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Sep. 9th, 2006 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frandroidSo there's this really bad film festival going on in Toronto alongside with TIFF called "Rebelfest", and their main credo is that they don't want government funded films. It's kind of a randroid film festival. And the films are pretty bad. It was badly publicized as well; the afternoon audience reached the high teens, and that's after giving away tickets.
Tonight they had a film called Punk Love, which I decided to see as I had to pick something from the bad selection to review for Excalibur (I got a press pass.) The producer or distributor of the film was on a panel I went to last night talking all about how "there's gotta be something that will make people come in the theater" and "it's gotta look good on the poster" kinda stuff. Apparently this guy worked at Miramax since Sex, Lies and Videotape until recently.
So obviously, the hook here is "punk", and he wants all the kids to show up. The problem here is that if you make a film where the punks (they're a couple) are the protagonists, you don't make them pathetic junkies, and you don't have the chick's cop uncle kill her boyfriend, in revenge for her killing her sexually abusive father. Like what, killing molesters has to be punished now?
Also, it would help if they didn't make every woman helpless and crying all the time. They kinda missed on their whole female audience there. But really, no one's ever going to see this film so there's no loss.
Tonight they had a film called Punk Love, which I decided to see as I had to pick something from the bad selection to review for Excalibur (I got a press pass.) The producer or distributor of the film was on a panel I went to last night talking all about how "there's gotta be something that will make people come in the theater" and "it's gotta look good on the poster" kinda stuff. Apparently this guy worked at Miramax since Sex, Lies and Videotape until recently.
So obviously, the hook here is "punk", and he wants all the kids to show up. The problem here is that if you make a film where the punks (they're a couple) are the protagonists, you don't make them pathetic junkies, and you don't have the chick's cop uncle kill her boyfriend, in revenge for her killing her sexually abusive father. Like what, killing molesters has to be punished now?
Also, it would help if they didn't make every woman helpless and crying all the time. They kinda missed on their whole female audience there. But really, no one's ever going to see this film so there's no loss.
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Date: 2006-09-10 06:58 am (UTC)oh, and i'm reading up, they are non-profit and hate big studios... this is definately non-randoid.. it sounds retarded, yeh.
Everybody loses!
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Date: 2006-09-10 05:50 pm (UTC)Sounds awesome to me...
The fact is, 95% of film production in Canada (I made up the number, but I'm sure it's a good guess) is government-supported. So what Canadian films would we have without government support?
The randroidism was more blatant from the producers' panel coordinator, presumably a festival organizer.
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Date: 2006-09-10 10:07 pm (UTC)95%! that is damned high... I don't know what films would be like otherwise... I know a rather prominent producer though, and i know they don't got the megabux.
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Date: 2006-10-08 07:32 am (UTC)The closer government agencies align themselves with market criteria, the more useless they become. (No wait, let me revise that - the closer they align themselves with market criteria, OR nation-building propaganda)
Before Wayne Clarkson took over Telefilm (not that things are likely to have improved since), their 2004 Vice-Chairman's report focused squarely on the theme of 'CONQUERING AUDIENCES.' He also addressed the topic of cultural diversity, in the following fashion: 'Cultural Diversity: an added value in CONQUERING AUDIENCES.'
THIS is why people think that state funding for the arts sucks. But the state was not responsible for Curly Sue, Boondock Saints or Gigli either. Be careful what you wish for, cf. health care...
Anyway, I was all sad that I missed the deadline for Rebelfest with my, like, 40th non-government-funded project...so thanks for the reality check. Sounds absolutely grotesque.
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Date: 2006-10-09 01:07 am (UTC)You should have sent your film after the deadline, it might have gotten through anyway, considering the pisspoor selection.