SDSU Student Film Festival

Twas last night in the Don Powell theater on campus. The pre-fest barbeque: lackluster as usual but the company was great, as usual. The attendance at the start: very large. Attendance at the end: about 10, plus Greg. Which leads to my rant: Why have a film festival if you're not gonna stick around to watch the films?! Isn't this why we got into this field? Didn't our obsession with films start by, I don't know, watching films. Instead, for many, it becomes, "Ooh, let's watch my film and walk out afterwards totally disrespecting all others that follow." Such team players, such community. You know what, when I go to the festival, I do wanna see how people react to my (by that I mean my group's) work. That's natural. But you know what, I can watch my movie any damned time I want. I may never get to see the other films ever again. And who knows, maybe somebody other than me is producing quality work. Maybe somebody I thought couldn't do anything made a film that kicks ass. Maybe somebody I've never heard of made a movie that's right up my alley. Or better yet, maybe somebody had to sit through my movie about a guy in a brown coat, whose wife is a zombie, who let a girl get anally raped by a dying cowboy who secretly wants to be a cheerleader. Maybe those are some good reasons to stick around. Don't get me started about what got cut and what got into the festival cause that shit can't change. But the attitude of some of these so-called film buffs sure needs to, otherwise I'm just gonna stop showing up all together. It makes me sick, the indecency. I understand that your actor and his family want to go home, they've got different priorities. But you, sir, Mr. Filmmaker, you've got to see what else is going on right outside your door in the film department. I'm amazed by the stuff I see at the festival. I get to see what's possible and where our ideas can go. But that all goes away the minute the applause for the good film starts and the filmmaker gets up and heads for the door. All the while somebody else's film, which was just as hard to make and just as deserving of recognition, is starting to roll. Absolutely pathetic. You've got to sit through everyone else's homeruns before you can grandstand about your own. Oh yeah.