Hi Friends of the Viewfinders,

We've received an invite from Laura Deutch, Outreach Coordinator at the Pacific
Film Archive in Berkeley, California, to attend the upcoming Amateur Film Festival
being held Sunday, April 10th at the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley beginning
at 3:30pm in the afternoon. The theme for the festival is "For the Love of It: Fifth Annual
Festival of Amateur Filmmaking." The Festival will be hosted by Melinda Stone, Assistant
Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco. She is particularly involved
in highlighting the importance of amateur film clubs in fostering a community of film makers
interested in making cinema out of love, not profit. This is what Melinda has to say about
the Amateur Film Festival:

"For over sixty-five years amateur filmmakers in the United States have been
passionately pursuing their craft and exhibiting their movies, primarily within film
clubs. Whether making autobiographical essays or experimental nature films, amateur
filmmakers create for the love of it. Tonight we open with the world premiere of the
recently restored Welcome San Francisco Filmmakers (Dr. Frank S. Zach, 1960),
an orphaned film preserved by the San Francisco Media Archive. The UCLA Film and
Television Archive recently finished preservation work on two films by amateur film
cult hero Sid Laverents, Stop Cloning Around (1980, 15 mins) and One Man Band
(1965-72, 10 mins), both of which highlight Sid's penchants for engineering and
vaudeville. Each year Westwood Cinema Club President Stan Smith delights me by
exhuming from his basement another Dorothy and Ott Goff treasure to screen. We will
show S.F. Lake Tahoe 1933 by these talented filmmakers. Recent award-winning
videos by Bernie Wood of the Viewfinders Camcorder Club in Cupertino will also be
featured. The show will conclude with Tomato Setting and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
by Vic Brown, who recently passed away. Vic was my main liaison to the amateur film
club world. This screening is in memory of him." - Melinda Stone

For more information on the Festival, visit www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. The admission
to the Festival screenings is $4 for BAM/PFA members, $5 for Senior citizens or full-time
students, and $8 for Adults. The Pacific Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way @ Bowditch
in Berkeley (between College and Telegraph). 510) 642-1412

If you'd like to ride in a carpool to the Festival, call our Bernie Wood (408) 296-5463.
The runtime for the screenings is a little more than one hour and includes several world
premiere restorations and some buried treasures from the annals of amateur filmmaking.
If you haven't attended one of these Festivals on the Berkeley campus, this is one that is
sure to entertain you and give you some new ideas for your own videos.

-- Frank Swanson
Viewfinders Treasurer