My Dar­ling Quar­an­tine brings the film fes­ti­val expe­ri­ence online

Film fes­ti­vals have been self-can­cel­ing around the globe like falling domi­noes as the full scope and sever­i­ty of the Coro­n­avirus threat comes into focus. Though Cannes still has yet to pull that par­tic­u­lar trig­ger, many film fans have been laid low by the prospect of going the rest of the year with­out any fes­ti­val excitement.

It’s a big, gloomy cloud, but not with­out its sil­ver lin­ing – this morn­ing came the announce­ment of My Dar­ling Quar­an­tine, an inno­v­a­tive alter­na­tive scratch­ing the fes­ti­val itch for the time being. Pro­gram­mer Enri­co Van­nuc­ci has cor­ralled a coali­tion of col­leagues to assem­ble a selec­tion of short films with nowhere to go, and now they’re bring­ing them to the gen­er­al public.

My Dar­ling Quar­an­tine, a project host­ed on the plat­form Talk­ing Shorts, offers an array of shorts sched­uled to play at fes­ti­vals already shut­tered, includ­ing SXSW, Tribeca, Glas­gow Short Film Fes­ti­val, and Poland’s Short Waves Fest. It even adheres to the com­pet­i­tive spir­it of a fes­ti­val envi­ron­ment, pit­ting sev­en shorts against one anoth­er each week with vot­ing on the favorite decid­ing a winner.

And of course it’s all for a good cause; though the films may be free, all dona­tions to the My Dar­ling Quar­an­tine GoFundMe will be split in half, with part going to Doc­tors With­out Bor­ders and part going to a to-be-deter­mined orga­ni­za­tion pro­vid­ing cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions and their employ­ees adverse­ly affect­ed by the pan­dem­ic. The GoFundMe account will remain active so long as this trou­bling chap­ter in world his­to­ry continues.

It may seem like a small ges­ture, get­ting some short films online and avail­able, but small ges­tures will mean the world in the aus­tere weeks and months to come. As every­one rec­on­ciles them­selves with the fate of pro­tract­ed stays at home, we will grow increas­ing­ly grate­ful for these lit­tle fac­sim­i­les of life-as-usu­al. Watch some good movies. Think about some­thing else for a while.