Sorry, no report on South by Southwest. I didn't go, for reasons I won't get into.

Next up on the fest schedule is Taos Talking Picture Festival. What's this fest all about? According to their fact sheet, "Taos Talking Pictures encourages the thoughtful production and informed consumption of moving images." It is rated as one of the 10 best film fests in the world by Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide. Whenever filmmakers talk about fests that are about people who love films instead of about indie-film commerce, Taos is always mentioned. It's possible that there won't be a single significant acquisitions exec there at all. But I'm going anyway.

This is a fest that used to give away land as a prize to the best film, but I guess they're not doing that anymore. It was a great gimmick. I don't know what happened. Maybe filmmakers who "won" got sick of being saddled with property taxes on an acre of empty desert. Maybe some of them went to jail for non-payment of taxes. I don't know. This is just speculation. I'll ask somebody while I'm there.

If you're in the area, you can catch "Nothing So Strange" at the following times and places:

Friday, April 12, 2002
3:45 pm
Storyteller Cinema 1

Saturday, April 13, 2002
1:30 pm
The Rio

I'll be in Taos April 10-14 should you care to accost me.