STELLA NTAVARA – INTERVIEW 05/04/2021
Irene Galletti
What would you say that are the main limits of a digital festival, if any?
Stella Ntavara
I mean, for people that have been on a physical festival, like us, the limit is... nothing will replace the real experience. So, the feeling of being seated in the cinema, and the whole, the smell of the popcorn, the whole thing, it's very different.
Of course, this is a limit, you cannot reproduce it at home, and that's for given.
I think, first of all, we should not necessarily try to force not, because... it's really also the same with real books or online books, some people will be always romantic, and they would like the real deal. But because younger generations are keener, and they are more used to being online, maybe for them the limit is just not even there, or it's really something much smaller to overcome as a limit.
I think it really depends on which age you're targeting, and how people are used to the cinema and having a real experience. So that that plays a role. But definitely, the limit is that it's not the real experience. And the social aspect of it, it’s not there.
Irene Galletti
Okay. But do you think the festivals can or should try to recreate some aspect of this experience?
Stella Ntavara
I think it's definitely good to try because, of course, it's a new thing for everybody.
And it's also about training your audience. Nobody knows, some things that that now we take for given as part of your cinema experience, or festival experience, maybe when the festival started 20 years ago, or whatever, maybe they were not there, so things are evolving.
And it's about teaching your audience in a way, or educate, or not educating them, but training your audience. So, definitely, it's good to try and experiment, and there will be always some more closed people and some more loyal and romantic who will stay with these very old-school ideas of what the festival is, and some other people will always try it.
I think it's very important to keep trying and challenging the boundaries.
Irene Galletti
Yeah. So, still taking about digital festivals, what do you think is the real difference between digital VOID and a streaming platform?
Stella Ntavara
Definitely all these kinds of online social gatherings... There was an award ceremony or inauguration ceremony, and there were some other teasers around.
Definitely, that creates a bit of the feeling that there's not only 20 films out there.
We do care. Therefore, we still want to create these gatherings and make it more special.
So definitely, it's the whole packaging of it. I think that VOID worked a lot on the packaging, with means they have in hand, and especially online, I think they worked quite a lot on the packaging. So that it's not always streaming. Of course, for some people will be always streaming, because they don't care about all these ceremonies and talks so they just want to watch film. They will stream it the way they do with Netflix, this we cannot avoid.
But there will be people that will appreciate the effort and they will be part of the of the effort.
But we have to accept that there will always be people that they will not to look for more things, that will stay with what they want, what they like, and they will not try more things.
Irene Galletti
Yeah, I see. And do you think that digital festivals also have some advantages, if compared to the physical ones?
Stella Ntavara
Definitely. First of all, ideally you can combine them somehow, it's a new revenue stream.
It can bring additional money, ideally, if you can combine it with a physical festival, or somehow spread our strategy throughout the year. It could be additional days with an additional revenue stream for the festivals. And it keeps costs quite low. So even that the festivals or organizations or initiatives that don't have a huge budget, they can still make things happen, like VOID,
You play a lot with the numbers, and you can have a decent quality online festival, even if you you're not the wealthy festival. That’s definitely an advantage.
Then of course, the fact that you can reach audiences that wouldn't come or don't live in Copenhagen. And for our case, of course, it was geo-blocked, but still it was available in Sweden, and Norway, and otherwise, these people wouldn't come, or people from Jutland.
This is definitely taking out this limit, the physical boundary of festival.
And that was the same as CPH: DOX back in the days in March. That in terms of admission, so people buying tickets online, it went pretty well, because they were many people that they would come anyhow, and they came. But also, people that knew but they live in another place and everything, and they had the chance to come and join. So definitely takes away any
physical boundary.