Anthony Gittens: Filmfest DC Founder on Fostering Diversity in Cinema
Welcome to the Truth in Us Art. I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you for tuning in to my conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. Today, I'm super excited to be spotlighting a cornerstone of cinematic storytelling in the nation's capital, the mastermind behind Film Fest DC, which is the district's premier international film festival. My guest is here to share the essence of this year's festival, a bit about the history and his journey.
Rob Lee:We're celebrating a rich tapestry of global and local narratives. This festival has become a beacon for film enthusiasts drawing together community united by the love of the transformative power of storytelling. Each selection is curated for its artistic excellence, promises to transport, enlighten, and entertain, fostering a deep connection amongst attendees through the universal language of film. With a legacy built upon the passions of vibrant energy supplied by diverse audiences, Film Fest DC continues to be a festival of stories, celebrating the art that reflects our lives and shapes our perspectives. I am honored to welcome my next guest, the cinematic visionary, Tony Gittens.
Rob Lee:Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today, Tony. And before we get started, I'm gonna give you the space to tell us a little bit about yourself as we we open up this podcast. Like, where are you from? You know, what what is what is your what is your story? What's the early touch points within your story?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. So and I, born and raised in Brooklyn. My sister and I, my parents come from Barbados. So most of them, I feel like I'm a Caribbean American and decided I was gonna get out of Brooklyn and came to Howard and, liked it. Well, I like Washington.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Howard had its moments, but, I I like DC. And my friends, you know, after a while, you know, your friends are here and you feel comfortable and familiar with it, and I was able to find, enough work to pay my rent. So it was fine. I didn't have any kids, you know, none of that. So, I got to really like the place.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I got to like DC.
Rob Lee:So so what so what was it like like starting off? Because, you know, I'm at this sort of stage where you're looking for a place, you know. Like, my my partner, she's from Brooklyn, so she's gonna love that.
Rob Lee:She likes
Anthony Tony Gittens:Oh. Oh. Oh, okay. But she gotta be a good person there.
Rob Lee:Abs abs absolutely.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. Right. K.
Rob Lee:But, you know, I do these interviews. I do stuff as we were talking a little bit, you you know, before getting getting started in earnest that I'll do interviews in in DC. I've been doing some in in New York and some in, Detroit and just different cities, and it's always something that I'm looking for. I'm looking for the thing that I like in in my city, in Baltimore, that I'm looking for that thing, but in those other cities and trying to find a version of it. So for you, having like, you know, New York is New York, you know, having sort of that and then coming down here to to to to DC.
Rob Lee:What was it about DC that hooks you and ultimately keeps you there?
Anthony Tony Gittens:One was the black middle class that was here. And I I only in hindsight do I sort of recognize that. But it was, my parents were working class. My mother was a maid. My father was a mechanic.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And to come here and see so many, African Americans who, were middle class with jobs primarily in the government, and the government offered them financial security and some safety and, making it work. The other thing was that, that DC was manageable to me after being raised and having to make my way in Brooklyn, that coming here was not that tough. I mean, to do this a simple thing in in New York, you know, you had to put aside a day to make sure that you that you filled out all the forms and get on the right train to get re you know, it was just it was always crowded. Downtown was crowded. I looked out my window where we lived, and there were always people walking about.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I came to DC, and there wasn't that. And so I felt it was manageable. Like, oh, I could handle this. You know? I could handle this because it it's not like it's it's as complicated and as a verse.
Anthony Tony Gittens:In other words, in DC, in in in New York, I always felt I had to fight my way through to get to something. Yeah. Whereas in in when I was in DC, I didn't have that feeling. So, you know, that that I mean, there were other things, but, when I think about it, those are the things that attracted me to DC.
Rob Lee:That that makes sense. And, I I have a trip coming soon to, to Manhattan, and I I this would be the 3rd year in a row. I've gone up there for this particular trip, and I avoid the train for that it's like,
Rob Lee:this is the path
Rob Lee:to get to. Can I take a Uber? Can I walk it? And
Rob Lee:I mean, eat milk. I
Anthony Tony Gittens:have a a grandson, and, they live in Queens. My my son and his wife and Nico, our grandson. And he knows you know, we'll go well, you know, my wife and I go and spend, like, the day with him and stuff. He knows how to get on the subway to get no. Don't take the 5 train.
Anthony Tony Gittens:If you take the one train and get off of you know, he to him, he's just handling it. You know? He's just handled it. You know? He's he's not threatened by it at all.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So I guess, you know, if you get used to your environment, it's okay.
Rob Lee:100%. 100%. So as I as I look over, you know, the back your your your background, and I see, like, things that, you know, one, obviously is a visionary, so legendary background. But I also see the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities and then the International Film Festival, which 38th year?
Anthony Tony Gittens:38th year.
Rob Lee:I mean, look, I'm I'm I'm 39, so I
Anthony Tony Gittens:You were 1 year old when we started.
Rob Lee:I mean, look. But so speak could you speak a bit on some of the experiences that led to this trajectory of being around in sort of the well, let me let me step back. How do you look at having that background that's related to the arts and arts administrative and sort of like building out this creative community in DC? What were some of the, like, experiences and visions that helped kinda shape that?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Well, 1, in Brooklyn, my father, as I mentioned, was far from Barbados, and he was a musician. He played calypso, and and this was the time before, record players and iPods and all those other things. So if you wanted to have a party and you wanted to have music, you hired, you know, 3 a 3 piece, band to come and play in your living room while people dance. Otherwise, you know, you just couldn't do it. So he made his living, doing that, primarily before my sister and I were born.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And then then when we came along, he had to find what he called a rail job, you know, working, for the subway system in in New York. And but the fact that he was a musician allowed me to hear him rehearse. And most importantly, I heard him and watched him perform. He was always the leader of the band or the orchestra. And so he and he did it with confidence and capability.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So I always watched him, 1, create art, create music, and 2, become a leader in presenting it. So, it it took me a while to figure this out. But, you know, him, my father as a as a model, I I felt comfortable doing it because I saw him do it. And and the the music, the art, the the drawing. You know, I'm I'm not a painter or anything like that.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So, then my time in the civil rights movement, where and that was a that was a period, that whole period, not only for we in in the movement, but also for young people, baby boomers, we're now called. It was a very free time to experiment and and to not be caught up in social concepts that, challenging so many things that you wound up experiencing a variety of things. So one of the things that, I didn't want was a 9 to 5 job. I I wanted it from I wanted it, because see, when I got out of high school, I had to do something, you know? And, so the and I I was a bank teller.
Anthony Tony Gittens:This is more than you wanna know about my life. But anyway but anyway, so I was a bank teller, and and that, taught me something about discipline. Because as a bank tell you dealing with numbers, the numbers don't lie. It always had to add up at the end, close out at the end. And I wasn't very good at it at the beginning.
Anthony Tony Gittens:But as time went on and I had people around me who were very supportive, especially the manager of the bank at that time, he understood I was a young man. And, so I I sort of in enjoyed management because it made the numbers, and I had the numbers had to balance out all the time. And and and that was kind of a safety net. I didn't have to think about and be creative in too much about it. The numbers were all I had to deal with.
Anthony Tony Gittens:But I so then when I got there and I got into the movement and and at Howard, and you know, I was a young student, like so many other young students, and we're was interested in this this, iconoclastic world, this free world that and culture that was coming into the country at the time. I was able to take the musical interest and combine it with, the administrative kind of interest and comfort. I was comfort and comfortable in that. And spend my life bouncing from 1 or the other and occasionally finding a place where they joined and, was happy doing what I was doing most of the time. In a nutshell.
Rob Lee:It's it's great when you you have those those intersections where it's just like, I'm I'm interested in this. I I see sort of this creative, I see sort of the social justice component and the the civil rights component, because I see, you know, Eyes on the Prize as well in the background on here and, you know, when we're able to do that, it feels rewarding and it kind of enables us to, you know, maybe affect change. And and when we get those, like, sort of leadership opportunities and those spots, when I do do the these interviews, I interview a lot of different people, but the perspective is very much someone who looks like me, and and that's baked into what I do. And even the the folks that I reach out to and get really excited to do interviews with, and so I I don't know. It's just it's just great when those those points kinda intersect.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. Yeah. It it when it all comes together that, it it feels good. And, people it's good if if, you know, we try to make the effort to make that happen, to not sort of get stuck in in some, situation. I wanna call it a job.
Anthony Tony Gittens:But in a in a situation, where you have to get up in the morning and you're not happy. You know, you don't feel you're creating, contributing in some way. And, when you have that, as you say, where it does all intersect, then it makes for you know, you can make a decent, pleasant life out of it.
Rob Lee:Yeah. You know?
Rob Lee:And I
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's challenging. It's challenging. I mean, there there's always because if you're not on following the path, you know, you're creating your own path there where you can expect, challenges and problems and, failure failure, you know, and be able to balance from that and figure out what you have to do and how to how to training, you know, how to do something that, you don't know how to do and you gotta learn how to do it. And if you wanna really make a big impact, then you have to you have to be willing to make decisions and be wrong, some of the time and stand and say, okay. I was wrong.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I was wrong.
Rob Lee:That that's that's the thing. That's it's a really interesting point there where and I've I've been comparing, like, you know, I talk about, like, the reps when when folks are doing something creative or something that is a new thing. It's it should be more challenging, should be more interesting. They should be essences where you fail, where you didn't complete it, and you should be able to learn something from those. And I think it's very similar to when someone is, like, doing something fitness oriented of, I'm running.
Rob Lee:I could run 10 minutes. Alright. Cool. Yesterday, it was 8 minutes. And Mhmm.
Rob Lee:So you're able to progress and get better, but eventually, you know, you're it's it's gonna work out in a way. And when I I look at some of the interviews, I've been podcasting for for 15 years, so not not 38, but, you know, 15 years.
Anthony Tony Gittens:That's great. That's why congratulations.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And, you know, sometimes I'll do an interview, and I was like, this is great. This is gonna work, or even some of the folks that I reach out to, I'm like, how in the world did I get this guess? I am not qualified for this one. But it it's it's progression.
Rob Lee:It's it's getting better, but there are challenges that that present themselves in this this story where I maybe don't look the way or I don't look like a podcaster or specifically to the festival, what are some of the challenges that you faced, and what are what was the inspiration in actually starting the festival?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Someone told me years ago, he said he said, find what moves you and trust it. You know, what moves you can't often put it into words, but it moves you. You know, people get moved by all kinds of things and trust it and let that go to work. Let that go to work. And I found that to be true that, if I I mean, that's you know, if if, something moves me, and and you too and any human being, I think.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I'm not gonna make this personal because it's not. And you let it you you own up to it. It sort of takes you where to go. I mean, the civil rights movement, what what used to get me is I really didn't like other people being mistreated. I I didn't like watching.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It was hard for me to watch or hear about other people being mistreated. And I wanted to stop that. I helped stop that in some way. And that's that's pretty simple. You know?
Anthony Tony Gittens:It was there's no ideology behind it. I had or anything like that. You know, it's just the way I felt about people and watching them. It was it was just really just sort of got me in some place inside to watch that and and just wanna stop it. So then you wind up being around other people who feel the same way and and wanna wanna do it.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You wind up doing things that don't make a whole lot of sense and you don't know how you're gonna do it, but you feel you gotta do it because it moves you to do it. The arts commission, I always wanted to help the artist. Yeah. You know, that that's what sort of got me. You know, that that how do you take the resources in that case of the government and get it out to creative people, artists, writers, pod podcasters, you know, I guess, musicians?
Anthony Tony Gittens:And how do you get it to them so that they can do what it is they do and not be always crushed by the financial situations that they find themselves in? And then the audiences, how do you how do you get how do you know I used to say, how do you get these people walking around on the street? And and and how do you sort of make it a better experience for them to do that? Yeah. Yeah.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Now that's a big question. You know? But it it it begs all kinds of answers and imaginative ways and and frustration and bud and budgets and stuff. But, you know, people were just sort of going through it. They're going to the post office, going to the grocery store, going in a restaurant, going down to the district building, you know, going to the DMV.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I didn't get the DMV, but I wanted to get the DMV before I left, but I couldn't do it. But how do you sort of make that experience where they're just better? Essentially, make their life better. That's one of the incredible opportunity
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Anthony Tony Gittens:To be able to bait other people's life better. Just to, you know, you know, that that to be just is an opportunity. It's not a job. You know, That's not a job. That's an opportunity to do something in my life.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah.
Rob Lee:That's one of the things when, like, when folks ask me, like, what drives this? You do a lot of stuff, and why do you do it? And it's like, I get to talk to people who are more talented than me and have them share their story with me in a way that they're most comfortable with. Like, I would imagine, you know, with a long and illustrious career as yours, where you you you get these, you know, interviews and the person hasn't done any research or they're asking you sort of the canned questions, and it's just like, alright, cool. You kinda some people go through the motions when that happens, but when someone is asking, like, what was the thinking behind that or going to that next level, You're like, oh, I can really cut loose a little bit, let my hair down.
Rob Lee:Uh-huh.
Rob Lee:Like, here's the actual answer to what I was thinking. Let me be petty for a minute. Let me do this one.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Because, I agree with you. If you if people like, if somebody most most of the around this time of my days, the questions around the film festival naturally and. That's what I why I'm here, and I'm here to let people know about the film festival and if they're interested to come by and see what it is we're doing.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So I I have those answers. But, you know, you're asking me more personal things, things, which I really, most of the time, I hadn't thought about. And I'm sitting here, well, how do I connect that to the film festival? Because I don't want it to be about me. You know?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Now I and you asked about how I got involved in the film festival. So that's a good way for me to segue into the film festival.
Rob Lee:You know, I tried to craft it this way so we can
Anthony Tony Gittens:You did it. You did it, my bad. You did a good job. The the film festival, came about I mentioned I'd spent a little bit of time doing stuff in the in the in the movement, civil rights movement. So, one of the things that we did is we had a bookstore, Drum and Spear Bookstore, and I was the manager of the bookstore.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And I never managed a bookstore in my life. I've been in the bookstore and I read books, but I bought book but I you know, managing the bookstore. But what clicked in was my, bank teller experience, and that really helped. That really helped me to formulate a foundation, a business foundation for the Bookstore Financial Foundation for it. So it was very good that I had those two things that intersected there that that helped me out.
Anthony Tony Gittens:But at the bookstore, we did it because we wanted to impart information. You know, we wanted to give people information about black and and colored people around the world. And so every book we could find that had that theme was something that that we would bring to the bookstore, and people would come to the who were interested in that came to the bookstore to get the information. But there weren't, intellectuals would come, but people then on the street and stuff, you know, they weren't about reading a lot of books. So when I left the book, drum and spear, and I was figuring out what I'm gonna do next, my life got complicated.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Then, I said movies because I've always watched movies. I watched movies when I was coming up as a kid. I watched a lot of television when I was coming up as a kid. So, I mean, I never made a movie. Don't wanna make a movie, you know, but but I liked and enjoyed movies.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And they were a vehicle that a lot of people found very easy to watch and experience and come up with back with information. So I decided that I'm gonna show movies. So I showed a lot of black movies. And I had some I created something out of nothing called the Black Film Institute. And we showed got movies.
Anthony Tony Gittens:This was again a time before the Internet. So what they weren't as available as before. And, we took them to prisons, and we took them to schools and to churches, and we ran series, seasonal series, brought in filmmakers from New York and California to talk to before after every film, there was always a conversation about what the film was about. Hopefully, with the filmmaker, not always, maybe we'd have a scholar there. And, with support, you know, I was able to run that for a while.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And then some friends and I got together and said, well, let's blow this up a bit, and we made it an international film festival. That's what happened 38 years ago. Well, actually, 36 years ago. It took us 2 years to get to mount the first one. And then after we did the first one, we said, well, I guess we gotta do the next and the next and the next.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And that happened 38 times, because I think there's probably a point in every one of those 38 where I say, oh god. I'm never gonna do this again.
Rob Lee:This is the
Anthony Tony Gittens:last one. I've never I've wired it a you know, but then my friends laugh at me. You know? They laugh at me, and I wind up. Yeah.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. But regression sort of went that way.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, the people who come to the movies and go to the movie theater, they don't care one way or another. They just wanna know whether they like the film or not. But that's okay. The pleasure of getting the film up in that screen, which is not always easy, And, watching people seeing the film and enjoying it, knowing that if we didn't make the effort, they wouldn't have that experience, brings satisfaction.
Rob Lee:That that's that's great. Like, I've I've worked with a number of film festivals over the last few years, and I really value watching, you know, it's not it's it's sort of like, you know, you have, like, the the international films, local films, and so on, but the the idea of going to a place with a big serene always is alluring to me. You know, when you have revival series and things of that nature. There are movies that I've seen hundreds of times, right, but going to, a theater, seeing it in 35 millimeters, seeing it on a huge screen, it is a different experience. And having folks go out there and to to your your your point is like this sort of the the the almost a simple question of did you like it?
Rob Lee:Did you did you have a good time? Did you enjoy it? And, you know, this past year I've been involved from the film critic criticism side of it, and I listened to folks critique it. I was like, wow. I'm not as hard as they are.
Rob Lee:Like, the material they were running a festival being very different. So in in that, I I wanna get a sense on, you know, with with your background, you've mentioned a movement. You've you've mentioned sort of this this this focus and this interest in, like, basically helping folks, helping folks, like, you know, get past some of these these challenges. What are some of the commitments in the selection and in the programming for the festival,
Anthony Tony Gittens:And and always what do we think the audience wants to see, which is not always what I want to see, but that's not it's not for me. You know? It's for the audience. What do they and then new voices, you know, films by countries and film from countries and by filmmakers who, are not a traditional place where you're gonna find films, give these folks a a new chance. And making sure that the infrastructure is solid and invisible in a way.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, people should be able to come in, buy their tickets, sit down, watch the movie, get up, and leave without knowing all the the rigmarole that it went into establishing that and maintaining it. So to keep that, that's important because I've been to places where that was not the case and it becomes a a sloppy kind of experience. And so, we don't do that. We don't do that. And to, bring people together.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You were mentioning you were mentioning that watching a film on your couch by yourself or with your partner or whatever is up there, you know, is one experience. Going to a theater and having dozens of people sitting around you and sharing that experience with them and talking about many a time about the experience as you leave. That's a whole different on a big screen, that's a whole different experience, which only movie theaters can offer. You know, movie theaters can offer that. Your your couch, no matter how big your screen is in your house, is not going unless you're gonna invite, you know, 15, 20 people to sit there with you watching it in your in your living room, it's not gonna have that experience.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And that will always separate movie theaters, which are having a hard time. But, always separate movie theaters from the they'll they'll keep going, you know.
Rob Lee:It's definitely a a communal experience. And, you know, you you're so right. Like, when you watch you know, like I'm working on this series of revival films, black films and all of that stuff and working with a comedy and improv place to put that on. And something about, like, I'm curating these films that I want to, you know, get the rights for and all of that stuff, but curating these films and having this sort of, like, series. And the the thing that I'm in my mind's eye that I'm so excited for is I wonder if
Anthony Tony Gittens:they're gonna find that part
Rob Lee:of that movie funny like I did
Anthony Tony Gittens:and Yeah. Right. Yeah. What the
Rob Lee:odds it's gonna be and have that shared thing. It it's just something about it. It you're right. It it's it's hard to replicate, especially when the first time you see it or when you're revisiting a particular thing in a movie. It's just it's just big.
Rob Lee:So I had this this other this this this next question that I'm very curious about this was a solid insight. So it reads this quote, Film Fest DC, a festival of stories. And I think that that signifies the power of narratives and film. In your view, what makes it for a compelling story? You know, that is is compelling enough to be featured in the festival and, you know, creating space for these stories to connect and impact with that audience?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Well, one of the the reasons that and when when what makes the fact doing a festival attractive is that the content always changes every year, almost fully changes every year. There are films made all over the world, and a number of them will never be shown in the United States. So that that gives us a reason to get up and and do the work that we're doing. But I'm trying to think of an answer to your question. It's it's it's hard it's hard to put into words because we argue, you know, they're they're a little group of us who select the films, and we don't always agree on on what should be there and what shouldn't be there.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I mean, we have limited space. And it it varies from person to person. Other peep some people have, an understanding of the history of the filmmaker. Well, he she made this and he made this, and this is similar to the film they made in 1972. I don't have any of that.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Alright. And and I don't. And, other people, like the politics of the films.
Rob Lee:Sure.
Anthony Tony Gittens:They're they're interested in in that. A filmmaker is now dealing with a a subject. We have a whole social justice section made up of these films. The environment, issues in Palestine, political issues, with the election coming up, abortion, anti abortion. You know, there those issues.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And in a town like Washington, there are a lot of people who know a lot about these these issues. And so they turn up because they wanna see fit films about what it is that they're interested in, and they might not go to the thrillers or the the comedies down the hall because it's not so, you know, you're trying to to please all these folks. And above all, you want them to be good films. You know, you want them to be solid films by by imaginative filmmakers, some who wanna take some risk. We don't we don't do too much with with experimental on forms.
Anthony Tony Gittens:In other words, experimental films. We our audience is not a big thing for them, not a big thing for me. So we don't do a lot of that. So it's pretty much straight ahead narrative, films. But they have interesting characters facing interesting challenges.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And and one of the things that I've sort of noticed, found out by doing this, seeing enough films, is that no matter the cultures, that pretty much basically, the stories are pretty much the same. Yeah. People want pretty much the same. They want some degree of freedom. They wanna have some love in their life, families.
Anthony Tony Gittens:They wanna have wherewithal. In other words, some money so they could lead a a live lead a comfortable life. And they want their they don't wanna be abused. You know? They don't want that.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Somewhat more action and adventure than others. But pretty much, you know, you find when you look at at enough films from around the world, the themes a lot of times sort of boil down to a handful that that, play a role in every all of our lives. All of our lives, you know. Sorry for no. Everybody doesn't wanna accept that and agree because we feel we're different than other people.
Anthony Tony Gittens:To some extent, we are. A lot of extent, but that's what I've seen. You know, the stories, a lot of them tend to be the same.
Rob Lee:Yeah. Because when we have, adaptations and and things of that nature, it's just like, well, the root of this story is the same. You you go back and and look at, like, maybe, let's say movies like 20 years ago or what have you, and you're like, alright, what were the influences that went into this movie, and it's like, oh, this is a movie from the thirties. It's like, yeah, this is exactly the same that you just updated it for contemporary times or based in this setting or this audience. And I like to do that that thing of watching the movie that I like.
Rob Lee:Let's say let's say it might be Kill Bill or something or something in that that that vein, And I'm like, alright, what were the influences that one in there? And then I go through and look look through. It's like, oh, you took that shot from here or this character's name to this person. And, you know, those are in different languages. Those are at different times with different
Rob Lee:Right.
Rob Lee:That we have never met. And you're like, wow. I see it. I get it.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. But, you know, we but people, you know, we make up stories about our life. You know, we have an internal dialogue that continually makes up the story of our life, and we make up the story of and and those stories give us a history. They give us an association with other things and other people. But they're just stories.
Anthony Tony Gittens:They're things that we've made up, you know, interpretations of our experiences that we think are true. Yeah. But and so the festival, every every single one of those films from short to has a story. We are a festival of stories, you know, that happened to be made by filmmakers, and and we place them up on a screen for you to see. And that that's what we do, you know, in its simplest form.
Rob Lee:Yeah. You
Anthony Tony Gittens:know? Yeah. We're a festival of stories and and people can talk about how they came up with stories, the meaning of it.
Rob Lee:So I I wanna I wanna throw out some numbers real quick. I'm I'm I'm back on the, you know, film fest dc.org site and I see these numbers, which is mind boggling a little bit. So, you know, 62 films from 36 countries over the course of 11 days and, you know, obviously one amazing film festival.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Of course.
Rob Lee:What what is that? Because you're saying, like, this is the very busy part where, you know, folks are reaching out for these interviews to talk about the festival. Talk a bit about sort of, like, what that that timeline is, like, when you're planning out 39th, the 39th version. Right? When does that cost?
Anthony Tony Gittens:It'll be the same. We go out to see films as soon as the festival is over. You wanna know the process of creating the film festival? Is that it? So, after the after this festival, after we, got to clean up, my son used to go to Montessori school, and they taught them that cleaning up was part of the project.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So we clean up, you know, you with spotless pay all the bills, clear out the movie theaters, have our wrap up meetings, doing all that, and it's clean. Then we have to go find the films. So we go to the Cannes Film Festival, and that those are the new films that are coming out in the spring and the summer and probably into the early fall. And we go there. And and they're the films, but they're also the people.
Anthony Tony Gittens:That's where the distributors are, the people from whom we have to get the films. We get an opportunity to meet with them, for them to tell us what it is that, this coming up. And people have this image of Cannes, understandably, of the red carpet and the gowns and all that stuff. No. There's a hole right next to the safety area where the red carpet is.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's this big building called the Palais, and it's like a convention center. We're there at the festival and the films are there for 1 couple of weeks. The next people who come in could be the telephone people. And after that could be the, vacuum cleaner, Francis. You know, it's it's it's no nothing nothing fancy about it.
Anthony Tony Gittens:That's where we go. That's where we do the work, and it is work because you can watch I mean, I'm gonna see at least 5 films a day, you know. And so you gotta move and get there and get online and all that other stuff and maneuver your schedule. So we do that. Then we come back and we start trying to we have to raise money because it takes money in order to we gotta rent the theaters.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's not free. We have to rent the films. They're not free. There are some my core staff are 3 people. You know, we have bringing other people, you know, part timers when we get close to the festival, build out the website, write the notes for the films, make the technical arrangements for the films.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, we bring in these people from around the country. And we and and that that's just so we work and do that. Then, in September is Toronto, the Toronto Film Festival. So we get ourselves together and get our get our little hotel. You know, we it's anyway, so we should go to the hotels, and then we go to the deal with that, work that festival.
Anthony Tony Gittens:What's up? What's new? You know, you see friends, you see distributors. You gotta go there to be there. You gotta see the films, you know, and you that's that's about a week of and it's pretty intense.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You're pretty worn out, but it's PC people running around all over the town down there because you gotta move you gotta stay in the movie and there's thousands of people you gotta maneuver yourself through so you do that. So it's it's September number. We were still writing applications, you know, to the district government, the federal government, foundations, as everybody's doing that, you know, trying to get money to do it. I mean, there's no glamour in any of this. At least we got some heat in our office down.
Anthony Tony Gittens:There were a number of years where we never heat in the office. So we got some heat in the office, and so we'd we'd we'd churning it out churning it out. And, by September, October, November, December then then we start, the last festival we go to is January the follow of the last year. So you can see this because this goes on. This is a trek, man.
Anthony Tony Gittens:This is a this is trains going down a track, and we hit, the Palm Springs Film Festival. Why? Palm Springs, by name, not happening in Palm Springs. I can tell you that. But their their audience is a very similar to our audience.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And so the kinds and they show a lot of the Academy Award foreign films. So we go there, and we work that festival. And then we go by January, we gotta have things pretty much set. We gotta know we got enough money. We got the theater set.
Anthony Tony Gittens:So and so is gonna be on on gonna tell you the technical stuff. Somebody else will handle hospitality. We gotta have all that logistical stuff that we might have one meeting at the beginning of the year to with the team to talk about stuff with the PR people. Is Travis there? You know, we got you know, that kind we gotta do all that.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And then we start working on the catalog. And Shareen, who's the deputy, she takes charge of the catalog. And that's gathering the notes and the photos and laying it out. And she has Jill who helps her with that and then another design. And then, you know, we should we should and then at some point, you get to the point where we are now, you know, where you you put out that first list of films.
Rob Lee:Yep.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You get opening night together for the the first list, and then you start selling tickets and seeing how that's gonna go and make sure everything is ready when you start for opening night in the following days. And you get hope peace you hope I always hope somebody shows up. I swear. It's like, I dreamed that that what time yeah. We're gonna do it, and nobody's gonna be there.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know? Because you never know. You just never know. I I've had I've failed many of time at doing these kinds of events. Nobody's there.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You learn from them not to do what you did last time. And then you do the festival and you, every day there's some problem and there's always some joy, some surprise there. People come and you see that and you say, well, it's all worth it. You know? And then you go through it, then you start all over again the next year while you're doing other things.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, you got other other projects in your life, maybe family, and and you you're doing other things. You're not just doing that. And, fills up your day. Yeah. Fills up your day.
Rob Lee:That's I think that's that's that's that hits and is for that 11 day period. And we got the, April 18th to 28th. So Yes. That's, you know, you gave the full calendar with those touch points that we're going to this festival. We're out here.
Rob Lee:We're we're in this other country for this festival. We're like
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. You know? You know, you've learned how to eat on the move.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, there's not a lot of sitting around and having meal. You know, a couple of times you have dinner, just talk about thing, ketchup. But, I mean, it it is work. It is work. Now it's not bad work.
Anthony Tony Gittens:You know, I I don't I'm not trying to, be dishonest, you know, in this enjoyment in a lot of these things. The people around the film festival world, tend to be you know, they tend to be smart people and not too many. There are some some a holes around, but, you know, you stay away from them and and you do the best you can and try to survive. Everybody's they they are like a couple of 1,000. Somebody told me there were, like, 4000 film festivals around the world.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Wow. You know, a lot of film festivals. And and, because it works. It it's something that works. We were the first in Washington.
Anthony Tony Gittens:In the Washington area, we were the 1st film festival. And now I don't know. They're about 15 of them. You know, I get emails about different film, which is fine. You know, it doesn't.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's fine. It's fine. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. But it's, the the one it's almost time to get at.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Right? The one thing, that I've I've I discovered 2 things this year. 2 things this year. First thing is that there is a plethora. There are a lot more, local films being made than even last year or the year before.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Like, we have a section called DC For Real, that where we show films by DC Filmmakers. And we also do something, Film Fest DC on TV, where we put those films on, WHUT, the Howard station, and WETA, the, PBS station NPR station, in DC. So we give them exposure, a lot of exposure, and the films are good.
Rob Lee:You know,
Anthony Tony Gittens:it was kinda hard this year to to go through them and find the right ones because there were so many that good. And I think that's because COVID people are coming out of COVID and they're they're ready to go to work and the other thing. That, I'm saying this now with some wood to knock on that our attendance is going up. Our attendance is going up. Last year, it was very good.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And this year already, I mean, we we sold over 3,000 tickets in a weekend and more around the way. We get about 10,000 people, between 9,101,000 people. But this is speeding off. And I think part of it is, you know, but everyone was afraid of the streamers of n t, Netflix and and Apple TV and all those things saying, oh, they're gonna show all the movies that people stay home and watch the movies, and they won't go out to the movies in the theater, and they won't go out to film festivals. Well, I think with the case of film the film festivals but this is Tony's theory, is that the streamers are wearing people out with a lot of junk.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And and I've heard a number of times from my friends saying you know I got Netflix. There's nothing on there. I got this and there's nothing on there. You know there'll be series that are really mediocre. And I think people are tired of that.
Anthony Tony Gittens:They've that the streamers have created their own their own, style. There's a word for it. It's not coming to mind now. And what's but what that's allowed is that people who are serious and wanna see good films, they come to film festivals because you're not gonna find that on the streamers. You know, what we show 80%, 75%, whatever.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's not you're not if you don't see it with us now, it's gonna be hard for you to see it otherwise. You know? And I think people who are looking for it's the same kind of thing. People who are looking for quality food, people who wanna eat at McDonald's every day can't do nothing for them. But people who wanna find meal and and enjoy, good beverages, They gotta they're willing to make the effort to go to eat get to the quality.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And we are the quality. We are the quality. We are the we are the the anti streamer stuff that people wanna see and it's and they they appreciate it. And what's caused them to appreciate it is they spend a whole year watching the stuff on Netflix and and say, oh god. I can't do this anymore.
Anthony Tony Gittens:I can't do this anymore.
Rob Lee:You're you're you're so right. I agree with your theory, and, because yeah. You're you're right. When you have, like, folks that, are working and and being thoughtful and attentive and actually applying taste, and as you said, you've keyed in on quality, quality, quality, and, you know, as a person that has all of the platforms, it's that. It's absolutely it's a lot of junk here.
Rob Lee:It's a
Rob Lee:lot of money being spent, but it's a lot of junk. And I will find the criterion channel. I'll find these obscure little things to watch something that is interesting because, you know, I'm gonna like the things that I like, and it's the stuff that might be a little schlocky. It might be a little it might be horror movies, might be action movies. I can always watch that.
Rob Lee:I can always go into that, but But if I wanna see a film that I haven't seen, I'm not gonna be going to that Netflix. That's not my first choice. I'm gonna be going somewhere that has quality, taste, curation, much like a film festival. And so that's that's sort of I want to I want to close out there on the real questions. I do have 2 rapid fire questions I got to ask you before we wrap up.
Rob Lee:So the way this rapid fire thing works, whatever the first thing that comes to mind, you know. So the first question I got for you is what is your favorite type of movie? Like, style? Are you big into drama, comedy?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Thrillers. I could tell you. Thrillers. Okay. Thrillers.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Something that has and it and it doesn't have to be people running around shooting each other, but it could be a good detective or mystery story. Who done it? Who done it? You know, and and a smart one. You have a smart film.
Rob Lee:Yeah. I love that. This is the this is the sort of the last one I got, because, you know, as we we started off with, you know, with your your background being in, you know, from from from Brooklyn, what have you, and then you have the DC, is is there in in your travels for, like, film festivals or just in your your journey, right, is there a city that you've spent time in that has, like, left an impression on you creatively? Like, wow, I really like this festival and the city was really cool or what have you. Is there any city that comes to mind?
Anthony Tony Gittens:There are a couple. One is, Hanoi, Vietnam. The other is. I want to say Shanghai but annoyed Vietnam is a place I would go back to Vietnam is a fascinating place. So if I had to pick 1, that would be that would be the place.
Rob Lee:That's it. You're you're off the hot seat. Thank you for indulging me in that last No.
Anthony Tony Gittens:No. No. No. No. It's fine.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's fine. We I I do the same thing with when we interview filmmakers.
Rob Lee:Yep.
Anthony Tony Gittens:And I have both my my question is to them is, what did you wanna leave the audience with with your film? And sometimes I'm surprised they never thought about it. Yeah. You know, they take time to think of I would think that that
Rob Lee:would be, you know what
Anthony Tony Gittens:I'm saying? But no. But that that's the same thing. I know what you mean. I know what
Rob Lee:you mean. Yeah. I mean, when I when I I sometimes I get in the weeds with it because it's about the cultural component. Like, I know, you know, my partner and I, when we get my partner and I, when we go to film festivals or movies or anything along those lines, it's a specific snack. She was like, look, I'm gonna need these peanut M and M's and this pop.
Rob Lee:This is
Rob Lee:what I do. I I asked people.
Rob Lee:I was like, look, what's your what's
Rob Lee:your snack was your snack thing for a movie?
Anthony Tony Gittens:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So,
Rob Lee:I think that's that's that's pretty much it. I wanna I wanna give you if you if you have any, like, final thoughts that you wanna share anything, you know, as far as tell the folks to come out, website, and all that stuff. The floor is yours. Please, share your final thoughts.
Anthony Tony Gittens:Well, I want to, invite people to visit our website, filmfestdc.org. Filmfestdc.org. All the information about the festival is on the website. The festival runs April 18th through 28th. We'd love to see new folks, young folks come out.
Anthony Tony Gittens:It's a good time. It's an interesting time, and, we have a lot of comedies, and we we have this great film from all over the world.
Rob Lee:And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Tony Gittens from Film Fest DC for coming on and regaling us with a bit of the history of the festival and sharing a bit of his journey and getting us amped up for the 2024 installment of Film Fest DC. That is, April 18th through 28th. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just gotta look for
Rob Lee:it.
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