An Interview with Elzė Vozbinaitė

I sat down for a discussion with Elzė Vozbinaitė, the founder and director of ShortScape, an independent Scottish student film festival, to find out what inspired her to take on the mammoth task of running a festival, and how she overcomes the many obstacles that are thrown up along the way.

Where did the idea for ShortScape first come from? What inspired you to start it up?

Elzė: Well, I’m from Lithuania originally, and there’s always so much going on there. There are so many events for students, ran by students, and when I first moved here, to Scotland, I really missed it. There’s not that many student-friendly film festivals here. There are the bigger, more established ones, like the Edinburgh Film Festival, which is obviously a huge, international deal, but not really any that are focused on students. So many students are shy at university, scared or nervous to show people what they’ve created, and I wanted to make a safe space for them to showcase their work. I wanted ShortScape to be somewhere that everyone was welcome, regardless of the budget behind their film, where they could meet likeminded people who share the same interest and passion for cinema. We all hope to go into the film industry after we graduate, so I thought why not create opportunities for people to make connections now, find people they can work and collaborate with, before we leave uni?

You mentioned that you wanted ShortScape to be somewhere anyone was welcome. How important was that to you?

Elzė: It was very important. I wanted to create an environment that was stress-free, where people could simply come along and share their art and enjoy the art of others as well. A film festival doesn’t have to be this super-competitive space. It can be fun and open.

You said you wanted the environment to be stress-free, but I imagine that running the festival itself probably isn’t very stress-free. What’s it like behind the scenes, organising it?

Elzė, letting out a quick laugh first: “Like with anything in life, there are certainly obstacles that come with running a film festival. Initially it was very hard, because it’s sort of like, well where do we even start? You have to work hard to convince people that the project is worthwhile, and eventually the ball starts to get rolling. You get one person on board, then that convinces someone else that maybe there’s something there, and it’s this sort of snowball effect, more and more people starting to see the value in it.”

How difficult was it to receive funding in the beginning?

Elzė: “It was really tough. We would spend all day emailing companies about potential sponsorships and not receive a single response. We made the social media for ShortScape without even having any funding at all, we were sort of bluffing I guess, but luckily once we started to get some performers and guests onboard, companies were willing to listen to us, and we ended up getting a sponsor, which makes it easier going forward.”

How does the selection process for the festival work?

Elzė: “We have two official programmers, Lucas and Monika, who are in charge of the selection process. We have a period where submissions are open and anyone can submit a film, then after it closes, they sit down and watch them and decide which ones will make the final festival line-up. What’s really exciting is we are going to have different themes, based on Scottish folk sayings, and we’ll show films that are linked to those. It should be really fun and interesting.”

What else is going on at ShortScape besides the films?

Elzė: “So much! We are going to have a panel of guests who used to be Scottish university students but are now working in the industry. They’ll come back and show us the films they made at uni compared to work they’ve produced since becoming professionals, a sort of then and now type thing, and they can talk us through their experiences, how they’ve got to where they are now, advice for students, that sort of thing. I’m really excited about it. We’ve also got a lot of guests lined up, musicians and artists who will be performing sets during the festival.”

Do you hope to see ShortScape keep going after you’ve graduated and went into the industry yourself?

Elzė: “Definitely. That’s the whole idea, it’s for students, by students, so I would love for it to continue. I’m in my third-year of uni at the moment, so I still have another year to go, and hopefully I’ll have enough time to work on the festival as well as my grad film, but we all really want to see it continuing on. We hope people that come along will be inspired and want to get involved, and those are the people that will keep the ball rolling and keep ShortScape going. Yeah, that’d really be great.”

Do you think you’ll be back at ShortScape yourself one day, working in the industry and talking to students?

Elzė, with a very wide smile: “Yeah, maybe. We’ll see.”

ShortScape Film Festival is taking place from the 20th to the 21st of May at Leith Arches. Tickets are available from: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shortscape-film-festival-22-tickets-326753728197

Find ShortScape on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/shortscapefest/ https://www.facebook.com/shortscapefest