// THE VERGE — MODA & SOCIETÀ
New York’s first microdrama film festival searches for its audience
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At Alza, the entertainment industry is trying to reinvent itself.
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It remains to be seen if people really want to watch vertical content on horizontal TV screens, but many filmmakers and creators were confident that their latest projects would play well at Alza — New York City’s first microdrama film festival. Founded by former Tribeca Festival chief operating officer Pete Torres, Alza, which took place October 16th through 18th, was billed as a showcase for the “the creativity, innovation, and growing cultural impact of stories made for the vertical screen.” The festival featured a selection of microdrama and film premieres as well as industry-focused panels with executives who all seemed to genuinely believe that vertical entertainment is going to be an integral part of the future.
That proposition felt rather dubious as I sat down in an AMC theater in Manhattan for screenings of director Jerry Bradford’s vertical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the original Billionaire’s Broken Vow starring Eric Roberts. Though both of those projects were full-length features, they were filled with jarring jump cuts and abrupt soundtrack changes that reminded me how the films are cut up into short “episodes” for microdrama apps. That wasn’t as much of an issue with shorter series like the romantasy horror Blood Surfer or collections of videos like disability rights activist Lachi Music’s “Glam Struts.” But it was still very strange to see content that was clearly meant to be watched on phones being projected in the center of massive screens in the same theater that’s currently showing Resident Evil, The Social Reckoning, and You Can See Everything.
Most fans of vertical videos and microdramas consume them through their mobile devices, but platforms like Instagram and Vurt have been rolling out dedicated smart TV apps that are designed to keep vertical video viewers glued to their couches. The popularity of YouTube — which you can access in so many different ways — has spooked major streaming services like Disney Plus, Netflix, and HBO Max into experimenting with feeds of vertical clips. Alza was filled with people who were confident that they were leading the charge to legitimize vertical content as an art form that’s going to revolutionize the entertainment industry. There’s no denying that some microdramas have been wildly successful, but Alza’s programming left me doubtful that the future is vertical.
As odd as I personally found much of what was playing at Alza, it did seem to entertain some of the festival’s other attendees, many of whom were middle-aged women. None of the screenings were packed, but while watching a few steamy, romance-forward dramas, I was surprised to hear peals of laughter and gasps coming from the front of the theater, where festival staffers encouraged people to sit in order to have the best viewing experience.