
Outside of the festival circuit it’s difficult for a filmmaker to get much traction with a short film. Sure, you can put the film on YouTube or Vimeo and hope somebody stumbles across it or you can bombard your social media followers with news of and links to a film they probably already know about it (and possibly helped to fund).
It’s more useful if the film is hosted as part of a curated list, echoing the strands of a festival programme, so we thought we’d call your attention to the website Argo which is a platform to showcase curated programmes of shorts. Their aim is to provide a place where filmmakers can connect with a global audience. Most of the content is free although there are options to subscribe for premium access to exclusives.
If you’re a filmmaker you can submit a film. And the fees from subscribers go towards paying royalties to the filmmakers through revenue sharing. There are monthly updated playlists and because it’s that time of year December sees a special selection of Christmas films. And may we heartily recommend the black comedy Florence Has Left The Building directed by Mirrah Foulkes in which the foul-mouthed, cantankerous pensioner Florence, played by Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) uses the confusion caused by the double booking of Elvis impersonators at her retirement home as a cover to plan her escape.
Essential information
Argo is at https://watchargo.com/
Image – Jacki Weaver as Florence
Kirk Lake is a writer, musician and filmmaker. His published books include Mickey The Mimic (2015) and The Last Night of the Leamington Licker (2018). His films include the feature films Piercing Brightness (2014) and The World We Knew (2020) and a number of award winning shorts.
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