The usual OPIA screening takes as follows. First of all, as we usually have screening in the HSE buildings, a couple of hours before the screening, Dasha, who is in charge of screenings organizing, checks with university security whether everything is alright with guests’ list. Simultaneously, our producer Katya reaches out to the event’s speaker to verify that she or he is coming. She’s also responsible for meeting with this person and bringing to the venue. Shortly before the screening a couple of OPIA members takes a position at the entrance of the building to meet guests and resolve any emerging issues. By good old-fashioned Moscow tradition, we start our screening with a slight delay. After the screening, the discussion immediately begins with a special guest and lasts around 1 hour. Formerly it was Yuriy Arkadievich who moderated the discussion but in the present time, it’s usually one of the OPIA members. Furthermore, during both film and discussion, somebody from OPIA takes pictures.
There is not too much difference with special screenings as the main difference is the number of people and this is something we are used to. And not to brag but we usually have quite a lot of guests in comparison with other HSE cinema clubs. Sometimes too many people come and there is not enough place for everybody, we, of course, apologize for the inconvenience but people usually understand as we can’t introduce a fee for tickets.
Something kind of funny happened the other day on the special screening. We had already arranged to show a certain movie but when the director came he asked us to show another one, yet unreleased film as he really wanted to have feedback from the student audience. The thing is we had to keep the film’s title in secret and prohibit taking photos and recording video or audio.
As for the organization of the festivals, on our situation, i.e. being a student organization, we have to accept that we don’t have a sustainable budget and we can’t sell any merchandise to cover any serious external costs. But as people say what student really needs is spiritual food, so it’s alright.
Moreover, to hold a festival means a lot of communication with a lot of different people, a lot of ideas and convincing people that these ideas are worthwhile for them to participate in one way or another. The whole process of negotiations reminds me of an old anecdote about persuading a lad from a Siberian village to marry Rockefeller’s daughter.