After my one and only (and coincidently, first ever) viewing at the 43rd annual Portland International Film Festival (PIFF), before the novel coronavirus brought it to a screeching halt, I found myself leaving the Empirical Theater at OMSI feeling very satisfied. I have seen many movies in theaters bu,t walking out of this experience, there was something decidedly different. It could have been the fact that I had just watched a movie on the biggest screen I’ve ever seen (OMSI’s Empirical Theater boasts a 61’x40’ screen) or that I was enjoying the experience that much more because the festival pass was essentially gifted to me, making this a free movie- the best kind to go see. It took me a long quiet walk across the parking lot to figure it out but then, it hit me. I realized that it was because for the first time in a while I got the chance to view a movie that hasn’t been viewed by nearly as many people yet and something I haven’t heard or read about beforehand. I was in attendance with several others who were there for the same reasons I was too. It wasn’t because we needed something to do on a Monday night and it wasn’t for sheer entertainment. The crowd at OMSI that night was there to take in the experience of a work of art, from across the globe- to hear a story from someone not like themselves and think critically about what that meant. On the way out I could hear people asking each other questions about the film while others jotted notes into laptops and cell phones at a café table outside the theatre doors. I started to think about film festivals, in general, and their importance to society. How festivals and their programmers “create meaningful discourses around film culture and society through the films they select and curate” (Wong, 2) and that “the act of curating means to construct in an innovative way a solid coherence between different films” (Bosma, 53). This is what stirs audience interest and attracts the average citizen and cinephiles alike to gather around an anointed work of art.
It was only a day or two later that PIFF was cancelled due to the growing global pandemic. The brevity of the festival, coupled with my own inexperience, made it difficult to review PIFF responsibly- or at all for that matter. Never before has the threat of a deadly virus caused this festival (or any other festival for that matter) to suspend screenings and the community was shook. What was there to do? Ideas popped up on the internet like how PIFF should screen the festival films online while talks of the benefits of all online film festivals started to gain a little buzz. If there is one thing that my only viewing, its preceding festival scheduling and the abrupt ending of PIFF, proved to me, it’s that the festival experience is not something that can be recreated in an all online format.
The role of film festivals is to bring together people and build community around a certain theme or idea expressed in films from across the world. Films that spark discussion or inspire debate. Films that inform and those that make us laugh, films that hold a mirror to ourselves- and they do it in a time-honored way so that we all experience it communally, at the same time. To filmmakers and festival organizers the purpose of a festival is more about monetary gain but, without the desire of an audience to see new and innovative cinema, there wouldn’t be a dollar to make. Sure, films can be viewed online and plenty of people can enjoy the content but it would be in a way that doesn’t allow the film to fully captivate the audience because it is being watched outside of a communal viewing space like a theatre or auditorium. In these spaces you go to enjoy the film itself- the filmic experience- as well as the experience of communal viewing in similar conditions. (I.e. dimmed lights, quiet space, big screen, etc..)-the cinematic experience.
With the ease and widespread availability of streaming services and with our cellphones being practically a travelling media player- we can watch anything from YouTube videos to feature length films at the launch of an app- it may be that filmmaker and festivals alike may be tempted by the allure of the reach of the online platform. Afterall if the purpose of a festival is to get your film seen and bought for distribution then it would follow that as wide a net as possible be cast so as to get as many eyes on your film as possible. However, the role, of festivals is far more important to the community than its capitalist purposes. Bringing people together and sharing an experience and ideas is what gains your film attention. All around the world almost every country has more than one film festival that groom young talent to become bigger better filmmakers. The idea of a film festival is to, more or less, exchange or have ideas go around. For this reason, at the festival, there is more going on than just the screening of film. “festivals provide places in which multiple agents negotiate local, national and supranational relations of culture, power and identity. Ultimately, they are crucial centers for the development of film knowledge and film practices” (Wong, 2).
At PIFF, for example, there were workshops and live events scheduled to run concurrently with the films of the festival. These allow people, of the film community and otherwise, the opportunity to share in a message that isn’t presented cinematically- therefore more directly digested and shared beyond the festival. Additionally, in something like a Q&A with a director, questions can be asked that perhaps more than one person was wondering and where the filmmaker(s) get to explain further, their vision and maybe share some of the process. I understand that this too, is something that could, technically, be achieved online but to that I say there is, again something lost. It’s like talking an online class as opposed to one on a school’s campus. The exact same professor could give the exact same lecture on the exact same material but there is a difference in viewing it at home via virtual classroom and being there in person. Professors and teachers alike, strive to create a learning environment in each of their classrooms where “students feel physically and emotionally safe. They see the classroom as a place where they can be themselves and express themselves and their ideas without judgment.” (“Characteristics of a Positive Learning Environment”)
The festival (with its various screenings, Q&A’s, workshops etc…) acts as the preferred learning environment for film. Every year in countries and cities all over the world crowds flock to film festivals to experience the newest and most innovative works of art in motion pictures, to watch in real time the current and future implications of cinema. Being among fellow cinephiles in a shared space and hearing their thoughts, seeing their reactions during a film are things that you just can’t get sitting at home on a computer.
-Sword
\Works Cited\
Bosma, Peter A. N. Film Programming: Curating for Cinemas, Festivals, Archives. Wallflower Press, 2015.
“Characteristics of a Positive Learning Environment.” Human Kinetics, us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/characteristics-of-a-positive-learning-environment.
Rastegar, Roya. “Seeing Differently: The Curatorial Potential of Film Festival Programming.” Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method Practice, Routledge, 2016, p. 186.
Wong, Cindy H. Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen. Rutgers University Press, 2011.
PSU School of Film @ PIFF 