Got a lot of time to kill? Prepared to sit in one place for hours on end? Then look no further than the Macon Film Festival! An annual event held in (you guessed it) Macon, both the community and visitors come to put together both a film workshop and a venue to see the movies made by local artists and professional movie makers. The film festival starts next Thursday, February 27th, and runs all the way until March 2nd. Tickets both online and at the Macon Film Festival Headquarters at 567 Cherry Street are already on sale, so if you’re interested in seeing some movies and listen to people talk about making movies, you should buy some tickets!
But what exactly goes on at the Macon Film Festival? First of all, most if not all of these movies are not playing in movie theaters nor are they on DVD; there’s no other way to see them, so the filmmakers work very hard to insure the quality of the movies they produce. And a lot of these movies are not advertised as more commercial films, having only premiered at other film festivals like Sundance, so they are of all genres and varieties; you won’t know which movies to see or avoid, and you may be surprised at what you watch! The movies premiere on different days, often several in the same day, broken up by interviews with the filmmakers and workshops on filmmaking. If you just want to watch the movies, then you can just pay for the movies, but there will be a lot of interesting things going on in between!
Secondly, while there are a lot of critically acclaimed films on the schedule for the festival, including “Muscle Shoals,” “Birdy,” and award-winning “Nebraska” as the special screening events, there will be multiple student films shown. These student films will all be competing for prizes, so they will have been made very well in order to participate in this prestigious event. There may even be some familiar faces on the big screen, so go and support any fellow Mercerians that are attending or competing!
If you like to volunteer or are excited at the possibility at working at a film festival, there are volunteer jobs available to sign up for. Besides being a fun experience working at an event celebrating the arts and the talents of both the famous and the students, it would be a great reference point and job experience to have. Learning the ins and outs of film festivals, how movies are selected, screened, and celebrated could be both fun and enlightening.
And if you are not sold yet on attending the Macon Film Festival, there is one appealing caveat. If you are a college student and have with you a valid college ID, then for any four days during the festival you can bring your ID to the Macon Film Festival Headquarters, show them your ID, and get a free Day Pass! This will cover priority seating for all movies on that given day. That’s hours of free, artistic, quality movies! So do yourself a favor, clear your schedule, and head over to the Macon Film Festival next week!