The Trainwreck Continues...

This week (or rather, the last week and a half) has not been particularly productive. I've contacted every venue that is remotely practical to host the festival, but still have yet to hear back from nearly all of them. I had emailed the Mission Theater (host of NW Documentary's own Homegrown DocFest) about two weeks ago and still not heard back, but when calling directly I am told that email is the only avenue toward booking. Very frustrating. A similar story for the Hollywood Theater (which seems to be at the top of the list right now, as they are both a non-profit and purportedly eager to help students), where I was redirected through a couple of phone numbers before being told I need to contact Richard Beer at Film Action, the parent organization of the Hollywood Theater. I am still awaiting a response from him as well. As for the Bagdad Theather, there is someone to talk to but they're never in the office, so I'm waiting for them to return my voicemail.

Finally, the Clinton St. Theater was the only venue that I was actually able to get a hold of, where I was told that booking a weeknight would be $300, a Saturday $600, and a Sunday $700. Needless to say, that's far beyond my current budget of $0. This is particularly frustrating as I am hoping to keep the festival free (in theory I could pay for a weeknight at the Clinton St. through door fees, but even then, I literally don't have the available cash to book the venue upfront, so that's essentially out of the question). The only other option I've encountered is a family connection to the owner of the St. John's Cinema, but the location essentially rules that one out, as it would cut the attendance in half (at the least). I think it's integral that I find a way to host this downtown (or close in on the East Side), in a relatively accessible area.

Given the quickly dwindling time frame, at this point I think if I haven't heard back from a venue and locked down a date by early next week, I'll need to look at other, emergency options. One of those is to greatly scale down the event and essentially hold a screening exclusively for students in each of the institutions, which would essentially combine the recently completed final projects of each class. This could be held after graduation (or possibly on a weeknight before) at the Smith Ballroom, but last I checked they were booked solid until then. Right now I'm starting to design flyers in an attempt to get something completed, but even that is greatly reliant on the final venue, date and time. Basically, I'm crossing my fingers at this point.