10th Festival Wrap-up

The 10th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival, held last month at the Downtown Independent, was a tremendous success, and I want to thank everyone who helped make the event happen.

First of all, a BIG “Thank you!” to all of the club board members for their hard work putting the festival together. I would like to thank festival co-founder John Hart, who first started our 3-D movie competitions. Thanks to Lawrence Kaufman for all of his efforts at the theater before, during, and after the event. He acted as our official fest photographer, and his images can be viewed on the club website. Thank you to Philip Steinman and David Kuntz for chairing the Hollywood Exhibition, and providing the excellent digital images and stereo cards on view at the theater. Thanks to Barry Rothstein and Shannon Benna for their assistance in acquiring the red carpet and banner that graced the lobby. And a special thanks to Shannon for hosting and moderating the Stereo Sisters screening. I want to thank Oliver Dean for his tireless efforts distributing glasses and ballots at the auditorium door. We’re all very grateful to Shyam Kannapurakkaran for all of his hard work, especially his arranging for the donation of delicious Indian food from the restaurant Mayura for our Holiday Party, and thanks to Jeremy McGee for assiting with the logistics of the party. And of course, I have to thank Jodi Kurland for everything that she did behind the scenes for the festival, from pre-screening the programming, to creating spreadsheets and ballots, to running around for printing and supplies, and staffing the box office at the theater - the festival wouldn’t have happened without her.

I want to thank club member Bruce Austin who made all of the arrangements for and moderated our great presentation with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and thank you to the scientists and representatives of JPL who participated. Big thanks to Greg Veneklasen and the LA Guild of Puppetry for hosting the centerpiece 3-D puppet screening, and to filmmaker Paul Stutenbaumer for coming all the way from Germany to show his work and answer questions from the audience. Thank you to Jim Kirst and the staff at the Downtown Independent, especially Emily, Gus, and Austin. We all appreciate the continued support of the theater as our venue for 3-D movies.

Thanks to all of the filmmakers whose work graced the screen. There is no festival without you, and we were all thrilled to see your films. And, finally, the greatest thank you to everyone who attended the fest. We do this annual event for you, the 3-D community, and we all appreciate your continued support of independent stereoscopic cinema and photography.