MATT'S EDITORIAL 2/10/2014 - Independence Cinema

Recently, I have had the pleasure of attending the Raindance Film Festival, which at the time of publishing is still going strong and will be for the next couple of days. I have of course been impress by the body of work presented at the festival, which excites me as a film buff as well as a film writer and reporter and clearly shows that fresh new voices in this media are not lacking. What I have also been able to admire about Raindance is its direct and, if you will, punk rocking nature. One which we may of course even call guerrilla approach. A filmmaker may walk into Vue Piccadilly, which is the cinema where the festival is taking place, wait in the queue for the lobby to get a ticket to attend the screening and in the meantime strike up a conversation with the person in front. All this might casually lead to a new collaboration on a future project that may get screened at a future edition of Raindance.

 

What is interesting to see is that Raindance still carries that guerrilla spirit, and remembers all the homemade ways in which artists let themselves be known to the world even when there was no distribution or exhibitor that would give them half a chance. I am talking about people like Christopher Nolan, and films like The Blair Which Project and What's Eating Gilbert Grape - all films that picked up publicity and gained a momemntum that was triggered by Raindance - and thank goodness for people like Elliot Gould, the man who organised all this and a key figure in British independent cinema (despite being Canadian, which he said, half jokingly, was used detractors of the event as a reason not to publicise it when it first started off).

 

I must admit that knowing a little bit about the history of independent cinema, I get chills down my spine when I watch the trailed of the festival that plays right before the film. It is shot in the style of videos, and the synth music that accompanies it is also reminescent of the time when, around 22 years ago, Raindance had its first edition. What was happening in 1992 in cinema that so heavily triggered independent filmmaking? It was indeed the popular use of analogic equipment, camcorders and VHS distribution. It was the death of cinematic snobbery. For filmmakers wanting to make a name for themselves but of course unable to gather enough funds to get the film printed, promoted and all that jazz...they could take everything Godard had said a few years previously about filmmaking and really do it. As a side note, one has to wonder whether Godard's preachings becoming mainstream contributed to his reason for wanting to call it quits on his inspiring indoctrinations and lose interest in cinema altogether.

 

Ah, the old video days. Let's not forget that this was the way in which filmmakers were finally able to make a name for themselves. Let's also not forget that this brought awave of excitement that hadn't been felt probably since the sixties. Let's also not forget that some filmmakers saw this as an opportunity to start dealing with themes and issues that might even have been considered taboo up to that point - for example let's also not forget that it wasn't long before 1992 that a movement like the New Queer Cinema was born out of filmmakers like Jarman shooting videos and distributing them on tapes.

 

What can we learn about the way cineastes behaved during the days of video? It was of course the way in which they exploited the new medium to achieve credibility. But that is easier said that done. Today, Youtube could truly be the powerful platform for filmmakers to make a name for themselves. Yet, just look at how many of the most popular videos on Youtube have anything to do with cinema at all - apart from the comedic references to blockbusters with Star Wars and Titanic somehow being constantly among the top specimen. Just look at the amount of vlogs about absolutely nothing. The two hour long videos about some guy having a conversation with a buddy on skype about a football match. Unfortunaly, one must also look at the fact that even festival directors - especially ones of the younger breed - would be much more interested in discussing issues of any manga comic book than whether it was FW Murnau or Fritz Lang that influenced genre films the most. There is nothing wrong with that by the way, I too have my guilty pleasures.

 

On the other hand, yesterday I talked to a few young filmmakers that attended a panel about pitching. Some people had apparently been selected to pitch in front of the audience and be judged, kind of like the X-Factor, and criticised. Some guy seemingly walked on stage boasting about how it didn't matter what they would tell him because the project had already been kickstarted, he had a budget of 20 million and Colin Farrell cast. It may not be generating as much interest and money as it once did, but people, cinema is still sheer madness sometimes!