The death of film festivals?

Something significant happened this week; film festivals died a little. What I mean by that of course is the fact that Shrek Forever 3-D is opening the Tribeca Film Festival. Wait a second here . . something smells fishy about this, and I don't mean the abnormal smell of a giant green ogre.

I think it is fair to say that most film festivals have gone way too Hollywood lately. The days of festivals looking for emerging talents and taking chances on films that may otherwise not have seen the light of day may be behind us.

I've been hearing through the film-maker's grapevine for many years now about how festivals just aren't what they used to be. However I really started to take notice of the backslide of the festival world in 2006 when The Da Vinci Code opened the 59th Cannes Film Festival. I mean really, did Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks need any extra publicity for their bloated Hollywood production.

I wonder if there would have been room at Sundance back in 1994 for Kevin Smith's Clerks if it had to fight for screen time against some big budget films of that year like Forrest Gump or Legends of the Fall.

Not to say that there are not film festivals out there still fighting the good fight. In fact there are several; even some notable ones here in the sunshine state. However it feels disheartening to hear how some unknown filmmaker lost a slot at Sundance this year because of a Spike Jonze short film. I mean Spike Jonze is great don't get me wrong, but can't he just add his short film to the DVD of his next feature?

Look, I understand “festival people”, it’s a numbers game right? What worries me is that film festivals used to be a nice alternative to big budget Hollywood films. Not that there is anything wrong with a big old, pumped up, Hollywood mess of a film, with bad writing, predictable dialogue and a happy ending. But what would we do if that’s all there was? There was no more Sex, Lies and Videotape or Basketball Diaries, only Shrek sequels. Wouldn’t that make us all feel a little . . . green?

It's been a while

Yes, it's been some time since I've posted here. That's not to say I have not been doing anything . . it fact it's exactly the opposite. I've been very busy.

Two weeks ago the computer that I edited most of the film on was stolen out of my house, along with my bike that I take to work almost every day. The break in could have been worse, so I'm not sweating it. Sad though.

I just had the pleasure of watching an early cut of "The Ah of Life" by my friend and fellow filmmaker Banks Helfrich. It's in its early stages and still needs some work, but it is the kind of story that makes me want to be a filmmaker/storyteller. The movie is about . . well, life..and time. Banks is a very talented guy, I'm proud to know him. Keep your eye out for it when it's complete.

As for as Average Community, well just working on some last minute legal stuff. And now contacting distributors and sending out screeners. If I get a bite from any of the big ones, awesome! If not, I'm gonna work on packaging up the film myself and start selling. I'm not going to bother with smaller distributors. Most of them are just gonna make a butch of promises and then take all my money. Who needs that.

Either way, I'm hoping to be able to have the film available soon. Only time will tell . . . right Banks.