DFF 2012

Attending last year's edition of the Disposable Film Festival (DFF) proved to be a delightful eye-opening experience. Without a doubt, it was the deciding factor in my purchasing an iPhone. Once I knew what could be done with it, I was eager to start playing. If DFF got an old codger like me motivated, imagine how it inspires young media makers?! Playfulness is the spirit presiding over DFF, which provides its annual forum of the year's best "disposable" films, free workshops to advance the disposable genre, and festive parties to socialize with the cast and crew. In the spirit of collaboration and egalitarian access, DFF deserves being dubbed by Moviemaker magazine as "one of the coolest film festivals."

Recounting territory covered by my conversation with DFF festival co-founder and Director Carlton Evans, DFF was created in 2007 to celebrate the artistic potential of disposable video—short films made on non-professional devices such as cell phones, pocket cameras and handycams, webcams, and other readily available video capture devices. DFF hosts traditional theater and outdoor "Bike-In" screenings, competitions, filmmaking workshops and other events to showcase the best work within the disposable genre. DFF premieres each year in San Francisco before traveling to cities across the country and internationally.

The fifth edition of DFF will be held March 22-March 25, 2012. In addition to screenings of films made on everything from cell phones to web cams, this year's festival offers panel discussions and workshops with topics such as knowing your music/video licensing rights and social action and disposable filmmaking. There will also be a competitive shorts program, guest speakers, multimedia performances and plenty of after parties. A "Geek" event will showcase the latest and greatest gadgets, accessories, sites and apps for the disposable filmmaker. DFF Travels will screen the year's best travel video submissions.

"The number and quality of entries this year surpassed anything we've seen before," said festival co-founder and Director Carlton Evans. "People across the globe are finding themselves empowered through new inexpensive video technologies. And they're using them to tell their stories."

"We're absolutely bursting at the seams with new programs and screenings based on the collection of interesting trends we are seeing in the submissions and other amazing disposable film online," said Associate Director Katie Gillum.

The year's festival opens on the heels of a year filled with new partnerships and exciting events. Highlights included a "Best of the Fest" screening at Slamdance, a partnership with Practice Fusion and health-related film contest, a co-presentation of user-generated feature-length documentary Life In A Day [covered by Evening Class correspondent Dominic Mercurio], Bike-Ins and international screenings.

DFF 2012 kicks off with its Competitive Shorts Night at its sophomore premiere at the famous Castro Theater, March 22 at 8:00 PM. All films will be rated by an expert panel of judges [including, yours truly], and fans can vote for their favorites during the Audience Choice Award.

Among the workshops offered this year are those for youth hosted by TILT whose mission it is to teach young people—who are typically underrepresented and misrepresented in media—the fundamentals of movie-making and media literacy through hands on training in video production.

Guest speakers at DFF 2012 include iPhone animator Sascha Ciezata and Ted Hope who's produced such blockbuster films as Towelhead, Adventureland and The Savages.

The festival will wrap with two educational panels. Lights, Camera, Social Action! will focus on advocacy and Disposable Filmmaker 101 will show fans how to prep, shoot, edit and share a disposable film. Here's all the festival details:

Thursday, March 22: 8:00PM
Opening Night at The Castro
The Castro Theater: 429 Castro St.
TICKETS: Buy now: $14 RSVP: Facebook

Join DFF for the fifth annual opening night screening of the year's best disposable short films in the lavish Castro Theater. Yes, the organist will be there! Opening night has sold out every year, so grab your tickets before they sell out. They would love to save you a seat. Afterparty at The Lookout.

Following the premiere, DFF has a weekend full of events that are free to anyone who's curious and creative. But space is very limited, so RSVP to save your spot before the events fill up.

Friday, March 23: 5:00PM
Know Your Rights
Hotel Rex: 562 Sutter St. RSVP: Eventbrite

How do you legally use music and footage from other sources? At this panel on music/video licensing, discover what is available and how to decide how others use your work. Free!

Friday, March 23: 7:00PM
Insight from Ted Hope
Hotel Rex: 562 Sutter St. RSVP: Eventbrite

How do great films get made? Get insight from Ted Hope, America's leading independent producer, who will be speaking about what makes a project great both in terms of artistic innovation and financial viability. Free!

Saturday, March 24: 11:30AM
Mobile Filmmaking
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building)

Learn the ins and outs of producing media using mobile devices. This workshop is for ages 13 to 20. Free!

Saturday, March 24: 2:30PM
Young People Make Films
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building)

An engaging panel discussion with young media producers and media organizations. Free!

Saturday, March 24: 4:00PM
Meet Sascha Ciezata
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

iPhone animator Sascha Ciezata became an instant internet success. He received acclaim from such greats as David Lynch until an obscure group removed his film from the internet. We'll be screening this banned classic and speaking with the filmmaker, as well as screening some of his other incredible work. Free!

Saturday, March 24: 8pm
DFF Rocks!
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

A night of the best disposable music videos and tunes by DJ Matt Haze. Free! Brought to you by Vimeo Music Store. This event is open to partiers 21 and over only.

Sunday, March 25: 12:00 noon
Lights, Camera, Social Action!
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

A panel on disposable film and change: activists, educators, and non-profits discuss how disposable film is spurring social change. Free!

Sunday, March 25: 2:00PM
Disposable Film 101
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

Learn the tips and tricks of disposable storytelling, shooting, editing, and distribution from Vimeo Video School's Dan Hayek! Free!

Sunday, March 25: 5:00PM
DFF Geek
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

Discover the latest and greatest gadgets, accessories, sites and apps for the disposable filmmaker at this one of a kind indie expo. Presented by BoomGrip, a steadycam for your mobile device with dozens of hacks and uses. Free!

Sunday, March 25: 7:00PM
DFF Travels
Typekit Headquarters: 2601 Mission Street at 22nd (Top of the US Bank building) RSVP: Eventbrite

Not your uncle's travel slide show! Come celebrate closing night with a selection of the year's best travel videos, presented by AirBnB. Wine courtesy of Avalon Winery. This event is open to partiers 21 and over only. Free!

DFF—Dominic Mercurio Contemplates Life In A Day

"The only real important filmmakers at the moment are the thousand and thousand YouTube providers."—Heddy Honigmann, in a Facebook entry dated Wednesday, March 12, 2011.

The Disposable Film Festival (DFF) and YouTube co-presented a special free screening of Oscar®-winning film director Kevin Macdonald's Life In A Day at the Sundance Kabuki Theater, San Francisco on Wednesday, July 20, 2011. Life In A Day (produced by Ridley Scott) is a user-generated feature-length documentary, shot on a single day—July 24, 2010—that enlisted the global community to capture a moment of their lives on camera. Culled from over 80,000 videos to YouTube, the 90-minute feature pulls together deeply personal, powerful films from contributors from Australia to Zambia, from the heart of bustling major cities to the furthest and most remote reaches of the earth. Life In A Day director Kevin McDonald and editor Joe Walker were available for a Q&A following the screening.

DFF Executive Director Carlton Evans said, "It's an absolute pleasure and an honor to be a part of this event. The DFF hopes that more projects like this will bring everyday artists' work to the silver screen." Added festival Associate Director Katie Gillum, "Life In A Day is a testament to the capability and power of disposable filmmaking. The film could not have been produced without widespread access to disposable media like cell phones or digital cameras and without the freedom and flexibility they afford."

The Evening Class thanks Dominic Mercurio for offering his perspective on the event.

* * *

Are you alive? Then see this film. Many films explore the human experience, but Kevin Macdonald's Life In A Day dives into the deep end of humanity's essence. This ambitious project asked the YouTube community to upload videos of their day on July 24, 2010. The experiment resulted in over 4,500 hours of footage submitted from 140 countries around the world. The staggering amount of footage was funneled down into a 95-minute visual time capsule of one day in our lives as humans, documented by ourselves. The concept is old, the execution is undeniably innovative, and the result is astounding.

What makes the film stand out is its brilliant use of our society's penchant for over-sharing. Social media has reached a crescendo and YouTube has been the one stop shop to find just about anything you could ever want to see, captured on video. Life In A Day masterfully pieces together a candid look at ourselves. Tapping into the direct line that YouTube creates from a single person to the rest of the world, Macdonald has removed one of the stigmatas of documentary filmmaking—the film crew—thereby underscoring the frequent argument that documentaries cannot objectively see the truth as long as there are people behind the camera imposing their editorial perspective on a subject situation. By empowering everyday subjects with cameras, documentary's thin pretense of objectivity capsizes and a subjectified portrait of real people from around the world emerges.

The film itself is essentially a feature-length YouTube video, complete with visuals ranging from camera phone to professional cinematography, and ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes. Moments are sequentially experienced as the channel flips from one country to the next through editing whose pace resembles the average internet users online experience, cribbed as it is by internet attention deficit disorder. Some say the average attention span of an internet user is a mere three minutes, so congratulations on getting this far in this article.

Trying to describe the film to someone who has not yet seen it is a difficult task. Singling out individual clips that struck me as powerful and poignant probably won't comport with the clips that resonate with others, but the variety of clips dropping you in the middle of hundreds of countries and situations ensures that there is something in this film for everyone. The film's celebratory vibe throughout its duration keeps it consistently fascinating and entertaining. While there is no real narrative arc to speak of, I would say it still tells a story. It's the story that we each live every day, though this one particular day is thoroughly documented.

Commencing at midnight (relative of course to where in the world you are), Life In A Day observes morning routines of people around the globe, carries on through the day, and eventually returns to midnight. With that bare bones cyclic structure in place, Life In A Day finds plenty of wiggle room to explore common themes: touching on love, death, happiness, wonder, growing up, possessions, technology, fear, and hope.

What becomes clear early on in the film is just how similar life can be around the world. It's easy to believe that an individual life is unlike anyone else's, but watching Life in a Day focuses less on difference and capitalizes on similarity. This isn't to demean our individual lives, but to bracket them within an omnipresent sense that "we are all one." The film solicits an identification with other people from other parts of the world.

The unique emotional punch of Life In A Day depends on what the viewer considers unique. By graciously providing a thrilling look at the world at a level only achievable through the tools of information in 2010, Life In A Day gives what the viewer, in turn, is willing to give. Allowing one's mind to wander through one's own experiences to explore how they relate to what the film provides can be a rewarding experience of connectivity. If films are meant to be hyper-reality, it could be argued that Life In A Day is simply reality, unprecedented for being unadorned and honest. It's hard to shake the feeling of communitas that the film inspires. Undoubtedly, when the lights come up in the theater, you'll hope to catch the eyes of fellow audience members to determine whether or not they feel the same.

Cross-published on Twitch.