Help Pam get to TIFF 2023!
Donation protected
Hi Friends!
*Please find my daily journal with watchlist & audio recordings from the panels at www.longsword.my.canva.site
*Add me on Letterboxd- @longsword to see all the movies I have seen/follow along on my IG @pamlongsword
I was selected to receive an Industry Pass to the Toronto International Film Festival! I am a part of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM), a network that works to disrupt inequity in the film industry by nurturing, amplifying, and investing in the creative capacity and professional success of our members, I won the festival pass lottery, baby!
I'm launching this as a 'Bat signal' to my community and asking for help outloud, (something I'm not really good at.) I am the head of my household financially as I raise my 3 year old daughter and support my 60 year old mother, in a home in Little Havana. I am on EBT/Food Stamps, WIC and Medicaid. With no formal film degree, I have experimented and expanded with filmmaking through educational programs at non-profits in Miami like Filmgate, 1310 Bandits, Borscht Corp, Sundance Institute, Oolite Arts, Green Space Foundation, Locust Projects + Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts and the Knight Foundation. I'm very proud to be a First-Generation Nicaraguan-American born and raised in Miami, and I recognize that I have been supported by local and national organizations, and I am just getting started. I believe it is crucial to my education to attend the largest film festival and film market in the Americas. TIFF has a film submission acceptance rate of about 1.5% (So out of 8,000 films submitted from all over the world, they only accept about 120 films - the bar is 'Ivy League' level in comparison.) They are in the Top 5 Most Prestigious film festivals in the world, paired with Cannes FF in France, Berlinale in Germany, Venice FF in Italy and Sundance FF in Utah, USA. (FF - film festivals.) I will have access to watch new, trail-blazing feature films, short films and documentaries. I will access to conferences and seminars like "Empowering Rising Voices: Advocating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Through Film", "Disney’s Writing and Directing Programmes", "Documentary Marketplace Today", and "Short Cuts to First Features", just to name a few of these enriching topics. (Without playing politics or 'Minority Olympics', surviving any gatekeeping, without paying the festival. BGDM sent down the elevator for me to ride up, and I need your ble$$ing!)
Attending film festivals is expensive for filmmakers. At TIFF, regular screening tickets cost $26 - $32. Premium screening tickets cost $39 - $88. This Industry Pass is valued at $845 - that I won for freeee. Call it fate, call it karma. Benefits include the following;
"Provides fluid access to Press & Industry screenings, the Industry Centre, and the Industry Conference.
Pass benefits:
Access to Press & Industry screenings on a first-come, first-served basis
Access to Public screenings on a same-day ticket and Rush basis
Access to Industry Conference
Access to Industry Venues
Access to online networking and business tools
Invitation to Industry Special Events
Trial membership with Cinando"
Budget Breakdown:
$450 for Roundtrip Flight from Miami, FL to Toronto, Canada (Economy, with a layover, we are humble!)
$1,300 for Housing + Public Transportation (About $100 a night. There is price gouging in Downtown Toronto, so I'm looking outside of that area, and will be using public transportation, not renting a car.)
$450 for Food (Straightforward breakfast, lunch & dinner for 13 days. Programming starts from 9 AM - 10 PM everyday, I will need the fuel!)
I believe that our film community is an ecosystem and I'm leaning on my community to help realize this dream to fruition. BGDM has pledged $600 to help! Since 2018, I have contributed over 3k to Miami projects with GoFundMe and IndieGogo combined, and have never fundraised like this before. If I've ever made you laugh or given you a crumb of hope in this industry, please contribute! <3
Currently in a creative space, I am directing a documentary from the Oolite Arts' "Pass The Mic" initiative. I am in partnership with the Florida Immigration Coalition, connected by the Community Justice Program. I am exploring the anti-immigration legislation in Florida (SB1718) and TPS status for Nicaraguans, lead by an undocumented Nicaraguan activist and mother. I just wrapped directing a music video for the Nicaraguan ambient & electronica artist, TIDUR. I am still developing my treatment and script for my Sundance Institute supported short film, "Guerrillera", a surrealist take on the complexities of a mothering sex worker from Miami, along with her chosen family, where the stage of the final decision of her child's custody battle is a courtroom. I'm sharing screenshots here. I want to go to TIFF prepared to showcase myself and Miami as a creative nucleus - albeit, this heat drives us crazy, but we are wildly spirited creators - and we're cute and diverse too!
Literally ~anything~ helps. I'm happy to read your script, give feedback, share my resources with your projects. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Pamela Largaespada aka Longsword
Work In Progress Immigration Documentary a/o Aug 22 that I am directing and filming myself -
Just wrapped on TIDUR's new music video, "Abandoned", a/o Aug 25, that I co-directed with José Lopez Vargas -
PRESS:
Organizer
Pamela Largaespada
Organizer
Miami, FL