Do the antics of the audience hold the festival back?
I will preface this by saying that Fantasia is an amazing festival. For many of us, pouring over the programming at the start of July has become somewhat of a tradition. Fantasia gives everyone the chance to see foreign and independent films for only ten dollars a seat –and in the heart of Downtown, no less. It is inexpensive and convenient, and you can actually get tickets, unlike a certain other film festival (I’m looking at you, TIFF). Frankly, Fantasia has everything going for it.
So why can’t I recommend it?
I’ve often heard people say that the problem with public transit was that the public was on it. Unfortunately, in this case, Fantasia seems to suffer the same affliction. The absolute worst thing about Fantasia — and the reason why I cannot recommend it and may not return next year — is wholeheartedly, 100 percent, the audience.
I swear, everything is going fine until you sit down in the theatre. I would even venture that it’s going great up to the moment the lights go down. Then, it begins: first one person, then a chorus. The meowing.
Who started this? And for what purpose? It is something I would expect from my 6-year-old niece at playtime, not a bunch of adults sitting down at an international film festival. It is the most juvenile thing I have ever seen. First of all, it is annoying — and no, it is not funny. Where is the humour in it? What is the punchline? Please, illuminate me. My feeble, comedically-challenged mind cannot find the genius in your incessant meowing.
Oh, and I wish it ended when the movie started, but no. Dark screen? Meowing. Credits roll? Meowing. Lights are still off when the film is over? You guessed it: meowing.
And how I wished it stopped there. Why do you many Fantasia fans feel the need to talk the whole time? I’m talking about you, person who laughs during an emotional death scene. Or you, the one who yells “OWNED” when a punch is landed in an action flick. Or the gaggle of teenagers who sit down to watch an anime film only to practice their Japanese out loud the entire time.
I could forgive these things in a normal movie theatre. Sure, the ticket would have been more expensive, but at least I would have the chance to see the movie again. But at Fantasia, that’s it. That’s likely the one time I will ever get a chance to see this film, and it was ruined by you. So, thanks a lot for that.
And if you won’t do it for me, then do it for the directors. So many of them come to Fantasia to give a talk before or after the screening. They are sitting there, right in the audience. What do you think they feel? For many of them, this is the premiere of their film. They poured their sweat and blood into making something great. And you just meowed at it.
But my last message is for the Fantasia organizers. You guys are doing good work. But no one will ever, ever take your festival seriously with this kind of crowd. At a real festival — or even an ordinary cinema — there are consequences for acting like a child. Why aren’t there ushers to kick out rowdy movie-goers? Why aren’t there rules in place to discourage this kind of behaviour? You have the chance to make something great — but first, something needs to change.
And until it does, this is likely the last Fantasia Fest for me.
I can scarcely believe that a journalism student would go out half-cocked into the world of op-ed criticizing an event of the very institution she attends without doing the bare minimum research on it. This reeks of another holier-than-thou milkbox egotrip that we see entirely too much of in our day and age of infobesity.
Dear Laura, you couldn’t have been furthest from the truth if you had tried. Those very same attendees that you are unceremoniously putting down are the die-hard, break-your-nails-screaming-holding-on-to-the-front-stage-railing fans that make the festival what it is to this day. It’s their passion (and yes, their ticket money) that made this event survive long enough for you to grow old and attend…. for however long you did to get the meat for this diatribe.
Fantasia is a festival by the fans, for the fans, and not some Cannes or Toronto glamfest. Directors and actors come here for the passion, the strength of conviction and devotion, not for media pomp and studio-imposed etiquette. Fantasia knows what it is, and makes no apology for it. That’s what the film creators like. If your idea of a festival is pomp and circumstance, etiquette and glamour, Via Rail will take you there in five to seven hours.
But Fantasia isn’t being “held back” by its attendees. It’s right where it wants to be.
(See below)
You’ve thoroughly and sadly missed the point, Laura. Not only is this a weak angle on a well-loved festival but the very fact that our audiences are different than ones you’d find in a multiplex are what make Fantasia unique and more popular than ever! I’m especially saddened to see this kind of lazy journalism come out of a Concordia paper.
-Katie, Manager IITS Cinemas, Concordia
I’ve been to Fantasia as a filmmaker for five years running. I’ve had four films premiere at the festival and to be honest, I don’t know what the author is writing about. Sure, there are “meows” when the lights go down, but it’s just an absurd audience reaction at a festival that showcases the absurd and the unique. It fuels the excitement before the film begins and is sort of a comical release (although I don’t know what sort of punchline I could supply for it). I never felt it took away from the screening, it never bothered me, to be honest. And it’s become one of those unique things that only happens at Fantasia, just like when Daniel turns out the lights from the stage and carries the mike away as everyone cheers like maniacs. Now, agreed, when the film begins that’s another story. But I’ve never ever been to screening at Fantasia where people meowed or heckled during the film. I find the audience members to be respectful and attentive, totally enthusiastic! Yes, they know the filmmakers are frequently in attendance and they behave accordingly. I’ve never once seen or heard people talk during a screening, or heard someone laugh during an emotional death scene–unless the person dying was getting his head chopped off with an electric kitchen utensil! I’m sure there may have been instances where an audience member may have been unruly or loud, I just never experienced it. And my wife and I see two to three films a day when we’re at the festival. I’m sorry to read about the author’s experience, but it hasn’t been our experience. In fact, just the opposite. I hope the meowing continues, it’s harmless and idiotic and silly but that’s how people are sometimes. Maybe the meowing is also just to let us all know that what we’re about to see is not real. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just entertainment and art about life and death, with a bucket of blood mixed in. Okay, maybe two buckets.
I went to Fantasia for several years and can easily say that the audience has consistently made it the most fun movie-going experience I’ve ever had. There’s a fine line between annoying talkers and passionate audience participation. The folks at Fantasia are firmly in the later. They cheer and hoot and holler as a response to the films, not at them. They can turn any good or bad movie into a really unforgettable experience. In the dozens of films I’ve taken in there, I only encountered one annoying group of assholes and the audience turned on them very quickly.
Sure beats the apathy you receive at most film festivals.
Don’t ever change, fellas!
The meowing originated with Simon’s Cat, the short film that played the festival before becoming an internet sensation years later. That year, there were technical issues before a screening, so there was awkward silence while the audience stared at a black screen. Then someone meowed. The tradition was born. Fantasia has the best audiences of any film fest, and any touring director will tell you this. If you don’t like the festival’s culture, stay home.
Former Fantasia staffer here. Although I can agree that compared to other film festivals, fantasia might seem like the wild wild west, but lets get back to how it first came to be. Fantasia wasn’t the creation of critics or filmmakers looking for a platform or any of this species of cinema classicists: Fantasia was founded by a group of fans looking for a platform to explore and share their love for the weird and different in cinema. The problem they found is that many film festivals put the art on a pedestal and the audience is basically an afterthought. Fantasia’s first and foremost objective is always to treat the fans to amazing gems and expand their knowledge.
Yes there’s meowing and talking and reacting, but what has been the reaction from filmakers? They love it! Unless they are uptight inflated egos, they find the audience’s reaction and interaction to be the greatest gift possible for a filmmaker. They laugh, they scream they gasp… for the filmmakers, it means they get it and they want to be part of it. From Andrej Zulawski to Edgar Wright, Jay Baruchel to Mark Hamill, Jennifer Lynch to Michael Baccall, they are amazed by this show of appreciation and emotions. They know they have done thing right when the audience reacts. It’s real, carnal, organic love for cinema in a way that turns the festival into a celebration of its love. Some filmmakers like Takashi Miike send films year after year to fantasia for one reason: not the critics, not the juries, not the prestige, simply for the audience and the love to see their eyes shine with wonder and their hearts explode with screams of joy.
Sorry you didn’t like it, some festivals like to make things a little differently. I hope you’ll find your niche, we have found ours and every year, more prestigious names and greater numbers join it.
Meow