DISPATCH FROM MASSACHUSETTS | If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead

"If it doesn't spread, it's dead." With that pointed dictum, Professor Henry Jenkins kicked off a series of profound deliberations on the nature of new media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Futures of Entertainment conference last weekend. Blending academic theory with practical insight, the conference (co-presented by MIT's Comparative Media Studies program and the Convergence Culture Consortium) surveyed the many ways in which emerging technologies have empowered audiences and forced the industry to adapt new models.
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Launching New IFC Series, Pundits and Writers Ask: Is Modern Journalism About Truth?

If the mainstream media suffers from attention deficit disorder, bloggers have obsessive compulsive disorder, posed Arianna Huffington this afternoon at Michael's Restuarant, mecca for Manhattan's media elite. Ringleader for the leading left-leaning water cooler Huffington Post, she moderated a spirited conversation about the state of today's news media pegged to tonight's launch of The IFC Media Project.
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DISPATCH FROM MASSACHUSETTS | Nearly 10 Years and Counting: Creative Capital Convenes the Class of '08

Nearly ten years ago, at a Manhattan cocktail party celebrating the launch of the Creative Capital Foundation, board member Richard Linklater reflected on the significance of receiving a small state arts grant early on in his career, back before making "Slacker." Despite the limited amount of cash, the funding was just the encouragement he needed to continue his pursuits as a filmmaker. For almost a decade now, Creative Capital has been giving modest-sized grants that not only validate artists, but help them develop skills and sustain a livelihood through their own creativity. The idea of a foundation offering both funding and broader career support is invaluable, but rather unheard of. As one seasoned Creative Capital grantee admitted during a private consultation at the organization's sixth artist's retreat this weekend, "After Creative Capital, I never thought of a foundation as simply a place to get money."
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DISPATCH FROM VEGAS | Ann Arbor Declares Victory As Summit Examines the State of Fests

The Ann Arbor Film Festival made news, announcing a settlement in its federal lawsuit against the state of Michigan, at the 4th annual International Film Festival Summit earlier this week. Word came as festival organizers from around the country met near Las Vegas, NV to talk about the state of their growing industry and discuss some of the challenges facing film festivals today.
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DISPATCH FROM LAS VEGAS: Commiserating and Taking up the Slack in Distribution, International Film Festival Summit Attendees Talk Shop

With about twenty panels and organized chats over two-and-a-half days in the convention center at the Las Vegas Luxor Hotel, starting in the mornings and running through early evenings -- in addition to a select group of vendors pushing their products -- impromptu meetings between festival organizers and plentiful weak coffee provided by the hotel, the International Film Festival Summit, which ended Tuesday night, may have had some of the familiar trappings of the Men's Warehouse convention taking place in rooms down the hall, but for attendees who are in the business of creating events, the IFFS went down successfully. Or at least according to casual discussion with a group of festival organizers who attended the third IFFS December 3-5.
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DISPATCH FROM LAS VEGAS: Festival Summit Acknowledges Sector's Growth and Challenges

Representatives from over 60 film events from the U.S. and abroad converged in this city of glitz, Las Vegas, for the third installment of the International Film Festival Summit---basically a three-day pow-wow for film fests both big and small to schmooze, trade war stories, and assess the health of their "industry," which by most accounts, has grown rather spectacularly in terms of numbers in the past three decades. Perhaps 200 people converged in a large meeting room at the Luxor Hotel on the Vegas Strip for the IFFS's first panel Monday morning at what a few attendees joked was a "very un-festival" like 9 a.m. for the summit's first full panel, "What We Wish We'd Known Ten Years Ago..."
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IFP MARKET '06: With a New Conference and 186 Projects, Indie Film Market Set to Begin

In recent years, as the independent film business has morphed and matured, so to has the IFP Market, the leading program of the Independent Feature Project. Now under the Independent Film Week umbrella, the event will officially kick off with the New York City premiere and party for Dito Montiel's "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints." Running Sunday, September 17 through Thursday, September 21 in New York City, the IFP Market and its new Filmmaker Conference will present some 186 projects and offer a number of informational programs. Most of the projects, grouped in a few different categories, are still in development and seeking financing from a range of equity financiers, sales agents and distributors, while writers and directors will take meetings with potential producers and a number of finished film and works-in-progress screenings are also on tap.
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When A Fest Strategy Goes Awry: Traverse City Screens "Jesus Camp" Against Magnolia's Wishes

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's "Jesus Camp," an unreleased documentary that insiders hope will play to audiences on all sides of the political spectrum, gained significant media attention in recent days when its distributor, Magnolia Pictures, unsuccessfully tried to stop Michael Moore from showing the film at his growing Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan this weekend. Against the wishes of those involved with the production, the movie, about a group of children that attend an evangelical summer camp in North Dakota, was boldly screened for more than 600 people during two sold-out festival showings. As reported in indieWIRE and other publications more than ten days ago, Magnolia decided to pull the film, concerned that screenings in a festival headed by Moore would taint the perception of the film in the run up to its theatrical release. Despite requests, Moore and the festival decided to screen the film anyway.
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