While the major film festivals, like Tropfest, have sold out and become huge commercial juggernauts it is nice to find at least one festival that isn’t driven by the all-mighty dollar. Now in its sixth year ‘Electric Shorts’ is a Melbourne Film Festival organized by film director, Jim Stamatakos to showcase some of the filmmakers that are usually swept under the carpet and forgotten about… the independent filmmaker.
Stamatakos has certainly made a name for himself. His films have screened right around the world and even brought home an award or two as well. Leading up to this years ‘Electric Shorts’ he has kept himself very busy indeed. Aside from launching his latest piece a work, a documentary titled ‘Once For No, Twice For Yes’ for the work he does with Challenge Multimedia, he has also been working hard on creating a new television series called ‘Curious?’ that is likely to grace our screens over the next few years.
What inspired Stamatakos to first create his own film festival was when he learnt that the Melbourne Fringe Festival really had very little (and sometimes no) film events for filmmakers. Stamatakos teamed up with another filmmaker, Leonie Someville-Smith and the first ‘Electric Shorts’ was born. “We want to inspire upcoming film-makers to do what they’re passionate about. And get their work out there. If you wait around for money from funding bodies or private backers before you start a film, you might be waiting a long time, and your work, your vision might never be seen by anyone.” This is a lesson that Stamatakos knows well as all his films have been independently funded. It is also worth noting that Warwick Thornton put the same theory to the test with ‘Samson An Delilah’… and look how well that turned out.
Over the years many of the filmmakers who have had films screened at ‘Electric Shorts’ have gone on to find succsess. Two worthy of mention are Bill Mousoulis who has become the Indie Filmmakers Champion. Mousoulis self-funds the feature films he makes today, and they are screened right around the world. And of course most film-lovers would know the name Megan Spencer. She spent a number of years as Triple J’s film correspondent as well as directing a documentary on Australia’s number 1 wrestling fan.
This years ‘Electric Shorts’ will be held at Loop Bar on October 7th, but as of right now Stamatakos is calling for anyone indie filmmakers out there to submit their films. ‘We are open to anything… we don’t care about genre or even the subject matter. We don’t even care when you filmed the film. You could have done it a week ago, a year ago, five years or even ten years ago, the only rules are that the films must be under half-an-hour and be completely self-funded by the filmmaker.’
Filmmakers should also be aware of the fact that ‘Electric Shorts’ is not a ‘film-competition’. ‘Our aim for ‘Electric Shorts’ is to get twelve independently funded films shown to the public… to just get them out there.’
If you have a film you would like screened at Electric Shorts please go to www.orasy.com/electricshorts or email Jim Stamatakos at electricshorts2003@hotmail.com. This is an opportunity that no filmmaker should miss out on.