Hafa adai fam!
Pasifika Film Fest 2015 is well and truly done. This time last week I was... well I cant even remember. It was crazy town and like everything in life, it wasnt perfect but I guess I wouldnt have it any other way. Pasifika Film Fest 2015 was an amazing experience.
As part of the festival this year, we showed 19 films, 1 international premiere, a number of Australian premiere's, had over 1500 attendees, 2 sold out shows, 5 Q&A sessions with filmmakers (inlcuding 1 via Skype), 2 dance performances, 1 fashion show, celebrity appearances and talks, 5 awards and an after party. Not to mention everybody's favourite step-and-repeat (also known as the media wall).
Given all those stats, the most valuable thing I took from last week was the sense of community. In the 5 days of the festival, I experienced the warmth and generosity of what I am now calling the PFF fam. When we had technical issues, I felt glad to have supportive faces, when we were super busy, it was so nice to have people I dont even know, offering a hand. Most of all it was awesome to meet people opening night, who I was on first name basis with by Sunday. This sense of community now permeates out to our filmmakers all over the world eg. Germany, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, London, New Zealand, Australia.
This year, PFF received submissions from all over the world and was assessed by an amazing panel of judges, from Karin Williams of the New Zealand Film Commission all the way to Camille Lattouf and Jessica Khoury of the Lebanese Film Festival (Sydney). Our community is large and its one that we are intent on growing. Not only to show Pacific stories, but to encourage the continued telling of Pacific stories any way possible.
Since the festival, I have spoken with people who have been inspired to find ways of telling their own stories. To this I say, please do it.
Ive also spoken with a number of people who would like to see the films again or missed out and would like to know when there will be another session. To all of you, we are in the process of confirming the Pasifika Film Fest Summer Session. More information will be through in the coming weeks, let us just get our business in order.
In the meantime we will continue to work on this movement. I have to thank the wider PFF team for all of the help that we received just out of the goodness of peoples hearts. It is this love that got our weekly blogs up, coordinated our events, had our social media game on point as well as so many other things. Not only that, we know that this event could not have happened without our sponsors, especially not our major sponsors Digicel and the NRL.
So that's my little rant for this week. We're not done yet. PFF 2015 is finished but Summer Session and 2016 is on its way. So please keep an eye out for updates on upcoming sessions and key dates for next year. In the meantime I'll leave you all with the mantra of the Groove City boys that has been stuck in my head all week.
'I am - blessed to be a blessing'.
Koe kia!
E