In the past several weeks, we have all experienced an amazing transformation of in-person events and gatherings as we endeavored to maintain community and honor commitments. The team at Longleaf has been a part of that trend, too, especially as we worked to recognize our filmmakers and present an annual “festival” for 2020. While we have regularly live-streamed our Official Selection announcements over the years, this year we also created an entertaining and immersive presentation of awards and prizes—a live-stream announcement we accomplished with help from this year’s media sponsor, CBS17 News, and one of their anchors, Bill Young (plus some magic).

Now  we are about to hold an #AloneTogether Viewing Event, when more than 50 of our award-winning and Official Selection filmmakers will share their films, without charge or registration, with their film fans.

We talked about schedules, sign-in forms, payment, and more. But we went with the simplest format for our viewing event for two main reasons.

• First, our annual festival has always been free to attend, and this just feels right for who Longleaf is.
• Second, TBH, creating more than that type of structure with our available resources of time, talent, and treasure would have been a real challenge: we Longleaf folks are also in the history business, for our home base, the North Carolina Museum of History, where, during the COVID-19 crisis, we have worked some long, inspired hours/days/weeks to create digital content that takes the museum out of the building and into the public—to home students, educators, families, senior centers, and general audiences—bringing history to life, for free, whatever their Tar Heel ZIP code.

Asking our filmmakers to share their work and provide access to their films seemed the simplest and most elegant solution for meeting our mission within a mission.

We understand that virtual fatigue is, perhaps, setting in, and we get it. We miss you, too: all our filmmakers and supporters of film and Longleaf.  Truly.  Still, we honor the thousands upon thousands of hours of—at times, inspired; at other times, as we know, tedious—work and collaboration that the Longleaf 2020 Official Selection films represent. And, wow, did they ever blow us away.

These films will do the same for you, their virtual audience, as well, so please plan to join us. Whether your preference is for documentaries, narratives, music videos, or some of all (yes, please!), Longleaf 2020 has got a film or 5 or 10 or more for you. Check the special event page at LongleafFilmFestival.com for a list of films and links for accessing them online. The viewing event is open from 4 p.m. on Friday, May 8, through 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 9: our original festival dates and times.

We are sincerely grateful to our filmmakers and their film families for their generosity. We appreciate independent film fans who support them, as well as Longleaf, with their positivity and congratulations. We so wish you could all be with us in person to honor these filmmakers with your presence; instead, we ask you to recognize them with your words, emojis, and e-outreach at our #AloneTogether Viewing Event page on Facebook.

And, BYOP.  Seriously: Just do it!

Longleaf 2021
May 14–15 at the North Carolina Museum of History.
Film, Fun, and Community.

Click here to watch films during our 2020 #AloneTogether Viewing Event.
Click here for an alphabetical list of our 2020 Official Selection films.
Click here for a complete list of winners for 2020.