The Fire Island Golden Wagon Film Festival debuted in August 2003
with over 750 people in attendance to honor Tony Randall, a long time Fire
Islander. The three day event showcased Mr. Randall's illustrious
career by screening Lover Come Back and Down With Love, two films
which he personally selected. Mr. Randall shared his experiences in
film, TV and theatre by fielding questions during a Q&A at the Ocean
Beach Marina. The festival was a huge success, creating an enormous
air of excitement unlike any other community event.
The 2004 Golden Wagon Film Festival was a great success, attracting
more than 1000 attendees. Harvey Keitel was honored for his commitment
to choosing films based on creative merit and not commercial appeal
and his dedication and love for Fire Island. 2004 also marked the
first year the festival was opened up as a venue for independent
films. JIHAD!, Driving While Black, Girl Wrestler, Rolling and Of
Wanderlust were among the provocative and engaging films screened at
our open-air and indoor venues. The festival attracted judges from
IFC, Lifetime and The Sundance Channel as well as life-long producers
and directors from various Fire Island Communities, who reviewed the
films and attended the festival. Filmmakers were also in attendance
to introduce their films and discuss them after the screenings.
Heather Randall was also in attendance for the 2004 festival, which
honored her late husband with a retrospective of his career and a
standing ovation. Ms. Randall has pledged her continued support of
the festival.
The 2005 Festival was a HUGE success. With a three and a half story
high outdoor movie screen, the festival was literally the biggest
thing in Ocean Beach! An audience of over 1200 people enjoyed the
many short films, documentaries and feature films showcased at the
ballfield and the beautifully restored Community House Theatre. The
Red Wagon Children and Family Film Festival, sponsored by Brooklyn
International Film Festival's kidsfilmfest, was presented to a
standing-room only crowd. Lisa King, from the kidsfilmfest, and her
family were on-hand to introduce the movies to the very excited crowd.
Beat the Drum, set in South Africa won the Audience Choice Award for
features and Trout Creek won the Audience Choice Award for short
films. David Duchovny was honored with the 2005 Tony Randall Lifetime
Achievement Award and his film, House of D met with rave reviews from
the overflowing audience. The Q&A on the Bay at the Ocean Beach
Marina also had a standing room only crowd. Audiences had the
opportunity to discuss the films directly with the filmmakers. A
lively and provocative discussion ensued before the filmmakers and
audience made their way to the Taste of Ocean Beach and the evening
screenings at the ballfield. The festival culminated in a closing
party sponsored by Scott Hirsch of the Island Mermaid and Suffolk
County's Office of Cultural Affairs.
Kicking off the fourth annual Golden
Wagon Film Festival, the 2006 Ocean Beach, Fire Island celebration of film
was once again a tremendous success and an event enjoyed by all who
attended. Attracting over 1200 film-enthusiasts, the various documentaries,
feature films, and short films presented were shown to standing room only
crowds at both the Ocean Beach Ball Field and the recently restored
Community House Theater. While selected feature film 9/12 From Chaos to
Community and short film Zombie-American were presented with the Audience
Choice for Features and Audience Choice for Shorts awards respectively; all
films were met with warm reviews and enjoyed thoroughly. Academy Award
winning actress Celeste Holm was present to accept her Tony Randall Lifetime
Achievement Award and continued the celebration by presenting her 1949
classic film, Come to the Stable. Following the films, a lively and
informative discussion developed at our filmmakers Q&A, held at the Ocean
Beach Marina; here audience members were given the chance to ask questions
directly to the artists themselves and gave filmmakers the chance to better
inform the public about their work. Afterwards the party moved to the
festival's first ever wine tasting, which featured only the best wines long
Island had to offer. In addition to these films, another highlight of the
weekend was The Red Wagon Children and Family Film Festival, sponsored by
Brooklyn International Film Festival's kidsfilmfest, whose very own Lisa
King was on hand to present each film to the packed house. To culminate the
jam-packed, fun filled weekend, Scott Hirsch of the Island Mermaid
Restaurant and the Suffolk County's of Cultural Affairs sponsored a closing
party which was both well attended and appreciated.
The promotional aspects of this year's festival are interesting to note as
well. While the marketing tactics were very grassroots, the effect of the
extra efforts was extremely beneficial. Utilizing a variety of means, such
as websites, Long Island newspapers, radio spots, restaurants, and other
local business to get the word out, the festival as well as its sponsors
received more promotion than ever before. As well as hosting a benefit party
at Light Lounge in New York City one month prior to the festival, organizers
created a MySpace page to help inform people of the event.
Held on August 17th to the 19th in Ocean Beach on Fire Island, the 2007
Golden Wagon Film Festival screened many independent films and documentaries
all of which could be described as both interesting and provocative but
above all entertaining. Coming from all over the world, the films that
audiences had the opportunity to see dealt with a variety of subjects and
caused much discussion. Despite the fact that the first night saw a huge
thunderstorm that managed to actually knock down the two story high screen,
causing festival coordinators to cancel the evening's events, the second day
saw clear skies and smooth sailing in regards to the day and night's events.
As for the rest of the weekend's activities, the wine tasting and the newly
added BBQ went over incredibly well and brought in more people than ever
before. In addition to the BBQ, live music was also a newly added aspect to
this year's festival, which welcomed some of Long Island's best musicians to
entertain the crowds.
Along with implementing some of last year's rigorous advertising strategies,
we also were able to obtain a large aerial banner that was flown up and down
numerous beaches to help raise awareness of the event. While that alone
helped get the word out tremendously, our greatest marketing tool would have
been the newly acquired computer software that enabled festival promoters to
track the amount of activity on our website in variety of ways; which pages
were being viewed and how they arrived at the site (meaning from what
website did they find the link) being some of these ways. We were able to
see spikes in website attendance after email blasts, newspaper ads, and
newsletters, therefore allowing us to see what marketing strategies worked
best for us.
