As south Florida's once blooming film industry continues to struggle, The area's diverse independent film community is taking center stage, from film incentives to film festivals.

We look at the state of Indie film and resources for filmmakers to tell their stories.

That and more!

Stay with us as we dive into your south Florida.

Hi, I'm Vivian Marthell, Co-founder of O Cinema, filling in for Pam Gigante.

Thanks for joining us!

South Florida's independent filmmakers have a unique vantage point to tell authentic stories of south Florida and its people.

Full of rich history and diverse communities.

And by staying local and hiring local, these Indie filmmakers have taken the place once held by big budget productions, who were lured away by nearby states in recent years, following the end of Florida's film incentive program.

As part of our recent town hall, I was joined by local film makers Cathleen Dean and Robert Colom and Miami day's film and entertainment commissioner Sandy Lighterman, to discuss south Florida's film community and learn about the latest resources for filmmakers.

Let's start by looking at the current state of the film industry here.

From the lack of state incentives to a shutdown of production due to the pandemic.

That, it's been a difficult few years here.

And in response, Miami-Dade county recently announced an update to the film incentive they say we'll make it easier for productions to qualify for these tax breaks.

Sandy, if we can begin with you, can you give us an update on the film production in this county and tell us more about those incentives?

Our film community, of course, as you mentioned, we have not been able to bring in a lot of the larger projects into the community because we don't have a state sales tax, you know, sales, all right.

Tax credit program or any type of incentive program.

However, our local community is thriving.

And I say that, that our local indie filmmakers are keeping us alive and that, you know, warms my heart in so many ways.

But you know, we do have some productions coming in a little bit larger, they're helping our economy.

One is from HBO.

That's been shooting here as well as there's another one coming from Apple next year.

That said our, we do have a couple of programs for filmmakers.

We have, the county has a program that's for the, a little bit larger budget filmmakers.

The other incentives that we have are actually, and they're all stackable.

We have for the indie filmmakers that have lower budgets, Miami beach has a wonderful program.

They have a, for $25,000 spend, minimum spend in Miami beach, you get $10,000 back.

That's pretty good, pretty good ROI there.

To get that you have to shoot three days, at least three days at Miami beach.

And either you have to have 70% of your casting crew be Miami Dade county residents.

Or if you have a hotel or your people staying at a hotel, they have to, it has to be a Miami beach hotel.

And then in the city of north Miami, they also have an incentive program, which kind of varies in a couple of different ways that you can get free base camp and other things and free police.

But they also have, if you shoot in their underdeveloped areas, you can get 30% back on, if you minimum spend of 10,000.

But the most that they would give 30% back on is $50,000 being spent in that area.

So basically that's a $15,000.

You get up to $15,000 back from the city of north Miami.

And then also the state of Florida still has a state sales tax exemption program.

That's a 7.5%, you know, that you don't have to pay in sales tax.

And that's, you know, they have a list on the state of Florida film offices website, but pretty much, you know, equipment rentals and location fees and things like that, You don't have to pay sales tax on.

There's a lot of great stories in south Florida waiting to be told, and we know this, but whether or not these films can get made, will come down to Capital.

Cathleen as a local independent filmmaker, what's been your experience with fundraising for films and what's your approach?

My approach for each project is slightly different.

For my last documentary project, I received funding from the Miami international film festival from the Wolfson archives.

We also launched a crowdfunding campaign.

There's Kickstarter, GoFundMe and a number of other platforms that work very well.

Community support and because of the subject matter of this film, I was able to connect with a community that supported the subject matter.

So we received fundings from aquatics professionals from across the country.

So there was a number of different ways to go about raising funds for this particular project.

And then of course, you know, I always accept Cash App, Zelle checks.

Robert, what about you?

What's your advice for filmmakers looking for financing.

Encourage you to form community with all your local art house cinemas.

O Cinema of course, Coral Gables Art Cinema, the Cost Food Cinema, and you know, our local film support organizations like Film gate and the recently launched Miami film lab.

We're really trying to do important work here to get films funded, get films crewed.

You know, they're really all in.

And yes, even if they don't seem like traditional filmmaking spaces, engage with them, sign up for the mailing list.

Read the emails, you know, tap into what's going on.

Some good examples of these non-traditional film spaces are, like Miami Light Project, Live Arts Miami.

Go to a dance show, go to a visual arts exhibit Not only will these experiences expand your worldview as an artist yourself, but the more you engage with the people that are in the arts ecosystem, the more you find yourself meeting potential collaborators, both creative collaborators and funders, or both.

Also say, pay attention to national funds and grants.

Another Third horizon feature that's in development right now called untitled Opa-locka project, won the grant from SF film in San Francisco, and also receive support from the Sundance Institute.

It's not just about receiving support, but giving it as well so if you're early in your career, you're gonna have to get creative and chances are you're gonna be receiving a lot of support through any kind offering.

So for this to be a healthy, supportive ecosystem, you know, you should be giving some of that back as well.

And I can also tease that their horizon will begin offering small project grants in 2022, while we can't share that specifics on dates right now, We did receive transformative funding from the Knight foundation in 2020, that will allow us to re-grant funding and supports to filmmakers in Miami starting next year.

And, you know, Knight was our founding funder when we started the festival in 2016.

And we're so grateful that they've entrusted us with continuing to grow and support a filmmaking community in this way.

So a lot of different ways, I think.

Now, before we continue our discussion, your south Florida crew had the chance to check out our newly reopened O Cinema South Beach with my co-founder Kareem Tabsch.

Let's take a look.

Part of what makes this space unique is this amazing collection of books and art from the Miami beach film society, which we host here.

So you have these great cabinets with Film Femara, and history, and a huge collection of books, folk can poke their head in when they're visiting.

That's really about the whole breath of the history of cinema around the world.

So Vivian Marthell and I decided to start a cinema because what we saw was a lack of independent films in south Florida.

And Miami had grown in such enormous ways in arts and culture, but film seemed to be the kind of thing that hadn't caught up.

So, O cinema opened its stores in Wynwood in 2011.

And that was our home for many years.

We expanded from there to north beach in Miami beach.

And as this was to happen, real estate had other plans.

So, O Cinema Wynwood and a Cinema north beach both closed in the spring of 2019.

But luckily for us, we were invited to come in and take over the old Miami Beach Cinematic at historic city hall in south beach.

And today it's O Cinema south beach.

We're only open and operating for six months before it was time to close our doors in response to the pandemic.

One of the things that we did in response to the pandemic is try to figure out how we can bring what O cinema does every day into the homes of people and expand our programming, but also expand our reach.

And so we couldn't think of any better partner an our friends from south Florida PBS.

And what that turned into was movie time.

Every Saturday night, I host movie time on south Florida PBS, where we bring a classic Hollywood films right into your home, and you get a little bit of history and trivia and back information and how the film was made and it's significance.

It's been so exciting to see the response to the program has got, and folks who are watching it on the regular.

And it's just yet another way that both O Cinema and South Florida PBS are serving the community.

You have a myriad of options to watch films at home.

Everybody has a gazillion streaming apps, so you can watch a new film but there's something different about coming together in a room in the dark, with strangers and the collective experience of watching a film.

Those size, those laughters, they're joyous, they're infectious in the best possible way.

And so we're really excited about the fact that folks are returning.

Slowly but surely to O Cinema.

And I suspect that it's going to keep on going because nothing could change the magic of watching a movie in the dark, in a theater.

You know, O Cinema is home for independent foreign and art films.

I like to say that we show the kind of films you won't see in the neighborhood multiplex.

A big part of our mission is to educate, inform, and inspire.

And entertain is a big cornerstone of that.

And we think you can do that all through this wonderful breath of independent film, but we also think ourselves as a place where the community can congregate, right?

The films that we show onscreen reflect the diversity of our community and what a better way to kind of celebrate who we are and learn about our differences and our similarities than in, through the art of cinema, right?

Unlike other art forms, the only barrier to entry here is a ticket.

And you really can, kind of, immerse yourselves in worlds and cultures that you otherwise would not experience.

South Florida is, does not have a large film industry, but what it does have is a growing film community.

And there's a difference there.

What we have is folks who are eager to tell stories that are authentic and representative of the diversity of our community in our real experiences.

We're in south beach now, at O Cinema South beach but South beach isn't Miami and it's not south Florida.

It's just a small sliver as for folks who come to play experience.

What's really important to us is celebrating the stories of the folks that make this city, the great place it is.

And it's so encouraging to see how the film community has responded in telling those stories.

Such amazing filmmakers coming out of south Florida.

So many great efforts to, kind of, amplify and support those voices.

We have organizations like Oolite arts, Cinematic arts residency, the Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami film festival.

The great support of folks like the Knight foundation, all of this is kind of helping grow our independent film scene.

And so, while we're not gonna be replacing Hollywood anytime soon, what we are gonna be doing is creating more opportunities, I hope, for filmmakers to tell stories that are authentic and true to their experience and experience of the wide breath of diversity of our community.

But if we want those stories to come out of south Florida, if we want the south Florida story to be more than just south beach, we have to support those filmmakers and find opportunities.

And what does that mean?

That means looking at the organizations that are already supporting them financially and contributing, if we can.

It most importantly means watching those films, watching them when they come out in theaters, watching them when they're on streaming and encouraging others to do so.

The only way any ecosystem is going to be a thriving, is if it's supported.

And so I think that we're at a part of the juncture of our history, where we want to see our true stories reflected on screen.

And, we wanna encourage folks to continue doing that.

You know, Hollywood is only a plane flight away, and folks are always wanting to go there.

How about we create more opportunities and more desire for folks to stay here?

And we do that by supporting the talent we have here.

Kareem mentioned supporting local indie filmmakers to make sure local talent stays here.

How is Miami-Dade county supporting this, this community?

Well, I will say first off, you know, Kareem said it best is that, "you have to get people to see your films," and one of the things that we do at, you know, office film and entertainment is that we have a large social media presence, and we actually promote films that, whether they're shot here or our local filmmakers shoot somewhere else and they're, you know, films are being, are, distribution then we actually promote them for sure sp that gets people in the seats or whether the seats be at home or in the movie theater.

Also, you know, in the position that I uniquely have is I have a lot of connections to a lot of industry stakeholders that are decision makers, and I do my best to connect our local community with those decision makers, whether it be on individual basis or with some of the, I would say events that I participate in, to bringing in those decision makers so that they can meet our local community, you know, our local film community and hopefully get their projects made.

Kareem also talked about the, the importance of allowing space for authentic stories to be told.

Kathleen, can you talk about the value of representation both on the screen and behind the screen?

Yes, I can definitely do that.

Before I get into that, I did wanna mention, I have to represent my county.

Broward county is also doing a tremendous bit to help support local filmmakers, as far as screenings, opportunities.

I work with Pompano beach Cultural Arts.

They have a series called Montage.

That's the last Thursday of every month.

We offer an honorarium.

I curated and hosted for Pompano beach Cultural Arts.

There's also films in Broward, which is part of FLIFF, the Fort Lauderdale international film festival, where they give a platform and amplify the voices of films made in Broward county.

The Broward county cultural division has been a tremendous support to local filmmakers, as well as the community foundation of Broward.

So I just wanted to acknowledge those organizations and all that they're doing to support the film community As far as representation goes, I mean, it's huge.

Storytelling, every culture has, you know, a storytelling tradition.

Storytelling is part of how we educate, we preserve cultural traditions, we relate to one another.

Without that representation, We're not, we're sort of getting our stories colonize.

We're not having the opportunity to share and keep alive individual cultures that are so beautiful and rich.

And there's something to, you know, to be learned from one another.

I think having more voices at the table creates a better union.

We need to hear about diverse stories.

We need stories that can, you know, connect with different audiences.

When I worked on "Wade in the water: Drowning and Racism," it's a documentary film about the lack of access to the water in black communities in south Florida.

And surprisingly, there were so many people who had no idea that, that was even a thing.

You know, they were, you know, newly immigrants or people from other cultures who did not understand that the, you know, the high rate of drowning in the black community, you know, has historic and political implications that stem from, you know, Jim Crow segregation.

So sharing those individual stories about, you know, south Florida's, you know, segregated beaches informs people, it connects people.

It provides understanding.

I mean, it's so important to, to unify us.

Robert, Kareem gave a shout out to the Third Horizons Film Festival.

Can you tell us more about the festival and the creative collectives focus on Latin American and Caribbean films?

We believe that, you know, Miami is as much a Caribbean city as it is an American city.

And our programming is trying to highlight the cinema that's emerging from the region, you know, currently, and it's diaspora too.

So Miami and the Caribbean, you know, we're at the forefront of so many pressing matters that the rest of the world is wrestling with.

Naming climate change, but then also issues around identity, immigration, belonging and we think that the stories from our region are really are of crucial importance right now for the world to have true understanding of itself.

And, we're really proud that the festival was named one of the coolest festivals in the world by Me Make Magazine in 2019 and then again in 2021 and our sixth edition, I know it's so sick.

And then our sixth edition returns in summer 2022.

And we're gonna be announcing the exact dates and our call for submissions in just a few weeks.

So sometime in November.

Sandy, another question for you, so for Miami recently raised the cost of a film permits.

Can you tell us what happened and what's that about?

Yeah, we raised it by $25.

So it was a hundred, it started in, I think, 2007.

And we haven't raised the rates since then, as this is the first raise in the fees.

And there, it was two fold.

One, we actually had to change our ordinance.

So that actually, it's a little complicated but film crews that are less than three that are not taking up a lot of space or don't need police, don't need any of, you know, county resources and don't block access for the public actually don't need a film permit, anymore.

So that's a change to our ordinance.

So that meant less fees coming in.

That was one reason.

Also we are gonna be, we're gonna be launching a brand new permitting system.

That's going to be an app and it's going to be really easy.

And so we're trying to update our permitting system.

So that's, kind of, why we raised the rate by $25 So south Florida PBS Original production filmmaker supports local indie filmmakers by providing a platform to share these stories with a wider audience.

Kathleen, oh, I need to mention Kathleen nominated for "Wade in the water" both as director and for film.

Congratulations!

So your film , So your film "Wade in the water: Drowning and Racism" was featured on season four of Film-maker.

Can you tell us, a little bit more about the film and the inspiration behind it?

So "Wade in the water," I actually was combing through the Wolfson Archives, a couple of years ago when I came across some incredible footage of the protests that, the wade-ins that took place in south Florida to de-segregate the beaches and the pools.

And I was just so inspired.

I had to do something with this material, so I, I stored it away and then later on, I had started swimming with an organization called diversity and aquatics.

And during a tour of the international swimming hall of fame, I was taken on a tour of their gallery.

They had an art exhibition that, that Chronicle, the history of swimming, pre colonization, pre slavery, and it through art, it showcased the history of Africans and swimming.

Africans for strong swimmers.

They were Pearl divers.

They taught Europeans how to swim.

So inspired by, by that tour and the footage, I married the two and I put together the documentary, "Wade in the water: Drowning and Racism" And, you know, through my, my further interaction with diversity and aquatics and the international swimming hall of fame, I felt it was really important to use this particular film for outreach and community engagement because of the disparity in the drowning rate.

Children of color are drowning, you know, at, I think it's six times the rate of Caucasian children.

And, you know, we felt that this film could definitely engage audiences.

And then we could educate people and, and sort of convince BiPAP people too, who have lost their connection to the water through Jim Crow segregation and racism to reconnect with the water, learn how to swim.

You know, reconnect.

There's so many powerful benefits to water for, you know, healing, spirituality, health, and happiness.

So "Wade in the water", you know, kinda came together that way.

So Robert tells us about this free mobile cinema, this mobile cinema thing you're doing, it sounds like so much fun.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Okay, so continuing, you know, continuing this theme of highlighting on highlighted work, that's important to the core identities of our communities, especially our immigrant communities in Miami in 2022.

We're launching Cinemovil, which is a new mobile micro cinema project that takes films directly into people's neighborhoods.

And we're going to be touring the program of undistributed Latin American and Caribbean films from the places that we have come in outdoor community spaces in the neighborhoods where many of us now live.

So it's going to be a really cool project.

We'll also be touring local films, and we're undergoing a huge translation project so that all the films that we play can be subtitled in whichever two of the three languages that we speak here, that the film isn't in.

So Haitian-Creole, Spanish and English.

So I'm very excited about that.

And so far Cinemovil has been supported by Oolite Arts through an Ellie award by Locust project WaveMaker grants so you see the importance of these local grants and a micro grant from the Awesome foundation.

So thank you to all those folks.

And, yeah, if you wanna get involved with Cinemovil, if you wanna support the project, volunteer, when we start screenings, we're about to need a lot of volunteers or just learn more about Cinemovil.

You can head to Cinemovil.red.

C I N E M O V I L .

R E D Cinemovil.red to find out more.

Thank you so much for asking about that.

That's a really exciting project.

Kathleen, you're also a producer for the 48 hour film project.

Could you tell us more about the project and how come we're, makers can participate?

Like when's the next call and all that good stuff?

Cause that's a fun project as well.

We've had so many wonderful support from the community.

With, for the 48 hour film project.

It's the oldest time film competition in the world.

We're in 130 cities around the globe on virtually every continent.

And our mission is to advance filmmakers and advanced filmmaking and promote filmmakers.

The competition has a tight deadline, 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, turn in a short film.

So it gets the filmmakers into motion.

It's about doing, it's about teamwork and no talking.

They just, you just got to get it done.

So it's, it's about creativity.

We've had wonderful partnerships in this project, it's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

It's sort of become a Right of passage for filmmakers in south Florida.

And we've had partnerships with O Cinema where we've screened films there and also south Florida PBS has been a wonderful supporter of the 48 hour film project.

Before the Fabulous Filmmaker program, we partnered with south Florida PBS and they showcase some of our top films several years in a row, gave our filmmakers their television debut.

Some of the filmmakers who joined the 48 hour film project, they had like life-changing career opportunities based on our relationship with south Florida PBS.

And it's been a wonderful opportunity for people to advance their filmmaking careers, to meet other filmmakers to collaborate with and to just to form partnerships, learn new skills and to advance filmmaking.

So I'm really, like, thrilled to get to produce this project every year.

It's an annual event.

It just happened.

We just announced our winners of this year's project, which we had to go virtual due to the pandemic.

But next year we hope to be back during the summertime for a live in-person 48 hour film project.

And you can go to our website, sign up for our newsletter and stay connected.

We do a lot of networking events throughout the year to introduce filmmakers to one another.

We also offer workshops and I have a new position with the south Florida YMCA.

I just joined them as their director of arts and theater performance.

So at that organization, I'm going to be building out a film program where we'll have screenings, workshops and it will be the home of the 48 hour film festival next year.

So we have one other question from, also from YouTube from Emmanuel, they got selected for the Miami independent film festival.

What's the next step?

I have some thoughts.

I think first, you know, talk to the, the organizers of the festival, You know, Mindy is a great festival or is amazing.

So talk to them, they can, you know, help you out with what's next.

And also I know that that festival is made by filmmakers for filmmakers so everybody that puts on that festival has been where you are so you can talk to them, they're gonna be the best resource I think.

And then once you get to a festival, just talk to the people that watch the film.

It's a great networking opportunity to be screening at a film festival, especially at a festival where the audience is someone that's really going to be interested in like a very intimate story, like Mindy's audience is.

So, we had just talked to folks and then, you know, really, really use your time there wisely.

I think that after that, there's so much to do after you premiere your first festival.

And I think that it's gonna, you know, this is a really great question that's suited for the filmmaking community that you"ll eventually find and be a part of at places like Mindy.

So, you know, make friends with folks, network with folks that have done it before and talk to them about the process and that's the best thing.

Can I add to that?

I think you really, as a filmmaker, you really have to market yourself and advocate for yourself when you go to festivals.

If it's an in-person festival, perhaps you want to print a Palm card that has a little synopsis of your film and you know, your film marketing poster.

Look into local media, maybe you wanna do a press release and send it out.

It's your opportunity, You know, you're going to screen, you have to garner an audience, make the most of it in addition to networking, you know, make sure you're using social media to promote that your film is screening at this particular festival.

Really take advantage of the opportunity.

You can watch the Full town hall on our Facebook page at YourSouthFL.

we'll see you next time.

Thanks for watching.