I'm afraid I can't say much positive, which is a shame because the organisers seemed nice.
The location was a poor choice, a pub in one of the more rundown areas of Liverpool. Our film opened the festival, which is an honour I appreciated. However, when we got there the pub was filled mostly with patrons. There may have been other film-makers there but I didn't spot them in the short time I was there.
When our film started it started without sound. Then blared out part way through the opening title sequence, cutting half the music out. I winced.
The film was projected on a high wall to the right of the bar which looked rather scruffy in my opinion. It was nice to get positive feedback from patrons but film-makers still seemed too sparse to afford any networking.
After our film the organiser did take the time to approach us and give us their feedback, which was nice. It was very positive feedback which makes it difficult not to give the festival good feedback but I have to be honest.
The next film after ours was an hour long documentary about Bill Shankly. I remember thinking this was probably a condition of their use of the bar for the festival, given that we were right next to Anfield. I also remember thinking it was an ill advised juxtaposition to go from a ten minute film to an hour long documentary.
That particular documentary (no offence to the makers) I found extremely boring but then I have no interest in football. I kept popping out for a vape. I realise that may have come across as disrespectful to the work, presuming it was an entry, but we only asked them to sit and watch for ten minutes not an hour.
The longer I sat there the angrier I got with how I felt the presentation of our film went, not to mention the location of the festival which I thought disrespected the films being shown.
In the end myself and most of the actors decided to slip away. One actor remained and stayed for the full two days, until I hear the volume of complaints was such that the organisers decided to shut down the festival and told everyone they would hold it again at a later date.
We're still waiting for that but I kind of doubt that it will happen somehow.
Since the film has been screened though, despite the conditions, it did qualify the project as an actual film so it's not like it was a total waste of time.
I understand the organisers had a problem securing their first location which is why we ended up at the pub.
We appreciate being selected and we appreciated opening the festival, but unfortunately the whole festival came down like a house of cards implying poor organisation. It did make me wish I had instead submitted to the similarly titled Liverpool Independent Film Festival which looked more organised and respectful to the work they were showing.
This was my first experience of actually going to a film festival and I do hope it is a poor sampling and others will be better.
I'm sorry guys, I know you tried everything to make it work after the mishap over the first location but I'm afraid it just didn't work.
