After having some screenings in Prague, participating in two local festivals (Přehlídka Esteticky Nízkonákladových Intelektuálních Snímků, PENIS and the last edition of Some Like it Short) and winning in the local round of České vize, I took my movies for a tour of the country, and visit some of the Czech Amateur Film Festivals. Here are some quick notes from my travel notebook:
The first time: Vráž
I started the year in Vráž, near Beroun. It was a one-day festival, and the only one that had free wine, yay! Although it was a little bit early in the day for a first drink. The organizers were friendly, although the projection space was very inconvenient: not a cinema, but a general-purpose room.
The jury was weird: they completely misunderstood I love you, stranger as a movie about friendship, which is as much as to say it is about frisbee players. And that was the only piece of feedback given. As comparison, from the Amateur Film Festival in Birmingham we got full, detailed written report and a grade. The jury member that seemed to be more “respected” was very much a typical boomer, so this comes as no surprise, but it is disappointing that the younger fellows didn’t oppose him. The jury admitted that they were not very good at evaluating animated movies, so they more or less refrained from doing so, which irritated some participants, understandably.
Another weird issue was that, while the jury accepted the comment from the filmmakers that film school students had no place in amateur film festivals, because of the material support and pedagogical guidance they receive. Yet they still gave a film school student’s film on two prizes, including the first prize on its category.
One of the organizers took the unusual step of writing me, and telling me they were disappointed that I did not win anything, because they believed the film deserved it, and that the jury clearly overlook it. Oh well… maybe don’t invite boomers and their lackeys next time then?
The Newcomers: BAF and FAF
I attended two new festivals, in Bílovec (BAF) and in the Atom Museum in Brdy (FAF).
BAF was held at the same time that the yearly celebrations of the city of Bílovec, which added a nice extra to the program: food stands, live music and a very funny tradition of running up the (castle) hill. The program was quite diverse, and it attracted viewers beyond the filmmakers themselves, which was a nice plus: seeing the reaction of an actual audience is way nicer and more informative than the reaction of peers. Unfortunately, as the festival was only one day long and one among many events in the city, there was limited space for networking.
FAF had more opportunity for networking among filmmakers, and the super relaxed vibes of the organizers, and the emphasis they made on showing the people behind the camera (thanks to interviews and dedicated stands for promoting other movies from participating studios/creative groups) was invaluable. There was no jury nor prizes, and everyone went home with a nice impression and a bag of swag including a very tasty almond liquor (see photo).
Rychnov, Tanvald, Střekov and Vysokov
These are the more “established” festivals in the amateur circuit, all of the on their 55th+ run.
Rychnovská osmička had a very charged two-day program. It was very hard to choose among films, because one did not know the description of the films and there was a mixture of categories across blocks. The jury, two little-known documentarists and a very mediocre one, together with a turtle-like super old professor, provided feedback on the sessions. Most of the feedback was on-point, notably from Professor Turtle; some was rather personal attacks and rants, coming mainly from the mediocre documentarist. Some of the filmmakers took an overly defensive tone on the feedback, even when it was obviously deserved, and overused the time to defend themselves, which made the discussion incredibly tedious.
The most serious ofence: I don’t recall seeing many actual viewers (that is, beyond filmmakers themselves) on the sessions, which opens the question: what is even the point? The jury sucks, people don’t take constructive feedback and no one else comes but the filmmakers. It was incredibly disappointing for a festival on its 66th year run. The Prague festivals (PENIS and Some Like It Short) have often audience beyond filmmakers and their friends (maybe some get confused because of their phallic names?)
Tanvald (HAF) was better: the super-short two-hour program of comedy films flew by. Again, not much of an audience, but much less boring than Rychnovská osmička, perhaps because of the lighter movies. The landscape around is gorgeous, and worth the hike all the way up to Špičak.
The issue of whether to include or not student films in amateur competitions was raised during the prize ceremony by one of the winners. It’s easy to understand the feeling (having gear and mentors sounds like cheating), but the devil is in the details: what is a student, even? If a FAMU student uses their one gear, is it a student film or not? It is also a bit hard to take given that the rebel winner’s early teens daughter had a (suspiciously) very beautifully crafted film. Isn’t this very similar to a student getting help? Or, how about us, since we received feedback from professionals in the industry, and even paid some of them (colour grading and sound), are we cheating? How much help is too much help, and at which point do we consider it “cheating”?
Vysokov is great, if not necessarily for the program, for the cultural experience of going to an early 20th century Czech pub. Střekov was better organized (they had a printed program with synopsis, which is a fantastic idea everyone should copy), but otherwise similar in spirit to Rychnov.
Post-mortem
I am rethinking the distribution strategy for next year. While travelling around is fun and I did meet interesting people, the community is so small that it makes no sense to do the full circuit, unless one enjoys watching the same films over and over again. In general, there is little promotion to the filmmakers’ themselves, and no real, actual audience, at least not on the older festivals.
I feel that these older festivals froze in time, sticking to a certain style, inviting the same old, tired frustrated filmmakers as jury, which may have conflicts of interest. One notoriously mediocre movie made podium in two festivals, but hey, the director seems very well-connected to the Prague cultural scene… I want to believe that this had nothing to do, but it’s hard.
There is a big community of amateur filmmakers in the country. Film and TV is one of our core industries: Czechia is a gigantic set, with gorgeous, varied locations. There are world-class post-production and VFX companies, and a significant videogame industry (which is relevant, given the increasing interplay between film and videogames). Young people do show up on these events. It is important that these festivals become open to new ideas, to bring the festivals up-to-date, or they risk extinction, which would be unfortunate because of their historical significance as small islands of free speech during the Communism.