Storey Flowers

AnD Exploring the Inner Workings of Austin Film Festivals Written by Storey Flowers We’re Rolling

People get ready to enjoy the films at the Long Center during the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Photo credits to Roger Ho provided by the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Austin is known around the U.S. for its big city and rich culture. Between live music at every bar, longhorn football games and the countless festivals like SXSW and ACL no one can say there’s nothing to do in Austin, Texas. Although a part of the Austin community that mostly goes unnoticed is the film community. Having local film directors from Austin makes it a hotspot for filming, and the countless film festivals, this thriving city also has a thriving film community. Film festivals are a great way to discover new films, celebrate local film artists and just explore the film industry as a whole. Depending on the festival, activities can include panels of people in the community, film and screenplay writing competitions and most commonly film screenings. Every month, Austin hosts so many film festivals where the people running them have problems trying to schedule them. Kelsey Walker, the Young Filmmakers Program Director for the Austin Film Festival, expressed that it takes quite a lot to put on a film festival. “It takes a whole whole staff there, a lot of us in this office working year round to put on, you know, like a one week event. So it definitely takes a lot of manpower. We have different departments here. We have our film department, screenplay, marketing, or conference department, something specific for each part of the festival,” Walker said. “And then, obviously, a lot of communication with screenwriters and filmmakers who are actually submitting to the festival. So lots of communication, lots of coordinating.” According to Hanna Huagn, the Executive Director of the Austin Asian American Film Festival, it takes even more people to set up one. “Yeah, so you definitely need film people and people who just want to do anything and everything for whatever genre that they’re interested in.” Huang said. “Obviously, you also need a pretty robust marketing and publicity side that nobody’s going to know about your festival to go to it unless you have that. And included with the marketing is community engagement. Those are the major areas and then we definitely filled out with a lot of

volunteers. There’s a lot of seasonal staff that goes in. So as we’re gearing up weekly things like hiring a poster designer, if you’re usually a local artist that does our annual poster, among other things.” Film festivals are an annual event for a reason, it takes an entire year just to plan them. Between budgeting, setting up the venue and screening through the thousands of applicants that send in their films to be screened, it is a lot of work, but Huang said all the hard work is worth it. “The best part is just seeing them return. You know, it’s usually they’ll submit a short and we’ll see like a couple years down the line,” Huang said. “They’ll have a new work or something that we’ll want to program again, whether it’s another short or the teacher. We’ve had a couple of filmmakers now that we program for more than a couple several filmmakers now that we program at least a couple of times or more. So it’s really great to see that they had a good experience that they want to come back to our festival.” There’s a reason why these people come back. Going to a film festival is a unique and fun experience and according to Walker it can even be a learning experience. “It’s a lot of fun,” Walker said. “Definitely pretty crazy. There’s a lot of events that kind of go on at the same time. So sometimes you do have to kind of pick and choose where you want to be at, and things like that. But I think specifically for the Austin Film Festival, a big thing that we focus on here is learning. So you’re not really coming to I mean, obviously, you’re coming to watch new films and, you know, be excited about those things that you’re also going to learn you’re going to learn from people who are in the industry, who have, you know, written something made something and you’re going to, to apply, you know, things that you’ve learned at the festival later on.” However film festivals such as the Austin Film festival offer much more than just movie screenings. Kelsey Walker, the young programs director, is in charge of the camps they have for kids. “So we have our digital storytelling curriculum, which is a text align curriculum that we developed with aisd. So we’ll go through and teach the kiddos how to write a story,” Walker said, “Each of them will write their own individual screenplay, and then at the end, they have the option to do a

The 2019 Festival Paramount Theater Marquee: FORD vs FERRARI for the Austin Film Festival. Photo credits to Jack Plunkett provided by the Austin American Film Festival.

production unit as well. So we’ll film a couple of them at the very end. We also have our young filmmakers competition. So this kind of goes along with that festival scholarship program and that they both take place during the larger Austin Film Festival, but sort of similar to a regular film camp.” If you’re under the impression that you can’t join these camps because you don’t have the knowledge or experience, your assumptions are incorrect. “In terms of participating in our programs, no prior knowledge really is needed. Especially for the camps I think. And same thing for like our digital storytelling program that we teach in schools. I think the most important thing is just to be, you know, excited to learn about it or excited to get involved. Obviously, coming up with an idea is a big part of it. But I think everybody does have a story to tell, you just have to kind of bring that out of people sometimes. And I think our program does a really good job of that,” Walker said. Other festivals have different things though that set them apart. For example, the Austin Asian American Film Festival is the biggest film festival in the US that focuses specifically on films produced by Asians or Asian Americans which is very important. “It’s really exciting to be especially important for the Asian American community. Because we don’t have enough knowledge about our community and how vast it is,” Huang said. Film Festivals are an interesting and

A couple stretches out on their blanket while enjoying a film being screened at the Long Center at the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Photo credits to Roger Ho provided by the Austin Asian American Film Festival.

able to like returning with more work, right, so we’ve had filmmakers who submitted short films that have now submitted longer features. In terms of the stories they tell, you know, winning filmmakers from the community, they’re making the Silicon Valley, of course 100% executed. This is how you get kind of the nuanced stories about a community and it’s engaging experience all around Austin, Texas where you can watch films, take film matching and writing classes, discover new actors, and directors and just have fun. The Austin Film Festival takes place every year from October 21st to the 28th. The Austin Asian American Film Festival takes place every year from June 4th through the 20th.