Fantaspoa 2020: The Festival is Postponed, Launches a Crowfunding Campaign And Free Video Platform For Your Isolation Period
We are going to take a moment and be a little selfish. We were planning on being in Porto Alegre, Brazil at the end of May to attend our first Fantaspoa. Time was booked off, plane ticket in hand, all we had to do was wait. And wait. And wait. Until the unthinkable happened and we watched as the spectre of grave illness began to creep to all corners of the globe.
As the days and weeks ticked by everyone could see that it was coming for Brazil, that it was only a matter of time before it landed on their shores. Just in time to makes things very difficult for Fantaspoa to carry on this Spring. So, the festival joined the ranks of many film festivals who have had to postpone their events until the World recovers.
On top of that, the festival was one of many organizations dedicated to the arts to have its funding stripped by the Brazilian government prior tothe outbreak. So, that's awesome.
Fantaspoa has a two-fold plan. One, plan on having this year's festival at the end of the year, sometime between October and December. That's not terrible considering it is just starting to turn to Summer weather in the region at that time of the year.
Second, the festival launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for this year's festival. We do not know when the current administration is going to come around on this decision to cut funding. Honestly, it seems to be cocking up a lot of things down there from the destruction of the rain forest, to cutting arts funding and downplaying the current epidemic coming to town.
To help with the current struggles and anticipating a period of self-isolation, even shutdown, Fantaspoa will be offering the "Fantaspoa at Home" initiative starting next Wednesday, April 1st.
"Fantaspoa at Home" is... "an original digital platform that will make available - completely free of charge and accessible worldwide - select feature films from the festival's previous fifteen editions. The platform will reinforce the important, scientific statements regarding quarantining that medical professionals around the globe continue to stress: It is utterly essential to the future of humanity for us to immediately reduce our time outside".
Please consider supporting Fantaspoa this year. It is a very important genre festival, not just for Brazil but for the LatAm region by and large. Visit the campaign page here and we look forward to reporting from Fantaspoa some time at the end of the year.
It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts that the Fantaspoa Film Festival announces that it will postpone its upcoming 16th edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping the world. Initially scheduled for this coming May, the festival directors forecast that this year's edition will now take place between the months of October and December, 2020, if deemed responsible and safe at that time.Due to executive decisions made by the Brazilian government prior to this unprecedented health crisis, Fantaspoa and countless other organizations dedicated to the arts were stripped of all federal sponsorship money. In addition to the financial and emotional strain of COVID-19, for the first time in ten years, Fantaspoa received zero funding to continue its unique goal of bringing the best in world genre cinema to the people of Brazil.With this in mind, Fantaspoa has been forced to resort to a crowdfunding campaign to sustain the future of the festival. With thirty days to reach their goal, the festival has already proudly gathered 40% of their intended total. They humbly ask lovers of genre film around the world, filmmakers and artists who have had their works presented at the festival, and anyone who hopes to see film survive this terrible pandemic to please donate to or share their campaign at www.catarse.me/fantaspoa16 .Acknowledging the desperate need to quarantine and social distance during these difficult times, Fantaspoa will also launch the "Fantaspoa at Home" initiative on April 1. It consists of an original digital platform that will make available - completely free of charge and accessible worldwide - select feature films from the festival's previous fifteen editions. The platform will reinforce the important, scientific statements regarding quarantining that medical professionals around the globe continue to stress: It is utterly essential to the future of humanity for us to immediately reduce our time outside."Fantaspoa at Home" will offer a unique showcase of films to be streamed via computers, smartphones, and other internet-enabled devices. The selection of titles was made jointly with international producers, directors, and distributors, reaffirming the global aspect of Fantaspoa's curatorship. Understanding just how important it is to stay at home, these filmmakers and distributors have graciously donated their incredible works to make this free project possible.Starting April 1, the following features will be available for free worldwide via "Fantaspoa at Home" at www.fantaspoaathome.com:Diablo (d. Nicanor Loreti, Argentina, 2011)FantastiCozzi (d. Felipe M. Guerra, Brazil, 2016)Follow (d. Owen Egerton, USA, 2015)Resolution (d. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, USA, 2012)The Rotten Link (d. Valentín Javier Diment, Argentina, 2011)The Show Must Go On (d. Nevio Marasovic, Croatia, 2010)Zombio 2 - Chimarrão Zombies (d. Petter Baiestorf, Brazil, 2013)Starting April 8, the following features will be available for free worldwide via "Fantaspoa at Home" at www.fantaspoaathome.com:Maniac (d. William Lustig, USA, 1980)The Otherworld (d. Richard Stanley, France, 2013)Plaga Zombie (d. Hernán Sáez, Pablo Parés, Argentina, 1997)Krokodyle (d. Stefano Bessoni, USA, 2010)Moles (d. Emiliano Romero, Argentina, 2011)Lunopolis (d. Matthew Avant, USA, 1998)Zenith (d. Vladan Nikolic, USA, 2010)The Fantaspoa staff sends their unending thanks to their friends and supporters around the world for all they've done these past fifteen years, and implores you and your loved ones to stay inside, wash your hands, and - if you are physically able to - put the health and well-being of the elderly and immuno-compromised before your own.We are all in this together.
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