14
Oct
2003
When you ask Brandon Jones about the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival, he often sounds like the shoestring-budget seat-of-the-pants filmmakers whose work he's bringing to the Quad Cities next week.
"Our biggest downfall is that we don't have any staff," Jones said. The festival has a budget of $10,000, and getting it going involved a certain amount of salesmanship when the substance hadn't yet been developed.
"We sold a lot of vapor, and suddenly we had to deliver," Jones said. "We sold an idea."
And as with independent films, Jones and other organizers had to hustle to get what they wanted. They put out a national call for submissions, but Jones said many of the films in the festival were recruited. He said he sent a letter to each of the people listed in Filmmaker magazine's list of 25 new faces of independent cinema, for instance.
"That's why we got a lot of great films," he said. "We don't want to have a film festival to say we had a film festival. ... Every one of our features has won an award. Most of our documentaries have."
The MidCoast Film & Arts Festival runs from October 23 to 26, with screenings at Nova 6 in Moline and Quad Cities Brew & View in Rock Island. (There will also be two screenings of George Lucas' American Graffiti on Saturday, October 25, at the Adler Theatre.)
As you'll see from the coverage in these pages, Jones and his fellow organizers (including River Cities' Reader Publisher Todd McGreevy) have done an excellent job bringing quality independent movies and filmmakers to the Quad Cities, with plenty of local connections.
The festival features 34 films, from a three-and-a-half-minute short to independently made documentaries and feature films. The festival encompasses 38 screenings, three workshops, and four special events. Organizers said 17 of the films have Illinois or Iowa connections, and as of this writing, more than 20 of the films are scheduled to have representatives attending the festival. For details on all events and movies, visit www.midcoast.org.
By seeking out movies rather than waiting for them to come in, the MidCoast festival is avoiding a typical weakness of younger events: movies that aren't very good. "We've brought a national scene to the Quad Cities," Jones said.
"It's three times the size I thought it would be the first year," he said of the festival, particularly in terms of the number of special events, visiting filmmakers, and screenings. Jones said organizers had expected to have 24 film screenings the first year.
The challenge with any festival is getting people to have faith that their investments of time and money will be worth it. "When you go [to the multiplex to] see a movie, the studio has a $10-million marketing budget to work with. You know that movie's there," Jones said. "We're bringing all these movies that nobody's ever heard of."
That's not because the movies aren't good; more likely, they were made with small budgets and don't have stars whose names you'd recognize. In box-office-gross-obsessed Hollywood, names sell pictures, and films without them don't get seen.
One of the joys of film festivals is discovering great movies before the rest of the world has. There's an excellent chance that some of the filmmakers whose work is represented at the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival will, in the near future, have movie buffs wagging their tongues. "You're taking a chance, just like the filmmakers did," Jones said. "You really don't know what you're getting into."
In the long run, Jones said he'd like to see the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival have more than 100 screenings and feature other venues. The dynamic of the festival would be "an import-export thing," he said. In other words, the festival would bring in acclaimed films and filmmakers from around the country and help cultivate more moviemaking talent in the Quad Cities. Meanwhile, festival organizers eventually hope to provide a platform for emerging film talent in the Quad Cities to export their product and gain exposure at other national film festivals.
Toward that end, the festival features a handful of workshops, on the topics "Writing the Low-Budget Independent Film," animation, and "Film, Video, & Digital Photography."
Jones hails from the Dallas area but got acquainted with the Quad Cities through the company that in 2001 opened Nova 6 in Moline. Jones left the company in August to start his own firm.
Although he's not from this area and doesn't live here, Jones said he saw through Nova 6 that the Quad Cities are eager to support nonmainstream movies. The fall after Nova 6 opened, the theatre hosted an independent-film series that showcased acclaimed movies that weren't being shown at the local multiplex. "I saw these films outgross the blockbusters," Jones said.
Those movies, and the success of the Quad Cities Brew & View, have proved that this market will support independent cinema with plenty of buzz. The movies that are being shown as part of the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival don't yet have that cachet, but Jones is convinced that the community will come.
After all, these are the movies and filmmakers that the world will be buzzing about soon.
Admission to MidCoast Film & Arts Festival screenings is $7 for adults and $5 for students. Six- and eight-screening passes (which also include admission to special events) are available for $40 and $60, respectively. For more information, visit (www.midcoast.org).
"We sold a lot of vapor, and suddenly we had to deliver," Jones said. "We sold an idea."
And as with independent films, Jones and other organizers had to hustle to get what they wanted. They put out a national call for submissions, but Jones said many of the films in the festival were recruited. He said he sent a letter to each of the people listed in Filmmaker magazine's list of 25 new faces of independent cinema, for instance.
"That's why we got a lot of great films," he said. "We don't want to have a film festival to say we had a film festival. ... Every one of our features has won an award. Most of our documentaries have."
The MidCoast Film & Arts Festival runs from October 23 to 26, with screenings at Nova 6 in Moline and Quad Cities Brew & View in Rock Island. (There will also be two screenings of George Lucas' American Graffiti on Saturday, October 25, at the Adler Theatre.)
As you'll see from the coverage in these pages, Jones and his fellow organizers (including River Cities' Reader Publisher Todd McGreevy) have done an excellent job bringing quality independent movies and filmmakers to the Quad Cities, with plenty of local connections.
The festival features 34 films, from a three-and-a-half-minute short to independently made documentaries and feature films. The festival encompasses 38 screenings, three workshops, and four special events. Organizers said 17 of the films have Illinois or Iowa connections, and as of this writing, more than 20 of the films are scheduled to have representatives attending the festival. For details on all events and movies, visit www.midcoast.org.
By seeking out movies rather than waiting for them to come in, the MidCoast festival is avoiding a typical weakness of younger events: movies that aren't very good. "We've brought a national scene to the Quad Cities," Jones said.
"It's three times the size I thought it would be the first year," he said of the festival, particularly in terms of the number of special events, visiting filmmakers, and screenings. Jones said organizers had expected to have 24 film screenings the first year.
The challenge with any festival is getting people to have faith that their investments of time and money will be worth it. "When you go [to the multiplex to] see a movie, the studio has a $10-million marketing budget to work with. You know that movie's there," Jones said. "We're bringing all these movies that nobody's ever heard of."
That's not because the movies aren't good; more likely, they were made with small budgets and don't have stars whose names you'd recognize. In box-office-gross-obsessed Hollywood, names sell pictures, and films without them don't get seen.
One of the joys of film festivals is discovering great movies before the rest of the world has. There's an excellent chance that some of the filmmakers whose work is represented at the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival will, in the near future, have movie buffs wagging their tongues. "You're taking a chance, just like the filmmakers did," Jones said. "You really don't know what you're getting into."
In the long run, Jones said he'd like to see the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival have more than 100 screenings and feature other venues. The dynamic of the festival would be "an import-export thing," he said. In other words, the festival would bring in acclaimed films and filmmakers from around the country and help cultivate more moviemaking talent in the Quad Cities. Meanwhile, festival organizers eventually hope to provide a platform for emerging film talent in the Quad Cities to export their product and gain exposure at other national film festivals.
Toward that end, the festival features a handful of workshops, on the topics "Writing the Low-Budget Independent Film," animation, and "Film, Video, & Digital Photography."
Jones hails from the Dallas area but got acquainted with the Quad Cities through the company that in 2001 opened Nova 6 in Moline. Jones left the company in August to start his own firm.
Although he's not from this area and doesn't live here, Jones said he saw through Nova 6 that the Quad Cities are eager to support nonmainstream movies. The fall after Nova 6 opened, the theatre hosted an independent-film series that showcased acclaimed movies that weren't being shown at the local multiplex. "I saw these films outgross the blockbusters," Jones said.
Those movies, and the success of the Quad Cities Brew & View, have proved that this market will support independent cinema with plenty of buzz. The movies that are being shown as part of the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival don't yet have that cachet, but Jones is convinced that the community will come.
After all, these are the movies and filmmakers that the world will be buzzing about soon.
Admission to MidCoast Film & Arts Festival screenings is $7 for adults and $5 for students. Six- and eight-screening passes (which also include admission to special events) are available for $40 and $60, respectively. For more information, visit (www.midcoast.org).
