Worldfest Debriefing

Talking to Dr. Write the other day made me realize that I never did post on this subject. And for that I apologize, although my rant-avoidance reasoning was honorable, I think. Who wants to listen to a Sleepy E rant when they can be doing mental prep for World Cup?

This is the deal: Worldfest is the vanity publisher of film festivals. Worldfest is a mid-level competitive festival that has more categories than should be allowed by law (I think Best Medical Commercial was one). And each category has five or six or seven awards in it (grand prize, jury prize, platinum, gold, silver, bronze, etc). So there are a ton of awards going out, so many that they really lose all meaning. So they invite the hundreds of award winners out to Houston, and they try to program premieres because they know everyone brings associates and friends and family to their premiere. Then they charge $100/head to go to the awards banquet and they pack in as many people as they can and get stingy with the wine. Add to that a submission fee that is basically double what most festivals charge and it starts to look like a little business.

Not that film festivals need to be non-profit in the economical sense (although it's interesting that 90% of foreign festivals are free to enter whereas 95% of domestic festivals charge a fee ($40-$100). But all of the Worldfest revenue stream seems to be internal, via the filmmakers themselves (and their posse). No Houston locals were even aware that there was a festival going on. There was no advertising or coverage in the print media or on television or radio even, it seemed. So there were no walk-in ticket sales, really. Just filmmakers and friends watching each others films. Weird.

And slightly disturbing. I was in a foul mood most of the festival when I learned what was going on. But only because certain expectations (cool art house theaters, newly discovered international cinema, alternative shorts, a spirit of indyness and congratulation) weren't met. Instead it's a transaction, which is: I pay them my money and they give me an award that I can put on my poster. There's even downloadable laurel leaves and trophies on their website, which makes total sense. They are a wholesaler of awards. A clearing house. If your film needs an award, go to Worldfest, because in this particular case Worldfest's obscurity works for it (nobody knows about Worldfest, but they also don't know that it's BS either!).

Did I forget to mention the cash bar at the $100/head dinner?

Now that I know what it is I'm fine with it. Nobody would ever premiere at Worldfest unless they hadn't got rejected everywhere else. That's why they don't program hits from other festivals! Because no one would bring their posse to Houston if they had a legitimate festival run going on!

Sorry if that sounds negative. The cool thing was that the premiere went really well and we had a big local turnout and a lot of old-time players got together and there was kind of a reunion of sorts among them. It was great to premiere in Houston for this reason. Mark the recluse came from Boulder and one player came from San Francisco and the folks from Gig Harbor and my friend and composer came from Seattle. So it was cool to hang with everyone in Houston, but, I'm sorry, the film festival is a joke.

The problem is that Way of the Puck isn't getting programmed anywhere. At all. It's kind of embarrassing, really. I continue to send out, but it continues to get rejected.

Here are some guesses why:

1. It's not an "issue movie." It's not "socially conscious", whatever that means.
2. I'm not down with the Festival Mafia and the Gatekeeping Cabal.
3. I consistently turn in my stuff right at the deadline instead of before.
4. It sucks.
5. The beginning doesn't grab people.
6. Air hockey is trivial.
7. It's impossible to overturn people's expectations about the triviality of air hockey in the first five minutes of the movie.
8. Sharpie on a DVD face.
9. Everyone is on drugs.
10. No movie stars.

At the end of the day Worldfest is actually cool because at least I was able to have a premiere at all! Actually, this works against me now too...b/c I want to make changes but I've already premiered and I have a shelf life and the date stamp on my box is fast approaching and soon I will wilt and smell bad and have to go in the disposal.

Ah well. New projects beckon. Onward!