You All Know It: SCREAMERS ARE OUR FRIENDS!

Friends and neighbors, THIS is what I needed this week!

Ok, if you have followed my thoughts on everything affecting film festivals since the start of the pandemic, then you might know that my thinking about virtual events has shifted somewhat since March. I started this consideration with a flood of anxiety, but after an unexpectedly successful 2020 virtual festival and an equally successful Campfire Tales event this past weekend I have to say my focus is more keenly on the value that the virtual experience can bring.

“The Rougarou” director Lorraine Caffery gives an impromptu discussion with audience members in our “Virtual Frida Lobby” before the show!

Note, I said can bring. The truth is that to make these events work in any perceptible way requires constant connection, communication, outreach, and attention. In other words, it is even more draining than doing an event in person. That was NOT expected!

My biggest concern was keeping people connected. That is, after all, the main service a festival provides: community building. A community among filmmakers, yes, but also (and for me more importantly) a community among creators and audiences. The biggest thing I miss from being in a cinema during our festival is the collective visceral reactions from a theater full of engaged viewers. The screams, the laughs, the gasps, and the jumps are my LIFE BLOOD, and, despite any relief at the success of our virtual ventures, it is a loss I am still keenly feeling.

So, when I saw this video I was ELATED. Seriously elated. Our beloved members of both Horrible Imaginings Film Festival and Film Geeks San Diego, Dr. Jeff Pearson and his wonderful partner Laurie Pearson, set up a camera to record themselves as they watched the Campfire Tales October 2020 short films. Now, Laurie is one of those delightful audience members who is still dramatically affected by those events playing out on screen, and they created a compilation of her screams!

Seriously, I have watched this like 15 times. Behold, my friends, because we all could use some Halloween-flavored joy this season. I want to thank you, Jeff and Laurie, for providing this little dose of lifeblood to keep me going!