The Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival is the first screening of my film, COVID Dystopia outside of Orlando Florida. Pam and I took the trip to Chicago to attend the festival. The screenings were in a beautiful historic fire house.
In all, 50 short films were screened. I printed up 50 cards with the movie poster on it and only one card was picked up. The buttons I printed with the laurel and the COVID title did much better since 12 of those buttons were picked up. For the next festival I will be printing small url stickers to place on the back of each button. scanning the url symbol would link directly to the film.
There were about 79 people in the theater for the screening of my film titled COVID Dystopia. In my film block there was a film about building schools in Uganda. In the audience was the wife of the man who is spearheading this effort to improve education in his home country. She stood up in the question and answer session and said she was amazed by the quality of the films but some of the films frightened her. I have no doubt she was talking about COVID.
The staff and volunteers that ran the screening were amazing. In one day, Pam and I sat through ten hours of short films in a row. When you see that many shorts in a row, you become thankful for the shorts that are extremely concise.
The only thing I regret about the festival is that there was no opportunity to meet the other film makers. It would have been nice to meet the other film makers in a local bar or restaurant or even a tent outside the theater with a food truck for food.
Seeing my film o the big screen I decided I need to make on change at the beginning. The music came on so strange to start that the sound system couldn’t quite handle it. I will reduce the volume a bit and let it build. All the animation being added helps direct the audience’s eyes but I am sure it is still overwhelming.
Several older ladies came up after the screening to ask more questions about my film. Pam pointed out that the older members of the audience have experienced more and aren’t as likely to fall prey to the amnesia and denial that fuels the “back to normal” mindset of the majority of Americans.
In some ways I feel I am hiding the messaging of my film by only showing it at film festivals. If I shared it on you tube it will become ineligible for many of the larger festivals. I am committed to the festival circuit and hope the film will start to pick up some steam.