{"id":176,"date":"2026-03-29T14:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/?page_id=176"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:54:22","slug":"beginnings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hammad Zaidi<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>watched a documentary about the clubbing of harp seals as a kid. All snow-white pups perished except for one called \u201cThe Lonely Seal.\u201d The name stuck, as did Hammad\u2019s intent to make the world a better place. A few decades and several charitable endeavors later, from limping door-to-door to wrangle donations for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in the 1970s to donating to his alma mater UCLA for 30 years and several multiple-year contributions to film festivals, including Slamdance, SXSW, Nashville, and the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee \u2013 Hammad\u2019s mission has always been to do his part in making to the world a better place to live.<\/p>\n

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Hammad started judging festivals with Flickerfest in Bondi Beach, Australia, in 1997, a timeless experience where he and his fellow judges would dive into the ocean between screenings. From there, Hammad became a Judge, World Cinema Screener, Filmmaker Advisor, Panelist, Screenwriting Contest Founder\/Judge, Program Curator, Screenwriting Award Creator, Advisory Board Member, and\/or sponsor at several film festivals, including Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW, and Nashville. Hammad then started the Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay and Music Festival in 2018.<\/p>\n

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In 2005, Hammad launched Lonely Seal Releasing, a distribution company that attends significant film markets and festivals to buy and sell cinema. The move made Hammad one of about 1,200 Priority Content Buyers worldwide.<\/p>\n

MARKETS AND FESTIVALS ATTENDED<\/h3>\n

MARCH\u00c9 DU FILM<\/a> \u2013\u00a0CANNES, FRANCE<\/a>
\nMIPCOM<\/a> \u2013 CANNES, FRANCE<\/a>
\nMIPTV<\/a> \u2013 CANNES, FRANCE<\/a>
\nEUROPEAN FILM MARKET<\/a> \u2013 BERLIN, GERMANY<\/a>
\nFILMART<\/a> \u2013 HONG KONG, CHINA<\/a>
\nTIFFCOM<\/a> \u2013 TOKYO, JAPAN<\/a>
\nAMERICAN FILM MARKET<\/a> \u2013 SANTA MONICA, CA<\/a><\/h3>\n

CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL<\/a>
\nBERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL<\/a>
\nTORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL<\/a>
\nSUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL<\/a>
\nSLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL<\/a>
\nSXSW<\/a>
\nTOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL<\/a><\/h3>\n

Lonely Seal Streaming<\/a> was built to keep our film festival going through the pandemic-related public closures of 2020. Now, we\u2019re re-launching in 2026. We welcome you to join our mission to \u201ctell stories aching to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Film Bite, Inc. is a vertical filmmaking production and distribution entity. Vertical filmmaking is the production of video content in a 9:16 aspect ratio, designed specifically for smartphone viewing in portrait mode. It showcases 1-3-minute episodes with addictive storylines, often ending in cliffhangers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hammad Zaidi\u00a0watched a documentary about the clubbing of harp seals as a kid. All snow-white pups perished except for one called \u201cThe Lonely Seal.\u201d The name stuck, as did Hammad\u2019s intent to make the world a better place. A few decades and several charitable endeavors later, from limping door-to-door to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inspiro_page_layout":"narrow","inspiro_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-176","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/176\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmbite.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}