Congratulations to our Spring 2009 Finishing Funds Recipients

PIFVA funded 12 projects through our Finishing Funds grants program, projects including a DVD compilation, fine cut editing, sound mixing and  DVD authoring, for example. READ MORE……..

Culture Hacking & Open Creativity:

A pre DIY Days meetup/Networking event for the first DIY Days Philadelphia to be held on  August 1 at the University of the Arts

WHEN: Wednesday, July 8 from 7:00  - 11:00 pm

WHERE: Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia

COST: Tickets at the door: $5, free to PIFVA members

READ MORE…….

Conference event, August 1, 2009

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1st @ UArts, Terra Building, Broad Street and Walnut St.

The WorkBook Project and PIFVA present DIY DAYS Philadelphia

DIY DAYS is coming to Philadelphia with a day of speakers, panels,
roundtables and case studies. This marks our second year of the roving
conference / unconference which encourages a sharing of information and
resources while providing an opportunity for networking. This year¹s series
of conferences expand to include music, gaming, software in addition to
film.

FOR REGISTRATION AND MORE INFORMATION……..

Fran McElroy, longtime PIFVA member and loyal supporter, has been awarded a Pew Fellowship in Media Arts. Congratulations!
Go to the link below for further information

http://www.pewarts.org/timely.html

Pittsburgh Filmmakers recently created this advocacy short, Arts and Citizenship, and in it we see people expressing their personal, yet universal reasons for their engaging in the arts. We in the Media Arts are definitely a component of this world. Take a look around and imagine if the arts where absent.
So please consider sending letters to the PA legislators urging support for state art grants at the $14 million level. And if you can, visit your legisator’s office and leave behind a piece of art and/or invite the Legislative staff to your events.

Arts and Citizenship from Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Vimeo.

PIFVA conducted a workshop that taught individuals Super 8 processing. Here’s one visually tantalizing example from our own Rich Wexler aka Large Marge aka Sherman Arts.

Stay tuned as we will be hosting another Super 8 workshop in July.

On May 14, 2009, Brian Newman, Director of the Tribeca Film Institute delivered an energizing presentation and moderated a discussion about the power of the web and how filmmakers can utilize it to present, promote and fund their creative projects. He emphasized the notion that the paradigm for filmmakers is changing rapidly and we have to learn how to navigate this new world.

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”
Stewart Brand at the first Hackers’ Conference in 1984

Brian’s Recommendations on how to Use the Tools of the Internet

* Have a website for you and your films

* Blog, tweet and join the conversation

* Build your fan base

* Use them to raise funds, to promote you and your film

* Use Viral Video

* Consider value of allowing remix

* Be multiplatform

* Remember what will make people pay $ for your film

How can you do this? Read more on Brian’s blog and stay tuned to PIFVA.

You can read more on his blog::

Blog: www.springboardmedia.blogspot.com

Also, you can see what Re:Frame is and how you can utilize it’s massive reach.

Reframe: www.reframecollection.org

Harnessing The Internet For Indie Filmmakers, BRIAN NEWMAN, from TRIBECA INSTITUTE IN PERSON

Thursday, May 14, 6:30 - 8:30pm

With the models of distribution constantly changing, how can the full potential of the Web be harnessed in favor of the independent filmmaker? Come to our  workshop and listen to  Brian Newman, President and CEO of the Tribeca Institute, discuss how the internet is changing storytelling. distribution and creating new opportunites. Go to PIFVA’s WHATS HAPPENING page for further information

Sky Hand © Ken Paul Rosenthal

Super 8 Film Hand-Processing Workshop.  Attendance limited, register NOW!

in collaboration with Community Cinema and International House and the TRIBUTE TO HELEN HILL, MAY 7 -9

Saturday, May 9, 12 -5pm

This workshop is an  intensive introduction to Super 8 filmmaking which  continues to be an artists’ medium, with its unique look and feel. Hand-processing and direct animation are an adventurous hands-on technique that adds character, meaning and texture to your footage.

For more information, Go to PIFVA’s WHATS HAPPENING page.

PIFVA HAS A CALENDAR ANNOUNCING REPERTORY CINEMA EVENTS & DEADLINES

Look at our PIFVA Calendar of Repertory Cinema to view Philadelphia cinema events.
Send us you events with PIFVA Calendar in the subject heading and WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and a description. Enjoy!

PIFVA Presents Filmmaker Panels at the Philadelphia Film Festival/CineFest09

Presented in association with DIVE.

Streetwise: A Conversation with Philly Documentarians

Saturday, March 28 from 4:00 - 5:15 pm
DIVE at Shooters in the Curtis Building, 601 Walnut Street, Suite 1050
Free Admission

Filmmaker Diane R. Thompson says of the creation her new documentary Don’t Fall Down in the Hood that it was her way of seeking to make some sense out of the senseless violence that is prevalent in Philadelphia. El Sawyer (Beirut Boys) gives cameras to young African American men, the self-dubbed “Beirut Boys” of the Fairhill neighborhood, to give a voice to a generation often misunderstood or not heard at all. And Michael J. Dennis (Ursula Rucker: Poet) combines documentary storytelling and live performance into a fierce portrait of poet Ursula Rucker whose trademark sweet “song speak” crackles with socio-political urgency on all topics from womanhood, oppression, love and sexism. Moderator Joni Helton, WHYY Director of TV Programming and PIFVA board member, will talk with these Festival of Independent featured filmmakers about how their work and how they represent Philadelphia’s African American community through their film sensibilities.  Read more.

Philly Style: Exploring the Philadelphia Filmmaking Aesthetic

Saturday, April 4 from 4:00 - 5:15 pm
DIVE at Shooters in the Curtis Building, 601 Walnut Street, Suite 1050
Free Admission

Austin, Buffalo, Seattle, Miami all nurture regional filmmaking communities with a definable aesthetic — thrift shop, high fashion, D.I.Y, sun drenched or rain soaked. What do Philadelphia independent filmmakers subconsciously absorb? Is there a “Philadelphia Aesthetic?” Did time spent during their formative years in Philadelphia influence the creative minds of the Brothers Quay, David Lynch, Susan Seidelman or Lee Daniels? How does living in a racially diverse, working class city, rich in history and culture and home to creative thinkers and change agents seep into the collective cinematic conscious of local makers and get translated to the screen? Join film critic Sam Adams, filmmaker and Small Change Films programmer Ted Passon (This One Time in Paris), filmmaker and Leeway Foundation Communications Director Maori Karmael Holmes, MiND TV’s “Philadelphia Stories” Producer Hébert Peck, and Tom Quinn, director of The New Year Parade winner of Best Indie Feature PFF 2008, for a conversation about “Philly Style” moderated by Gretjen Clausing, PIFVA board member. Read more.