Reflections on 2007 & My Top 10 Favorite Notes of the Year

Reflections on 2007

&

My Top 10 Favorite Notes of the Year

2007 saw the growth of The Film Panel Notetaker with the addition of esteemed contributing notetakers A.M. Peters, Liz Nord and Jennifer Warren, or as I fondly call them, Notetaker’s Angels. I’d like to thank them for all their hard work. I wish them success in their personal and professional endeavors. As a team, we’ve covered a broad range of panel discussions and Q&As at some of the top film festivals and conferences. And it doesn’t have to stop with just them. Submissions of notes are always welcome year round by anyone traveling on the film panel circuit.

While New York City has been a mainstay for most of my notetaking adventures, in 2007, I journeyed outside the Big Apple and attended some really great regional festivals such as Silverdocs, Woodstock, and Hamptons. I’ve made some great friends along the way, too, most notably the folks at Indiepix including Danielle, Jordan, Gauri and Shreekant and at Ovie Entertainment including Nicholas, Thoma and Christopher and at Shooting People including Ingrid & Jesse and IFP including Mitch, Michelle, Durier and Jonathan, and have seen many of the usual film blogging suspects along the way including Pamela Cohn, Sujewa Ekanayake, S.T. Van Airsdale, Scott Macauley, Karina Longworth and a whole gaggle of Indiewire bloggers. And I'm sure there's tons more I'm forgetting, so feel free to let me know if you're one of them. I hope to continue this trend in the coming year by traveling further and meeting more great people.

I also instituted a feature called Life on the Film Panel Circuit where panelists and moderators were asked a series of questions ranging from what their favorite panel discussions were to what’s their least favorite questions asked at Q&As. It got off to a nice start in April with submissions from Gen Art Film’s Jeff Abramson and Sharkwater director Rob Stewart, but then it kind of faded. I’d like to get that going again with a lot more participation.

I’d also love the opportunity to be on the opposite side of the notebook as a film panel programmer or maybe even as a panelist, which would mean one of you readers out there would have to take notes for me. And I also hope to implement some technological aids to make my notetaking abilities a little easier.

Below, I’ve put together a list of my top 10 favorite notes I took in 2007. Not only did I enjoy every second of taking these particular notes, they all deal with topical issues and current events that relate to the world as a whole (war, science, the environment, technology), a film movement that some have affectionately or not-so affectionately coined Mumblecore, the untimely loss of a talented writer/director whose memory has been honored in the form of a foundation for women filmmakers, and other movers and shakers that shaped the independent film landscape this past year. There’s really no scientific method to my number ordering here, but more of a subjective mish mosh of what affected me the most in terms of educational, informational or artistic value, or what was just some plain good old fashion fun.

The Film Panel Notetaker’s Favorite Notes of 2007:

#1 (This includes a trio of three related notes)

· 2007 Hamptons Int'l Film Festival - "Body of War" - October 20, 2007
· 2007 Hamptons Int'l Film Festival - Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film Discussion - October 20, 2007
· Hamptons Int'l Film Festival - Screenplay Reading of "Wonder Drug" - October 20, 2007


#2 (This includes a pair of two related notes)
· Maysles Films Program - Sundance Institute at BAM - June 10, 2007
· The Gates - Q and A with co-director Antonio Ferrera - SILVERDOCS - June 16, 2007

#3 (This includes a pair of two related notes)

· 45th New York Film Festival - I’m Not There - October 4, 2007
· NYFF- HBO Directors Dialogue: Todd Haynes - October 6, 2007

#4
Patricia Clarkson & Steve Guttenberg Join Actor's Dialogue at 2007 Woodstock Film Festival – October 14, 2007

#5
MEDIA ECOLOGY! The Role Media and the Arts Play in Saving the Planet - 2007 Gen Art Film Festival - April 14, 2007

#6
IFP Industry Connect - Producing 101 & Benefit for the Adrienne Shelly Foundation - Saturday, April 28, 2007

#7
Tribeca Talks – Cinema 2.0: Me, Myself and IPOD – April 30, 2007

#8
Filmmaker Conference – Conversation with John Sayles (Director) & Maggie Renzi (Producer), "Honeydripper" – Sept. 16, 2007

#9

indieWIRE's "An Evening with Generation DIY" - August 23, 2007
http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2007/08/indiewires-evening-with-generation-diy.html – August 23, 2007

#10
The Erin Scherer Show –– September 6, 2007