They were falling like dominos. Performance feasts like Melbourne Comedy, crowd magnets like the Grand Prix all tumbled before the microscopic player COVID-19. When I read that my beloved MIFF, too, was plummeting from the sky. And then toward July the wreckage stirred, dust blustered out and the thing rose to its feet and declared it would be going ahead, it would be a little different, given the times, but it would be there for us. It even gave itself a cinephilic joke as a name: MIFF 68 1/2.
The program was up by mid-July. It was expectably slimmer than normal and the pricing was acceptable (mostly). You couldn't do anything with the information on the handsomely refurbished website. Members were given earlybird benefits and were the first to be let loose on the fare but, really, apart from the festival itself that reaped some extra lolly, who really got anything out of membership this year?
I wasn't caring a deal about that as I was trying to work out how ticketing was being handled. Minipasses? Single Tickets. What delivery were we looking at? It had to be streaming but what was the platform would they take advantage of the flexibility? Finally, we'd see an end of the sold-out session or the issue of popular titles being uncomfortably full (when it's a physical event, I have switched tickets away from too full sessions). All of that would, however temporarily, be a thing of the past. Right? Later....
PROGRAM
At first glance it looked bland and unadventurous: documentaries, contemporary auteurs, verite. Then I noticed Dau. Natasha a product of the infamous Ilya Khrzanovsky's Dau. project (Google it) but then I recalled the film 4 from a few years back and passed. The plain packaging of Women Make Film almost had me passing on it, too until I realised how massive and compelling it might be (and was) A few more picks later and I had a modest five or so which was enough to take a week off work from home and feel like I was part of an event. The second week brought new titles and I added three.
What's Happening?
It was hard to find out how it was going to work until a breath before the festival itself. This made it difficult to plan. Were they going to replicate the effect of physical screenings by limiting their availability. Would there be a bulk deal like a minipass? What platform were they going to use and would I be able to plug into it? And so on. Without knowing most of these I decided to play it safe and take the second week off work from home (yes, that means something). It meant that, worst come to worst, I'd have a work free week off. The shape of the festival and access to it were to remain mysteries until the big launch on YouTube. It felt like an attempt to juice up the sense of event but it just felt like a grasp at the old normal.
The Website
The website was redesigned from the ground up and was an attractive and useful thing, eventually. I failed to get in until I asked on the FB group and was told that the redesign required new account creation from everyone which should have been on the landing page. Ok, done but I used to be able to go back and check previous years' activity which could come in handy. That's gone forever.
If you used Chrome on Windows 10 it was anyone's guess where to click on the thumbnail to get to a given film's page. It really did seem randomised. On other platforms it was more consistent.
Ticketing
The main thing was the admission that there was no control to be had as to the numbers of viewers per household. Indeed, the sole means of policing was the silence in the streets after curfew (for Melburnians, at least).
There were bundles offered of like films for any who wished for a more controlled experience and these were well priced. While there was an adjusted membership pricing and benefit list it held no better lure than under the old circumstances. I could still have done with a minipass but as the pricing was acceptable I went with a list about the same size as a mini.
Pricing was in two tiers: $14 (most of them) and $20 (spotlights) which is more or less on par with services like Apple Movies. Exceptions included the epic Women Make Film series which was $20 for the lot (viewing windows per episode, a relief for a 14 hour series).
Delivery
When it was unveiled the delivery method was via the website with a number of recommendations. I chose plugging a laptop into my tv via HDMI which mostly worked a treat (problems I had with this were pretty much due to which device I was using). Once started, punters were given a decent 30 hour window to complete the film which allowed a rewatch if needed (see below for issues with this).
Anyone puzzled by this or without the means was stuck with watching on a computer or smaller screen device.
If you needed to pause a film for a later resumption within the window you were faced with the entire introductory slideshow and ads again, you couldn't just pick it up. So what? Well, the slides for sponsors etc., while I understand why they're there, are on screen forever as the ridiculously high volume background music throbs. Then you get a few commercials. Normal fare and then an age restriction warning and any notes about the screening itself (captions etc.). Is there no way at all to allow that to be bypassed for a resumed screening? I timed it a few times and was able to potter about getting food or drinks ready while it blared away.
Films designated "Spotlight" were unable to be played until a given timeframe on a single date. This struck me as an idea to inject a sense of moment to highlighted features, to add a feeling of communal festival going. Wouldn't that be most effective if the after chat (or the simultaneous chat) were allowed by agreement between friends who'd organise it anyway? A complete absence of popular participation in available forums (Twitter and FB were crammed with publicity posts which caught a very few responses by comparison with previous fests. I used to enjoy seeing the live Twitter wall at MIFF venues; it really gave out a sense of community. I can't, then, quite comprehend the decision to limit particular titles to such constrained windows when the advantage of having a VoD platform is that it frees the punters of that entirely.
And what's with limited ticketing? Is that really a licencing restriction? A technical one; is there a limit to the amount of connections? Any of these might be true but because they are so constricting it would be useful to know why this is so as it makes it a lot easier to deal with and plan by. If anything like this form of MIFF happens again, just tell us why you are constrained to limit certain films. It will be a lot less annoying knowing that it isn't just someone's futile attempt at creating buzz.
What I Saw Ranked
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema - An encyclopedic epic of how cinema works using only the output of women filmmakers. Mesmerising and ocean deep.
Shirley - Good stab at biographical film that uses the themes of the subject over a timeline of significant events and creates a film that would be interesting if it were about anyone.
She Dies Tomorrow - The thought of mortality as a virus plays out among some ten percenter Californians. More effective for its subtlety.
Prayer for a Lost Mitten - A cinematic poem of charm and quiet power.
The Tango of the Widower and its Distorting Mirror - A puzzle rewarding the adventurous.
The Go-Gos - A good rockumentary tells of how an act works, for better and worse
Black Bear - A serpent of invention eating its tail.
La Llorona - Sombre and deep felt magical realism about the resonance of tyranny.
Anne at 13,00 Ft - Effectively difficult. Too effectively difficult.
So...
I had gripes about the teasing approach which felt tiresome rather than exciting and the delivery method could stand a lot of work and a few other whinges but, look, after all the other major events had to cancel, MIFF found a way of forging ahead and provided a decent generalist program that still shied form the mainstream. They delivered.
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