Musings of an Idiot

NZ Film Festival (???)

Surprisingly I did receive a reply from the NZ Film Festivals and it has infuriated me by it's apparent lack of support for local films. As I said in the last email I was a bit perplexed by the rejection email sent by the Film Festival saying that they had a huge number of local entries, the response I got to my query was :

"I haven't made a check on the exact figures, but this year we had approximately 35 feature length films submitted from New Zealand and this was roughly evenly split between features and documentaries. At this stage we have confirmed 10 for the Festivals around the country (although they won't all be in the Auckland International Film Festival). This breaks down to 7 documentaries and 3 features."

Now the website for the film festival says 'The Festival has a long tradition of supporting New Zealand filmmakers.' and here I can see atleast 25 local film makers from across the country whose movies will never get screened to a big audience. I am totally stumped by the lack of support for NZ Film makers this year - I mean it is hard enough to get films made without a budget and then to be told - "Thank you very much but we can't fit you in just because we have limited spots for local films." seems like a real kick in the balls for local film makers.

And for chrissake - 35 feature projects made in NZ in one single year out of which 25 will never get screened to a big audience is just blasphemy. I mean the first thing it tells me is that there are a lot more people out there making movies - possibly maxing out there credit cards and stuff to make independent films and that is always a good sign for the industry - it is growing. The second thing that tells me is that NZ Film Festivals is not interested in supporting NZ Film makers at all - they are more interested in putting out a 'commercial' festival where they can make money out of it. What the hell is wrong with people nowadays? It makes me wonder if it should even be called NZ Film Festivals at all.

Oh and I am not writing criticism for the heck of it - I have already let my position known to NZ Film Festivals about their 'support' for NZ Film makers and I am even toying with the idea of making a short documentary on the topic. And I do intend to be as vocal about it as I can - someone will listen and highlight the issue. You can't simply kill off vital bloodline to the local talent - the idea is to nurture talent, not to stifle it. Nothing will happen with this year's film festival but hopefully they will get back to supporting local film makers from next year.

Signing off for now,
Amit

Labels: Movies, NZ Film Festival

posted by Amit @ 6:42 PM