Sunday, September 15, 2013

Twin Rivers Festival Research

*I am interviewing Carlos Steward, the festival director, this Friday at 2pm via phone call to get specific details on the Twin Rivers Multimedia Festival.

Who’s in charge?
         The festival is run by Cynthia Porter, the festival coordinator, and Carlos Steward, the festival director.

Mission:
TRMF Offers the community a chance to view outstanding films from around the world, enjoy good food and drink, and mingle with special guest filmmakers all in one weekend. All events are free and open to the public. (jackmoe.blogspot.com)
         The Twin Rivers Media Festival supports independent media artists, audio artists, and writers by exposing their work to the artistic community of Asheville, NC throughout the year (withoutabox.com)
         This festival is a great way to bring the community together.  … There’s also opportunities to meet some local and national filmmakers” (Cynthia Porter, festival coordinator).

Programming:
The festival seems to open itself to a vast array of media. I assume this openness is why the festival is called a multimedia festival, as it includes not just feature and short films but also commercial works and music. The festival also shows an initiative to appreciating international film, awarding films made outside the United States, but, from what I can see, they prefer more palatable western films. However, this year the TRMF will be highlighting Iranian filmmaking. This could be an attempt to evolve out of cushy western cinema and into a more “foreign,” realm.

Location:
         Courtyard Gallery, Asheville, NC (http://ashevillecourtyard.com/gallery.html)

Date:
The event is held in Mid-late May. This festival seems to happen in two sections, one for film viewing, and another, a couple of days later, for multimedia screening and awards.

There are two apparent methods for submission
         -Withoutabox
-snail mail to coordinators

         There was some discrepancy between the website and withoutabox in regards to when submissions were due.
         Early - April 5th          Dec 31st (withoutabox)
         Late – May 6th, 13th

Cost of entry:
         Student                  29.00 + 22.00/ea additional entry
         Non-student                  39.00 + 19.00/ea addition entry
         Distributor                  49.00/ea entry
         College
on behalf
of students         100.00/20 entries (twinriversmediafestival.com)
Foreign                           +10.00

         From what I can see, this festival welcomes any and all comers. Student, undergraduate or graduate, non-students, distribution companies, etc. There is a student “division,” but apparently not a student category.

         “All lengths and formats are eligible (withoutabox).”
         16mm         8mm                  35mm         DVD                  VHS”        

         According to withoutabox, they accept any and all formats for exhibition and screening from DVD to blu-ray to film gauges.

         The festival hosted roughly 50 films in 2013 (Twin Rivers brochure).

         TRMF screens shorts amidst longer format pieces in blocks specific to the works’ genre or mode. For example, rather than have several “shorts blocks” there are just blocks divided by category, i.e. experimental, animation. So, shorts and features both play in the same block if they share a category.

         If my numbers are right, Twin Rivers screens about 10 films per block.
-Animation 7
         -Experimental 12
         -Reception 6
-Doc 6
         -Drama 18 (twinriversmediafestival.com)

         There doesn’t appear to be any cost to attend the event as a guest. I’d assume the gains from submissions go to renting the venues for the actual event, for passersby and walkers-through to view the work at their leisure. Also http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/carol/2013/05/09/20th-annual-twin-rivers-media-festival-opens-may-17/ says the festival is “free.”

         I plan on asking Carlos Steward more on this, but this is what I’ve found:
         Daniel Delaverne Media Arts Advantage Fund, grant, $1000.00

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything on insentives for donors, and there was not a crowd-fund campaign that I could find like indiegogo or kickstarter.        

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