May 2, 1998

I've been pretty lax about sending copies of the film to festivals and events the last few weeks, mostly because I've been busy.  Today I sent a tape to the Independent Feature Project's Independents Night series, which screens monthly at Lincoln Center.  I believe that series' ratio of films submitted to films shown is something like 20 to1, worse than most festivals.  But there's no entry fee, so what the heck.  One of the things that's been galling me lately is that almost all American film festivals charge a hefty fee, anywhere from $20 to $150, just to look at your film (or to throw it in the wastebasket after five minutes, or whatever--they don't give any feedback).  The current surplus of indie films means that each festival has many more submissions than it can ever dream of showing--I feel as if I'm buying very expensive lottery tickets.  I feel obligated to keep trying anyway, of course, but I've begun to skip the pricier shindigs.

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