Seed&Spark to Host Inaugural Fair Trade Filmmaking Festival to Start Conversations About Indie Films
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) August 31, 2013 -- Seed&Spark, the world’s first crowd-funding and digital distribution platform made just for independent film, announced that it will host its first fair trade filmmaking festival, WestFest, from October 1-3, 2013, at The HUB LA in Los Angeles.
As the first of an international film festival series, WestFest will bring select Seed&Spark films that are available for streaming on the Seed&Spark site to the big screen. The three-day program will feature conversations with filmmakers and film curators. Continuing Seed&Spark’s fair trade filmmaking manifesto, a portion of the proceeds will go directly to the filmmakers whose movies are being screened.
“We believe that films have the ability to catalyze conversations that build communities and expand circles of empathy. And we believe the inherent intimacy of the festival experience creates a fertile environment for these conversations to start," says Emily Best, Founder and CEO of Seed&Spark. “WestFest is a beta test for an international festival series, with the goal of bringing together filmmakers and audiences around the stories that matter to them.”
Seed&Spark recently launched “Conversations” a group of curated film collections that organize Seed&Spark Cinema movies across different genres by theme. WestFest will bring some of those conversations into a real life setting. The lineup will feature films from forthcoming multi-culti Conversation ‘Mas American’, curated by blogger and programmer Christine Davila, films selected by Twitch Film East Coast Editor Ben Umstead for his Conversation ‘Shared Spaces’ that reflects on the immediacy of distance, and Best’s own curated Conversation, ‘Unconventional Women’.
Since its launch in December 2012, the Seed&Spark site gained almost 6,000 users who support independent filmmaking projects and enjoy watching a carefully selected slate of independent films on the site. The company has partnered with a number of like-minded film organizations including Film Independent, Big Fat Empty Wallet, Dogfish Accelerator, Nice Dissolve and Bitch Flicks to empower filmmakers connect with their audiences.
For program updates and tickets, please go to the WestFest event page.
To hear more about WestFest and all things indie film, join Seed&Spark in one of the bi-weekly #filmcurious Twitter chats. To register for the next #filmcurious Twitter chat, click here.
About Seed&Spark
Seed&Spark is building a truly independent filmmaking community where filmmakers and audiences come together for crowd-funding, production, and streaming distribution. Every time an audience member supports the making of a moving picture project (funding, following, sharing) they earn “Sparks” which can be redeemed to watch movies on the streaming platform.
Supporting films lets you watch more films: It’s the new ecosystem for filmmakers & audiences, and…that’s it! For more information, go to http://www.seedandspark.com and http://www.facebook.com/seedandspark, or follow us on Twitter at @seedandspark.
About The HUB LA
Hub LA connects, empowers, and resources Angelenos working to create positive change in the world. Whether you are a high impact consultant, entrepreneur, artists, investor or innovator, we offer you the best of a social club, an innovation agency, a co-working office, media lab, an incubator, and a think-tank all in one.
Our Media Lab facilitates collaboration between storytellers, message makers, visual artists, and social entrepreneurs to create meaningful and entertaining content. Our offerings include post production facilities, a screening room, equipment rentals, co-working space, programming, industry office hours, and more.
Over 7000 square feet of flexible work, meeting, and event space in the Downtown LA Arts District provides a productive, collaborative atmosphere to members. Visit http://www.thehubla.com to learn more about our amenities, programming, and monthly membership levels.
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Katja Schroeder, Expedition PR, +1 (718) 514-2083, [email protected]
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