That video that you made in your apartment last night — no, not that one — might just be cinematic gold.
The Disposable Film Festival, a Californian fest dedicated to short films made with amateur equipment, has started a monthly spin-off event at Williamsburg bar-cinema Videology. And the organizers are hoping Brooklynites will contribute some lo-fi flicks of their own to the mix.
“We are all filmmakers now,” said organizer Matthew Sullivan-Pond. “What we are looking for is something where people have been innovative and imaginative.”
The Videology screenings will serve as a mine for material for the annual festival in San Francisco, a massive event that usually draws about 1,500 fans.
The festival organizers are specifically looking for films made with less-than-professional equipment, including cell phones, digital single-lens reflex cameras, webcams, or even Google Glass.
That broad description might tempt some to send in their baby and cat videos, but Sullivan-Pond said the videos need to be high quality — if not in resolution, then in content.
“You need some kind of curation or else it will be another YouTube, with a million videos of guys getting kicked in the nuts,” he said.
One of the films in this month’s lineup will be “Solo, Piano — NYC,” a film made of up still-shots that photographer Anthony Sherin took from his apartment window after someone left an upright piano in front of his building.
“The shots are loaded with emotion,” said Sherin, who shot the pictures as dozens of passersby stopped to play the piano and then a crew of brutish louts smashed it with a sledgehammer. “It is a really New York story.”
Sherin has shown his short film in nearly 100 film festivals and said he is happy to be a part of the Disposable Film Fest.
“It is a nice, small venue that seems to be filled with film enthusiasts,” he said.
The Disposable Film Festival at Videology [308 Bedford Ave. at S. First Street in Williamsburg, (718) 782–3468, www.videology.info]. July 17 at 7:30 pm. Free.
