The Two Minds of Loving Art

I came to NYC for a few days, leaving LA and what seemed to be a warmed-over AFM back home on the beach. Like most people who don't live here, I love NYC. I love the city, I love the pace, I love being able to get places via my feet, I love my friends apartments (the one I'm in now being completely empty except for a bed), I love that there are 4 movie arthouses within walking distance of me...I love the "ART" of it all, the art that permeates everything, even the NYC air. I don't mean art art, of course. I mean "ART"--the art of walking, the art of the pick up game, the art of yellow cabs and city streets, the art of film, art of cinema, art of performance. I love the art of the DISaffectation in NYC. Which is to say, the opposite of LA. That isn't to say I don't love LA. I do, in fact, love LA. But it seems that I'm of two minds here--one for what is, and one for what pretends.

It is in this two-minded state that I read this morning about David Ansen's appointment as Artistic Director to the LAFF. (http://blogs.indiewire.com/iwnow/archives/critic_david_ansen_named_artistic_director_at_los_angeles_fest/).
First and foremost, good for him. David's a smart man with a dynamic film sensability that will serve him well. What's harder to know is how the new festival management will do under FilmIndependent and Dawn Hudson. Will smart-film-sensibility translate to smart-festival-management and then onto smart-audience-attraction? LAFF has its share of problems, what festival doesn't, but most apparent has been its lack of ability to draw in new audiences to avoid becoming redundant. As just one example, in a city where Spanish is more often than not the first (and sometimes only) language, why doesn't the festival have a Spanish language section to its web site, if only to spotlight those Spanish language films in the program?

This past year, most festivals saw a dramatic rise in individual ticket sales and an equally dramatic decline in the more expensive pass sales. This leads me to believe that an "event" film (that is to say a film at a festival with a guest attached that you might only have one chance to see, NOT a film like Titanic or Star Wars) is still at a price point affordable by most audience members and, equally important, of interest to most audience members.

So, logic would dictate, to stay relevant as a film festival means those who reach the furthest for their audiences, last the longest. Which is another way of saying that while David has quite the job ahead of him balancing both artistic and populist programming, I think new festival director Rebecca Yeldham has the harder job of servicing her existing audience with one hand and enticing new with the other.

Remember that tired old cliche, "it ain't show art, it's show business"? Well, it's not just the "art" of film festivals driving ticket sales any longer...