Goodbye <3

I’m admittedly not very good at goodbyes. Yep, totally one of those people who skulks out of an event/party/whatever without saying anything (but not before grabbing as many snacks as I can carry).

But that didn’t seem right for this, because MUFF was so much more than me and it would be a disservice to all of the incredible women I worked with and films/filmmakers we championed to not say something.

So here I am, trying to say something. MUFF is ending now, for good.

This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, given how quiet MUFF has been since last year. But it’s been a decision I’ve laboured over for months now. It’s hard when it’s something you’ve started and you have to be the one to end it. The words “failure” and “quitter” kept needling my brain and I felt extreme amounts of guilt for not trying harder, for not making this bigger, for giving up.

It’s okay for things to end. Because sometimes it’s time and we say goodbye and it’s sad but also it’s okay. It’s okay for things to end.

Besides, MUFF has been one of the greatest adventures I’ve ever been on. Without it, I wouldn’t have met and worked with so many incredible women (many of whom became great friends). MUFF played a huge part in helping me hone my social media/marketing skills/writing skills, which led to so many incredible work opportunities, including helping me land my first job-job in social media at TIFF.

When MUFF was IRL, we made a point to share local/up-and-coming and lesser-known filmmakers with our audiences alongside the bigger films through programming like miniMUFF, Reel Girl Talk, and HerStory. It was an honour getting to know the films and filmmakers we featured. And for a time we had a pre-show pop-up shop where we invited local women artists to sell their wares, which honestly was the COOLEST.

And when MUFF shifted to be fully online we (and by “we” I mostly mean Seana, because she almost single handedly kept that blog going the past two years!!!!) continued to highlight marginalized voices on our Blog via interviews and essays. And let me just pause here and say getting to work with the online version of MUFF these past few years with Seana has been one of the greatest joys in my life, and not just because our names sound the same. I LOVE YOU SEANA.

We also had the honour of connecting with and championing many local organizations over the years like Breakthroughs Film Festival, Christie Pits Film Festival, Toronto Silent Film Festival, Black Women Film! Canada, and so much more.

It’s hilarious to think this all started way back in 2014 with an idea to put on a screening of Spice World with sparkles and a photobooth, but here we are. So thank you to everyone who helped make MUFF what it was over the years. I am forever, eternally grateful. I’ll leave you with the words of the women who started it all:

Goodbye my friend
I( know you're gone, you said you're gone, but I can still feel you here)
It's not the end
(I gotta keep it strong before the pain turns into fear)
So glad we made it
Time will never change it, no, no, no
You know it's time to say goodbye

I’m going to make sure this site and the blog stays up so all the hard work, writings, films, etc that went in to making MUFF so magical can stay immortalized.

Seana is continuing to write and interview via her own blog (yasssss!!!!!) so please reach out to her there if you have a film/filmmaker you want covered.

And if you need something social media and/or Twilight related, you can find me online, as always.

I love you all (except for that one guy who yelled that misogynistic grossness at our screening of Mean Girls way back when, and that other guy who tried to steal the Point Break photobooth props that other time).

Siân