Sideworld Video Festival is a DIY film festival showcasing a series underground films and video art, with the goal of connecting filmmakers to create a tight-knit film scene throughout the East Coast, USA. The festival includes a screening of over 20 films from local artists, almost all of whom attend the festival, as well as a Q&A and contest with a prize for the best film. A large part of  the festival is also an interactive performance art piece that we create and perform which ties into the theme of the films. 

This festival was created as a way for local filmmakers and artists to connect with one another, and for their films to be seen with NO BARRIERS, which is why we keep submissions completely free and keep the event itself free and open to the public – as accessible as possible. We want to give talented filmmakers and artists a space for their work to be shown, an audience that cares about them, and an opportunity to connect and work with other filmmakers and artists. Several people who have screened or met at our festival have ended up collaborating on a project with one another, and we’ve had a whole collaborative animation group emerge from filmmakers who met at a festival we threw. Without the space and the opportunity to screen work, these filmmakers never would have met - and their collaborative films would never have been made, and that entire animation group never would have been created. It's important to know that we've held five of these festivals spanning from 2024 to now (we just held one on January 15th in New York), but we've never ran one in Baltimore due to lack of funds, especially since we pritize keeping the event completely free. We've only been able to organize these video festivals in Philadelphia and NYC due to connections with venue owners in those cities, but we're planning one in Baltimore in April 2026!