You made a great film. Now give it a great run.
Sugar rush hour from Bianca Consunji on Vimeo.
This is admirable filmmaking: a documentary exactly as long as it needs to be, and not a second more. There are filmmakers out there who would try to make a feature-length doc out of this but documentarian Bianca Consunji sums up a man’s life in two exquisite minutes. I don’t know if this was submitted to film festivals but it could play a ton of them.
Science documentarians take note: this touring science film festival may be the place for your film, particularly if it caters to children.
From the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences web site:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category.
I’m mildly disappointed that Being Elmo isn’t on the list but one can hardly argue that the film hasn’t been successful. If you also enjoyed its Muppety goodness, you can always vote for it in the IFP Audience Awards.
Basil Tsiokos at What (Not) to Doc on the dangers of assuming that your pet cause merits a feature-length documentary:
If you are a filmmaker, and you enjoy making films about things happening in your life, you may feel that your pet cause is as worthy of being filmed as any other issue out there. More power to you. Make your film about why you think male dogs should be forced to wear pants, and enjoy watching the final product with your friends, family, and pets. However, if you think your two-hour long pantalooned dog advocacy project is likely to resonate with the masses, I’d wager you are probably wrong.
I would add to Tsiokos’ sentiments that even if your cause does merit a feature-length doc, be careful not to conflate the film and the cause.
Chances are your film will be rejected from more than a few film festivals. That doesn’t mean that the festival and its staffers don’t believe in the cause – it just means they don’t want to play your film.
In the months and years immediately following Hurricane Katrina, I saw this a lot at various festivals. A fest would reject a film about pets who were orphaned after the storm or the plight of displaced kids and the filmmakers would start hurling accusations.
“You don’t care about starving animals!” they’d say, usually in an hastily (and angrily) composed email. (This charge leveled at one fest was particularly silly, as the head programmer was married to the director of an animal shelter.) The filmmakers just couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea that rejecting a film isn’t the same thing as rejecting the ideas behind it.
If you find yourself in this situation, consider the fact that a documentary doesn’t have to play festivals to benefit the cause. If raising awareness is the goal, getting the film out there online (and perhaps creating a few versions of different lengths) will probably get more eyes on the issue and effect more change.
Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers
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