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San Francisco IndieFest Wrap-Up - February 17, 2003 The San Francisco IndieFest was all it was cracked up to be--an unpretentious venue for good indie films. Programmers Tod Booth, Bruce Fletcher and Molli Amara Simon programmed some really fine films, and the festival ran like clockwork due in part to the work of folks like volunteer coordinator Alicia Perre-Dowd. There was a party every night at a bar called Jezebel's, and I'm sure there was much debauchery there, for people who like that sort of thing. Best of all, hordes of people showed up for the "Nothing So Strange" screenings, drawn by a San Francisco Chronicle story and our open-source announcement. The tech-savvy crowds cheered our open-source plans and especially cheered Citizens for Truth for releasing their new DVD. On behalf of Citizens for Truth, I gave away several of the brand-spanking-new DVDs. The San Francisco tech and film community gave us an outpouring of support. When I happened to mention during a Q&A that Citizens for Truth was having trouble putting their DVD material on the Web for download, a man named David Hakim of the Bay Area Film Commission yelled out from the crowd, "I'll host it!" Everyone cheered this generous gesture. (Citizens for Truth and Hakim plan to work out the details in the next month.) John Sanchez, a production facilitator for AccessSF, San Francisco's thriving public access channel (cable channel 29), came up to me after the second screening and said he coincidentally was planning an open-source project of his own. He's going to create a pool of footage for San Francisco filmmakers to draw from--stock footage that is a bit more unique than the usual stock footage. He plans to add Citizens for Truth's DVD and, eventually, "Nothing So Strange's" raw footage to this pool. To discuss the new realm of "open-source video," John invited me to the studio to tape a special half-hour show on the subject (air date unknown). And so I found myself on a public-access talk-show-format show, an eerily similar situation to a certain scene in "Nothing So Strange."
And, yes, in case you're wondering, I am aware that I look like a dirty hippie. My mother will be upset to learn that I didn't get a haircut before going to San Francisco. She strongly suggested that I should. I haven't had a haircut in 13 months, since all the way back in January 2002, when I impulsively got a flat-top.
At the public-access station I also met Jeff Diehl, a writer and producer who ran the control booth for his friend John while we recorded the show. Jeff authors a great blog called Utter Speculation, which will also be airing as a TV show on Channel 29 soon.
John also recorded a segment with David James, formerly of Citizens for Truth, and now president of Citizens for Action. David has had a haircut far more recently than I have.
Coming up next is the Birmingham Sidewalk Cinematheque screening (Feb 25), followed by the Idaho International Film Festival (March 8 and 9).
Best,
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Contact us at doc@nothingsostrange.com