Birth of a Film Festival

There is an article on the BBC News website about ‘viral video online’ and the increase in the number of people putting their video clips on sites like You Tube.

The BBC article by Ian Hardy suggests that “it is not all silly stunts and goofy clips; some of this stuff is pretty serious”.

Which is becoming more and more true, he goes on to say that “it is only a matter of time before a new tier of home-based entertainers become household names around the world”.

For an element of proof that this is already happening I point you towards the Radio 1 website and more specifically the chart page.

At number 1 you have Crazy by Gnarles Barkley, the Love is All Around of the download generation (except actually a good song) - this isn’t what I want you to look at.

I want you to lower your eyes to number two and Sandi Thom - I’m not saying Sandi wouldn’t have made it without the web but it probably would have taken a lot longer.

You see Sandi Thom first got noticed after webcasting performances from her basement, it started slowly but soon a hundred thousand or so people where watching - including record labels.

Equipment, broadand and storage are getting cheaper at the same time as learning about video production and media is becoming a major part of education.

These two factors are combing to create a new era in visual media where the content is in the hands of the many instead of the few with the money.

There are also short film festivals, awards and events springing up to give this increasingly large band of filmmakers a place to show their work.

OK there is a lot of crap out there, most of which centres around young lads kicking each other in the balls - but there is some real talent as well.

The BBC has already realised this with the Film Network, a place where new British filmmakers can showcase their short films and film fans can comment and rate those films (an up market You Tube I suppose).

However not everyone can submit a film to the Film Network, its restricted to around three a week - but every film sent in is watched by industry experts.

Alongside the Film Network the Beeb has also launched Comedy Soup, a place to send in funny stuff you’ve made yourself.

This could be film, animation, audio or images - a sort of holding place for all the stuff sent around by e-mail usually.

The BBC also gives you a huge chunk of content under the Creative Archive licence to use in your work - this includes video, audio and images.

Back to Jersey

But getting back to the point of the post (Birth of a new film festival), this year Jersey will play host to its first original film festival in August.

The reason I say first original is that for the past few years the island has hosted an outdoor film festival showing blockbusters for free on a big screen in Howard Davis Park.

This year, as well as the outdoor festival there will be a short film festival called The Invisible Film Festival where film makers from Jersey and around the world can send in films for the festival.

There will be 10 categories and a prize for the winner of each plus a big overall prize for one winner from the categories.

This is just the first year for the festival but it is likely to get a lot bigger over the next few years.

An island of film

One of the reasons the Jersey Arts Trust is putting on this festival is so that local filmmakers (often funded and trained by the Jersey Arts Trust) can have a place to showcase their work on a big screen.

The BBC in Jersey is working with the Arts Trust to show the winning entries (all 10 of them) on the bbc.co.uk/jersey website along with a page about the film, video interviews with the director and a place for users to review/rate the film.

Jersey has become a hotbed of film activity recently with the short film festival, the outdoor film festival, the human rights film festival, films made in the island and for the first year the polish film festival.

I’ve already explained the short film festival and the outdoor film festival - both very much about the community but haven’t really touched on the Polish or Human Rights film festivals.

The Polish Film Festival is being put on as part of Jersey’s first Summer Polish Festival (there are over 10,000 Polish people living in Jersey during the summer) and as well as featuring well known Polish films will also feature talks, debate and discussion with each films director or producer.

The Human Rights Film Festival takes place at the Jersey Arts Centre and is basically what it says on the tin, a series of films touching on human rights issues.

Each film will be followed by a talk and debate about the issues raised in the film. All four film festivals are an extension of what sites like YouTube and the BBC Film Network are doing.

It takes films that you wouldn’t see normally and gives you the chance to talk about, think about and debate the film and the issues it raises.

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