Universal Film Issue 4 of 2012
By Lisa Reznik, Creative Director, Film Society of Summit In 2009 Phil Capobres launched the SENE Film, Music and Art Festival, with Don Farias, in the art-friendly town of Providence, Rhode Island. The idea began at a dinner after volunteering at another festival. “We love festivals and independent films and decided to create our own which we could start fresh and run ethically,” Capobres explains. The concept came from the desire to give audiences something different. “We were starting from scratch and thought we’d include music and art in our mission statement,” he says. Capobres considers the 2012 festival, held April 11-15, their best yet. 110 independent short and feature-length films were screened, ten musicians performed and nineteen artists including first time exhibitors, emerging artists and accomplished artists saw their work displayed.
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The SENE Festival adheres to the Universal Film and Festival Organization business code of practice in its selection for festival line up. “The benefit of following ethical principles is that filmmakers trust us,” Capobres, the festival’s artistic director, explains. A direct result of earning a reputation for fairness has seen an increase in submissions from 300 the first yearto 500 in 2012. Submissions came from as far away as South Korea. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Capobres came to Providence eight years ago for a job as a statistician with Fidelity Investments in Smithfield, RI. He considers running the SENE festival his creative outlet. The story a film tells matters to Capobres more than the technical impressions it might make. He and Don Farias watch every film. And while they’ve watched as many as 20 short films in a day, it’s much more likely they’ll watch from five to 10 shorts at a time. They never watch more than two features when reviewing. “When we pre-screen, we recommend the films we like to the committee for that category,” Capobres explains. Between 20 and 30 people attend monthly festival pre-screenings open to the public, at which films are ranked from 1 to 6 to determine which films in each category will make it into the festival. While he calls drama his favorite genre, Capobres doesn’t favor any particular
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genre in selecting films for the lineup. The final selection for this year’s festival included a mix of features and shorts in horror, comedy, drama, animation and documentary’s. Many films selected incorporate a music-related theme, for example the UK feature City of Dreamers by Jamie Patterson, which won the jury award. Creating the schedule for screening 110 films over three days is a fun time for Capobres and Farias who have a system of writing the name and running time of each film on a magnet, and arranging them as part of a package. “We do it all in one evening and the next night, we end up moving everything around,” he laughs. Each screening series is followed by a Q & A; a format audiences and filmmakers appreciate. “We get submissions by filmmakers simply because they like our main venue, the independent Cable Car Cinema on South Main Street,” Capobres says. Films are also screened at the Chace Center Metcalf Auditorium at the Rhode Island School of Design. For awards, Capobres says he and Farias nominate films in each category based on reactions at monthly screenings where audiences rank films. Films are judged only against other films in the same genre and awards are determined by an independent panel of judges from all over the country.. Films compete for $1,000 cash prizes in Best Feature and Best Short categories. Filmmakers also compete for juried and audience awards in twenty additional categories. Through his experiences screening thousands of films, Capobres feels filmmakers benefit tremendously from showing an almost-final cut to an audience that will evaluate the film in an unbiased way, as well as tightening film length whenever possible. Capobres admits running a film festival is a lot of work, even with the help of twenty-five dedicated volunteers. He says he’s more than satisfied with the results of the 2012 festival, and is always thinking about improvement to the SENE Festival. “Next year, we’d like to streamline our schedule to show only two films at a time so viewers won’t miss one great film when they’re watching another,” Capobres says.
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REAL LIFE STORIES OF STRUGGLE AND COURAGE FROM AROUND THE WORLD
SENE Film, Music and Art Festival