Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:17 pm Post subject: 2006 Great Lakes Independent Film Festival Call For Entries
The 5th annual Great Lakes Independent Film Festival has officially opened its Call for Entries, accepting submissions internationally of independently produced feature length and short length films, documentary, experimental, Religious/Christian/Spiritual, animation, comedy and all genre of music videos, adult and Gay/Lesbian films for the 2006 festival, September 20-24, in Erie, Pennsylvania at the Roadhouse Theatre. We shall accept all ranges of music videos from pop, punk, rock, alt-country, country-western, folk, reggae, hip-hop to electronica, jazz, blues, Zydeco, gothic, karaoke, avant-garde, world music, and experimental. Centrally located, Erie is only a short drive from the cities of Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Pittsburgh, PA.
The early submission deadline is January 2, 2006 and the final deadline is July 1, 2006. The Great Lakes Independent Film Festival is designed to showcase the creations of independent filmmakers and to enhance the culture and prosperity of the Great Lakes Region. The fun filled five-day event will include celebrities, parties, film screenings, award ceremonies, industry professionals, and much more.
We accomplish our mission by showcasing new independent films and by awarding outstanding filmmakers. Our film festival has showcased over 250 films over the past 4 years including numerous films that have been aired on HBO, PBS, and the Sundance channel, and with "The Collector of Bedford Street" nominated for an Academy Award. In October of 2004 we were proud to present the North East United States Premiere of “SAW” Lions Gate Films' gripping psychological thriller starring Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter and Leigh Whannel.
We have also been host to such special guests as actor/director/producer Dirk Benedict; writer Erick Rodgers; director/producer Harri James; producer Otto Felix; award winning, best selling mystery author Jamian Snow; actor/writer/producer Bill Hinzman; director Lloyd Kaufman; actor Gunnar Hansen; actor/ director Mark Borchardt; director John Hancock; actress Debbie Rochon; producer/director Bobby Logan and having presented Keith Carradine with a special award for artistic excellence, the Great Lakes Independent Film Festival continues to seek out the best and brightest of independent film and film makers.
The Great Lakes Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing the independent films in the digital medium to present the best of the Great Lakes to the peoples of the region and beyond, and to bring a world of stories to its shores.
The early submission deadline is January 2, 2006. For more information please visit us at www.greatlakesfilmfest.com
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 2:04 am Post subject: Avoid The Great Lakes Film Festival
Avoid The Great Lakes Film Festival
By Kevin Klsch & Dennis Widmyer
The Great Lakes International Film Festival is now accepting entries for their 2008 festival and I hope that any filmmakers or screenwriters planning to enter stumble upon this article before spending their hard earned money on the submission fee. Trust me, we wish there had been an article like this last year when we were filling out our entrance form. The whole thing was a waste of money and a big headache to bootand we were the screenplay competition winners.
Thats right, folks, just last year, the most recent festival they had, The Great Lakes International Film Festival did not grant their screenplay winners their award and prize money, yet Kelly Hecker and Steve Opsanic are still taking $55 from screenwriters for this years competition. I know that might not seem like the biggest deal in the world since there are probably more shady film festivals than legit ones. We also think that winning filmmakers probably cut their losses when they realize the fest theyve gotten into and then hopefully won, is a bit of a half-assed operation and accept that they are never going to see their money. But this is not the case with The Great Lakes Film Festival. This is a festival that we researched and could not find any negative reviews of. A fest that boasts on their home page that they are one of the top 100 film festivals in the world! And we did not just write off our $500 prize money, our award plaque, and most importantly, the networking you get from festivals and industry reads and contacts they promise after we failed to receive any of it. We spent eight months being stalled with constant excuses as to why they could not mail us the check that was supposedly already cut and that would have been handed to us had we attended the ceremony in person.
Youd think that if you ran a film festival and could not afford to pay your winners that youd realize your venture was not proving profitable and cease to organize future fests, maybe even feeling concerned about the winners who got shafted by the unsuccessful festival. Those hopeful filmmakers who upheld their end of the bargain by paying the submission fee, but that you never paid their due award, thus breaching your end of the contract as stated by the rules and regulations cited on your own festivals website. Yet not only does The Great Lakes Film Festival continue on, hoping that this year they will get a sufficient amount of entries and festival attendees, but as an added slap in the face, on the page calling for submission, there is a link for past winners, giving the festival a sense of legitimate history.
See potential entrants you can win. People have won before. Just not all of them have been paid.
This issue of our script being listed as a winner on their webpage brings to mind the first signs of trouble in this long, drawn out affair. For this is how we first learned we had won the script competition. A week after the festival was over, we assumed we had not won and went over to the webpage to see who had. But upon checking the site out, we were shocked to find that we were the winners! It was a little strange that no one had contacted us, yet we were happy anyway. At this point, we still assumed The Great Lakes Film Festival was a legit operation and if they listed us as their winners they had to come through with prize. Right? They couldnt list us on their webpage and not follow through, could they?
Not only did they not follow through, but they didnt answer any of our e-mails saying we saw we were the winners and asking them what the next step would be.
In fact it wasnt until it was known that we were going to be in town attending The Eerie Horror Film Festival (another festival whose script competition we won), that Kelly Hecker, the festival directors girlfriend and our point of contact during this whole mess, wrote us to say our check would go out in the mail in a couple of weeks. Could this conveniently timed e-mail be an attempt to stop us from coming by in person? It sure seemed like it. Did it work? Nah, we decided to stop by anyway save them the postage. It was then that we met (then) festival director, Steve Opsanic, who seemed very nervous about our surprise visit. He awkwardly double talked an excuse as to why he couldnt give us our check in person. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and told him wed be watching the mail for it.
It never came.
The next four months were spent sending e-mails to Kelly and Steve that either never got responded to or that Kelly finally answered, only to spin some crazy yarn about why they couldnt send the check and that they needed until next week, the end of the month, after the New Year, etc. etc. etc. Through the majority of this, we continued to grant them the time they need, but with each excuse we lost a little patience.
During this phase, we did some research on Steve Opsanic, Kelly Hecker and the Great Lakes Film Festival. We learned that the Roadhouse Theater, where Steve works and runs the festival from, is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt a fact that will later be confirmed by Kelly in an e-mail. Its now that that terrible feeling of being a hopeless victim, scammed out of an entrance fee in order to help the festival director pull himself out of a hefty debt, starts to kick in. Did The Great Lakes Film Festival ever plan on paying their winners or were they just trying to raise money for their own purposes? We asked Kelly this and she assured us all the winners had been paid and that she would provide us with their contact info if we wanted to follow up. We said sure. But just like the notification that we won the contest just like our award and the prize money this info never came.
If we gave Kelly the benefit of the doubt and believed that all the other winners were paid, then what was the problem with us? Why was it so hard for us to receive our award? Ms. Heckers answer was that things with The Great Lakes Film Festival were not as black and white as we thought, since they had to deal with an organization and were/are not authorized to cut checks themselves. I guess when you deal with an organization that deals in film festivals it could take five months to get them to cut a check for a winning contestant. Or was this just more talking in circles?
The bottom line is, its been a year now since we gave The Great Lakes Film Festival our $55 and we have not seen dollar one of our prize money and have long ago stopped even receiving excuses as to why it hasnt come. I guess they are too busy collecting this years entrance fees.
Yet this raises an important question: If they have not paid their past winners, will they pay this years?
We advise you not to gamble your money and your trust on this question. Save your $55. After all, were contest winners who at this point, since the festivals not going to fulfill their end of the bargain, would be happy if they could just get their submission fee refunded.
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