Visions Week 1 - Festival's of Their Own

For our first assignment as newbie's to the Visions 5 staff we were required to read the article "Festival's of Their Own"
In the reading "Festival's of Their Own" the article talks about the history and the politics that have surrounded film festival's since their beginning in 1938. I was amazed at the impact that film festival's have had all across the globe, as well as the controversies which have surrounded various film festivals. Such as the very first film festival held in Venice, which due to the politics of the World War II era, wherein the German made film Olympia won out over the popular Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Or, how during Cannes film festival in 1955, the representatives from American petitioned to deny the blacklisted U.S. director Jules Dassin in order to keep up appearances. Cannes, I learned, is the most influential film festival of them all. Having been the exemplary model for other film festivals (such as Sundance) around the world and leading them in promoting films made by fledgling directors. However, as the years go by the profitability of film festivals has increased and led to an unfortunate exclusion of films which festivals were meant to circulate to the public. There has been a return back to the original spirit of festival's, with a wider variety of styles and stories to be shared, the film community continues to make available space for up and coming filmmakers no matter their interests.

I did a quick read through of the second article on Blackboard "Microcinema" and a shared theme of both articles was the promotion of the "small works" in film. To reject the consumerist nature of art and media and to continue to keep the spirit of art alive by celebrating the films (the art) of our fellow artists.