Thanks for a great festival!

A big thank-you to everyone who attended the 18th festival!

This year Angel and I met a lot of new friends and had a great time at the festival and at parties, and especially at Maxine's, a short distance from the Malco.

I would also like to personally thank:

-My wife, Angel, has put up with a lot over the last couple of years as I have volunteered my time for the Board and for the festival. Thanks, Angel, for supporting me.

-Our dedicated screening committee. Each committee member watches 150 or more films in the months leading up to the festival, and works very hard to contribute to the list of films recommended by the committee. It is quite a challenge just to watch that many films! Thank you for your huge contribution of time and love.

-We have a fantastic group of volunteers who are very loyal and help the festival run smoothly. Thank you, you all are terrific!

-Thanks to our equipment sponsors, Crescent Communications in Little Rock, who donated the use of switchers, Sony Broadcast, who donated the use of a tape deck, and Visionary Forces of Burbank, CA, who gave us a great deal on tape decks.

-Thanks to The Field Shop in Little Rock, who did a great job of quickly repairing a projector that went down during the festival.

-A special thank you to Demp and Paula Dempsey, and Joseph Dempsey, who have allowed me to spend many hours working on the festival "on the clock" and who have donated the use of equipment and vehicles for the festival.

- Thanks to Jared Kudabeck and his girlfriend Betsy, who helped break down and load out projection equipment, dodging the "sk8ers", on the last night of the festival when everyone else had bailed out to go party. He was also patient with me as I changed my mind 10 times about the layout of the Twitter feed pages, and kept pushing for web site improvements even as the festival progressed.

-Thanks to Tim McCoy for fabulous art, technical support for the Twitter stations, and for just being an awesome guy.

-Thanks to Jim Miller for making himself absolutely indispensable and reacting with grace to a million different demands.

-Thanks to Dan Anderson, who programmed a great festival and kept his head throughout the whole process.

-Last but not least, thanks to Malinda Herr-Chambliss, who hung in there in a difficult economic environment and supported all my crazy ideas.

And thanks to everyone I forgot. I will amend this list as I remember you!


Your support is critical to the survival of the festival and the institute. If you'd like to make a donation, please go to the site at www.hsdfi.org and click the "Donate" button. ANY amount will be helpful to continue the mission of the institute and insure a top-quality festival in years to come.