Seth Ingram with Rome International Film Festival

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Rome, Georgia. This is Rome. Business radio. And now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Rome Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Rome International Film Festival, Mr. Seth Ingram. How are you, man?

Seth Ingram: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me on.

Stone Payton: Absolutely. My pleasure. Seth, I got a ton of questions. We probably won’t get to them all, but maybe a good place to start is if you could share with me and our listeners mission. Purpose. Tell us about the Rome International Film Festival. Why? When, where and how?

Seth Ingram: Yeah. All right, so the Rome International Film Festival, we’re going into our 21st season. So 21 years old. Old enough to drink this year. Uh, and we are a 500 and 1C3 nonprofit arts organization. Uh, we, you know, raise money from our patrons, sponsors and grants. And we put on a film festival once a year in the fall, and we try to highlight, uh, Georgia filmmakers. We bring in some some filmmakers have workshops, panels highlighting the Georgia film industry. Uh, we also are an international film festival. So we bring in filmmakers from all over the world. We show a lot of films in downtown Rome, Georgia, uh, all in that one weekend. We start on a Thursday night and go through a Sunday night, and we normally have about 80 to 90 films per season. And those are short films, feature films and workshops and panels and all the stuff that goes along with that. So it’s a it’s a big event. It’s a lot of different events packed into one event, but we also have musical events and things like that happening during the festival as well. Um, yes. This year we start on Halloween, October the 31st as our soft opening, and our opening night is November the 1st, and we’ll be going through November the 3rd. So, uh, yeah, you know, we’ve had a lot of great, great events over the years. Uh, you know, like I say, highlighting the Georgia film industry and the growth in the Georgia film industry. And we try to educate people. We have an education component to the festival. So there’s all sorts of stuff happening in this one big event.

Stone Payton: So what is your personal role in this organization? What’s a day in the life of Seth this time of year anyway?

Seth Ingram: Well, this time of year, yeah. I’m, uh, I am the creative director. I have been the former executive director, but I had, uh, have a lot of connections in the film industry, so I try to parlay those into helping, uh, helping us attract films and filmmakers and dealing with studios and just talent to to come into the festival and organizing all the events, working with a great team of people here on there. We have a board of directors, and then we have several people that work in the organization and a team of screeners. So when people submit to the festival, we have to watch all these films. We get anywhere from 700 to 1700 films per season. So we watch all those and then kind of they sift to the top and we have to build a schedule based on the, the different genres that we’re going to offer in categories, and then we just pick out the the ones that we’re going to program. And then plus we also work with some distributors and bring in some some big events to some films that may have already had distribution, because most times at a film festival, a lot of the films are submitting to you that don’t have distribution, and they’re trying to look for a distribution deal, and they’re trying to build an audience and get their film out in the world, get some critics to review it, and that sort of thing, so that they can then take that to have more leverage when they go to sell their film. Uh, on the feature side. So we we are one of those we invite, uh, a lot of members from the Georgia Film Critics Association to come review the films and get a lot of coverage.

Speaker4: Uh, and In.

Seth Ingram: Not just Georgia Press, but in regional press and sometimes national press.

Stone Payton: So what is the backstory, man? How did you find yourself in this world?

Seth Ingram: Well, it’s a funny story. I, I was a filmmaker first, so I was I had a documentary that played in a film festival in 2014. We were on the film festival circuit, and, um, I would just moved back to Rome and their director was leaving, and I had my film played there and they said, hey, you must know about films. Why don’t you come help run our film festival? And I, uh, I didn’t know the first thing about running a film festival, but I thought, hey, I wanted to see this happen, and this was my hometown. So I jumped in and we, uh, took took over and have slowly built it up. You know, over the last, uh, first few years we came in, we were very small, very regional festival. We’ve turned it into a much higher profile festival, and it kind of started in 2017. I was able to get a get Burt Reynolds to come be our guest. And that was a big, uh, big get for us. We had a lot of fun with that. And then since then it’s just been up, up, up from there. So.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career and in the evolution of this festival, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you? These days man.

Seth Ingram: Well, what I find the most fun is still like just getting all of the people in one place, all of the creative people and the business people, and trying to show everyone how the industry all works together. So you don’t just think of it as just a big arts festival, but, you know, a film is a making a movie is like opening and closing a business down within a period of 3 to 6 months. After everything it takes to open a business and everything it takes to close the business. But you know, all the people that touch a business between the investor to how you’re going to distribute it to the market, to getting the creatives there. So you kind of get everyone in one space and just seeing the relationships come out of that. And I’ve introduced a lot of filmmakers and investors at the festival, and they’ve gone on to make projects, which happened last year. It happened the year before. I, uh, I had a we had one of our this was in 2021 I think it was. We had Mario Van Peebles and Billy Bob Thornton here. Uh, since that time, I’m working on a project, developing a project with Billy Bob Thornton and then Mario Van Peebles. I connected him with some film distribution, uh, folks here, and they went on to make a film.

Seth Ingram: They shot it in Montana. It was called Outlaw Posse. It’s a Western film. So that was one that we came out of the festival last year. We had, uh, Ethan Hawke was one of our guests, and we presented him with a Flannery O’Connor Award for storytelling, which is an award that we give out every year. Uh, we, we have for the last three years in conjunction with Andalusia, which is Flannery O’Connor’s home place. And, um, then Tim Blake Nelson was here last year, and, uh, I introduced him to some folks, and then they got connected, and they’re working together to produce a film in Georgia this coming year in 2025. So, uh, uh, all those things kind of just I love seeing those creations and business get done outside of just just by connecting people and getting them in the room together. And I also love seeing those new filmmakers that get their first film in, and just really excited to take a short film and show it to an audience and let them get to spend time around some of the more established people in the industry. Uh, I mean, that’s a great feeling. Just seeing those people just light up when they realize how the industry works and how that they can actually plug in. Um, and, you know, take it to the next level.

Stone Payton: The parallels as you’re describing this are very similar. It strikes me to we just did an on site broadcast at Fintech South 2024. And so you have some very established financial services folks there. You have some startups. And just watching that group mix and mingle, there was a lot a great deal of relationship building. There are deals that come out of this. You got you got startups that are getting funding and or opportunities to to talk. But I mean, there’s a there’s a lot of really meaningful relationship building and An opportunity happening at this festival. It sounds to me like.

Seth Ingram: Oh yeah, it’s definitely a conference style event, but it’s very in a laid back atmosphere. People aren’t. I mean, I would love to get to where we’re a film market festival where we’re like Sundance or, uh, you know, South by Southwest or Toronto Film Festival, where people are bidding to get their films in there to help them get the distribution and sell their film and then film. All the different, uh, studios are coming to the festival looking to buy films so that we want we would love to, you know, aspire to that, but we’re doing it on a small scale. We’re still kind of, uh, you know, strategically, uh, working with the people that are here and are in attendance, but that, you know, deals get struck all the time and in small rooms. So, uh, but just being able to provide that platform is great. Uh, but it’s also, you know, it’s just great for the community because we bring shine a spotlight on the town. And once you get here to Rome, it’s far enough outside of Atlanta that you can make a weekend trip out of it, and you can park your car downtown at one of the hotels, and you don’t have to get in your car again for the entire weekend. The entire thing takes place at all of our venues are in walking distance right downtown, so it’s great for the community. Uh, I really think that, you know, we just started a film and entertainment commission last year. We’ve been pushing for that for a while, and we got that started. So we’re trying to put some local incentives and things in place in the community that will make more film come to come up this way to film, and not all of it stay in Atlanta. Uh, so let it spread out a little bit more. Um, and so we’re, we’re working it definitely, uh, has a lot of tentacles that touch a lot of different segments of the community, but it’s, uh, it’s definitely a, uh, not just an artistic event, but it’s an economic development driver as well.

Stone Payton: Yeah. And as I’m hearing you talk, I think it’s a great date weekend for me and Holly.

Seth Ingram: Oh, yeah. Come on up. You’d love it. Uh, I mean, we’re right in the middle of football season, so that’s always the rub with some of us. You know, you might miss You might miss the big Georgia game, or we might have an event going on. But we’ll put that on in the VIP room. So anybody that wants to go watch that can can take a peek at it. Um, but yes, it is a great weekend. You’d have a great time. And like, when you’re here, um, most of the people that we’ve had are big guests, and everybody’s no one’s pretentious. And it’s not like when you think of a one of the big major film festivals, people are very accessible. Uh, we do these talkbacks with a lot of the actors, and you get to ask them questions personally, and sometimes they even come to the after parties, and you get to network with them and just talk with them casually. So it’s, uh, it’s definitely a unique event. Um, and but it’s not it’s not all about the celebrity, but that is just one of the perks of it, for sure.

Stone Payton: So you touched on this earlier in the conversation, but say more about the films, the genres, some of what we will have an opportunity to see there.

Seth Ingram: Yeah. So we’re kind of we take submissions to a lot of different categories. I think we have 12 different categories and it’s, you know, narrative feature, documentary feature. Those are, you know, the two big ones. Um, and so and we also do some legacy screenings of like some classic films, some anniversary type films, particularly related to some of our guests. And as I mentioned, we’re having a Tim Blake Nelson as one of our guests this year, and he’s got a new film out, the directed by a very talented director named Vincent Garcia Garcia, and it’s called Bang Bang, where Tim plays a boxer. And we’re going to highlight that film on November the 2nd, that Saturday night, and we’re going to have a talk back and present Tim with that Flannery O’Connor Award. Uh, after that, that film, uh, that’s one of the highlights of the, of the evening, um, of the of the entire festival. And so but also we have great films like we’re kicking off the festival, it’s on Halloween, so it’s a soft opening. We have a horror film race. We’re working with University of West Georgia and Georgia Highlands College, and having a student film race, where they have a couple of weeks out before the festival. They get to make some films and we present them that night, and it gets a lot of student college participation in it, and they have a lot of fun with that. And then we’re also going to be highlighting the film anniversary 40th anniversary screening of the film Gremlins, if you remember Gremlins.

Stone Payton: Oh, yeah.

Seth Ingram: Uh, so that one’s going to be a lot of fun. And we have some After Dark shorts that are kind of in the horror genre and, and horror comedy and just kind of weird stuff that people like to watch late at night on Halloween. So that’s what’s happening on that opening night of the festival. Um, uh, we have another great film that was, uh, produced by some Georgians out of Columbus Story Mill Entertainment. And, um, it’s a film called Bob Trevino Likes it. It’s based on a true story. It stars John Leguizamo, uh, and, uh, French Stewart and, uh, French is going to be with us at the festival, for sure, and possibly some of the other talent for that. So we’re excited about that one. Um, and I mean that we have documentaries from around the world. We have we work with the international partners. So we have we’re sponsored by the Consulate general of the Southeast of Israel. And so we bring in some we made a partnership with a festival in the south of Israel called Cinema South, uh, where we do an exchange where we play some of their films at their festival, and they play some of ours at our festival, and they’re sending some filmmakers over as well.

Seth Ingram: Um, and so we have a partnership with the Bahamas this year. So the Consulate General for the Bahamas will be in and we’re going to highlight some of their films as well. Um, so there is an international flair to it as well. Um, and like I said, there’s student shorts blocks of all varieties. We have documentary shorts of all varieties, documentary features. Um, and then, uh, musical events. As I mentioned, we’re closing the festival this year with the uh, Rome Music Collective, which is a group of all local Rome musicians that cover an album cover to cover. They’ve done a few, uh, over the past couple of years, and this year, since Tim Blake Nelson as our guest, they’re going to be covering, um, the album. Oh, brother, we’re out there. Oh, brother. Where art thou? Soundtrack from cover to cover. So we’re going to close the festival with that, and Tim will be here, so maybe we can, uh, can give him a nudge to get up there and sing one. We’ll see.

Stone Payton: Well, you had me at O brother, where art thou? That is a that is marvelous. So I gotta believe. I mean, this thing’s happening Halloween, early November. How? It’s gotta take a lot of work, though. Throughout the year, how early do you and your crew got to get started on the on the coming year’s event?

Seth Ingram: Now we start as soon as this one’s over. We’ll start on next year. We open for submissions and we start have a team that starts watching all of the submissions. But you know, it’s just planning a lot of different events. And we have a great board of directors and our executive director, Leanne Cook. She’s out there working and working on grants all the time. And uh, so yeah, it takes a whole team of people to pull this off. Our board members are planning the parties and all that sort of stuff that goes into it. We have a team that we we have to try to travel everybody and make itineraries for everyone. So it’s definitely a lot of work, but we do it as a labor of love and a benefit to the community. And, and, you know, the labor. While it is consuming this time of year, most of the year it’s not as bad. But we are doing year round programing now too, with the with the Film and Entertainment Society. So we have some film series that we’re doing periodically throughout the year. Um, and those are helping to support the festival as well.

Stone Payton: Well, I can see it in your eyes. Our listeners can hear it in your voice. You clearly have a passion for this, for this arena, for the community, the people involved. And I think we’re so blessed that that we have you in our corner creating these opportunities for for all of us to enjoy. Let’s make sure that everybody has as much information as they can and need to tap into all of your work, and to make sure they know where to go. Get tickets, passes, and any pro tips on getting the most out of the festival. Before we wrap.

Seth Ingram: Excellent. Yeah. So our website is Riffe, GA Riffe, georgia.com. Our schedule is posted up there. It’s almost permanent. We’re still making a few additions to it, but you can check out our full schedule there. Um, we’re on social media, on Facebook and Instagram at Rome Film. You can check us out there. Uh, and we’ll be posting all the stuff as well. Uh, right now, passes are on sale so you can get a pass for the entire weekend or a pass for just one day of the festival. And then the, uh, individual tickets for individual films will go on sale in a couple of weeks. Uh, for you can if you the passes, get to see it first and then the individual tickets we sell, uh, separately. And people can buy those and come in if you just want to come in for the one event. But we would rather have you here for the entire festival and really get the most out of the weekend. Um, but yeah. And then, uh, I, I’m Seth Ingram, I’m a, I’m a producer as well. So I’ve, I’ve had, you know, I’m still making films, still working in the Georgia film industry. And, uh, I just want to see this industry thrive and succeed. And I want the rural Georgians to have a part of that as well. So that’s that’s part of our mission. And we’re here to educate, enlighten and entertain our community.

Stone Payton: Well, Seth, thanks for joining us today. Thank you for your insight and perspective on on this. And just thank you for what you do, man. What you are doing is so important, clearly for the industry but also for the community. Man. Keep up the good work and just know that we sure appreciate you man.

Seth Ingram: Well thank you so much Don. And just remember our October 31st through November 3rd come to Rome, Georgia Riffe, GA. Com and come, come support films and filmmakers in our own state. And it’s going to be a great, great, fun event. And you’ll you’ll be hooked and you’ll come back every year once you attend.

Stone Payton: Amen. Alright, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Seth Ingram with Rome International Film Festival and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you next time on Rome Business Radio.