How To Build A Film Festival

Just like a movie star, the 8th Annual Santa Fe Film Festival is lying about its age.

The festival's founder and executive director Jon Bowman told The ShowBuzz that the event actually grew out of research for his 1998 book "100 Years of Filmmaking In New Mexico."

"We did a book that was based on New Mexico's history in film. When we did the book, we said 'it's a very nice book, but what good is a book about films without film being shown? So why don't we put on a show and just do some of the movies and make a festival that only showcases movies that were shot here?'" Bowman explained. "We created a kind of rolling caravan and we went to about ten cities around the state and we showcased different titles in each city. We would pick a title that was shot in their vicinity, try to dig out the history and have local ranchers and leaders in the native community come and speak about their experiences having shot this with John Wayne or that with Jimmy Stewart. It was really a fun experience."

Organizers decided to make the festival an annual event, and in 2000 The Santa Fe Film Festival was officially inaugurated.

Bowman marvels at how his baby has grown over the last decade.

"The festival started with New Mexico roots, but it has since become something that still has that very strong New Mexico showcase, but now has world cinema elements, has documentary elements, it has American independent works, any number of series," he said. "It's become much more like one of those giant swimming pools where they have an area for little kids, and there's some lap lanes, and a diving board somewhere and you can circle around the pool and dive in at any area you want."

Each year new elements are added to the festival, like this year's showcase of films from New York's Jewish Film Festival. Bowman said he's learned through trial and error that it's best to add new threads to the festival bit by bit.

"When we first started we tried to do a lot of new things every year. Then we learned real quickly that was a big mistake. If you have 20 things that you try at once then you're really lucky if one of them works," he said. "Pretty soon you've got a lot of egg on your face and you're frustrated because you really tried to do more than you can really accomplish. We only try to do maybe three new things at most. If we do that it seems like that works."

Film festivals have exploded all over the U.S. in the last decade. "Obviously people are already dying for alternatives in cinema because there wouldn't be that many festivals unless there was the need," Bowman observed.

Bowman also had some advice for would-be festival organizers.

"What I would recommend to anyone who wanted to start a festival is to first take a look at where you are," he said. "By where you are I mean geographically: what city are you in, what state are you in, what region are you in, what do people do there, what do they like? Find a niche and if you start with that small niche series, then you can add more series as you go along, and build audiences as you go along and then you can start being crazy and eclectic like we are. I think it's important to know who your audience is and who you're trying to serve and what it is that they might want to see."

Building a film festival also takes patience and a stomach for financial ups and downs.

"We're fine now, but we were horribly in debt the first few years, enough to make my hair turn even greyer prematurely," Bowman said with a laugh as he pointed to his silver mane. "It's like most businesses - there are going to be enormous risks and losses at the beginning, but if you have the right approach and you market it well enough and you build the staff infrastructure that you need, sooner or later there will be a connection made and the audience will get it and you'll find that your fortunes will change. That's what happened for us; we're not an overnight sensation, it's definitely been 10 long years in the making."

Even though it doesn't look a day over 8.

By Judy Faber