Las Vegas Film Festival Review: First Timer’s Experience

Coming out from my natural habitat of binge-watching on Netflix all night, this year’s
Las Vegas Film Festival has stumbled upon my life and carried me into the world of film within our community.

The mixture of anxiousness and excitement stirs up in your gut and leaves you
will nothing more to do than to just take the first step and walk yourself right in. That’s exactly what I did.

Walked right into the best experience I’ve had so far in film. As a newbie to Vegas
and film festivals in general, I honestly didn’t know what to expect of the Las Vegas Film
Festival. Being a millennial, the only impression of LVFF I have had prior was through the realm of Instagram.

As you all have been there, reminisce with me, just for a second, to the start of
your film festival going experiences. Not knowing what to expect but damn sure knowing you love to watch movies. Once I breathed in the fresh aroma of popcorn, all of my worries seemed to have just faded away.

Opening day of the LVFF could not have been more welcoming. Smiles surrounded the room every corner that I turned to. Launching the day with the Young Cinema Lab, Mabel’s BBQ party, and the holy of the unholiest documentary directed by Ben Berman.

Already I’m in love with the film festival and I haven’t even had the full experience yet! Every day was filled with beautifully diverse projects that were filmed by the most genuine people. The odds were definitely in my favor because not only did I get to watch these films, I had the opportunity to meet these living, breathing souls and get a better sense of why they felt that their story needed to be told. For those of you who have seniority within the film community probably think, “It’s yet another hoorah, time to see what my colleagues have been up to”.

This chance to be present makes filmmaking less intimidating. From a film student perspective, it’s easy to forget that these successful filmmakers are human beings too. I’ve discovered that the same quirky, awkward, artistic, or sometimes straight out crazy persona is in every filmmaker even if it’s just an itsy bit. So, if you are one of the youngins reading this I just want to let you know, regardless of age or expertise, we are weird but we are not alone. The entire experience felt like a huge family reunion, even though I’ve barely met everyone for the first time this past week.

I appreciate the entirety of the Las Vegas Film Festival for which I have found a family that
welcomed me with open arms. It wasn’t just a film festival, it’s home.

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