Monday, September 24, 2007
It's not the size of the film, it's how you use it.
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is hoping to spread that sentiment to an ever-expanding international audience and dispel any inferiority complex Hollywood's diminutive sibling may have about itself.
Screened for the first time in 1997 on the side of a New York City truck, the festival now has venues in 15 countries and this year has accepted over 400 submissions from 33 countries. The winner of the 12 finalists will be voted on by the global audience.
Australian transplant Nick Mason-a struggling actor who moved to New York in 1996 and was dismayed by the lack of an independent film showcase at the time-founded the festival after what he calls a "Jerry Maguire moment," when he holed up in his room with a bottle of wine and began writing to potential sponsors. The festival took off immediately and soon graduated from being projected on a tractor trailer to Union Square Park in lower Manhattan.
In the days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Union Square became a public space for mourning, and Mason was asked by the city to proceed with the festival to help unite grieving New Yorkers. The international media attention gained as a result of this post 9/11 gesture propelled the festival to the continent-spanning event it is today. Nick Mason joined us from New York City to discuss this "filmic Olympiad" and how Lawrence is the perfect city to anoint the winner.
lawrence.com: How do you select the 12 finalists for the Manhattan Short Film Festival?
Mason: Film festivals come up with the most ridiculous lines. Ours is something like, "We have the most creative short films in the world, judged by the cinema going public throughout the world," or some crap like that. I mean, what a ridiculous line, but it's true. We have films that fit that program. You just get those films that you know are going to end up doing damn well, because by the grace of God they got it right. The editing, the acting-all that stuff. They just got it to work. They can get into any bloody festival they want to because they're that bloody good. So around that you end up trying to pace the show and creating an arc, having films that compliment each other. Pick the films that give you a little glimpse into this country and a little glimpse into that country and explore that little moment:but we were definitely missing that film that was really Midwest.
Past Event
Manhattan Short Film Festival
- Thursday, September 27, 2007, 7 p.m.
- Liberty Hall, 644 Mass., Lawrence
- All ages / $7 - $8
I noticed there was only one finalist from the United States. Do you think that America isn't taking short film very seriously?
Yeah, it's not a big industry over here. In England, they've got a shitty feature film industry, so they all become ad directors and they'll occasionally go off and make a short film to make them feel like they're still filmmakers. There's over 3,000 short films produced throughout the UK every year. There's also a lottery fund where people can make a living doing it, but in the States they don't have that. The majority of the entries that we're getting are very slick pieces from Europe. Over here, short films seem to be a lot of parodies-they're not real. It's done for YouTube or for a quick joke, so I find it very hard to program them and have it play in Russia.
Short films aren't a huge priority for Hollywood, then?
It's interesting; I never really put a lot into Los Angeles. I don't like the mentality of L.A., I suppose. I don't understand it and I don't have much patience for it. I got a call last night from CAA, the Creative Artists Agency, and they'd booked out half the venues in L.A. to watch these 12 short films. It's all agents watching the Manhattan Short Film Festival in L.A.-you can't get a ticket. I can tell you now, I know it's going to be a better show in Lawrence.
Are you surprised that Kansas and other states not known for being bastions of the arts are hosting the festival?
No, they're the best. They've always got that one cool cinema and they're the best to market to. I knew Liberty Hall was the right venue. If it's at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas, I've got my market right there-that 20% of cool. That's what's great about those states, and they are sold out. Those cinemas such as in Lawrence-or Taos, New Mexico, or Durango, Colorado, or Bloomington, Indiana or whatever else-do phenomenal business. Jacksonville, Forida, will do a damn good four figures at the door.
Do you find it ironic there's such a big audience to see short films since the United States doesn't foster the production of short films?
They're doing it now. What's interesting is, when I first started the festival, they were all films from Los Angeles, New York, London, Sydney-wherever there was a Technicolor or Panavision to help out with favors, lending out film and cameras. Now you look at digital filmmaking and go to this festival, you'll see how young these filmmakers are. They have the latest cameras and they have the editing software at home. It's the digital age and they can make a film anywhere. You don't have to come from Nashville and go to New York to tell a story. Short films are great about that. It is possible now-and I expect it and I'm getting it-that I'm getting a filmmaker, no matter where they are in the world, making a film about their backyard in their backyard. I'm very much on the side of inspiring people "To Do." I've got to tell you right now, this is going to go over like a train in Lawrence. It is. Watch what happens-we'll be talking about this in two years. It's the right mindset. College towns are healthy because you've got people doing and thinking. They're inspired and they're not lazy.
Will the Manhattan Short Film Festival spur some DIY, backyard filmmaking here in Lawrence?
It has in other places. There's always one or two who start to think about it. I just know that it will be appreciated there. It's the sort of place that says, 'Gee, we're voting on this tonight as a community, and not only is it happening here, it's happening in Vienna, in Amsterdam, in Zurich, in Galway, in Denver, and in Buenos Aires.' Lawrence will be part of a huge community for one night.
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trainyardzero (anonymous) says...
"Lawrence will be part of a huge community for one night."
Finally! We'll fall right back into obscurity at midnight though, right? Come on.
September 26, 2007 at 12:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )