No LGBT Film Festival this year
I spoke to a contact yesterday at Minnesota Film Arts, and found out that there will be no LGBT Film Festival this year. I’d been keeping an eye on their website figuring that when they extended the calendar a few days ago, it would include this annual event. But there was nothing. So I called.
From what I understand, they lost their major financial backer, who had been backing them in previous years. There’s still an archive up from last year that has this backer’s logo. So okay, you lose your funding, you don’t have a festival.
But there must be more to it than that. They apparently had a program set up. They had contacted filmmakers and invited them. Then when the backer pulled out, (which they did in steps, first dropping their funding amount, then pulling out completely) they contacted the filmmakers and told them the festival was cancelled. Granted, I don’t know what else they did. But a contact at the financial backer told me that historically, if this corporation drops out on funding something, organizations have had no problem going to other corporations and getting them to pick up the ball. They tend to jump on it, in fact.
Correction: As Emily states in her comment below, there was no program already set up.
So there are questions. Was MN Film Arts counting solely on the financial backing of this corporation? When they dropped out, was it officially over at that point, or did they contact other possible corporate backers? Is it possible that everyone else said no?
Emily clarifies about financial backing in the comment below
On their website, they list their mission statement, which running a festival like this is pretty clearly a part of. In years past, the festival has screened some pretty major films, such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Beautiful Thing. Last year was the 16th Annual festival, although I don’t know if that is truly consecutive years, as they don’t have archives up farther back than two years ago.
(Crossposted to http://www.livejournal.com/users/drbombay because I think it’s really important.)
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question - is this the same thing as the “Flaming Film Festival,” or something entirely different?
It’s different. The Flaming Film Festival is hosted by Intermedia Arts and is not as high profile. There is usually pretty good stuff during that as well, but I can’t remember what they screened this year, and there’s no archive of it on their website.
I have been the festival coordinator for Minnesota Film Arts’ LGBT Film Festival for the past several years. I would like to clarify a few things. Firstly, it is entirely untrue that we had a program set up for this year, and that we had invited filmmakers. We never got beyond soliciting tapes for the program. The non-profit arts funding landscape is incredibly tight, and major corporations such as the one that used to fund the festival require complex and time-consuming request processes. The suggestion that an organization can simply ask for funding at the last minute from a major corporation who set their funding budgets and deadlines at the beginning of their fiscal year is incredibly naive. Funding for this festival has been increasingly difficult every year, and when our lead sponsor pulled out (on a somewhat last minute basis) we simply couldn’t afford to mount the costs of what is a very expensive festival. If our earned revenue (ticket sales) numbers were higher, it might be possible to continue. However, sadly, they can’t sustain the festival alone, even when subsidized by small local sponsors. The mission of the festival is very important to us, and we by no means abandon it. We incorporate that mission at our two venues that are open every night of the year and at the other film festivals we run, M-SPIFF and Sound Unseen.
Thanks for clarifying some of the issues surrounding this, Emily. I’m pretty saddened by the lack of support that the festival is generating. I know that I look forward to it every year, and just this year, I became a member of MN Film Arts to help support the organization and the various festivals. It’s surprising to me that attendance is so low for the LGBT festival, considering what should be a sizeable audience for the films. I hope that things turn around in years to come, and that the festival will be back next year. I do think it’s an important showcase for films that aren’t widely released otherwise. I’ll be looking into whatever help I can provide, small or otherwise to make the festival feasible again.
hey all. lisa, director of flaming film fest. it’s true. no more lgbt intl. now the question is, what is to happen with flaming film festival? we broke up with intermedia in 2005, and had district 202 as our fiscal agent. we had screenings at the varsity, BLB, and d202. our festival has been for the past 5 years in may-june… we have been talking about doubling the programming to include titles of an intl. there are many people on board to help with that, dean otto, witt siasoco att he walker. jake yuzna and the few others that have collectively helped to propel the festival, using many many volunteer hours. we need help to survive. our festival is in financial trouble as well. it’s true our fest is less mainstream queer. non distributed artists, artists of color, trans, sexplicit, lots of artists in attendance… now what do we do? i have been applying for out of town programming jobs, personally i need to make a financial move in my career. unless the fest can accomodate a full and two part time paid positions, in addition to the money needed to rent films, accomodate artists, promote… any ideas?