Centre Film Festival thrives in second year with virtual approach
Under normal circumstances, Pearl Gluck speaks in emotional bunches — ideas and words coming one after the other, slight breaths in between before she shares another set of possibilities and thoughts.
She’s a walking bundle of creativity, and thats, what ifs and why nots.
Her approach and passion make her successful. An award-winning filmmaker and well-liked teacher, Gluck, an associate professor of film production in the Bellisario College, also serves as the artistic director and a driving force behind the Centre Film Festival.
In 2020, when the fledgling festival moved to a virtual format and succeeded beyond all expectations, Gluck’s assessment provided a perfect summary of the event — and of her.
“I’m grateful we got the push to do it virtually. I believe it worked, really worked. We got so much support from the community and we ended up doing things in the second year of the festival that we hoped we’d get in the future,” Gluck said. “We put some things on hold, with developing a board and workshops for high school students, but we did so much.
“We still did a filmmaking workshop for high school students on Zoom and we did a callout for high school films — and we got them. One of the best parts about a traditional festival is having the filmmakers here, interacting with other filmmakers and meeting the wonderful community we have here with high school and college students as well as community members and other filmmaking professionals. When they come here, there’s no substitute for the impact they have and for how their affected by the people they meet.
“I was worried what it would look like and if we could make it work without that. In the end though, it helped us. We were able to get top-tier jurors in a virtual setting, people who might not participate with two-year-old festival in other circumstances. It was a rock-star group and, now that they’ve had a good experience, it’s helped the reputation of the festival going forward.”
The second annual Centre Film Festival, conducted Nov. 13-15, featured more than 50 films and 35 filmmakers. Films were organized into “blocks” that each included short films, the main feature and a live panel discussion afterward, introducing the audience to filmmakers from around the world (Israel and Poland, for example) and right next door. And those jurors? The combination of respected professionals, college students and even high school students coordinated a robust awards program that included issuing a Lifetime Achievement Award to Tony Buba, primarily known for documentaries produced by his Pittsburgh-based company, Braddock Films.
LINK: Centre Film Festival, Complete Awards List
"It was an honor to be a jury member for this year's Centre Film Festival. Pearl did an amazing job curating a unique slate of films with outstanding talents in front of and behind the camera, making our task exciting and difficult," said Nicole Sedita, senior vice president of global partnerships for Lionsgate.
Fellow juror Sterling Macer Jr. agreed. “The Centre Film Festival strikes a fantastic balance between compelling homegrown, national and international filmmaking,” said the director, writer and actor. “It’s wonderfully organized and filmmaker friendly!”
To be clear the festival as not an all-Gluck affair — and she stresses that at every opportunity, pointing especially to the work of fellow faculty members Cassie Ross Green, a lecturer in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, and Curt Chandler, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Journalism. Both bring ample professional experience to their academic appointments. Ross Green was a worldwide promotions coordinator for Miramax and Dimension Films (The Weinstein Company), and then worked independently as a producer and editor with numerous productions and filmmakers before returning to her roots in Pennsylvania and teaching at Penn State. Work by Chandler’s students has been featured in film festivals and journalism competitions across the country. Additionally, Renea Nichols, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Advertising/Public Relations, helped with the festival’s publicity efforts.
Their commitment — and that of all involved with the festival in any way — was essential for success as the fledgling event moved to a virtual format after a strong inaugural year in 2019.
“Staging a virtual event on the fly was a real challenge. The key was to go all-in. If we were going online, we wanted to be the best virtual experience possible. Step one was technical,” Chandler said. “We switched from Zoom to Streamyard a week before the festival and it really upped the production quality of our panel discussions and recordings.
“Step two was building in little extras, like the Jazz Brunch with Stacie, featuring fabulous recipes from the '50s. We had local bartenders concoct special cocktails, one for the festival as a whole and the other in honor of the Pandemic Shorts film block. Pearl is a genius at making a film festival an event that is so much more than watching a lot of good movies, and these little add-ons really count.
“The third step was building a nimble and resilient team. It's so much easier to take on a project of this scale when you can completely trust the people you're working with to get things done.”
The festival also benefitted from a partnership with the New York International Children’s Festival, which provides programming for other festivals, and that partnership will continue going forward.
“Based on my earlier research and the virtual glimpses I had at the Centre Film Festival, I was expecting to be impressed, but my experience exceeded even those expectations,” said documentary filmmaker Catherine Axley.