Episode 1: 2008 Marfa Film Festival

Welcome to The Show by B-Side, a bi-weekly look at filmmakers, festivals, and audiences.

A few weeks ago, our intrepid Festival Ops Manager Chris Holland brought his Flip video camera to the 2008 Marfa Film Festival. He came back with some great stories about the festival, and some great footage to back it up.

So that gave us an idea.

With over 200 festival partners and counting, B-Side has an average of 5 new partner festivals taking place each week somewhere in the World. And with Flip cameras starting at $99, and fitting comfortably in your pocket, they are an ideal means to profile a festival from the inside. (No, we do not have a commercial arrangement with Flip — we just think they’re really cool).

The idea is this: each week, send a Flip camera to a filmmaker attending a B-Side festival. Have them shoot whatever they want, send the camera back, and we’ll cut together a brief festival profile. This got us thinking about all the other things we could do, and The Show was born.

In coming weeks, you can expect coverage of more festivals, but also profile of filmmakers, films, audiences — basically anything that fits within the ever-expanding B-Side universe.

So welcome to episode 1, featuring the 2008 Marfa Film Festival. In two weeks, our next episide will feature the 2008 Portland Women’s Fest. You can expect a new episode every two weeks (for now).

Let us know what you think. And if you have an idea for a segment, or you’d like to shoot something for us, just drop us a line at theshow@bside.com.