The New York International Independent Film and Video Festiv
Written: Nov 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: guaranteed screening
Cons: seems unorganized, a lot of bad films
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| hamburgerman's Full Review: New York City |
Review Topic: Events & Festivals
The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival takes place three times a year – Spring, Summer and Winter. I chose to participate in the summer event. The festival takes place in Manhattan, NYC.
The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival charges $300 ($500 for NY & LA) to enter your work, but they (supposedly) refund the money if they don't accept your film. But from what I saw in New York, if your check clears, you are in!
My film LAUGHING BOY played the festival on Wednesday July 12. My friend Sheila and I went two days early to start generating some buzz. We did not attend the Madison Square Garden wing-ding, although I flirted with the idea of buying a booth. Luckily I chose not to.
I was fortunate enough to meet a director that won "best director" honors a couple of years ago at NYIIFVF. His advice was DO NOT DEPEND ON THIS FESTIVAL TO DO ANY PROMOTING FOR YOU. They will provide you with a screening opportunity - that is all. Sam’s comments turned out to be the best possible advice.
My mistake was my choice of screening time. I chose NOON on Wednesday to allow people in for free (otherwise screenings are $10 to $20 dollars each.) After attending a couple of afternoon shows at the festival, I was a nervous wreck, thinking no one would show up to see LAUGHING BOY. I mean, only eight people showed up for the noon show on Monday. I did choose the correct theater, though, the Clearview Cinema. The Tinker Auditorium address the festival published is not actually where you enter the building. You had to enter from 60th St., not 59th. That must have been very confusing for many people. I would have been angry if I made that choice. Anyway, we had a house of 60 people on Wednesday noon, which to me was a huge accomplishment. Even better, nobody walked out during the screening (other screenings I attended has massive walk-outs.) There were only 30 people at the Monday 8PM screening, and half of those were friends and family the director brought with him from South Carolina.
Our screening went fine, no sound problems, and the color was good. We presented LAUGHING BOY on betaSP (we never cut the 16mm negative). We only had one distributor attend.
All in all, I had a decent experience in NY, but the good experience is the result of our hard work, not any work done by the festival. Lesson to learn: NEVER depend on ANY festival to you the promoting for you. You can only depend on yourself. If we had not beat the pavement the two days prior to our screening, probably no one would have shown up. I think our 60 people was the biggest weekday afternoon screening of the festival (we left Thursday, so we didn't see anything after our screening.) Stuart Alson actually stayed to watch LAUGHING BOY, along with another festival staff member. They seemed genuinely surprised that we had as many people as we did in the afternoon.
LAUGHING BOY won "most original feature" at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival 2000. When I signed up for this festival, I opted to screen in LA as well. It should be much better for us, since our email list of LA industry people are already aware of our NY presence (as well as other screenings), and they have just been sent the press release below.
Do I recommend this festival to other filmmakers? No. Would I do the festival again? Yes, depending on how many screenings my project has had prior. It is a guaranteed screening after all. I would choose a better time slot and I would work as hard, or even harder, as I did this time to get the word out. Remember, it is your responsibility to promote your own work, no matter what anyone else promises you.
The festival has recently contacted me offering me a package where they will represent my film at three major markets, including Cannes, for $995. No way.
Recommended:
No
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hamburgerman
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Member: Brazil (Joe) Grisaffi
Location: Houston, TX
Reviews written: 38
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