Festival start: 06 October 2018
Festival end: 07 April 2019
Wandering Reel is a traveling short film festival with a focus on bringing meaningful films to communities with limited or no access to compassionate, thought-provoking cinema. We strive to engage our audiences in deeper conversation about the role of cinema, and how films can relate to community, conscious living, and contribute to making the world a stronger and more unified place.
Artists have long been at the forefront of social innovation. The Wandering Reel believes in the power of film art to effect positive change, to bring people together through shared cultural experiences and to inspire conversation and collaboration between individuals and communities through the common experience of cinema. By exposing underserved communities with films that are artful in their meaning and compassionate and conscious in their approach, the boundaries that divide people can be slowly stripped away, cultures can be enriched and peace grown across the globe.
We serve anyone with a hunger for inventive, resonant cinema. We curate our films to communities that want to participate in a deeper dialogue about the power of film to effect positive change. In addition to theaters, we screen at schools, community centers, libraries, churches, museums, galleries, retirement homes, prisons, cafes, breweries, and anywhere an audience can comfortably gather to watch and discuss movies.
Fall 2017/Winter 2018 Tours
Our touring schedule begins in October of each year and continues through the spring of the following year, criss-crossing the United States and sometimes popping up in venues all over the world. Our first two seasons saw our films screen dozens of venues from southern California to British Columbia, and Colorado to Vermont. This fall and next winter/spring we'll return to many of these locations and do our best to expand our reach to different parts of the United States and even around the world.
Questions should be directed to info@wanderingreel.org.
Art is difficult. Filmmaking is difficult and expensive. The Wandering Reel believes that great art should be affirmed and that conscious independent filmmakers should be rewarded for their work and encouraged to continue making meaningful cinema. At the end of each season, our "Pangaea Award" is presented to the film our audience, curators and programmers feel speaks best to the theme of bringing the world together through the power of cinema. We also recognize films in a number of other categories including "Curator's Choice," "Social Impact," and "Audience Impact" awards. Winners will receive special recognition on our website and at our end of season screening in Los Angeles, CA.
Meet Our Jury
Sid Ganis (Producer of such films as 'Big Daddy' and 'Akeelah and the Bee' and former President of the Academy Awards and Paramount Pictures), Reinaldo Marcus Green (Director of 'Stop' and 'Monsters and Men', and featured in Movie Maker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film,"), Kate Purdy (Television writer of 'BoJack Horseman' & 'Cougar Town'), Magnus Torén (Director of the Henry Miller Memorial Library and Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series), and Rosa Tran (Award winning producer of films such as the 2016 Oscar nominated stop motion feature film, 'Anomalisa').
We are also working to raise cash prizes and grants to be awarded as further encouragement for meaningful, conscious filmmaking.
We require only that films, in some way big or small, address the greater mission and themes of the festival. Remember, we are looking for evocative and artful films that really demonstrates the power of cinema to not only bring about change, but to tell stories and engage an audience on an emotional or cerebral level.
Here are some more helpful guidelines:
· We prefer short films of no more than 40 minutes long.
· Narrative, documentary, animation and art films will all be considered. We love films that cross styles and push the boundaries of cinema in new directions.
· We love comedies as much as dramas and any other genre. We love genre films with a deeper message or human story.
· If your film is experimental, we hope it has a narrative pulse.
· Diverse and international films are highly encouraged.
· First time and veteran filmmakers alike are welcomed. Likewise, films made this year are as welcome as those made last decade.
· Films made on a budget that have heart and integrity are highly encouraged.
· Films not in the English language are encouraged to provide subtitles.
· Student films are more than welcomed.
In addition to a screening URL, we also ask that submissions come with a short statement that describes how the film addresses the themes and mission of Wandering Reel.
If selected, we ask filmmakers to provide an artistic statement and answer a Q&A with our curator who will introduce and facilitate discussions after each screening. Links to articles, interviews and other material is also very helpful. We believe that having someone well educated in how and why each film was made lead a Q&A discussion will help deepen our audiences' understanding and connection to the films. We encourage filmmakers to attend as many screenings as possible. When possible, we will Skype in filmmakers for Q&A sessions with our audience.
When submitting to Wandering Reel please understand that you are granting the festival permission to screen your film on a variety of dates throughout our year long touring season (most screenings occur between September and April). While we are working toward offering royalties and other financial incentives for our filmmakers, we currently are not able to provide monetary compensation for the films we curate.
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