Gadabout Film Festival debuts DIY films

Bloomington is one of two venues facilitating the kick-off to the 11th annual Gadabout Film Festival, an opportunity to showcase do-it-yourself filmmaking talent.

The film festival will be from today to Sunday and showcase several self-made short, local and international films.

These films are varied, including genres such as dark comedies, stop-motion animated films and documentaries, and can last anywhere from 30 seconds to six minutes. There is an open application each year for anyone who wishes to submit their films.
“We wanted to show that low-budget, DIY films can sometimes be extremely impressive and entertaining and not something that you as a viewer have to spend tons of money on,” film festival director Eric Ayotte said.

The Gadabout Film Festival has traveled to more than 100 cities within the United States and also to six different countries, including Italy, France and the
United Kingdom.

“I created it because of my own frustrations with more commercial film festivals,” Ayotte said. “Typically, there’s no community around it. It’s a very competitive
environment.”

Because of Ayotte’s upbringing in a “DIY punk world,” he tried to create something within the DIY scene and “treat it like a punk band,” with that same strong sense of community.

The result was the Gadabout Film Festival.

Typically, 10-20 short films are shown. This year, however, more than eight hours of film were submitted, so the number of films has increased in order to accommodate the large number of submissions.

In addition to the multitude of general submitted short films, there are also specialized film categories. These categories consist of the Music Video Program, Feature Films, the Instant Gratification movie challenge and the Filmmaker Spotlights.
Two feature films will be shown this year, “Maximum Summer” on Thursday and “Dead Weight” on Sunday.

The Instant Gratification movie challenge is a monthly contest, but it will be a part of the film festival as well. Individuals are challenged to make a movie each month, with all films screened solely in Bloomington. There is a different theme each month.
For the Filmmaker Spotlights category, six different filmmakers were given a 20-30 minute segment to show their short films. Three of these filmmakers are from Bloomington.

One of the three filmmakers is Jordan Henline of 88.8 Films. This is his first year in the film festival. Together, 88.8 Films produced six short films, all showcasing its take on dark comedy.

In addition to the film festival, Henline and other members of 88.8 Films will participate in the Instant Gratification movie challenges, as well as create their own
individual projects.

“Film something often,” Henline said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have. You can always make a bad film with a good camera. You just need to practice.”
The film festival will be in the I Fell Building on Fourth Street. A full festival pass that grants admission to all screenings and post-festival events is $8. Individual screenings are $3.

For a full schedule of each day, check the Gadabout Film Festival Facebook and
Tumblr pages.

Ayotte said they will be doing an annual weekend event here from now on.
In April, the Gadabout Film Festival will go on its international leg, traveling to Brighton, U.K., to perform the second half of the kick-off.