If there is one thing that drives an independent filmmaker, says writer/director Paul Osborne, it's passion.
"Very few make a living doing this," said Osborne, the director, writer, editor and co-producer of the documentary Official Rejection. The movie, which takes a hard and humorous look at the independent-film-festival circuit, will be shown today and Sunday at the 2009 RiverRun International Film Festival.
Independent filmmakers love films and love to make them, even when they have to do so while working a day job to pay the bills.
Then comes the third job -- trying to find an audience for those films. "Once you make it, you're kind of sick of it," Osborne said. "It's like your child, your baby, and you still love it. But going to the festival circuit requires a whole other layer of gumption, and you're already tired."
Official Rejection follows the journey that Osborne and Scott Storm, a director and producer, took with their independent film, Ten 'Til Noon, a thriller. Osborne and Storm spoke by phone from California a few days before their arrival for RiverRun.
The warm welcome -- and subsequent exposure -- that they had expected to get when they submitted their film to the Sundance Film Festival -- "where filmmakers have arrived as nobodies and left as legends" -- failed to materialize when Ten 'Til Noon was rejected.
So they applied to more festivals -- and got more rejections. They began to realize that many of the major festivals for independent films don't operate as advertised. The festival circuit, Osborne said, "is a very political, cliquey world with its own set of rules." Film festivals that bill themselves as driven by art, with a level playing field for all comers, are actually catering to big business and established filmmakers, he said, with Sundance being one of the biggest offenders.
Stung, Osborne and Storm looked for a documentary that would help them navigate the prickly path of the festival circuit. They found nothing.
"No one had accurately captured what filmmakers go through," Osborne said. He thought, "We've got equipment; we ought to just make one." And so they did. Official Rejection is told through the words of not only Storm, who is the film's "star," but also other independent filmmakers who have run the same gauntlet of rejection and humiliation that they have.
Some of its most compelling scenes show filmmakers desperately trying to draw audiences to their screenings and the problems that some of them encounter, such as nearly empty theaters and projectors that don't work.
Osborne and Storm see Official Rejection as an educational tool for other filmmakers, as well as their own story.
Ten 'Til Noon eventually played at a number of regional film festivals, had a short theatrical run and went to DVD. Once more, Osborne applied to show his film at Sundance. Once more, it was rejected.
Official Rejection premiered to enthusiastic audiences-- and three sold-out screenings -- at the Phoenix Film Festival on April 4. Osborne has applied to show the documentary at most of the major film festivals, and he has gotten plenty of rejections. He understands.
"Playing Official Rejection at a film festival is sort of like trying to play Super Size Me at McDonald's," he said. He and Storm didn't suffer rejection from Sundance for this film -- "We didn't make their deadline," he said.
Both men still love film festivals.
"I think they're amazing," Storm said. "Not all are going to be wonderful experiences, but they are fantastic places to go." He loves the camaraderie, the opportunities to meet like-minded people with whom he shares a common purpose.
"If I could do it as a living," he said, "I would."
■ Janice Gaston can be reached at 727-7364 or at jgaston@wsjournal.com.
■ Official Rejection will be shown at 4:30 p.m. today at UNCSA-Gold and at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Reynolda House, 2250 Reynolda Road. For tickets, go to www.riverrunfilm.com.
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