A pre-dawn dusting of snow fell on southern Oregon, wrapping Ashland like a gift.  Morning’s bright sun melted white back to green to reveal the start of the 10th Ashland Independent Film Festival.  By midday, the endless crisp, blue sky instead hung low, grey, and ominous.  A freakish snow squall swirled around the queue in front of the Varsity waiting for the first slate of films, then the clouds lifted and the world shone bright again. Those changes - from cheery to dreary and b...

    While waiting for Christopher Nolan to appear on the red carpet at SBIFF 2011, I stood with my buddy Ted Mills, fellow filmmaker/journalist, and we interviewed newcomer filmmakers as they made their way down the red carpet. Ted and I interviewed Botswana filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert about their film, The Last Lions (2010).   After Dereck and Beverly told us they had just seen the screening of their film with the audience that day ...