The Twin Rivers Media Pageant is Not Your Normal Film Competition

The Twin Rivers Media Pageant is the initially weekend in Might each yr in Asheville, NC. All proceeds from the pageant, following marketing and other expenses, go again to the film makers and media artists. Up coming yr is Twin Rivers Media Festival’s 15th season.

The festivals judges start out picking movies in March and April and proceed appropriate as a result of the festival’s formal dates, throughout the initially weekend in May, in which the finalists are screened in two hour intervals in the course of the weekend. The unbiased media pageant usually draws about 150 viewers at each screening or so, for a overall of around a thousand or so site visitors over-all. “The Twin Rivers viewers truly appreciates the media arts, and this competition provides them a prospect to see things that could not otherwise be available. We get entries from all throughout Europe and Asia, as properly as all around the Americas, and it is really some of the finest in the globe,” states Carlos Steward, the festivals founder and driving drive.

With 400-500 entries coming in from some of the greatest unbiased media artists doing the job all in excess of the environment, Twin Rivers focuses on material as a substitute of glitz, and strives to be a lot more eclectic than the common movie pageant. In addition to that includes some of the most effective unbiased documentaries, brief drama and aspect films becoming created any place in the planet now, The Twin Rivers Media Pageant also features types for artists working in CD multimedia, audio media, commercials, internet media and web-sites. There are even particular classes this kind of as “Manufactured on a Mac,” or for initiatives that offer with outside, conservation or environmental themes.

Over the years, Twin Rivers and its predecessors have become very common with impartial artists on the West Coast and in movie schools. A the greater part of the US entries appear from California, adopted by movie educational facilities such as NYU and Florida State, then the Southwest. Achieved professional artists will generally be invited to chat about their operate and teach workshops. Among pupils and neighborhood budding artists, instruction is a key draw to the pageant. Film makers and other media artist can network, talk about initiatives and exchange strategies in a supportive location.

Stewards love of the media arts goes much beyond just film, and he preferred to make his competition a lot more inclusive and open to any media arts. “These art varieties are so equivalent and inter-similar,” observes Steward, ” I preferred to do extra for impartial artists building astounding function in media aside from film.” In the early 80’s, Stewards eyesight was recognized, and a media pageant in upstate New York was born. Given that then, he has been associated in festivals in states throughout the nation, and most just lately has settled in Asheville, North Carolina, where by the Twin Rivers Media Arts Competition carries on to mature and grow. “Asheville has an remarkable group who are pretty supportive of unbiased media,” says Steward, “It allows wonderful exposure for artists from the U.S. and other parts of the environment.”

As a film university student at Florida Condition University and a documentary movie maker in Mexico and Central and South The united states, Steward acquired first hand how tough it is to get independent film to audiences. “Underground media festivals are a wonderful way to get items demonstrated that normally would not be found by a pretty large audience. That is in which the notion for making my possess movie festival commenced, and this present-day incarnation here in Asheville is the ideal so significantly. “

Asheville offers other advantages, in that despite the fact that the competition celebrates artwork from all all-around the globe, the overall function is arranged and manufactured with local expertise. Movie judges belong to and are credentialed by MAP (the Media Arts Undertaking) of Western North Carolina. Judges for audio and display screen crafting appear from many qualified studios in and all-around Asheville. Steward thinks Asheville to be the great neighborhood to develop a grassroots media arts festival. “I have been all in excess of the world, and Asheville has one particular of the most amazing swimming pools of nearby talent I have at any time observed,” notes Steward. He attempts to involve as many nearby artists as achievable to assure that the pageant has a legitimate local community come to feel and has lots of art varieties represented.

With 102 World Premiers and 8 North American premiers, the Twin Rivers Media Competition supplies some of the finest independent screenings to be located wherever. Jamie Hester, a admirer of the pageant and common at The Courtyard Gallery’s Friday night time “Environment Cinema” series commented on some of his preferred entries from final yr: “I actually relished ‘Fix’ by Tao Ruspoli, and ‘Karearea’ by Sandy Crichton was wonderful.” Jarrett Leone, a Twin Rivers volunteer mentioned, “I favored ‘Camp Woz,’ by Jarrad Kritzstein, and not just for the reason that of the title. I also really beloved ‘Ancestor Eyes’ by Kalani Queypo, the Indigenous American film maker from California.”

The Twin Rivers Media Festival is not your regular film pageant. This amazing showcase of some of the brightest global media artists manages to provide globe course expertise with out becoming the the very least little bit pretentious. No Hollywood starlets strolling down pink carpets into fancy screening venues here. At The Courtyard Gallery, property of The Twin Rivers Media Festival, you are far more probably to find yourself in a cozy chair or couch surrounded by one particular of the most varied collections of operate by regional and intercontinental visible artists, or sit out in the courtyard by itself and enjoy the secluded out of doors screening area.

There are a multitude of factors artists select to enter Twin Rivers. Quite a few are interested in the very popular movie groups this sort of as aspect film, documentary or quick drama. This presents competitive film makers a likelihood to see how their venture stacks up against 100-200 entries from some of the worlds finest. Other classes are fewer aggressive than other festivals, and attracts entrants who could feel they have a greater likelihood to garner rewards for their work. The best inserting winners acquire a unique hand-manufactured trophy or plaque created by Mexican artist Cynlos.

Though Twin Rivers is a Labor of Love, and consumes most of Steward’s time from March to early May perhaps, he believes it is really well truly worth it. “Having a truly fantastic entry from an mysterious film maker just blows absolutely everyone absent. This yr, just one of these was ‘Rabia’ a university student movie by Muhammad Ali Hasan, about a young Islamic women that straps explosives all around her midsection and then demonstrates her preceding existence in flashbacks. It is an incredible very little film. Film makers and media artists need to have audiences to take pleasure in the great operate that goes into their assignments. Some of these initiatives are labors of enjoy that can consider a 10 years to make. Staying in a position to convey these merchandise to an appreciative viewers is truly a fantastic factor to see.”