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Agnes Varnum is a freelance writer, film programmer and communications manager for the Austin Film Society. She is the primary contributor to doc it out and Tribeca Film Institute's Resources.

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A Quickie

December 18th, 2007 • Related Posts • Tags

While things should be winding down for a holiday break, it seems instead that I’m up to my eyeballs in work. So, here’s a snapshot of interesting that I don’t have time to write about:

Pamela Cohn reports Nancy Buirski is stepping down as artistic director of Full Frame, the doc fest in North Carolina.  Maybe whoever replaces her will start on that gawd-awful website?

Mitch Teplitsky has the details on fundraising workshops by Morrie Warshawski, who literally wrote the book on raising film financing, Shaking the Money Tree, in NYC in January. I saw him on a festival panel in 2004 or 2005 and thought that his advice was common sense stuff, but I’ve had more work experience since then and realize that even smart people sometimes lack common sense. Could be a worthy investment.

Peter Jackson will produce The Hobbit film(s)! Hells yeah! Now, if we can just get more episodes of My So-Called Life…

There Are 2 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Erin on 19 December 2007:

    OMG, I just went back this week and watched MSCL for the first time since it aired. I was kind of amazed by how good it was, I think I was too stuck up back in the day to see its many wonders.

    I’ve been exchanging feverish emails with a friend over whether (or how immediately) it served as the template for The Hills. I say, majorly.

  2. Comment by Mitchell Teplitsky on 23 December 2007:

    Hi Agnes - thanks for spreading the word about Morrie’s workshop. I don’t work with him or get anything from it, but do like his work, and your post reminded me again why I like to blog — I enjoy spreading the word about things I like, and seeing people get value of that. And you are right - his message in workshops and books is very basic and common sense fundraising 101, which is why think it’s effective. Most producers didn’t get this kind of fundamental coaching before. I had a friend who was a fundraiser for a university, and he used to coach me. You know what his most important teaching was? Just keep asking. Yeah, basic, but it reminded/cajoled me to do the basic work and not avoid.

    Mitch