WTF??!!

I follow a routine of sorts early in the morning before I begin work. Scouring the internet is part of said routine.. I follow a pretty standard schedule of sites, one of which being Lehighvalleylive.com, which is the website for the Express-Times newspaper (why they don’t call is expresstimes.com is beyond me).

I discovered on there that there’s something called the Greater Lehigh Valley Filmmaker Festival. I immediately got excited and read the story. The festival would be playing in the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas theater. This was part of a new entertainment complex in conjunction with the Sands casino. They have music, comedy and the theater which is similar to the Alamo Drafthouse.

I looked for submission info. A film festival in my backyard, a mere mile from my residence? Sign me up! I searched further and it turns out the festival was LAST month in November. This was the first I heard of such an event, which celebrated local Lehigh Valley Talent.

How could you not promote or advertise this? The only thing I saw was an entry form on Lafayette College’s Film and Media studies website. It didn’t say this was a student event, only that it had an award for best film by a student under the age of 20.

It befuddles me how this event wasn’t more publicized. The cinema, less than a mile from my home is something I would jump at the chance to watch. Also, it would allow me to network with other filmmakers to collaborate on future projects.

Alas, no mention or advertising for this festival led me to miss it. I am sure I wasn’t the only one who missed out on this. I would think such a prestigious institution like Lafayette could advertise better (that’s not an insult, it is a great school). Especially for locals. I wrote to the two program chairs to let them know about this and if they did advertise, where they did it. I don’t expect to hear back; we know how academics are.

This saddens me because it seems, along with the South Side Film Festival, that they aren’t terribly willing to have local filmmakers help that are eager, and more importantly, close by. I hope both of them change that soon.