If you haven’t heard of Diliana Alexander, the Filmgate Interactive Festival or Indie Film Club Miami, it’s ok. Here’s your chance to catch up with Alexander’s mission to foster and transform the transmedia industry in Miami.  Diliana Alexader (front row, right), Pioneer Winter (front row, left), Jose Jacho (back row, left) and Gianfranco Biachi (back row, right).

ND: Who is Diliana Alexander?

DA: I am a South Florida filmmaker and now the executive director of Indie Film Club Miami and Filmgate Interactive (a Knight Arts Challenge grantee). I was born in Bulgaria, grew up in Toronto, but have not seen snow for five years, because I absolutely fell for South Florida.

ND: What motivated you to start Indie Film Club Miami/Filmgate Interactive?

DA: Indie Film Club Miami came out of a need. As a filmmaker, I needed for Indie Film Club Miami to exist. The organization was conceived together with Jose Jacho. O Cinema offered us a home and for the last two years, every month has been a revelation – there is a big South Florida film community, most would rather stay in Florida if they could, there is so much talent. The community is very supportive of each other comparatively to other cities, and the audiences are very open to new experiences.

Filmgate Interactive came out of curiosity. I had worked on a transmedia project in Toronto and it was just unbelievably fun, figuring out how to engage the audience and how to tell the story across multiple platforms. With the assistance of new tech, there is no need to constrain yourself to just a film or a book or a dance. You can link them and you can continue the story beyond the limits of a two hour performance. Making your audience co-conspirators in a way where they create the story along with you, is very powerful.

ND: FilmGate Interactive, an interactive film and new technology conference, won a 2013 $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge grant. How will this grant advance, enhance and/or expand this initiative?

DA: The Knight Foundation with its Knight Art Challenge every year, literally unleashes a hurricane of cultural activity in South Florida. We are grateful to be in the vortical flow this year and feel the responsibility to allocate the $50,000/year with sustainability in mind. This year, we will bring some of the greatest transmedia and independent film minds and projects to South Florida – Philip Bloom, PBS POV Digital, the National Film Board of Canada’s “Insomnia,” Jacob Niedzwiecki, Mark Harris’s “The Lost Children,” Jody Christopherson’s “The Skype Show,” Mad King Thomas’ “The Observer is Suspect,” Murmur’s stunning “The Aatsinki Season,” etc. In addition, this year we are producing three local interactive projects – “L loves M,” Liz Ferrer/Byron Sherer and Kevin Arrow’s topical interactive installation, which explores the themes of privacy and surveillance; the Pink Kracken’s “Case Study M”; as well as IFCM’s “Romantic Endings,” a transmedia food, film and dance experience with professional hand holders. ND: Why is Filmgate Interactive, South Florida’s first fully interactive film and new technology conference, important for Miami’s emerging film industry?

DA: At Filmgate, we believe the future of storytelling is interactive and new tech enables audience immersion and cross platform connections. With the interactive screenings, we show the infinite possibilities that cross-platform storytelling present to filmmakers. They can be low budget and be very effective. All of our workshops and panels are designed to activate new stories. This year, we have five local artists presenting their transmedia experiences. Next year we hope to double or triple the number of local story architects. Our mission has always been to elevate the skills of local filmmakers and to present opportunities that will keep the exodus of talent from South Florida from going to other big film centers. Every time we host an international filmmaker and they experience the vibrant local talent, the incredible nature and weather, they return to their countries as our cultural ambassadors.

ND: Filmgate is about transmedia (cross-platform) storytelling. What makes this mode of such a powerful force in the way stories are told and experienced?

DA: Henry Jenkins defines transmedia storytelling as “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” To create such a complex narrative, you really need to know your story, it’s all about the story. Because you think about how you engage your audience, as a creator, you think about information and communication flows. Consequently, the experiences are entertaining and memorable. The variety of platforms reach a wider audience, gamers, readers, etc. That’s what makes transmedia storytelling a powerful tool.

ND: What are the dangers, if any, of trasmedia storytelling?

DA: Telling a good story is what makes us human, but interactive and cross platform is hard to grasp at first. Interactive storytelling is so varied, and you can see that at Filmgate 2014, form a transmedia musical like “The Skype Show,” to an interactive film/theater performance like “The Lost Children,’ interactive documentaries like “Insomnia,” “Empire,” “The Aatsinki Season” and “Unknown Spring,” to interactive dance like “The Narrator is Suspect” and “Ensemble.” It might feel overwhelming to the audience because it is hard to categorize and judge. We love that part of transmedia, the infinite possibilities it presents.

ND: Is Filmgate for Miami artists only or is it open to national/international artists as well?

DA: It was very strange. Filmgate became an international and national festival in its first year. Last year, two filmmakers flew from Australia and three from Canada, one drove from Portland. This year we are hosting filmmakers from Berlin, London, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Columbia, Texas, Luisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and the Caribbean.

ND: Tell us more about the Interactive New Technology Playground at the Rubell Family Collection?

DA: This is the our first year of presenting the Interactive Tech Playground at the Rubell Collection. It’s curated by Midtown Video, and the exhibition will feature the biggest names in cinema, including Canon, Sony, Schneider Optics, Kessler, Manfrotto, and more. With a studio set and live actors, visitors will have the opportunity to operate and experiment with cameras, lenses, lens accessories, dollies and cranes. We love new technology and are so excited to get a chance to peak into the future.

ND: What’s next for Indie Film Club Miami/Filmgate?

DA: We are producing four local transmedia projects this year. Also working on adopting a novel to a feature script. It’s still in negotiations with the publisher, so this is as much as we can share, but the story is completely immersed in South Florida – the street names, the locations, the quirks. Next year’s Filmgate will spotlight transmedia projects from Colombia, and hopefully we will present many more from South Florida.

ND: Favorite meal?

DA: Octopus.

Filmgate Interactive Film Festival runs from February 1st – 5th at various locations in Miami-Dade County. For the complete schedule, visit film-gate.org/schedule.