Long Island International Film Expo: A Look At Some Of The Best In Local Film

For aspiring filmmakers, getting viewers for their film is one of the hardest steps after they make a movie. While new distribution methods exist like YouTube, Vimeo, and Amazon Prime Video Direct, the traditional film festival route is still a perfectly valid option for filmmakers trying to break through. Festivals all over the country allow for directors to get their projects in front of audiences while also providing networking opportunities for those both in the industry and in the process of trying to build a career. Now in it’s 25th year, the Long Island International Film Festival is one of these festivals, offering specialty programming, panels, and plenty of awards for films in competition. Saturday morning, a programming block called “Real LIIFE” ran, featuring a music video and three documentaries, here are some thoughts on these.

Every Time: This was the prior mentioned music video as part of the programming block. This is the music video for Parrent & Kids’ song “Every Time” off their album Roses. The video contains a lot of interesting visuals and high production value for a small production, shooting on beaches and in a room designed to look like a padded room one would find in an old insane asylum. The use of projected video within the music video helps to show the internal thought process of the person in the video.

Moving Forward: The first of the two short documentaries shown as part of this block tells the story of Dan’s Plan, a charity organization designed to destigmatize the conversation around suicide while also expanding access to resources to prevent suicide. It focuses on an annual event that the charity holds at Citifield every year to help raise awareness while also telling the story of the family and friends impacted by Danny Babich’s suicide.

Rocco Giambrone: Chasing Greatness: The second documentary short tells the story of Rocco Giambrone, an amateur MMA fighter who’s goal is to make it to the professional level. It follows his training as he prepares to fight in the match that could declare him the welterweight champion in New York State while also showing his own personal goals and explaining why he has chosen this path to go on. It is a truly heartwarming story, even if someone is not a fan of MMA.

Delivering Hope: The final documentary of the block was a feature about a radio host named Kevin Kline who trained for two years to run the three hundred miles of highway between the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean to raise money for pediatric oncology research. It tells the story of how Kline’s story intersected with a girl named Chelsey who eventually died of a rare form of cancer and how he formed a charity called the Snowdrop Foundation that has raised over $5 million for research. It is a truly inspirational story

Beyond these movies, there were also two panels running. Considering one had to choose between attending the panels and attending further programming blocks (and in the interest of fairness for evaluating the festival’s offerings beyond just the films they selected), these two panels were attended instead of attending the later screenings that showed a total of 35 films, both shorts and features. These were the two panels that ran on Saturday:

“The Write Stuff” Screenwriting Panel: This panel was moderated by Mitchell Bard, a professor at Iona University and was a Q&A session with Loren-Paul Caplin, a screenwriting professor at Columbia University. They discussed the importance of character and theme, the importance of developing a well-written script, and how one can gain entry to the industry through contests and various other methods.

Better Festing Panel: This panel was made up of professionals from a few film festivals about what festivals look for and how festivals are moving in the future. Attendees included representatives from the Shawna Shae Film Festival, Fort Myers Film Festival, Chain NYC, the Yonkers Film Festival, as well as the Long Island International Film Expo. It was an interesting look at what goes on behind the scenes at these festivals to make sure they run smoothly, as well as what role smaller festivals play in the development of local communities of filmmakers. Of note, unanimously the members of the panel said that if someone is submitting their film to a festival, be it a short or a feature, they should make sure the FilmFreeway page for the film is filled out fully and completely. Also, they stressed that submitters should read the profile for a festival a filmmaker should submit to in order to ensure that their film matches the projects being showcased there.

The Long Island International Film Expo is cheap to submit to, even at the latest deadlines. A short can be submitted for $45 and a feature can be submitted for $60 (these are the prices for this year, they may fluctuate for 2023’s festival). Like many other festivals, LIIFE features a screenplay competition as well with a table reading of the winner. They have special categories for features and shorts filmed in Nassau and Suffolk County, as well as special genre categories in Horror. Awards are given in 19 categories including Audience Choice, Best Long Island Film, Best Short, Best Feature, Jury Award, and many others. LIIFE should definitely be on the list for any local filmmaker looking to get their film in front of viewers.