VEN BEFORE she
had to cancel the
San Luis Obispo
International
Film Festival, fest
director Wendy Eidson started
getting emails from participants:
“They strongly suggested that we
don’t go on with it,” she said. “But
could we put some of the movies
online?”
The festival was called off on
March 12, days before it was
scheduled to begin, to help curtail
the coronavirus. It was one of
countless events to be cancelled,
and one of the first to pivot to an
online festival. SLO Fest’s innova-
tion may provide an early model
for other events looking to go
online until it’s safe to get back to
normal.
“Initially I doubted that many
filmmakers would agree to shar-
ing movies in this public way,
but decided it was worth asking,”
Eidson told MovieMaker. “I put
together an email to all the film-
makers and got an amazingly
positive response almost instantly.
I know they were disappointed
they weren’t able to be here in
person to share their films, but
TANNA FREDERICK (C) STARS AS KATHY
IN TWO WAYS HOME, WHICH SCREENED
VIRTUALLY AT SLO FEST 2020TWO WAYS HOME DIRECTOR
RON VIGNONE (L) AND STAR/PRODUCER
TANNA FREDERICK (R)74 SPRING 2020 MOVIEMAKER.COM
this was an alternative that
seemed to make a lot of sense.”
It took a lot of coordination,
planning, and goodwill from
everyone involved. The first
concern was piracy.
“We collected links from
filmmakers all over the world in
a couple of days and I assured
them all that they would only be
available to passholders during
the festival dates, promising to
take the links down on our clos-
ing night,” Eidson said. “With
that assurance I think they felt it
was worthwhile and in the end
we had almost 60 films to share
with pass holders, filmmakers,
and sponsors.”
The online festival provided a
touch of comfort and normalcy
at a time when the entire worldseemed to pause. It also helped
SLO mitigate the same funding
issues that have struck almost
every public event that needed
to be canceled or postponed for
the sake of the greater good.
“It was a resounding suc-
cess,” Eidson said. “We got a
lot of great feedback from our
virtual audience as well, and it’s
definitely reduced the number
of people requesting refunds,
and even encouraged some to
increase sponsorship support.”
One of the films featured in
the online fest was Two Ways
Home, the story of a young wom-
an with bipolar disorder who is
struggling to fulfill her grandfa-
ther’s last wish while working
on her own relationship with
her young daughter. Two WaysHome director Ron Vignone said
he had initial pirating concerns
about showing his film online,
but decided to go ahead.
“Given the current state of
events, and for all the folks that
paid hard-earned money to at-
tend the film festival, we were
compelled to deliver an experi-
ence and connect with that
audience who had faith in buying
tickets to see these films,” he said.
Two Ways Home star Tanna
Frederick thinks there could
be “a surge in online festivals
not only during the time of the
coronavirus, but as an effective
way to bring the filmmaking
community closer together.”
“From an indie filmmaker’s
standpoint, it is far more eco-
nomically feasible than to travel
to several festivals with a film
that one has invested months if
not years into—with their pock-
etbooks, their energy, pullingFESTIVAL
SPOTLIGHT
SPONSORED
EDITORIAL
FOR SLO FILM
FESTIVAL, THE
SHOW MUST
GO ON... LINE
One of the first festivals
cancelled by coronavirus
was also one of the
first to jump online. The
filmmakers of Two Ways
Home are glad it did
BY MM EDITORS
E