organizations. From my perspective, it is an essential way of connecting to the industries, which refers to the concept of “restricted viewing” as one of the reasons why online film festivals are creating a better future at the stage. It plays a vital role in emphasizing the sense of community, and viewers can also be resonated when they are connected by locations.
Secondly, I noticed that there is an interesting section that includes a list of local businesses that are willing to support the community during this hard period of time. It actually strengthens the sense of community which embraces the solidarity of the local community. For NNIFF, I think we could work with some of the Melbourne-based businesses, even though they are close down currently, but I would consider those cooperations sustainably in terms of sharing positive attitudes towards more people in the future, rather than for this certain period of time only.
Reference:
Thom Powers’ article in IndieWire, “Film Festivals Aren’t Just Surviving Online, They’re Creating a Better Future“
