There is this whole line of thought that you have to put something out there, to ‘put it into the universe’ to ‘manifest’ it.
So if you want to be rich you are just like – I want to be rich.
If you want to be loved you say – I want to be loved.
For me, these are simply ways to pump yourself up and to speak to yourself positively.
Positivity does work.
It does change opinions, perceptions, and for lack of a better term, ‘luck’.
How you take on the world, and how you approach people can be altered by how you feel about yourself and that world.
If you’re going to keep being negative about everything then people won’t want to help you, love you, or work with you and all the things you want to do will get that much harder because suddenly you’re in it alone.
Beyond that though I don’t feel like there’s a cosmic wishing well waiting for our wishes so it can grant them.
I do think that ‘putting it out there’ makes a thing real.
Even a dream.
It declares it to yourself and to the world and, as such, it can spur you forward or inspire someone else.
Or it just shames you for all time.
There’s that too.
Saying all this, I am putting it into the universe two ideas I have for Flint.
Neither are groundbreaking or revolutionary but I think they’d add to our cultural charm here.
- Bring back the Flint Film Festival.
How a city Flint’s size, and with as many people making film around here you’d think we’d embrace film festivals.
We don’t.
There are a few small ones, the one I do, a Jewish film festival, a youth film festival, and there have been others that I just can’t recall or find at the moment (not meant as a slight). Over the years there have been horror film festivals that I have been a part of but a film festival for ALL types of movies hasn’t been around for well over a decade.
Infighting, drama, and a lack of passionate people let it run out of steam.
The one I was involved in was a pretty big and fun affair and welcome movies from across the globe.
I can say that RIGHT NOW if we offered a film festival with even a small prize purse it’d get a huge response.
I can say that because I get a really good response for my short horror film festivals with VERY modest awards.
People want their work shown.
They want it in the world.
If you don’t price yourself to high that folks can’t afford to submit then you’ll get submissions.
It’s support and a venue we don’t have.
We’re a city that loves big ideas but doesn’t want to support them financially or as fans.
We’d rather go out of the area to consume our arts and entertainment for whatever reason.
I think you can do a great one or two-day festival here though and make it special. I’d even have midnight short weirdo/genre film screenings to bring in that crowd.
Offer a decent but not crazy grand prize – say $500 – $1000 – with smaller prizes for other categories.
Put us back on the map for films.
When I just covered the film festivals we had directors came out to present films.
People came to watch them.
It was another way to draw people to the area and to soak up that green, green cash.
You want to end ‘brain drain’?
Present things to do and support the creatives that are here.
Yeah, they need jobs but they can travel to a job, they can make a home in this area because they feel seen and supported.
I think this is all possible though.
If people’d work together, not get in the way, and had a joint vision for a festival of film here in the city.
- Do a Flint version of Art Prize – the big art event in Grand Rapids, MI
For a city this size, with a monthly art walk, this seems…too obvious.
That we don’t even mimic what Ann Arbor does in closing the downtown for a day for a big art show is crazy.
We have SO MANY creatives and artists around here and we LOVE to take in their work and to patronize their events but we don’t work to support them or celebrate them.
Even just a weekend-long arts festival with music, art, performances, and more in the heart of the city, in several venues, and maybe with prizes for art, it would be amazing.
Show people the value of art as therapy and a career.
Celebrate the city and its people and what they create.
We can do big festivals.
We do this for music.
Why not art, performance, and writing?
Why not create another draw to the area?
And both of these ideas are OBVIOUS in an age when people are paid to be ‘place makers’.
Flint is a place.
It’s made.
We just don’t take advantage of what’s here.
We don’t promote it.
Just like we don’t want to work together to promote it.
Oof.
I have my own endeavors.
I have a family.
But I can see a path where these things can be done, can be done on a budget, and can be done to be a beacon for the area.
It’s just a matter of people ever crawling out of their own bums to do something positive and not bring the room down.
So there you go.
…c…
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 