Skip to main content
Programming one installment of the Ashland Independent Film Festival takes executive director Richard Herskowitz and his team a calendar year and thousands of hours.
Planning two festivals at the same time? Only a pandemic could force them into that sort of bind.
"That was exhausting," Herskowitz says. "For a couple weeks in early March, we were on two simultaneous tracks: moving forward with the physical festival we thought we were putting on in mid-April and beginning to plot this alternate possibility."
That alternate possibility—now the sole reality—is an entirely virtual version of the 19th annual AIFF. April's in-person event was canceled, and AIFF began online last week where it will continue through June 14 with about 30 feature films and 100 shorts. The festival is organized around themes like activism, Asian American independent filmmaking, and global migration.
While a segment of the movie industry has responded to COVID-19 by rolling out innovative pay-per-view options and pivoting releases to streaming, Herskowitz says the prospect of moving an entire festival online within six weeks still strains his technological imagination.
"I can't believe we're going to pull off this reinvention," he says. "It's an immense relief."
The keystone in AIFF's new life is the service Film Festival Flix, an app that allows users to access content through computer browsers, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick. Standard festival "visitors" pay $19.99 for a broader pass and then $3.99 or $7.99 for most feature films à la carte, which are watchable on certain days. Alternatively, purchasing a membership is the most beneficial aid to AIFF's future, and gives viewers access to multiple feature films for free, plus invitations to ceremonies like the June 14 awards night.
While Herskowitz says he's been heartened by member feedback and positive press (MovieMaker magazine listed AIFF as one of the Best Online Film Festivals of 2020), some financial fallout is inevitable. The executive director doubts the organization will make up the 30 percent of its annual income that comes from the physical event.
Still, from an exposure perspective, there are clear advantages to a virtual festival. For one, viewers well beyond the 7,000 who typically appear in Southern Oregon each April can participate. Oregonians can access all the films on offer, while audiences outside the state will miss out on only a few titles due to rights issues.
Furthermore, the festival has recorded video Q&As with every exhibiting filmmaker, plus a few notable collaborators. Presenting interviews with renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or legendary editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) was certainly not in the cards three months ago. In that sense, AIFF could be getting a glimpse of how it will look in years to come.
"My strong feeling is, we'll never go back and the future is going to be hybrid: online and onsite," Herskowitz says. "In fact, we're beginning to talk about keeping the Film Festival Flix site operating all year long with certain programming."
Of course, AIFF can't replace the in-room atmosphere of an opening or closing night. That's a feeling Herskowitz has been gauging and mostly relishing in his 26 years of helming film festivals in Oregon, Texas and Virginia.
"The No. 1 thing people communicate to us [about the festival's importance] is a sense of community," he says. "That's what I'm afraid we'll miss the most."
Patrons have remained supportive, though. Herskowitz says nearly no members or sponsors asked for refunds following April's cancellation, which "could've broken us."
As the chain saw on top of the sundae, Bruce Campbell is riding out the changes alongside AIFF. The iconic star of the Evil Dead movies and longtime Southern Oregonian was slated to close the festival by awarding $10,000 in prize money.
Now, he'll do it on Zoom, which Herskowitz considers a vote of confidence: "He was one of many who said, 'I'm following you online, I'm there for you.'"