Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival: Film, music, art and more

Written by Jackie McBrien '09
6/21/2007Share this story on Facebook!

When I first heard about an internship opportunity for Ithaca’s Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), I knew I had to do it. FLEFF is a one-week showcase of independent films and artists from all around the world. Through music, art, and film the festival focuses on the preservation of our environment and also on various issues including war, disease, music, fine arts, women’s rights, and human rights. 

Everything about the festival sounded great: meeting filmmakers, watching movies, listening to good music, and being able to put such a prominent internship on my resume. That’s why I signed up as fast as you can say FLEFF.

At the first FLEFF meeting, IC professors and festival coordinators Patty Zimmermann and Tom Shevory laid out the basics. As"fleffers" (FLEFF interns), our responsibilities included guest hospitality, promoting the festival, and blogging about the festival on the FLEFF homepage. Though I had previous internship experience in a newsroom, I was overwhelmed with anxiety. I had never been to a film festival—let alone interned at one—and I really didn’t know what to expect. But Patty and Tom’s excitement and passion for the festival replaced my nervousness with enthusiasm. They made it clear that the number one rule of being a FLEFF intern was to have a good time.

Our primary responsibility was promoting the festival: putting up posters, telling friends about the event, sending out Facebook invitations and messages...anything to spread the word that the festival was coming to town. This was not only a chance to enhance my marketing and event promotion skills but also a great way to meet new people. These promotions weren’t limited to campus, though. I also went downtown to the Commons and passed out FLEFF stickers and booklets. And I wrote blog entries highlighting upcoming events, and urging the public to check them out.

FLEFF interns were paired up and assigned a guest to accommodate during the week. My partner Rachelle and I were assigned to Venezuelan filmmaker Alberto Arvelo. He is a well-known director in South America, so the opportunity to serve as one of his assistants was surreal. He was showing two films: Tocar y luchar and Habana, Havana. Rachelle and I attended his screenings and got to meet the man behind the movies. Hosting Arvelo was a great experience, and getting to work with a filmmaker was really fascinating—it was definitely my favorite part of the festival.

Throughout the week, I attended various films and events. One of my favorites was a lecture entitled, “How to Get Your Break in the Big (and Little) Metropoli,” in which Arvelo and others shared advice on how to get started in the film industry. Although the content and delivery of each film and filmmaker was different, their messages were all equally inspiring and powerful. Through narrative, music, dance, and comedy, I explored topics and cultures I knew very little about previously.

Working behind the scenes at FLEFF was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to improve my promotions and public speaking skills. I know my participation in the festival will help me in my future public relations career—after all, it's not every day that you get to meet and interact with filmmakers from all over the world.

One week and 150 events and screenings later, FLEFF came to a close. On April 2, the event wrapped with the screening of the silent film Man with a Movie Camera. It was the perfect ending to a lively week. Though it was sad to see it end, FLEFF will return next year, which means more movies, more parties, and more fun!