The story of an event which focuses on stories told through films by extraordinary and innovative filmmakers breaks down to several stories which are inspiring.
The 7th Edition of the International Mobile Film Festival took place April 28 & 29, 2018 at Marina Village Conference Center near the San Diego bay. According to the filmmakers who were a part of it during the entire film festival experience, it was a memorable experience. We captured a bit of their thoughts during a podcast recorded on the last day of the festival after the Awards Ceremony. You can listen to the Roundtable Podcast on the SBP Podcast: The voice of mobile film™.
We begin with the story of a filmmaker who contacted me days before our festival through an email. His name is Professor Karl Bardosh and he mentioned he was an Associate Art Instructor at the New York University (NYU). He was excited because he happened to be in L.A. and wanted to come to our film festival in San Diego to meet us in person.
He mentioned that he had been teaching cell phone filmmaking since about the same time I began organizing our film festival in San Diego. He is a pioneer of the mobile filmmaking movement. Prof. Bardosh has been traveling around the world for years, teaching storytelling using mobile phone cameras and told me something that was very interesting. He told me that he had been speaking about our film festival in San Diego in his classes and to his students.
Prof. Bardosh walked into our film festival on Sunday and made a big impression on everyone in attendance. I made sure to take some time to speak with him one-on-one and he shared stories about his travels teaching cell phone cinema to communities around the world including Asia. If I am correct, I believe his next stop was Africa. I told him about some of our connections in Africa, including the UR4Africa organization whose film we featured during this year’s Community Stories program at our film festival #MFF2018SanDiego.
It was an epic moment for me personally to have met another pioneer in the mobile film industry and movement. The best part was meeting him in person during the film festival in San Diego. Although he was not in the program or schedule, during our Q&A Session, right before he walked out the door to drive back to L.A. to catch a plane, I introduced him to our attendees and filmmakers and gave him the mic for a few minutes. It was an amazing opportunity and a memorable moment to have met another pioneer. I am grateful to him for many reasons. One of them: to have taken the time to drive from L.A. to spend some time with us in San Diego.
There are more stories coming about our film festival. This is just one of many. Storytelling is great but Storysharing is even better. If you like our stories, share them with your friends and colleagues.
You can follow me on Twitter @SusyBotello or on Facebook: @SusanBotello
Our website is www.internationalmobilefilmfestival.com
Susy Botello 