We have a conversation with Filmmaker and Executive Director of the Bend Film Festival, Todd Looby.
We talk about the advantages of submitting and attending the Bend Film Festival, why Bend, Oregon is America’s best-kept secret, Improv as a catalyst to the creative life, the cross-section of engineering and artistry, and his feature films ‘Lefty,’ ‘Son of None,’ and ‘Be Good.’
We also cover the power of acceptance and why festival acknowledgment is so critical to filmmakers and the conflation of innovation and integration. Enjoy!
More on Todd Looby
Todd has led the BendFilm organization since 2014. In that time, BendFilm's budget tripled, the festival became Academy qualified and was named one of “Top 25 Coolest Festivals in the World”, and the organization acquired a daily-operating cinema, the Tin Pan Theater. Prior to working at BendFilm, Todd was a business manager for Chicago’s largest general construction firm and the director of a non-profit that runs a boarding school in Liberia, West Africa. Todd is also a self-taught filmmaker—his films screened at festivals across the country, winning awards at Slamdance and receiving rave reviews from the likes of Chicago Tribune and Variety.
About the MAKE IT Podcast
The MAKE IT podcast is a platform for the voice of independent filmmaker. We offer a variety of educational, aspirational, and entertaining content that promotes the success of creatives across the filmmaking community and the film industry.
Our Conversations with filmmaking professionals are dedicated to sharing the advice, knowledge, and insights of experienced filmmakers while exploring what it truly means to be an independent creative in the highly competitive world of filmmaking. Each filmmaker conversation is backed by thoughtful research that allows us to uncover the raw, authentic truths behind each filmmaker's journey.
Through our Indie Talks, we share our thoughts and perspectives on navigating independent film from the perspective of Advisory and Executive Producers. We discuss topics that are relevant to filmmakers across a wide spectrum of filmmaking perspectives, and we do our best to uncover hidden truths and new developments in the film industry. Our goal is to help filmmakers avoid the pitfalls and obstacles on the business side of film so that their filmmaking creativity can thrive.
Our Industry Insights provide bite-sized actionable advice that filmmaking professionals and creatives of all kinds can use to keep their heads up as they continue their filmmaking journeys. With advice sourced from the filmmaking community, we build upon the wisdom of our filmmaking guests to provide our audience with truly aspirational and inspirational content.
The Mistakes in the Making series gives our filmmaking friends an opportunity to speak directly to our filmmaking audience to share a specific lesson they've learned through a mistake they've made. We are firm believers that mistakes can be the gateway to success when we open our hearts and minds to learning from them, sharing them, and using them to Be Better.
