moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (06/21/85)
Well, it's been about a week since The 10th Annual Seattle
International Film Festival closed, and I have to admit that this is
one of the reasons I really enjoy living is Seattle. It also makes me
very curious -- are there festivals like this one anywhere else in
the country?
First, a brief summary: the Seattle Film Festival is run by Dan
Ireland and Darryl MacDonald, owners of "The World-Famous
Egyptian Theatre", where the majority of the films are shown (half
were also shown at the Pike Street Market Theater this year).
They work at getting premieres and films which they feel the
audiences of Seattle would really enjoy. This year there were
about 200 films shown, about 70% of them being foreign. The
Festival has a reputation of finding independent films, or films on
the shelf, and launching them into sucessful independent runs;
good examples are: _Soldier_of_Orange_, _The_Stunt_Man_ (for
which I am enternally grateful), _The_4th_Man_, _Choose_Me_ and
_Blood_Simple_.
This is definately a festival for movie *fans*; next to no seats are
reserved, except for the people premiering the film (i.e. no
distributors). This strikes me as different than Cannes (and
Filmex?), as it is not tailored to get the distributor's eye -- it is
designed to catch word-of-mouth support, which is valuable in
Seattle (apparently Seattle and Portland have what marketeers call
a "market average" type of viewer for the smaller films). Also,
they do something here which I have not heard of at other
festivals of this size: they have producers, directors, writers and
actors come up after the showing of the film and answer questions
from the audience. This is a really wonderful part of the festival,
as the insights gained into how the industry really works are very
engrossing. People seem unusually frank, and it makes for a very
interesting evening (the majority of the questions are suprisingly
well asked -- no People Magazine questions).
So anyway, does your city have a festival like this? How is it alike
and different than my description of the Seattle festival? How
large is it? Who does it cater to? I'm very curious to find out how
widespread festivals like this are....
Thanks in advance....
"History is made at night. Character is what you are in the dark."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPAreiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (06/24/85)
>This year there were >about 200 films shown, about 70% of them being foreign. The >Festival has a reputation of finding independent films, or films on >the shelf, and launching them into sucessful independent runs; >good examples are: _Soldier_of_Orange_, _The_Stunt_Man_ (for >which I am enternally grateful), _The_4th_Man_, _Choose_Me_ and >_Blood_Simple_. > Filmex is about the same size (apx. 150-200 films). It used to be up around 300 films, but many people complained that the extra hundred films were of low quality, and the vast number of films made it all the harder to spot the jewels among the crap. Filmex also has a reputation for spotlighting unknown films and directors, more frequently foreign than domestic. (By the way, "Blood Simple" played at Filmex two years ago, but it has been floating around the film festival circuit for quite some time. I think it first surfaced at a Texas film festival.) >This is definately a festival for movie *fans*; next to no seats are >reserved, except for the people premiering the film (i.e. no >distributors). This strikes me as different than Cannes (and >Filmex?), as it is not tailored to get the distributor's eye -- it is >designed to catch word-of-mouth support, which is valuable in Filmex has always been a film buff's festival, with the added attraction that, since it's held in LA, some of those buffs are with the studios or independent film distributors. I've never heard of any tickets being reserved for distributors or anything like that. (The opening event is vastly expensive, so the attendees to that are largely film industry people.) I don't think that the Filmex philosophy really focuses on getting any kind of support for the films it shows, but rather tries to bring in films people wouldn't be able to see elsewhere. I'm sure that the people showing their films have a rather different point of view, however, seeing it as a chance to display their films and filmmakers to the Hollywood establishment. However, there is little talk in the lobby of distribution deals or anything like that. >Also, >they do something here which I have not heard of at other >festivals of this size: they have producers, directors, writers and >actors come up after the showing of the film and answer questions >from the audience. > My impression is that this is a standard part of the major film festivals. It certainly is at Filmex, where it is usual for someone associated with the film to show up after it to speak. For instance, this year I heard Will Vinton, Vernon Zimmerman ("Deadhead Miles"), Lawrence Trimble (an actor in "Blanche"), Juliusz Machulski ("Sex Mission"), Allen Edwall (an actor/director best known for playing the father in "Fanny and Alexander"), Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russia's most famous poet, showing off "The Kindergarten", his first film, and implausibly trying to sell Hollywood producers on a Marxist version of "The Three Musketeers"), Irving Kirshner, and one of the Kordas. I missed some speakers because I went to afternoon showings, which were cheaper. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher