Saturday, March 25, 2017

Soldier's daughter, filmmaker who supports the GI Film Festival

THE G.I. FILM FESTIVAL 2017 - BLOG POST

Guest Blogger: Ana Quinata
           Contact: quin@anaquinata.com
            Follow: Twitter/IG: @anaquinata



            Since the first days of cinema, commercial productions and even some newsreel documentaries have often found success as entertainment but as true to life tales they have had a tendency to fall short or miss the mark entirely in their depiction of the service member experience. 

This was in large part due to the delicate constitutions of the viewing populace. Essentially, studios wouldn't make money and the government wouldn't entice recruits if they always told it the way it really was. South Pacific ring a bell for anyone? For those seeking an unapologetic level of honesty, there is a solution.


            Currently in its eleventh year, the pioneering G.I. Film Festival remains an important platform for the military veteran community to share their stories in several categories including music videos, student films, features, and screenplays to name a few, allowing differing levels of filmmakers and avenues of expression to be showcased. Participants are also afforded the fantastic opportunity to network with working professionals in the television and film industry - the importance of which cannot be understated. 

When pursuing a career after the active duty military life has come to its conclusion, the exceptional news coverage the film festival garners is not limited to local newspapers around the D.C. area but reaches every corner of the nation through articles printed in the Washington Post and stories featured on national television providing widespread exposure to the projects selected.


GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017
Washington D.C., USA


            Whether those projects be narrative shorts or feature-length documentaries, every experience shared on screen at the GI Film Festival is a real story that can only be told by those men and women of the armed forces that have lived through them. Stories that speak to viewers on spiritual levels; that reach depths within us that we thought perhaps we'd buried. 

In being open with their experiences - the good, the bad, and the in-between - participants promote understanding and encourages others to do the same. It is their expression that the event was founded on and on which it continues to thrive because their authenticity can be felt by those who watch in the screening rooms.





            Now, who can be in those screening rooms? Anyone, really. Not only those aforementioned entertainment industry professionals looking for talent but film students, family members, anyone in the general public who enjoys military stories and of course, fellow veterans. 

The event also includes opportunities for attendees and participants to socialize with one another and on the international level with respective counterparts from American allied countries.

     

GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017
Washington D.C., USA


       As a daughter of two former United States soldiers myself, I appreciate the steadfast efforts the GI Film Festival team has put forth with each passing year for this event to continue as another means of connectivity among veterans. 

As a filmmaker with much of my work focused on military conflicts in the last century, this provides proof that these stories matter as they should which is in turn encouragement to keep pushing forward to share them as best I can so that one day I might be able to honor those who have sacrificed so that I might be in this position to do just that.


Guest Blogger: Ana Quinata
           Contact: quin@anaquinata.com
            Follow: Twitter/IG: @anaquinata

GI Film Festival 2017
GIFF2017 - #GIFF2017
May 24 - May 28, 2017 
Washington D.C., USA

Blog posted by:
Fulton Film Company
Fresno, California




No comments:

Post a Comment