Eventive – Memphis Flyer

In an email to filmmakers, Indie Memphis indicated that their 2020 festival will consist of “a hybrid of online virtual events and limited, in-person outdoor screenings.”

With movie theaters closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (with the notable exception of the Malco Summer Drive-In), and film festivals around the country facing the same set of difficult choices the Oxford Film Festival responded to in the spring, Indie Memphis staff has been engaged in contingency planning for months.

The annual film festival, which attracts more than 12,000 cinephiles to Memphis and hosts filmmakers from all over the world, is currently scheduled for October 21st-29th, 2020. The email to filmmakers said that, while the situation remained fluid, more dates may be added in October to maximize the online and in-person experience.

“When you created your film, and, perhaps, when you submitted it to Indie Memphis, the world was in a different place,” executive director Ryan Watt wrote in the email. “Cases continue to rise in our region. It is important to us that we balance concerns for safety along with providing filmmakers the best possible outlet to share their work with audiences during this unusual time.”

Parties and industry panels will be replaced by virtual events.

“Most in-person screenings will be hosted at outdoor venues with audience distancing to provide a safer environment, and scheduling may be adjusted due to weather or safety concerns. These events are intended for local audiences, and not all films will be exhibited in-person,” wrote Watt.

Indie Memphis will likely benefit from its relationship with Eventive, the Memphis company which began as the festival’s ticketing solution before expanding in recent years to become the industry standard. As the Memphis Flyer reported in April, Eventive has developed tools for film festivals to move online during the pandemic, and has been expanding their services both nationally and internationally this year.

The film selection process is still underway, and no filmmakers will be notified of their acceptance or rejection for several weeks. Watt said that there will likely be fewer films on offer this year in order to maximize online engagement, and to reflect a 26 percent drop in submissions. In a normal year, Indie Memphis receives thousands of film submissions for narrative and documentary features and short films, as well as music videos and experimental creations.

When reached for comment, Watt said that planning was ongoing, and that a formal announcement would be coming soon, hopefully by the end of the month. He urged patience as the festival staff continues to assess the possibilities. “Audience members may have a lot of questions that we can’t quite answer yet.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shock waves through the film industry, with shuttered theaters and delayed film releases. The crisis has hit film festivals, which rely on close contact between filmmakers, audience, and industry personnel, particularly hard.

The Golden Years

One of the first casualties of coronavirus-related shutdowns was the Oxford Film Festival, which was scheduled to take place March 18th-22nd. Festival director Melanie Addington and her board had to make the excruciating decision to scrap a year’s worth of plans on two weeks’ notice. But endangering lives by bringing people together from all over the country as a deadly and highly contagious disease spread unchecked was simply not an option for the organizers of Mississippi’s largest film festival.

With no clarity as to when the situation would permit a rescheduling of the festival, Addington and her crew found themselves scrambling for a new paradigm. Now they have leveraged their relationship with Eventive (see this week’s cover story, “How Will the Pandemic Change the Arts”) to become one of, if not the, first film festival in America to move online. The Oxford Weekly Virtual Film Festival begins on Thursday, April 24th.

“The Oxford Film Festival has become a vital showcase for independent film and filmmakers for close to two decades now,” Addington says. “So rather than reducing the number of the films that routinely receive the benefits of having that platform, we decided to create these weekly presentations in lieu of a one-week online virtual film festival. We’re excited by the idea that we can give each film that much more of a focus.

“It is important for festival organizers to adapt in this pandemic to do what is best for their filmmakers, as they are our partners and the only reason our industry exists. Coming up with a way to help our filmmakers during an uncertain time financially by sharing the proceeds from those screenings will add another key benefit that is critical at this moment. As we introduce this idea to help our filmmakers, we actively request that our industry also look to do what is best for the filmmakers as well.”

While film festivals have always thrived when they deliver superior in-person experiences, organizers have for years explored ideas on how to expand their operations online. The chief barrier to such a move has always been the economics of film distribution. Distributors are reluctant to buy or license films that have previously appeared online, since their business depends on giving outlets exclusive access to the films. But in these extraordinary times, there’s a movement to relax those requirements and allow filmmakers to show their films at online festivals.

Oxford is one of the first signers of the Seed and Spark 2020 Film Festival Survival Pledge, which was developed by the grassroots crowd-sourced financing company to address the problem and give filmmakers enough reassurances to allow their films to be shown online in a festival setting. Further putting the minds of filmmakers at ease is the security of the new Eventive platform, which will get its first big test with the Oxford Film Festival.

“We are very excited to be working with our ticketing partner Eventive, who has been working night and day to create this exciting platform that is DRM [Digital Rights Management] protected, geoblock capable, and safe and secure for our filmmakers,” Addington says. “But just as importantly, also visually pleasing and easy to use on any size screen.”

The first batch of Oxford programming goes online Friday, April 24th. The first group includes the McPhail Block, a collection of works by prolific Mississippi-based actors Johnny and Susan McPhail. The celebration includes Robb Rokk’s excellent Memphis Film Prize finalist “Truth Lies Upstream,” Thad Lee’s adaptation of the Stephen King short story “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away,” Lorraine Caffery’s “The Rougarou,” and the world premiere of this year’s Oxford Community film, Brian Whisenant’s “The Golden Years.”

A group of Mississippi-centric documentaries makes up a second block of films available premiere week, including “Getting Back to the Root” and “70 Years of Blackness.” The filmmakers will gather for an online Q&A on Saturday, April 26th, moderated by award-winning documentarian and Oxford alumnae Victoria Negri. On Sunday, April 27th, Addington will host international documentarians from Australian and the U.K. to discuss their contributions to the “Passion Projects: Doc Shorts” block.

These selections will be available for a week before the second group of films comes online. But on Saturday, April 25th, A Dim Valley will screen, director Brandon Colvin’s contribution to the festival’s LGBTQ Narrative Feature category. Colvin’s film follows a biologist and grad student who plunge into the Appalachian woods for a research project, only to have their worldviews upended by a chance encounter with a group of “mystical backpackers.” Colvin and his cast and crew will have an online Q&A after the screening.

Tickets to all these online presentations are $10, which will allow 24 hours of access to the films. Virtual festival passes and viewing packages are also available. Check oxfordfilmfest.com for details. The Flyer will continue to cover the weekly offerings of the Oxford Film Festival.