If some movies require a suspension of disbelief to be enjoyed, what I experienced at a recent Vancouver International Film Festival screening is downright unbelievable…
On Sunday October 9th I attended the 1:30pm screening of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at the Vogue Theatre. What I experienced was not only disconcerting, but made it impossible to concentrate on or really enjoy the film. It started with being physically frisked at the front door while being asked to show my cell phone was off and scanned with a metal or electronics detector (like at airport security). I am a movie lover simply attending a VIFF screening, yet here I was being treated like a potential assassin attending a speech by George Bush. Okay, I get it, studios are trying to thwart film piracy at the source, but the result is subjecting an unsuspecting audience to a completely undesirable experience. Whatever the reason for the pat down, no one bothered to share that information, it set a very negative and unprecedented tone for the Festival and the evening. This was just the beginning.
Five minutes into the movie the audience around me began whispering and pointing to the the curtains to the side of the screen/stage area. A dark figure was visible poking a camera lens between the curtains evidently taping the audience as they panned back and forth slowly. Were they still looking for recording devices or perhaps doing market research for the Big Studio that owns the rights to the film? It really felt that we were the presumed guilty victims in some ‘Big Brother’ scenario. Putting aside the legalities and violation of rights related to filming individuals without their consent, the distraction of someone standing beside a movie screen and scanning the audience with an infra-red camera tends to pull one’s focus off the screen. I didn’t agree to be part of a test audience or any other sort of scenario. I can’t tell you if Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was a good movie, I was too busy quelling my rising anger at becoming the main feature.
After the sixth or seventh time this shadowy figure re-appeared with the camera lens glinting at us from behind the curtain it became too much of a distraction. I left my seat and spoke with the manager of the Vogue, asking him if he could ask the individual to stop filming the audience. Thankfully, they complied. Later I contacted the offices of the VIFF and spoke directly to the festival director, Alan Franey. He informed me that security personnel, door searches and audience surveillance was now a requirement of the big studios pre-releasing films to festivals. Hmmm, they didn’t inform anyone else. As a person who makes his living in the arts, is a supporter of film in BC and a Canadian who values my right to privacy, I am astonished the VIFF has agreed to such behaviour and tactics at the behest of a major studio and frankly, believe the Festival would be well advised to refuse films with conditions as odious as these. Given the choice, I’m sure most people would rather skip the clandestine power tripping paranoia and wait for the theatrical release. This sort of poor treatment of Festival goers is shameful.
Posted by Mark Busse
Tags: Film
Mathew Englander (October 16th, 2005)
If they really were filming the audience without consent, it engages B.C.’s privacy legislation. You may wish to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner (www.oipcbc.org).
By the way, this post is linked to from The Canadian Privacy Law Blog.
I commented about another facet of VIFF’s privacy policy in my blog.
Morgan (October 17th, 2005)
I was there at the screening and did not even notice…thanks for the heads up…I will now video tape myself phoning someone up and bitching them out and then send them the tape..hahahah I realize that this makes no sense but I will do it regardless of the consequences!!!muahahahahahahahah
Richard (October 22nd, 2005)
Well, they weren’t filming… they were using a night vision scope. I saw one of the watchers after the show was over; it was a relatively simple tube like you’d see on a sniper rifles. Look out at a dark room with an IR sensitve eyepiece, and any digital cameras light up brightly…
Sort of along the lines of what you would see if you point your digital camera at your TV’s remote control and push buttons on the remote; many cameras will show a really bright flash of purplish light….
I messed around with the security people on the way in; lowest bidders. I had my laptop with me, and when they asked if it was capable of recording, of course I had to say yes… It distracted from the digital camera, tape recorder, ipod with microphone, and other items I had on me that could more easily be used for recording.