Dear Tropfest,

Goodbye and good riddance.

Like the morse code operators and horse driven coach drivers of yesteryear, your time has well and truly come and gone, and any last minute funding aspirations should instead be directed into grants for young filmmakers.

Don’t get me wrong, you’ve done good things for the short film genre, up and coming inspired filmmakers, and yes getting my wife and I together, but I believe the negatives outweigh the positives. (just don’t tell my wife I said that)

Do we really need an ongoing outlet for failed feature film makers who are now stuck in advertising or corporate event video making? Do we really need an outlet for successful feature film makers wanting to dabble with shorts, who have way more budget and industry contacts than creative ability? Do we really need to continue encouraging production quality over content? Do we really need condescending foreign celebrity judges giving opinions on a genre they are typically quite detached from, and where meeting and sucking up to them in the finals is supposed to be aspirational for potential short makers? Do we really need such a wide ranging avenue for teaching new film makers how industry often steals all the rights to their often quite personal and precious creative work? Do we really want the ongoing selection of which summer evening will have the most rain, all in the hands of one man?

No we do not.

Tropfest submission these days is a black hole from which little creativity (or rights) may escape, and where selection is mostly due to the personal whims of the random judge to whom your work is assigned in the early rounds. The death of which will hopefully shine a light on the more worthy and focused short film festivals that also run each year hidden in the shadow of Tropfest.

Goodbye Tropfest. May you rest in peace.

Pete and I at our fortnightly twoprov thing at Arthur B’s Fringe Affair.

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