Macon Film Festival, featuring immersive fulldome films, begins Thursday
The Macon Film Festival starts Thursday, celebrating its 16th year bringing independent films to Middle Georgia.
Since 2017, an integral part of the festival has been its partnership with Macon’s Museum of Arts and Sciences to create the Fulldome Film Festival at the museum’s Mark Smith Planetarium.
Fulldome is a classification of films made to be shown in immersive, dome-based settings which the planetarium is perfect for.
“We’re still incubating the festival’s fulldome category,” said Susan Welsh, the museum’s executive director and a fulldome film advocate. “Our work in Macon with immersive films is significant and artists across the world are eager for our audiences to see their work.”
While Welsh uses the term “incubating” for the still-new art form and the museum’s supporting role of it, she admits that in a few years the museum has earned an international reputation for showing and encouraging the creation of artistic immersive content. The museum has been at the forefront in showing fulldome fare and in commissioning award-winning works.
“There are only a few fulldome festivals in the U.S. and only one or two that award cash prizes to artistic films the way we do,” she said. “Increasing access to full dome projection technology, encouraging filmmakers to experiment with the medium and growing an audience are all goals we’re achieving.”
Welsh said the technological and artistic dimensions of fulldome filmmaking sit it well in the museum’s mission to advance both art and science and bring engaging content to the public. It’s a rare combination since most institutions opt for one or the other.
But the museum’s leadership and innovation go further.
“Typically, fulldome is aligned with science conferences or science centers where the films are strictly educational or science-based,” Welsh said. “We do screen educational and science films, and that’s very important, but we also put a great deal of effort into artistic fulldome works and encourage traditional filmmakers to create fulldome content. It’s unusual to have such a transdisciplinary approach.”
There are 13 fulldome films coming from four different continents in this year’s festival with none from the U.S. It’s a smaller number of films than years past being shown over a shorter timeframe due to ramifications of COVID-19 and many filmmakers’ inability to work effectively.
But Welsh said the films are in no way lacking quality and cover education, science, extreme experimental entertainment and family-oriented works.
“They’re great works, but to me, one of note is by an emerging, young, female filmmaker from Belarus who spent time teaching art in Tanzania where she created a fulldome film called ‘Beautiful Baby Tilapia,’” Welsh said. “It uses students’ artwork, some who had never even been exposed to art supplies. It’s a charming, vibrant, short film with a wonderful story behind it.”
Though spearheaded by the Eastern European artist-filmmaker-teacher, Welsh said it’s the first film ever submitted to the Macon festival from Africa.
The filmmaker’s name is Asya Dyro.
“I realize that a dome film often demonstrates science and is made using lots of complex computer graphics,” Dyro said in an email. “But I think that a dome is a great space for experiments. I like simple and naive graphics and I was sure that even kids could draw excellent illustrations for a fulldome film so I decided to go to Mwanza as a volunteer arts teacher to make a fulldome film with kids.”
Dyro had previously created a film in collaboration with the Minsk planetarium in Belarus and took part in creating two films with the Moscow Planetarium.
But “Beautiful Baby Tilapia” was a personal, independent project.
“Many of the kids saw colorful paint for the first time and were so excited,” she said. “Each day we were using different techniques, different materials and different topics for our classes. I also learned a lot from the kids.”
While teaching at Nyamalango Primary School in Mwanza through the Service Learning Tanzania organization, Dyro also worked with nearby St. Augustin University of Tanzania where the film’s story was developed.
“’Beautiful Baby Tilapia’ was a successful experiment for me,” she said. “I proved a fulldome movie can be created in a team with kids and other non-professionals. I am sad there is no planetarium in Mwanza so kids from the school I was working at cannot have the full immersive experience (of what they helped create). My dream is to make more experimental films like ‘Beautiful Baby Tilapia’ and open a planetarium in Mwanza.”
Dyro has said she’s persuaded overly complex and sophisticated computer graphics aren’t a necessity for making immersive, fulldome and virtual reality works. She’s currently working on and raising funds for a new, longer project which will involve kids more fully in the process.
The Fulldome Festival runs three days, Thursday through Saturday. For children and families, Welsh recommended the Family Fun Block showing Friday and Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and the Edu-tainment Block Friday and Saturday at 2 p.m., all during regular museum hours.
For older audiences, she suggests Friday Immersive Showcase showings at 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and an XX-Treme Art Immersive showcase, which Welsh said pushes the boundaries of extreme artistic content and isn’t recommended for kids, at 9:30 p.m. These are included in Macon Film Festival passes and free for museum members. She said attendees may also enjoy the galleries, gyroscope, beer and Nu-Way Wieners hotdogs.
Other showings, times and ticketing are at the Macon Film Festival and museum’s websites.
The larger 2021 Macon Film Festival will be presented in two parts. First, there’s the live, in-person version showing 85-plus feature and short films in downtown venues Thursday through Sunday.
Second, the following weekend, there’s a virtual version Aug. 26-29 when the same films will be streamed via the Film Festival Flix streaming channel and online at filmfestivalflix.com.
Tickets for the in-person festival are $10 for a single-film or block of themed short films, $25 for a day pass Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and $65 for an all-screenings pass covering the weekend.
Streaming and online viewing is $50 for unlimited access Aug. 26 through Aug. 29. Individual films and short film blocks are $10.
Tickets for either or both are available now with ticketing and other info at maconfilmfestival.com for the in-person, Aug. 19-22 showings and at filmfestivalflix.com for streaming and online options; maconfilmfestival.com also offers schedules with film times and locations plus links to a free scheduling app.
The live festival’s opening film Thursday is a free, outdoor screening of “Best Summer Ever” at 8 p.m. at Mill Hill Community Center, 213 Clinton St.
As to COVID-19 and the uptick in Delta virus, Steven Fulbright, festival president, said the decision has been made to require masks at film showings with social distancing encouraged and hand sanitizer available. He said volunteers will pay special attention to keeping venues clean.
“We’re really keeping an eye on outbreaks but we’re prepared and moving full speed ahead,” he said.
Also of note in Macon’s cultural and entertainment scene this weekend is Macon Pop’s ninth season opening concert Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Mercer University’s Hawkins Arena. It’s titled “The Women of Rock & Soul” and information and ticketing is at maconpops.com.
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.