Notes from my first film festivals as a filmmaker

It’s been a month since I premiered my debut short film, VETERANO, a bank heist thriller about a Filipino WWII veteran set in 1981 San Francisco. I have some thoughts.

I also know I should have written sooner but… life and work happened. So it goes. Thanks, as always, for your patience and support.

This is going to be my first paid post. In this piece, I’ll share some thoughts about what I learned attending my first film festivals as a filmmaker, what I wish I did more of, and what’s next for my film and me. But before that… let’s get to some recs.

• Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind. I’ve been meaning to read the Biskind books for awhile. Now that I have finally started, it feels like I am reading them at the perfect time. (Technically, I’m listening to the audiobook — it’s crazier this way — but I tried to link to a non-tech conglomerate.) I’ve read and heard a lot of people compare what’s happening in the film industry right now with “YouTube filmmakers” to the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. A bit if a stretch, IMO, to compare the filmmakers of then to now, but there is some truth to the industry shifts feeling the same. Seismic changes in the economics of the business, an era of “unprecedented” social and political turmoil, studios and executives losing their grip on audience tastes, opportunities for new or radical filmmakers to create within the chaos, and nobody knowing anything… yep, sounds about right (now).

• Polly Platt: The Invisible Woman, You Must Remember This podcast by Karina Longworth. Biskind’s book is chock-full of full of juicy, jaw-dropping behind-the-scenes stories featuring Hollywood legends like Beatty, Hopper, Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, and more at the start or height of their careers. It also oozes with good, old-fashioned Hollywood sexism. Yep, most of your faves and the people they surrounded themselves with were actually just a bunch of gross (white) dudes. Unsurprisingly, the book largely leaves out the contributions of women and people of color. Longworth’s podcast tries to fill in some of those blanks, and this series focuses on Polly Platt. She wasn’t just the wife of Peter Bogdanovich (who left her for a much younger actress — tea we don’t need to spill here). She was an Oscar-nominated production designer, screenwriter, producer, executive, and director who basically directed some of B’s best-known work. If the Biskind book is the shot, this is the smooth chaser.

• STORM by GENER8ION starring Yung Lean. The best music video/short film/piece of art/internet thing I have seen in a long time. Sound, visuals, tone, and execution are all top tier. (Seriously, if you know anyone involved in the making of this video, hit me up. This is the work I want to do.)

• Geometria by Guillermo Del Toro. The director’s 6 1/2 short film from 1987. I just came across it on Criterion. It’s horror and camp, but nails the tone and premise so well. Worth the watch especially if you’re into shorts.

• Magellan by Lav Diaz starring Gael García Bernal. Streaming on Criterion and also about to be released on blu-ray and DVD. Beautiful, observational, anticolonial, and nuanced story about the famed Portugese explorer who sailed for Spain and led the first expedition to the Philippines… then died there. (That is not a spoiler, it’s literally history.) Realistic as well as impressionistic, with breathtaking cinematography like watching paintings come to life. Of course, as a Filipino, I have my critiques. But, overall, I really enjoyed and appreciated this film. And, at 2 1/2 hours, it’s basically a Lav Diaz short. Now I am determined to find his longer stuff.

• In Proximity podcast hosted, directed, and produced by yours truly. I know I am biased but our recent line-up of women filmmakers has been incredible: PinkPantheress, Shirley Kurata (stylist & costumer designer, I Love Boosters, Everything Everywhere All At Once), Aleshea Harris (writer/director, Is God Is), and more. Catch up and trust me when I say there is more to come.

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My first job in the industry was as an intern at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, and I’ve come back to that festival many times over the years as an attendee, panel moderator, and speaker. But attending a film festival as the producer of a film — a filmmaker — was a very new experience. It was exciting, exhilarating, sometimes nerve-wracking, but mostly… fun.

I learned a lot. Still am.

I’ll try and share some of those learnings with you here.

Friendly reminder, as I have written about before, VETERANO writer/director and fellow producer Patrick Epino and I are not calling this a festival run.

We’re on a film tour.

Why? Because our goal is to get as many people as possible to see our short film and to learn about us and our work. The short is a proof-of-concept for a feature film and our ultimate goal is to get our feature film made.

But that’s our goal. It may not be the same as yours.

Pro tip: Film festival strategy is NOT one-size-fits-all.

There are a variety of factors to consider when planning this out from your goals for yourself and your film to the audience you are trying to reach.

Take my writings as things I learned in my journey as a filmmaker and producer.

These are not instructions. They are not the only way to do things.

But, hopefully, in sharing all this with you, you can help figure out what works best for you and/or your project.