To be completely honest, I had no idea film festivals are so new in the US. Sure, Sundance has been around for a while, but for all the other thousands to have mostly sprung up in the last ten or twenty years is kind of a shock. Probably because I was alive ten and twenty years ago. It seems so natural to have film festivals, therefore it seemed to me that they have just always been there. That said, I find it inspiring that so many people have stepped up to start so many interesting festivals in this country. If there is one thing about the industry that inspires me the most, its the drive, determination, and eventual success of independent and underground filmmakers, festival-runners, and festival-goers. The fact that there are now numerous "successful" festivals (which now have the clout to have their screened beauts picked up by distributors) and so many other opportunities for people to just exhibit what they've done is like a big F.U. to Hollywood as an exclusive, greedy, self-serving corporation.
I was also really excited to see Cucalorus on the list of underground film festivals! That is an amazing thing for Wilmington to be recognized so highly in this tight-knit community and among the other festivals the article mentions. It was even more amazing to see a second North Carolina festival mentioned.
The most interesting part about the interview with Josh Koury is how knowledgable he is about marketing and business strategies. Not only did he make a well-received film that toured the world, he did so because he knew exactly which strings to pluck. Not only did he start a film festival that has grown to be very successful, he did so because he pick something specific and modeled every single thing after his artistic ideas about how he wanted it to feel attending that festival. Specificity is a huge strength of his.
No comments:
Post a Comment