Welcome to the Ellijay Makerspace Permanent Film Festival, powered by New Ellijay Television! It’s happening now. It has always been happening. It will continue happening From now until the great arachnid uprising and/or the heat death of the universe.
Why a film festival?
We must create our own media. When we buy media from major corporations, we transfer money and attention, and therefore power, out of our local communities and into the pockets of CEOs and shareholders. When we make and watch media from within our communities, that same wealth, attention, and power stays in our communities, with us. Until recently, there were economic, technological, and logistical obstacles that prevented communities from providing alternatives for most kinds of corporate media. Thankfully, this is no longer true.
Countless news stories of the last few years broke on Twitter and Facebook thanks to a citizen journalist and their smartphone. There have been many TV show-style series released on the web by amateurs and professionals alike. People are making their own media, and that’s awesome. For the first time in the history of mass broadcasting, just about anyone can potentially reach an audience of millions. (Sure, at the moment, we largely rely on corporate behemoths like Google and Facebook to do it, but the DIY media tech movement is well underway.) The products of modern hobbyists can and do rival (or even surpass!) the output of media conglomerates both in terms of quality and consumption in nearly every field.
So, let’s do it. Let’s do it together. It’s happening now.
Requirements
Make a film or video, and submit it to us. There is no deadline, and we have quarterly exhibitions.
We’re suggesting that it be an entirely original work constructed from scratch. This can be done for free! A cellphone or a webcam and a copy of Kdenlive, a free, open-source video editor, is more than enough to produce a film. Equipment, education, and resources for filmmakers are available from the Ellijay Makerspace.
We welcome team submissions and will be happy to facilitate matching potential participants with other team members. First-time filmmakers are highly encouraged to participate. We require all submissions to be licensed under a Creative Commons license. (See the Creative Commons license picker for more information.) We’re big fans of the CC-BY-SA license, but you’re welcome to use whichever open content license makes the most sense for you and your work.
You can send us submissions on VHS, DVD, or flash drive to:
Ellijay Makerspace
c/o Film Festival
54 Kiker St
Ellijay, Georgia 30540
or upload it to our website (or your own website!). Please note that we do not mention Dropbox, Google Drive, YouTube, Facebook, or any other commercial file-sharing service. Entries shared through a commercial ‘big data’ service will be disqualified.
Why not use a commercial service?
Because they’re harmful! They profit from your free labor and extract value from the things you produce to enrich some of the richest people on the planet. They also tend to spread messages of unfounded conspiracy theories, hatred, and violence at a disproportionate rate. See Social Media Revolution for more thoughts on this topic.
That’s it! Get filming!
