Commitments to our Filmmakers

Adapting to the hurdles this year has thrown at us has been challenge that has brought Little Wing online for 2020. While we’re sad to miss the celebration of face-to face festival, we’re really looking forward the opportunities an accessible online forum brings.

To our filmmakers, your experience at the festival has always been our bottom line. We want you to leave this week feeling seen and appreciated, because without your work, and the passion and effort it takes to makes films, none of this would be possible. Here are some ways we’re making sure our festival is keeping filmmakers at its heart.

Staying Connected

Q&As! We want to hear from you and chat about your films in the comfortable and casual setting of Instagram Live. For many of our filmmakers this may be one of their first interviews and we want to make sure it’s enjoyable and relaxed all around!

Networking events! Throughout the festival we’ll be hosting filmmakers networking zoom calls where filmmakers whose works are screening at the festival can meet each other and stay connected. By limiting the numbers, we’re going to keep our catch ups intimate, focused, and make sure no one is missing out or being lost in a overcrowded zoom room. Too often in physical networking spaces, it’s the people who can cross a room and introduce themselves to strangers that have the upper hand, and we understand not all personality types work in this way. This often applies to who speaks first or loudest in a zoom call, so we want to make sure everyone is being listened to and considered. And if tooting your own horn doesn’t come naturally, trust that we have seen and loved your films, and we can be your hypeman.

Keeping in touch

In our online programme, filmmakers who have shared their contact information can find them alongside their film listing. If you admire someone else's work and would like to talk to them or potentially collaborate, find them and continue the conversation after the festival has come to a close. Keep an eye out on our social media and daily e-mail announcements for the day’s film programme, live events, and filmmaker Q&As so you can ask them a question yourself.

Eyes on screens

We’ve chosen to minimize how many live streamings we have during the festival but are excited to explore the possibility of audiences being able to watch in their own time – and in their own timezones. We hope that your films will have the greatest impact on audiences beyond those who can make it to our usual weekend festival.

Learning Opportunities

We’re filling our programme with talks and conversations that we hope will educate you as filmmakers improving your craft, but also as individuals navigating a world and an industry that is often challenging and allusive – especially right now. We’ve got talks on how to access the industry, how to make it sustainable for you, help navigating the festival circuit, and talks with seasoned professionals on what their experiences were like getting their foot in the door.

Kind Words Initiative

If you’ve been to any Little Wing festival you know that we shout about our Words of Kindness initiative. When we’re working on our passion projects and feeling like we’re giving far more than we’re getting out of our work, some of the most impactful experiences can be just a kind word from a stranger. Each screening at our festival, and now online, will be accompanied by a form with the titles being screened. Should you feel moved to, you’re welcome to share something you enjoyed and any positive feedback, and we make sure it gets to the filmmakers. This industry can often feel thankless and imposter syndrome is very real, and we want you to know that your work is important and affecting.

Prizes

Despite it being a time of austerity in the arts with COVID crashing about, we are so excited and grateful to have a slate of prizes to offer you from sponsors and friends who believe in your talent and want to help your future projects and career growth. We’ve got a host of prizes from Dropbox, Final Draft, MET Film School, Raindance Film Festival, Barnes Film Festival, BBC Film, and more – we hope you enjoy them and put them to good use when you're back to creating. We will be mailing our awards so you have something physical to remember your time with us, even while we’re apart.

We are so grateful to you that you’ve kept championing your work during such difficult times. It feels a great privilege to be a festival that you’ve chosen to submit to and we hope you know how important your work is. From the tender personal stories you’ve shared to the social issues you’re challenging and championing, we appreciate you wearing your heart on your sleeve and we see it in your work. It’s been such a joy to watch.

Thank you to all the filmmakers who filled out our survey on their experiences with online festivals and how Little Wing Film Festival 2020 can best support you and your work in an online setting. With very limited resources and capacity, we hope our above commitments are in line with delivering an experience to you where you and your work are given the recognition and appreciation they deserve.

As much as we’d love to be in a room with all of you meeting, chatting, and appreciating the films together, we’re going to do our best to stay connected from a distance.

See you soon!

LW