West End Film Festival promises a wildly innovative program for 2022

West End Film Festival is taking over the Kurilpa peninsula between the 29 July - 24 August. 

The upcoming public events include a mashup of live music with selected bands and their video clips screened at Bunyapa Park, a journey into multiculturalism through, music, film and activism at Cinema, Story and Song at Parched Brewery, an evening of family friendly films with food and a bar for the little and big kids at Arafmi, and multi-arts sessions at SAE Institute Brisbane, including a whole of campus including interactive activities, immersive installations, panels, workshops and more. WEFF22 has programmed industry jams, panels and workshops on tech, networking, upskilling, the creative process, First Nations lenses and more.

To top it off, they’ll be running 4 nights of the best films at Metro Arts including the WEFFY awards, panels and industry networking events. This year’s Festival is hyper-local yet national featuring flicks from chilly Melbs to humid Darwin covering content on hot topics, music videos, animation, dramas, youth, other cultures and a wonderfully inspiring, provocative, yet diverse program from our own homegrown 4101 and SEQ filmmakers. Audiences will get to view an amazing talent of multimedia events across West End plus find unexpected popup film events in non-traditional film settings. They send thanks to those who create and those who enjoy. And a big thank you to the volunteers who make this Festival possible.

More events to be announced! Keep updated on Facebook, Instagram for announcements and Linktree for all Festival links. 

Images supplied.

West End Community Association (WECA) Arts & Cultural lead Harmonie Downes, goes in deep to look at the relevance of film for contemporary audiences, and how WEFF is innovating the festival genre.

Why Film, Why Non-Traditional Spaces, and Screen Agnostic Approaches

Most Film Festivals are shown in cinemas or large convention centres with the ability to mimic a cinema minus the surround sound. Just as sports are set in stadiums, this is the comparison and the offering to audiences. We have seen numerous arts venues close and the available arts venues can be inaccessible with programs booked for the next year and external hire fees outpricing many independents who require grant funding to engage these venues.

Brisbane has experienced numerous old independent movie theatres and their heritage buildings burned down, knocked down, bought and sold for cheaper builds, so the availability of making film (and other artforms) and showing these works in cinemas is not as easy to access with the need to think outside the box for Festival delivery being more important than ever.

The notion that Film is a standalone format is limiting to the industry and the workers involved in the industry. It’s a major reason why West End Film Festival has retro-fitted out sheds in partnership with bars, or converted car parks into cinemas or running events that crossover with other industries such as music production and performance. The sector needs to evolve to provide an answer to rising costs, loss of dedicated movie houses and an ever decreasing funding pool, with the expectation that the small amount of funding invested is to try and meet the demands of an Australian film sector wanting to be seen as worthy.

The rise of Streaming video on demand (SVOD) is a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide and went off during covid, who DIDN’T binge watch their favourites over the past two years? PwC estimates that the SVOD market in Australia is worth over $2.5 billion and predicts that this will increase to over $3.6 billion by 2025. While Netflix is the most popular service, new SVOD services continue to enter the market and are enjoying rapid growth.

Australians want more Australian content on SVOD services.

The Deloitte Media Consumer Survey, released in September 2020, found that 34 per cent of respondents consider it ‘very important’ to be able to access Australian film content on SVOD services.  While the SVOD services operating in Australia are increasing their provision of Australian content, a significant proportion of Australians don’t believe that this is enough. In September 2021, 47 per cent of Australian adults felt that SVOD services don’t have enough Australian content.

Without regulation by the government even though Australia has been attractive for filming and bringing industry to Australia for big shoots to the Gold Coast, thanks to covid, we need to ensure that the Australian Film Industry sees more representation on the world stage, not just for Australians, since the current Australian content is often a decade old but for building our productions here and rebuilding our legacy of being a  powerhouse before the mass exodus to the USA in the 1950’s to seek fame and fortune at Hollywood.

The Streaming Video on Demand - SVOD 2022 report was released in February 2022 to tackle the legislative gaps for Australian filmmaking and provide a snapshot of the industry, it’s a startling  read. Government needs to legislate a set percentage of Australian products these streaming services need to offer but the government doesn’t think the content is mandatorily available due to a worker shortage.

We need to link these streaming services into festivals, into film schools and in non-traditional spaces using multi-arts events and establish pathways where government and funders financially contribute meaningful investment. It is up to Festivals to knock on these doors and demand  greater access for the  film ecosystem with government listening not favouring high end productions but to nurture relationships between well established filmmakers and studios to emergent content makers.

Many Festivals are short film festivals at the core of their programming because of these financial constraints, yet short film isn’t seen as a viable product. I beg to differ on both points mentioned above. Short films enable content creators the ability to move to screen agnostic platforms to engage in social media platforms more than ever, this systemic change democratises knowledge, enables content creators of all ages to participate (12 and above), and the market has diversified so much so, that companies such as TikTok have developed contract webinars and documents for young creators due to unexpectedly finding themselves as an influencer earning millions per year while still at school.

There are plenty of content and content makers, however what’s evident, is there is not enough money in funding for skills development for the variety of roles, traineeships to work in studios and underfunding for film festivals to scaffold the industry.

It is a challenging, exciting and an absolutely critical time for the film industry, so if you’re reading this and thinking ”Yeah I am a total film buff and love watching films and want more Australian content.”, then make sure you go check out Festivals such as West End Film Festival which offers a diverse range of content for all ages and interests! Please know that just as much as we want funding to make Festivals to cater to our beloved audiences, we program events that will be just as immersive whilst providing opportunities to hang with other like minded film buffs, lovers and makers. Our stories are for us and by us. As Quentin Tarantino said “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, no, I went to films.”