Image from flickerspokane.com

Every where you look, amateur and low-budget filmmakers are filming shorts on digital cameras.They’re cheap and fairly easy to use, and you can import and edit the footage on a personal computer. For many, filming on actual film is, if not passé, just too much work.

So it’s nice to know that in the age of digital video, worldwide festivals like Flicker keep filming on film alive outside the realm of feature film. Flicker film festivals happen all over the U.S., in Canada and even in a couple cities in Europe. Festival scheduling and format vary–in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for example, Flicker Fest is a bimonthly occurrence, while in Spokane it’s an annual one.  But there is one thing that doesn’t change. All films shown are shot on film: 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm and Super 16mm.

Flicker Spokane Film Festival screens a mixture of local shorts,  shorts submitted from across the U.S. and other countries like Mexico and Germany (usually from places with their own Flicker Fests). Flicker Spokane members have also had their works shown at the Spokane International Film Festival. Last year, Lonny Waddle’s “The Bothe Story” screened as a short before “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” at SpIFF. I tried to find a video online but couldn’t–sorry everyone! I’ll try next week.

So what’s the point of this little informational session?

Well, Flicker Spokane 8 is happening Saturday, October 16th 2010 at the Magic Lantern Theatre, and the deadline to submit is September 18th.

If you’ve got a great short that originated on film and is under 15min long, or if you’ve got the time to scrape something together before the 18th, go for it! You can submit here.