The opening night event will be an appearance by Oscar nominated film director PETER BOGDANOVICH. The director of classics including The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, who appeared frequently on the HBO series The Sopranos, Bogdanovich will share his uncanny impersonations and fascinating personal anecdotes, all of which demonstrate his love for the art of filmmaking. During the week we will be screening three of his films, including Paper Moon and Targets. Mr. Bogdanovich’s presentation will be preceded by a reception on the mezzanine.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
The Last Picture Show, Friday March 20 at 9pm
Paper Moon, Saturday March 21 at 4pm

Director of Election, Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt, and Oscar winner for his film Sideways, who will discuss his career and his upcoming film A Fork in the Road.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
Citizen Ruth, Sunday March 22
Election, Sunday March 22 at 4pm

Artist website: www.alexanderpayne.net

James Ivory is unable to appear in person due to an ankle injury. He will appear in a LIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW from New York, and answer your questions.

Clips from his new film, The City of Your Final Destination will be shown, followed by a screening of The Golden Bowl. We apologize for this unforeseen change.

BIO: Acclaimed director of over 30 films, including Roseland, The Europeans, A Room with a View, Slaves of New York, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Howard’s End, and Remains of the Day. His films for the Merchant-Ivory Company have won six Academy Awards in various categories.

Artist website: www.merchantivory.com

A graduate of the University of Southern California film school, Irvin Kershner began his career in 1950, producing documentaries for the U.S. Information Service in the Middle East. He later turned to television, directing and photographing a series of documentaries called "Confidential File." Kershner was one of the directors given his first break by producer Roger Corman, for whom he shot Stakeout on Dope Street (1958). The main theme that runs through many of Kershner's films is social alienation and human weaknesses - although his biggest commercial success was the sci-fi blockbuster Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

"I like to fill up the frame with the [characters'] faces. There's nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face."

Kershner had been one of George Lucas' instructors in college. At first he turned down the opportunity to direct The Empire Strikes Back, but his agent convinced him to take the job. His other films include : A Fine Madness (1966), The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Robocop 2 (1990).

Scheduled Film Screening:
The Empire Strikes Back, Sunday, March 29 at 1:30pm, 8:30pm

Joe Morgenstern is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal. He joined the Journal in 1995 and is based in Santa Monica, California.

Joe was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times before he became a theater and movie critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1959. He moved to Newsweek as movie critic in 1965 and was a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1983 to 1988. He has written television scripts, including "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" and several episodes of "Law & Order." Mr. Morgenstern is co-founder of the National Society of Film Critics. A graduate of Lehigh University, he won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

Scheduled Film Screening:
Melvin and Howard, Saturday March 21 at 12pm - Introduction by Joe Morgenstern

Bill Plympton has created 35 animated short films and six animated features. His illustrations and cartoons have been published in The New York Times and The Village Voice, as well as in the magazines Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Penthouse, and National Lampoon. His political cartoon strip Plympton, which began in 1975 in the Soho Weekly News, eventually was syndicated and appeared in over 20 newspapers.

The actress Martha Plimpton served as associate producer on Plympton's animated feature Hair High (2004), doing much of the casting. The movie's voice cast included her father Keith Carradine and her uncle David Carradine. In 2005, Plympton animated a music video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say", and his short Guard Dog was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The following year, he created the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song". His new animated feature, Idiots and Angels, was nominated in the feature film category at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Scheduled Film Screening:
Fleischer Bros. Studio Retrospective, Saturday March 21 at 10am (Introduction)
Idiots and Angels, Saturday March 21 at 4:15pm

Artists website: www.plymptoons.com
Film Website: www.idiotsandangels.com

Robert Stone is a multiple-award-winning documentary filmmaker whose first film, Radio Bikini (1988) was nominated for an Oscar. In addition to making highly acclaimed feature documentaries such as Oswald's Ghost (2007), Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004), Stone directed and edited a 22-part multi-media exhibition about the life and times of President Kennedy, which forms the centerpiece of the museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, where it remains on permanent display. His latest film, EARTH DAYS, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.

Scheduled Film Screening:
Earth Days, Saturday March 28 at 2pm - MONTEREY PREMIERE

Monty Miranda's feature film directorial debut, Skills Like This, won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL. In August Skills Like This, had its International Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival where it was honored with "BEST OF THE FEST".

Scheduled Film Screening:
Skills Like This, Saturday March 28 at 7pm - MONTEREY PREMIERE

Artists website: www.montymiranda.com
Film Website: www.skillslikethis.com

Actor Bryan Phelan will be appearing in person with director Monty Miranda to present their critically acclaimed film Skills Like This.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
Skills Like This, Saturday March 28 at 7pm - MONTEREY PREMIERE

Artists website: www.imdb.com
Film Website: www.skillslikethis.com

Andy serves as Producer/Director for most Open Eye Pictures productions. Founder of the company, Andy is an Emmy-nominated producer, director and cinematographer. A graduate of Northwestern University and the USC Film School, he has been making films for over ten years. With a background in still photography and cultural anthropology, Andy views the camera as an opportunity both to artistically and journalistically explore his subjects. His style is intimate, fluid and affective, departing from the cold observational approach of many documentarians. Past productions include the HBO special BUBBEH LEE & ME, and HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS, broadcast on the Sundance Channel. A recipient of a Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in Dance/Media, Andy has produced several award-winning films on dance or dancers, including POSITIVE MOTION, EMBRACING EARTH, CASUALTY and RETURNING HOME, recently licensed by the CBC and given top honors at the Dance on Camera Film Festival. Andy was the Director of Photography for the PBS special TWISTED and the award-winning documentary TOUCHED, as well as cinematographer for the Sundance hit DADDY & PAPA. Andy is the past Budget Director of the film distribution cooperative New Day Films and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He was recognized by the Northern California Marin Arts Council as an an Outstanding Artist of 2003. In addition to his production work, Andy teaches video as art and discovery, both at the Open Eye Pictures studios and in workshops worldwide, including Esalen.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
Under Our Skin, Sunday March 29 at 4pm - MONTEREY PREMIERE

Artists website: www.openeyepictures.com
Film Website: www.underourskin.com

Tanem Davidson co-founded Humble Pictures, a local production company at which he is a Director/Producer. Tanem started in the film industry as a storyboard artist for the award winning films Cherish and Dopamine. Having attended art school in San Francisco, he concentrated his studies on illustration for film. He later worked as a video game artist before transitioning into film making. Tanem recently completed his first film, New Brow, which centers on the rise of the underground art movement. The film explores the rising popularity of artists, the art's movement into pop culture, and the essence of pop surrealism and low brow art itself. As an underground artist, Tanem created the film to document, acknowledge, and promote the movement while giving back to the art community. Tanem is currently writing several screenplays and plans to direct narrative features in the future.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
New Brow: Contemporary Underground Art
Friday March 27 at 9pm - WORLD PREMIERE

Artists website: www.humblepictures.com
Film Website: www.newbrowfilm.com

Frank Thompson is a filmmaker, comedy writer and film historian, and the author of 37 books.

He has written hundreds of introductory scripts for American Movie Classics hosts such as Cher, Alec Baldwin, Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder, Billy Bob Thornton, Roddy McDowall and many others.

He wrote and co-produced Frank Capra: A Personal Remembrance (VidAmerica, 1992), and The Making of “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Republic Pictures, 1991), both of which appear on the 1996 Republic Pictures Home Video release It’s a Wonderful Life 50th Anniversary Edition.

Frank has contributed to several film encyclopedia and has written for magazines such as American Cinematographer, American Film, Film Comment, The Big Frame, The Hollywood Reporter, The Disney Channel Magazine, Sight and Sound, Tower Pulse! and Texas Monthly.

He recently served as Guest Curator for a major museum exhibit called “Hollywood Comes to South Carolina: A Century of Filmmaking in the Palmetto State” which ran from January through October, 2008 at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia SC. This is a follow-up to his exhibit ”Texas Movies” which ran in 2005 at the Bob Bullock State History Museum in Austin, Texas.

Scheduled Film Screenings:
Gulliver's Travel Saturday March 28 at 10:00am

Artists website: www.frankthompson.tv