26
votes
Tildes Virtual Film Festival?
How would you all feel about a virtual film festival?
We nominate candidate films, documentaries or shorts, focusing on things ​rarely watched, but that might provoke an interesting discussion.
We watch candidate films over maybe a three week period, watching maybe 3 times as many films as we nominate.
Then discussion ensues.
I have no artistic or aesthetic mindset but I would be down to watch some niche films and share my thoughts on them.
I vote yes, and while I'm at it nominate Stalker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)) as I've always wanted to see it but never took the time.
A wonderful film from a sui generis film maker. No one ever managed to capture the essence of Tarkovski mysticism. Probably because its followers lack a fundamental aspect of his philosophical make up: Tarkovski was very much an exoteric Christian with neo Platonic overtones. Without the element of faith, any understanding of his work is gravely incomplete.
From the last time I recommended Stalker:
It's also worth mentioning that Stalker is over 2.5 hours long, so despite my love of it, it might not be the best movie for this marathon style format where it might potentially monopolize people's time. Regardless, if chosen I would still be down to watch it once again though.
As for my own nomination, I would suggest The Lighthouse, which has a similar feel/atmosphere as Stalker, and has similarly beautiful cinematography, but is only 109 minutes (as opposed to Stalker's 161m). The Lighthouse will also likely be much more approachable and enjoyable to watch for most people, since its not as incomprehensible and esoteric as Stalker is, and the pacing is also much more in line with modern film-making standards as well. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson both have absolutely captivating performances in it too.
Stalker is a difficult film, but difficult films are the bread and butter of film festivals and the like. Cinephiles are very aware of that and many purposely seek this kind of experience. So I don't think it would be problematic to select this film and others like it.
In any case, I wouldn't say The Lighthouse is much easier.
It's not a bad idea but to be honest I'm not sure I'd be interested (or if others would be interested in what I bring).
Besides mainstream stuff, I'm interested in old movies in general as well as classics from well known genres such as western and film noir, and their contemporary descendants. Mostly American.
I also try to have a more or less complete knowledge of certain directors that I like such as Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, etc.
With exceptions, in my experience many hardcore cinephiles find my taste predictable and convencional.
Film festivals usually display movies that are quirky, edgy, obscure, eccentric, offbeat, politically engaged, etc.
I'm a film major by the way.
We can always gauge interest in advance by organizing this via categories, themes, etc. We all suggest our own picks or request recommendations within them.
Yes!
It could be fun as long as the movies are widely available....not "you have to be paying for HBO to see this" sort of thing.
The latter could work so long as someone is willing to stream them over Discord or the like.
Well, I believe it is safe to assume that most users are familiar with torrents.
Ethically the same as streaming over discord as well.
Sure, that is not what I was concerned about. I haven't used much Discord but I assume that downloading (and playing on you preferred device) would provide a more stable and comfortable viewing experience.
Yeah. I wasn't saying you were it's just a common thing claiming it isn't in these situations when I've been in them in the past so wanted to prempt it. Discord provides 720p at 30fps assuming you've got good connection so yeah 100%
Would this be enough to get us going?
https://i.imgur.com/vQOn7FC.png
We can do it over Discord
I don't know if I would participate, but if I do, I'd very much prefer to avoid Discord if possible.
What convenient alternative could we use?
Can't we do it over a post on Tildes?
Oh, I was hoping to do it live.
Yeah, two schools of thought I guess :P
You may call me a boring old man, but I always had this goal of completing the American Film Institute top 100[1]
[1] https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/
I'm in. Happy to work with Discord or whatever else is convenient for people. My nomination is Monsieur Ibrahim.
Monsieur Ibrahim looks promising so I guess that means I'm in too.
I nominate The General.
@mrbig expressed interest in old classics so I hope this suits.
If you've never watched a silent film before (and enjoyed it), well, try this one. Buster Keaton does mad stunts.
(Actually, I might watch some right now ... wow, it remains remarkably watchable and perhaps even more comical at 1.5x speed.)
I have seen so many gifs of Buster Keaton and his stunts but never actually watched one of his movies. I would definitely interested in a screening of The General!
I think it could be a fun idea. It sounds like the idea would be to have us all watch it via Discord or something like that? Rather than have a thread for the first week of films, with a top level comment for each film and then we go from there?
I think either idea would work, but I know Tildes users are all over the world, so finding a time that works to do it live might be difficult.
I'm sure I could find some rarely seen films we can enjoy.
I was originally thinking of a thread with top level comments for each film, with handy links on where you could watch it, because as you say, global audience in multiple time zones and life and what not. Although discord might be fun for some?
Lots of people showed interest but discussion died down without anything concrete on how we're supposed to go forward with it. That's a shame, I kinda got excited about the idea. @HotPants, what's your take of the discussion so far?
I somehow didn't find the time last weekend.
This weekend I can write up a formal invite for submissions along with existing proposals.
E.g. Stalker (1979) - Russian Andrei Tarkovsky's sci fi lucid dreamscape. $2.99.
What do you think?
Stalker is awesome no doubt about it.
I'll draft one or two proposals as soon as you create the topic, but probably for sets of films with a very different vibe from Stalker.
Let's see what attracts the interest of people.
I want to nominate this documentary Amazona (2016), however I'm not sure it will be possible to stream it.
Edit: I may have a way to stream it.
Count me in. I'll probably be up for short films more than anything else though, I've been meaning to get into more stuff on Omeleto for quite a while.