As a part of the D.C. Independent Film Festival taking place this week, university student Phil Papiasvili coordinated the Summit on the Hill, a free event tomorrow that runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in room 1310 of the Longworth Building on Capitol Hill.
The summit will have two panel discussions inviting members of the Congressional Entertainment Industries Caucus and filmmakers to debate and promote awareness about controversial issues, such as the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy acts, intellectual property rights, online piracy and file sharing.
“We are trying to bring together both politicians and artistic types to strike an agreement that everyone is happy with,” Papiasvili said.
The entirely volunteer-run festival has had an annual Summit on the Hill since 2003, and first time festival director Deirdre Evans-Pritchard, a Fulbright scholar from Oxford with a doctorate in anthropology, said the topics chosen this year are of particular interest.
“The summit is what distinguishes us as a film festival,” said Evans-Prtichard, who has worked with DCIFF for the past four years.
“The aim is for filmmakers, who do not necessarily represent financially, to have the same voice on the Hill that the rest of Hollywood does,” she added.
Papiasvili, a fifth-year senior, mentioned his efforts in getting stars like John Heder, Jim Gaffigan and Louis C.K. to send materials to present at the summit. He said his classmates are the perfect demographic for this kind of discussion, as they are comprised of both aspiring filmmakers and consumers of free online content.
“It’s tough because artists put their heart, soul, time and money into this and their work is being stolen,” Papiasvili said. “But at the same time, policing the Internet ends up limiting the artists’ ability to have their work seen.”
Just one philosophy class away from graduation, Papiasvili splits his time between College Park, Washington and New York working in film, but got his start with DCIFF thanks to his Civicus coordinator, Sue Briggs.
“During my sophomore year, Civicus had a required internship, and Sue recommended me to the former head of the festival, Carol Prewitt,” he said.
This is his fourth year working with the festival, having previously helped with administrative tasks and social media, but this is his first time coordinating the summit.
His brother, a film editor who works in Los Angeles and New York, influences his trans-Atlantic lifestyle. After changing majors from economics to philosophy during his junior year, Papiasvili took as many film electives as he could, since there wasn’t a film major offered at this university.
The film festival starts Wednesday, Feb. 29 and lasts through Sunday, March 4. There will be 47 films shown, ranging from feature to short documentary and animation/experimental, and “a surprising number of the films have not been on the [film festival] circuit yet” that are “world premiers,” Evans-Pritchard said.
Though some of the documentaries were featured in prominent festivals like Sundance and Cannes, Papiasvili says the DCIFF “features a lot of local pride.”
The screenings will be complemented by workshops with local renowned filmmaker Les Blank, plus happy hours and wine tastings with live musical performances by SolRose, The PicUp Kids and Janice B Friday through Sunday night.
For more information, locations and the full screening schedule, visit dciff-indie.org.
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