This is a film still from BACK TO WONDERLAND showing at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.
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Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 – quick guide to taking part

Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 – the UK’s only film festival dedicated to short form documentary – is underway (29 JUN to 05 JUL)! If you haven’t been to a virtual film festival before, here’s all you need to know about taking part.

By RADIANT CIRCUS

Twitter @radiantcircus | Instagram @radiantcircus

This is a film still from SONDERS by Chloe Abrahams showing at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.
SONDERS by Chloe Abrahams at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.

Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020, the UK’s only film festival entirely devoted to short documentary films, is underway and runs online from 29 June to 05 July. If you haven’t been to an online film festival before, here’s a quick guide about how to take part…

First of all, buy your ‘pay what you can’ Festival Pass at cheapcutsfest.com (tickets are being sold on the eventbrite platform).

The organisers know this is a hard financial time for everyone, so have made a series of suggested payments ranging from £5+ to £40+. Any amount you can afford will give you the full festival experience. If you can afford more, you will get rewards including recognition in future programmes for your support.

After you’ve paid for your pass, you’ll get an email with a link to become a member of the Cheap Cuts website (head back there now…). Click on the LOG IN icon in the top right corner of the website homepage. You’ll be asked the usual: name / email / password… It’s important you do this with the same email you booked your tickets with, so they know who you are 🙂

The festival organisers will then approve your membership. They promise to do so within the hour. Our approval email arrived almost instantaneously…

Your approval email will contain a link back to the Cheap Cuts website. Log back in using the details you entered above (name, email, password…), and the entire film festival awaits!

After you’ve logged in, the LOG IN icon changes to your name with a pull down menu. Select Festival Pass and hey presto (also use this menu to LOG OUT). All the film strands are available all at once in a very clean, tabbed interface. There’s no waiting to get to the good stuff: almost all the films are available for the duration of the festival (only a few films a restricted to the UK for licensing reasons. Some others will be live streamed).

Whilst you can watch the films strands at your leisure (not forgetting to get social using #cheapcuts2020), the LIVE EVENTS tab takes you to a schedule for the daily programme. The Cheap Cuts team will share the link to live events 20 minutes before the event is scheduled. You’ll also get emails each day of the event with that day’s running order and handpicked highlights from the festival team to help navigate your way around.

UPDATE [30 JUN]: The live events are streamed via YouTube. This all runs seamlessly but you’ll need to create or already have a YouTube channel to contribute questions to the Live Chat. This can be done easily when you arrive at the festival’s YouTube streaming page using the links sent to you by Cheap Cuts. Just don’t leave it until the actual Q&A to try and remember your YouTube login details like we did or you might miss your moment…!

Don’t forget to vote on your favourite films in each strand by clicking on the Audience Award box which shows up on the page for each strand.

If you want to join the festival buzz, don’t forget to join the event’s exclusive Facebook Group for Festival Pass holders.

Finally, an important word from the event organisers:

“These films are only accessible through this website. Do not share your log in details with anyone. A breach of terms and conditions will result in your account being blocked and reported. Respect filmmakers and festival programmes in these difficult times.”

Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020

One of our foundational values at RADIANT CIRCUS is “not screwing up anyone else’s game” (taken from the Carny Code). We expect you to do the same.

And that’s the meat of it… Join us!

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

UNCONVENTIONAL STORYTELLING

This is a film still from ANCORA LUCCIOLE by María Elorza showing at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 (29 June to 05 July).
ANCORA LUCCIOLE by María Elorza at Cheap Cuts 2020.

RADIANT CIRCUS is delighted to be joining Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 as a judge and award sponsor for this year’s Unconventional Storytelling strand.

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

This is an image of the poster for the Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival 2020 Edition.

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*THE SMALL PRINT: As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version. Event dates/times are subject to change by the venue/organiser. We try to only list events you can book for at the time of posting: however, some events may already be sold out. Please click quickly! We don’t filter by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should be 18+.

Main featured image: BACK TO WONDERLAND by Alice Fargier showing at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.