Terrific film festival, onto 2010

Our film festival was a real success!
We had excellent attendance, despite the beautiful day outside. Nice weather always kills movie attendance - but not in this case. People were coming in all throughout the day, talking to the partners who have set up booths, and actively participating in the panel at the end. We were very happy to welcome Anna Cummins and Markus Ericksen of Algalita, who are in the midst of their awareness campaign, called JunkRide 2000. Anna and Markus talked about sailing the Gyre and handed out samples of the "plastic soup". We concluded the evening with a wonderful sail on the Monterey Bay.
My thanks go out to our team, Wendy Goldman, Sheila Taylor and Blaise Douros, as well as the terrific volunteers who worked all day long to produce a memorable event: Peter Larson, Dalya Adams, Azucena Yzquierd, Rae Pineda and Mike Tomitz.

Film Festival Gains Momentum

From Daniella Russo's moleskine

Our film festival now has a logo! It is gaining momentum fast: it is listed on the web site, we have a press release and fact sheet, and are beginning to work with sponsors. Wendy is awesome. So is the Monterey Cannery Row IMAX. The theater is brand new, very elegant and with a great location. We are very happy to have them as a partner for the event.

And since I started writing about our terrific team, I have to say the event would be impossible without the talent and energy of Sheila Taylor. Sheila is our southern belle, complete with a lovely southern drawl invoking images of lazy afternoons with mint juleps in hand. But don't let this image fool you for a moment. There is nothing laid-back or slow about this woman. Behind the long blond hair and big blue eyes is one of the sharpest financial minds in the film business. Sheila is also working on the film festival, because we need all hands on deck and done a terrific job of selecting media outlets and organizing the partners. I am lucky to have such a talented team!

A film festival to honor Oceans Day

From Daniella Russo's notebook
So after long debates about how to get people interested in - er - garbage, marine debris and plastic containers, in a moment of absolutely clarity, our team of grass-roots organizations, filmmakers and non-profit leaders arrived at the decision to organize a film festival! In partnership with the Cannery Row IMAX who is providing its beautiful new facility for the event, we are now in the midst of organizing the inaugural Oceans Day film festival. This year's theme is "Think Beyond Plastics". We will screen three terrific films: Marina of the Zabballeen, Message in The Waves and Strange Days on Planet Earth (Dirty Secrets).


How do you get a film festival on a shoestring budget? Ask Wendy Goldman. Wendy is the queen of the event, who organizes us all with an iron fist and produces with a tremendous speed press releases, fact-sheets, pledges and everything else a film festival needs. Which is a lot. Click on our staff link and find out more abut Wendy. She is terrific.