Perth and Palm Springs International Film Festival

Screening have come and gone. You could compare it to a big tropical storm! There is all this build up and anticipations, then you have the screening followed by silence when it's all over, until the next film festival. It's all so flighty, but as a filmmaker you hope that people remember a bit of your film, a character, a scene or an emotion! I had a fellow filmmaker friend (who i met in Cannes a couple of years ago) who attended the screening in Perth and who send me a beautiful report on how the audience responded to the film.

She wrote:
"Your film went great the other night, it had a strong band of supporters in one part of the cinema, while from another there seemed to be shock and hush. There was a lot of raucous laughter, only for a short time did it soften to nervous laughter, before reaching a whole lot more strong, laugh out loud responses. Your film was the last "entertaining" film, shown close to some other shorter, experimental works, so I think would have been clearly in everyone's mind at the end of the night. I really enjoyed the shift to irreverent comedy, partnered with a new hand- drawn looking style." (Justine Smith)

It's great to have filmmaker friends in different places around the world to report back to you about your screenings if you yourself are not able to attend for any particular reason. And when you have your film shown in a short amount of time all over the world you would have many reasons why you could not attend all of them. So i also contacted my very good filmmaker friend Francisco Vargas (who i met in Palm Springs back in 2009) who happen to have just arrived in Palm Springs from NY the day before the film screening in PS. So he attended and also reported back to me.

He wrote:
"The screening was great. I loved it, i remember that we talked about it and then i saw on theeee screen. The animation was superb and the sound was awesome, the guys laughed a lot and i myself enjoyed it tremendously, your talents are amazing I'm so happy for you. All was well!" (Francisco Vargas)

A shame i don't know anybody who went to the screening in Annecy, but we can't win them all! For sure we can't win them all as we just received another two rejections from Canberra Short Film Festival and from the big one, the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival. I think it's now time that we start sending our film out to the Queer Film Festivals around the world!

Selections and Submissions

Yes the title says it all! We have been selected now for a couple of really good festivals, including Palm Springs International ShortFest as an US premiere and also Revelations Perth International Film Festival as an other prestigious Australian Film festival. So there were more postcards to label and more posters to be posted. At the same time when all of this selection commotion is happening there are more deadlines of prominent Film Festivals looming, and i don't want our film to miss out on any chance it gets to be exposed to some more worldly views. However with all this light shinning on our film and the great success it already has achieved there have also been some disappointments. Yes we did not make it into the Sydney and the Melbourne International film festivals. It's fair to say that i was a little bit upset about that, but we have to move forward and up. That's the only way to keep your back straight and breath properly. I have expanded our film profile onto the 'Film Festival World' website. I'm trying to broaden our outreach via the internet! View our new online press kit here. At the same time we keep on submitting. We received a couple of festival invitations as well through the film's Festival screenings exposure, so that is always nice, but it does not guarantee that your film will be selected. It only shows interest!

The busy life of being selected into Film Festivals

I wanted to write a little about what happens when you are selected into film festivals. You will receive your congratulations letter and then you have only days to reply with a whole bunch of information... It's like those days become crunch time. You need to fill in forms and send them back with production stills and trailers and CFC Worldwide Short Film festival wanted a Podcast as well. (By the way you can hear it at this link). Now if the submitting into film festivals is not time consuming and expensive enough, then wait until you get your "hey you've been selected" emails... Not only do you need more time you also need more money and you are being pressurised by the festival to be so organised that you need to act immediately and post them all the marketing materials! Well let me tell you, if you are the independent filmmaker that is so organised, congratulations and good on you. Sometimes things take time to brew and if you are doing everything yourself then these pressures from film festivals can come in handy to shoot into action and get your marketing materials happening. Leigh and i have just got our postcards and poster designed and printed. 500 Postcards and 20 A2 Posters that where respectively $200 each. Then 150 postcards get labeled with the session times of your screenings and send over to Canada for a small fee of $22.95. As i was standing in the postoffice i thought "well it's still cheaper then flying there and back and taking them myself". There is no way out "IT IS EXPENSIVE TO MARKET YOUR FILM INTERNATIONALLY". And for a self funded independent filmmaker this can be challenging! It took me all week last week to enter 7 film festivals and send emails and forms and tapes to selected film festivals. So even if you try and do things on the cheap there is still a lot of your time involved to get your film out there in the world and for the world to see your work in a professional context. After all that is why you made your film in the first place "for folks around the world to see it". Well yes there is the internet and putting your film on you tube, and for sure we will one day, but not quite yet! in two years time after the film had it's good festival run! It's all strategy... in the mean time we have received our first interest by a distribution company in Canada! Up and away we go, lets see what happens next?...

International World Premieres

yes like i said the true roller coaster has begun. and so a couple of weeks after receiving the NO Thank you letter from Annecy, I received an email saying:

"Dear Elka Kerkhofs,
In the view of the 2011 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, we will have our now traditional programme "Politically Incorrect". No need here to present it as its name speaks for itself.

We would very much like to include your film "The Confession of Father John Thomas" in the programme for 3 screenings during the festival week.

If you agree with this project, I will deliver to you in May our Fedex account number for sending a Pal DigiBeta or BetaSP tape before the end of May.

Thanking you in advance for your participation and looking forward to receiving your reply.

Best regards, "

and so reason to jump into the air after all and scream! On top of that we received an ever so exciting email from the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto that we are selected in the SLAP and TICKLE 2011 program. According to Britfilm festivals listing a A rated Short Film Festival and a great Festival to Premiere your film in North America! Also we decided to submit the film into the Short Film Corner in Cannes and pay the $130.00 registration fee even though neither Leigh or I can Attend the festival, we thought it was still worth submitting for all the festival programmers their watching all the short films. So our film is can now officially use the Cannes short film corners Logo on all our promotion and advertising! I suppose in the end it comes down to paying money for promotion and advertising of your work, so you sell your products for the future! It's about taking your work and craft serious and making it marketable. To start our journey with these 3 top festivals internationally is a boost for our film. It will give us a good chance to promote the film in the mainstream as well as in our targeted queer markets and that is all we had hoped for really. Now the real money spending is starting again. if you thought that being selected in a top festival is great and free, think again ... CFC WSFF wanted me to post a tape out to them immediately and on top of the already $40.00 paid to submit the film (including postage) it now cost an other $16.00 to send the tape and hundreds of dollars to print all your post cards and promo stuff and post that to them too! So the question can now be asked, when does the short film makers start to recoup some of it's costs... meaning we can almost forget about asking "when does the short film maker start to earn some extra money?" ... we shall contemplate this for a little while!

The Festival roller coaster

Here we are, receiving our first official "I'm sorry to inform you that ...." letter from Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Out of the 1,967 films received, from 68 countries, the Annecy Festival 2011 selection committees have retained 207 for the official selection (out of feature films).

After their deliberations, I'm sorry to have to inform you that they did not choose your film(s):
20110252 - The Confession of Father John Thomas
I would be grateful if you could inform the director(s).

If you would like to attend this year's edition, you can download the forms for accreditation and hotel reservation from our website www.annecy.org.

I look forward to seeing you in Annecy.

Sincerely,

Tiziana Loschi
Managing Director

So it has started, the festival roller coaster, yes, no, no ,no, yes, no, no ...ect... for years i have been trying to find some sort of thread through all these festivals, which to submit to and which decided to select your film and which not and on what premise??? Although Annecy declined we are going to try via a different revenue and we might have an other shot at it through it's online competition for which we just need to make a few changes in the film and mention a few extra words in some shots. Then we need to upload it and get as many votes as possible!!! so that could be interesting! In the mean time we have entered into the "I've seen Films" Festival, the Ottawa animation Festival, the Canberra Short film festival and we are just uploading our film for selection and possible inclusion at the short film corner in Cannes!!! So fingers crossed for any of them. We will start entering into some more Queer film festivals soon too, so that should be really exciting again too. "Our supposed demographic". It's a fine balance between your strategy for the possible journey you want your film to start on and high profile film festivals and your target audience film festivals and exposure and distribution, Internationally as well as your local market! Sometimes i feel i have a plan and sometimes it;s the luck of the draw, a festival just catches my eye and grabs me and i enter! LIke the I've seen Films Festival in Italy, put on by the famous dutch actor Rutger Hauer staring in "Blade Runner". Well it's the old European nostalgia kicking in and then i see a great possible opportunity to break through in a different market and i give us a shot at it really. Bottom line is really "if you don't shoot, you miss for sure"!!

The BBFF experience

"The Confession of Father John Thomas" screened on Saturday the 5 of March in Session 3 at the Byron Bay International Film Festival. I was asked to introduce the film at the start of the screening to about 100 people who attended this session. My speech was rehearsed and edited down to a very short and sharp speech. A long time friend even commented after how succinct my intro was as she knows me to waffle on at times. the audience laughed and responded well when i said...."The inspiration for the film was back in 2004 when i made this painting of two penises kissing and ... well everything grew from there really". So that was the nail on the head..haha! After the screening i was able to collect 10 more short surveys and the overall rating was again 4.5 stars with great feedback like; "It's great to open people's minds" ; "Loved the penises/vulvas presence, I believe this type of work to free us from deeply ingrained and destructive puritanism" ; "Confronted" ; "Great twist the lesbian inside in the end". again the majority would like to see a series been made and broadcast on free digital TV and/or Buy a DVD. Slowly we are building our fan base with 101 people now liking the trailer 671 watched the trailer and 28 JT friends on facebook. It was also wonderful to attend the screen-works filmmakers gathering and i met some lovely new local filmmakers in Byron Bay and Mullumbimby. Melanie a student at Southern Cross University in Lismore conducted an interview with me on the importance of regional film festivals and filmmakers. I will follow her up and try and get a hold of the article she will produce.

I also attended a workshop by Gil Scrine, founder of Antidote Films about how video-on-demand is switching on new screens for filmmakers. He talked about setting up a new online distribution company VOD as a new and different way of your audience accessing films worldwide for a very small streaming viewing cost. He would sign a contract with the filmmakers first in some sort of 40/60 deal before the films would be distributed online. but what most intrigued me was when he was talking about the Australian film Industry labeling it a production company. He said "In Australia producers go from government funded production to production to survive and they don't know much about distribution, where as in America producers are first to discuss the audience with the filmmakers and only when the target audience for the film is identified will the production go ahead. In Australia we need to ask ourselves who decides which films get made?.......That's why so many bad films are being made in Australia, 1. because we don't consider our audience and 2. just a few people working for the government funding bodies decides which films get funding!"... Well thought through and i agreed with Gil.

Tonight is the closing night of the festival and then the focus will be on our first premiere overseas! We received an invite to submit to the Pixart Electronic Festival in Europe, which looks very exciting. oh back to the submission board!

Media release for BBFF screening

Below Media release was send out to all the local news papers with a follow up phone call, not much interest but at least a mention of the film on the 1 of March 2011 in the local news paper The Echo. the film will screen later today! Yeeeh all very exciting now!... I'm still preparing my introduction speech!

Local Filmmaker world premièring new third award winning animation film at BBFF

Mullumbimby filmmaker Elka Kerkhofs’ new animation film THE CONFESSION OF FATHER JOHN THOMAS will world premiere at the Byron Bay International Film Festival this month.

THE CONFESSION OF FATHER JOHN THOMAS won best animation film and best local filmmakers award during the recent preview screening at the Queer Fruits Film Festival in Lismore.

THE CONFESSION OF FATHER JOHN THOMAS is a story about a penis priest called Father John Thomas, who lives in the heart of the Australian Outback. During one of his “seemingly” innocent confessionals he is caught out by God who pushes him to reveal his true self. Along with the filthy fantasies of fellow sinner lesbian vagina Miss Beaver Eater, he finally gets the balls to confess.

This is Kerkhofs third award winning animation film. Previously she was awarded with both her internationally acclaimed animation films LASH and FILLED WITH WATER.

“What an incredible start for our new film’s world wide journey. It is wonderful to feel such support from the local Northern Rivers top film festivals to give our film the thumbs up and help us boost it into the world. We are so very grateful, because without the festival’s acknowledgement to filmmakers we would feel less encouraged to keep on making films”

Kerkhofs keeps pushing the boundaries and creates intriguing and thought provoking films that members of the community and industry respond to. BBFF’s selection of this daring and spicy film will give her further confidence in her couragous path of filmmaking.

Asking her what inspired her to make such a quirky film?

“The Confession of Father John Thomas was always in the back of my mind, waiting to be made, even if I didn’t know it yet! When my last dramatically dark film, Lash, was finished in 2008, I decided my next film would be a comedy.

The first basic concept of the film was sparked by a painting that I had made of two penises kissing way back in 2004, and it wasn’t until I had combined this rather daring image with my desire to see real change in dogmatic religious structures, that Father John Thomas was able to step out from the darkest part of my subconscious and into the light.

I was raised in the predominately Catholic country of Belgium, and after immigrating to Australia’s Northern Territory, I observed Catholic infiltration in the form of small bush churches everywhere in outback Australia. Today they are converted to community halls where public events take place. I thought this to be a great setting for our story.

The film has a strong message about the fluidity of ones sexual feelings, desires and orientation; one that does not necessarily find a place in a dogmatic religious structure. These ideas come together in a visually stunning, confronting at times, comical blend, which will have the audience in stitches and glued to the screen for the whole 5 minutes.”


And while Elka is delighted with the world premiere of THE CONFESSION OF FATHER JOHN THOMAS at BBFF, she is currently finishing her Masters by research in Film and TV at the VCA in Melbourne and writing the script for THE SECOND COMING OF MISS BEAVER EATER. Together with her animation colleague Leigh Ryan they are looking for funds and a producer to come onboard to realise the next sagas of the Father John Thomas confessions.

To stay in touch with Father John Thomas’s journey, become friends with him on Facebook or catch the spicy trailer on the film’s official website www.fatherjohnthomas.com.au

THE CONFESSION OF FATHER JOHN THOMAS will screen at the Byron Bay Community centre on Saturday 5 March at 12 pm in the adult only shorts session.