The coordinators of Filmstream seemed a bit surprised when every seat in their gallery-turned-movie-theater was taken. Some in the audience even had to stand. So many people showed up in support of the festival and the filmmakers, in fact, that by the end of the night, the organizers had announced they would do it again next year.

Artstream gallery usually hosts a range of mixed media shows, plus art classes from painting and poetry to fabric journaling and batik. The idea for Filmstream, a screening of juried short films that took place on Saturday night, Nov. 12, followed numerous requests from the public for more film screenings in Rochester. The Artstream crew figured, “why not?”

Independent film festivals have become increasingly popular over the past few years, reaching wider and wider audiences and encouraging more people to try their hand at filmmaking. Before the show, Bill Humphreys, one of the three judges, briefly discussed the impact this has had on our culture.
Part of its importance, he said, is that independent filmmakers have personal stories to tell. Their films are the visions of the filmmakers themselves, rather than visions of marketing specialists who calculate how a film can attract the widest audience and the most money. But one point he did not mention, perhaps because it’s obvious, is that film—and art all around—inspires. It inspires intelligent thought, conversation, memory, and of course, more art.

Mitchell Rosenzwieg’s “Subway Film” worked just that way. A portrait of New York City’s subway musicians, it was shot in black and white with a tiny hand-held camera and an internal microphone. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the musicians were actually recognizable. While subway musicians may not be on TV or the radio, they are famous in another way. Everyone in New York City has passed by them and has heard their music. When you see a picture of a street musician, you might remember, “Oh, that’s the guy who plays at the14th street stop!”

Once, a long time ago, I made the “mistake” of smiling at a Parisian who was playing a violin.
“No no, don’t do that,” my friend told me, “If you look at them, you’ll have to pay them.” I saw the same thing in Rosenzweig’s film: Hardly any of the passers-by gave so much as a glance to the subway musicians. Good musicians are practically throwing themselves in our faces (bad ones, too, of course) and we ignore them, yet pay more money for what we can’t get so easily, such as a concert with “real” famous people. Sometimes people forget that street musicians make a community what it is.

Or, as one of the baseball players says in the Alfred Catalfo film “Wages of Sin,” where baseball players are average Joes and plumbers are rock stars, “We hit a ball with a stick. It’s not as if we have a marketable skill, like a teacher.” Or a musician or an independent filmmaker for that matter.
At Filmstream, all but one of the 12 filmmakers were present, and each artist said a little something before their film. Mingling took place after the show, with free popcorn and soda.

At the end of the night, everyone, including the three judges, voted for their favorite film. “The Listeners” by Michael Gillis, a very well-acted film about a couple driving home late at night who find a man in the middle of the road, mourning his son, was chosen as “best film” by the judges. The audience award went to Rosenzweig, and Matthew Emerson’s “Giovani Pagliaccio,” an artistic, black and white film about a mime, won both awards in the student category.