In late 2005, my friend Tony and I had finished post-production on an extremely low budget movie and Tony set about figuring if there was any market for it. This brought the world of film festivals to our attention.
I had previously had a bit of experience with a festival, working one year with the Florida Film Festival, hosted at the beautiful Enzian Theater in the Orlando area. That, plus a return for several screenings in the following years, formed a lot of my ideas about what a film festival should be.
The year I worked, I got to meet John Pierson, noted producer's rep and author of the indie film chronicle, 'Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes.' At the time, I was just impressed he helped sell 'Clerks' to Miramax. Interestingly enough, one of the judges that year was Robert Hawk, who was the original champion of 'Clerks,' even before Pierson came aboard, but I was unaware of his role in the legend. I had a lot to learn.
The Florida Film Festival had a lot going for it. Parties, great guests, interesting films, support in the community, enthusiastic founders and staff. It was a good model. This was in the years right after 'Pulp Fiction,' when "independent film" was entering a new phase, for better or worse. Suddenly, an indie film could rule the box office and launch a career. Film students were excited, and a film festival was the place to be. 'Blair Witch' was right around the corner.
It was nearly a decade later when Tony turned to me and asked, "Do you want to start a film festival?" The indie film world had seen a lot of changes, but leaps in technology and the internet had worked the miracles that revolutionized desktop publishing. Kids with cameras had the power to make films, but it wasn't immediately apparent how to get them seen. We wanted to get into that business, meeting like-minded people who walso wanted to make films and help find their audiences.
We had the idea, we had the model, we had the passion, and we had... uh, less than seven months.