Hi from Christina B!
A week ago today, we had our world premiere at the Urbanworld Film Festival in NYC. We couldn't have asked for a better festival to be included in. I can't say enough how INSPIRING the fest was! For the folks unable to join us in New York, i just wanted to share a few of the many highlights of my trip to Urbanworld.
JT composer Mike L. and dir. Christina B. at premiere
All-Access is AH-MAZING
Urbanworld grants each selected film (2) all-access passes. I, along with our composer, Mike L., were able to gain entry to all screenings, panels, and after-parties. Not too shabby, if I can say so myself. It was my first time attending a fest as a selected filmmaker, which is very different from attending as a patron or volunteer. The All-Acess badge also makes it a lot easier to start a conversation: "Do you have a film in the festival?" WHY, YES I DO!
CAUTION: Film Overload
I honestly don't think I ever spent an entire day watching films. One the second day of the fest, I know for a fact that I arrived at the 34th St. AMC at 11am and left at 11:30pm. Sounds crazy, right. I definitely caught the festival fever. Of course, I wasn't able to see EVERY film at Urbanworld. But I sure tried. Titles to look out for on the big screen or Netflix include: Love Arranged by Soniya Kirpalani (doc), Make A Movie Like Spike by Jamil Smith, Brooklyn Boheme by Nelson George (doc), Yelling to the Sky by Victoria Mahoney, Kinyarwanda by Alrick Brown and All Things Fall Apart by Mario Van Peebles.
Friends with (Film) Benefits
As a humble recent film grad screening her student film alongside some of the most prime players in today's cinema, I can admit I was very intimidated at the festival. Would my hands shake as I gave out my business card? Did I say the wrong screening time. Oh boy. Luckily, my nerves were quickly calmed. The Urbanworld filmmakers are great, nice, down-to-earth folks from every part of the globe in every field of media! Every corner I was greeted with smiles and sincere advice about how to make the most out of the festival and the ever-changing film business we're all a part of.
Meeting filmmaker Ava DuVernay
Welcome to Free Film School
That's truly the best way to sum up the festival experience. I learned something new everyday! Nuggets of gold from the digital day panels included: A) Distributors want you to prove that as an indie producers you have an engaged audience following your content. Numbers do matter! B) When it comes to web content, what matters most is STORY, PERFORMANCE, and AUDIENCE. It doesn't have to be as slick and sleek as "The Kardashians". C) In the constant battle between creating films because of passion or profit, Passion will get you, your crew, and your project much farther and the profit will meet you in the end because your work will have heart.
THE PREMIERE
Well, that's what brought me to NYC, after all! We were fortunate enough to raffle off our complimentary tickets to both the Friday and Saturday premiere to our Ithaca College alumni supporters who were in town. It was so wonderful to see all their smiling faces in the theater. "JT" had the honor of being included in the longest Shorts Block of the festival (2 whole hours) with some of the most amazing films I've seen. After snapping several photos on the RED CARPET and with our movie poster, we made our way into the theater. I have to say that was the biggest screen I've ever seen our film projected on and it felt great. There were no technical difficulties, thank goodness. The audience even laughed at the funny parts. YAY! Afterwards the Q&A was very informative, especially as a screening filmmaker. I learned the backstory of my peers films and got to answer questions about my own. The audience's overall questions and compliments were of Cynthia B's performance which I can never hear too much of. She was a hit, as always!
For photos galore, please visit our album HERE. Below is a snippet of the screening Q&A.
Urbanworld was overall an amazing festival and I hope I'm fortunate enough to come back next year. As for "Jemila's Tale", we're onward to the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival on Oct. 15th & 16th in NYC. Please visit http://www.reelsisters.org/filmFestival2011.htm for more info. Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Christina
