Northwest Film Forum Annual Meeting Minutes

18 September 2006

7:00 PM - Mint Juleps were served to any who wanted one.

7:07 PM - A single ice cube was doled out to every cup of Mint Julep.

7:16 PM - The Annual Meeting was called to order by board president, Alan Pruzan.

staff members present -

• Executive Director Michael Seiwerath
• Managing Director Susie Purves
• Studio Director David Hanagan
• Programming Director Adam Sekuler
• Marketing and Communications Director Nick Vroman
• Technical Director Nora Weideman
• Assistant Technical Director Matthew Cunningham
• Other Programmer Peter Lucas

board members present -

• President Alan Pruzan
• Vice President Peter Vogt
• Treasurer Serge Gregory
• Secretary John DeShazo
• Betsey Brock

Provisional board members present -

• Johan Liedgren
• John Sinno
• Elizabeth Heile

In addition, there were fourteen other people present - mostly members - for a total of thirty.

The Mission Statement was read by Alan Pruzan.

The Capital Campaign - We raised a total of $584,000 to move into and build out the new space and we have completely paid it off through the hard work of our staff, board, and members. Of the total amount, $540,000 were direct expenses, and the remaining $44,000 was interest and transitional costs.

Extra big thank yous go out to Peter Vogt and Cathy Sarkowsky for heading up the bulk of the fundraising. The move and the attendant fundraising were distractions. Now we can focus on the future and our mission.

Program and Staff Update-

We have had some additions since last year's meeting. Liz Shepherd is now our children's film festival / Cinema K programmer. Voleak Sip, one of our excellent volunteers is our new bookkeeper. Nick Vroman is our marketing and communications director. Nick introduced himself mentioning that he has worked for, among others, SIFF and the public radio station in Laramie, and that he is happy to be at Film Forum. Adam Sekuler is the main programmer. In introducing himself, Adam spoke of having worked with NWFF founders Deborah Girdwood and Jeremy Hook at Minneapolis Film Arts. He started here at NWFF seven months ago yesterday, and he is also happy to be here.

On the Production Fund-

We have decided to do our main feature production granting somewhat differently. We will be establishing a fund to raise money holistically for the whole granting program rather than for each individual project. The money raised will be spent on the projects as soon as it can be and will not be treated as an endowment. We will be seeking contributions from a wide range of individuals, foundations, and other sources. The first project to be funded will be the current Start to Finish project, David Russo's #2. On Wednesday, October 11th at 6PM, there will be a Production Fund launch as a part of Local Sightings.

On the Film Distribution Network Initiative-

We will be setting up a distribution network made up of ourselves and similar institutions across the land to distribute independently made films. The individual institutions will find the best films made in their regions and together the network will see that they get screened nationally. The idea was floated by Adam Sekuler at the Toronto International Film Festival at a forum for producers and the idea was well received. This will allow filmmakers to concentrate on making films where they live and not have to feel compelled to move to New York and not have to raise millions of dollars to four wall their film at some local cineplex.

On Production and Education-

We had many more youth camps this past summer. The Loop Girls class returned with Anna Oxygen helping young girls make music videos. We collaborated with a number of local filmmakers to put on more new workshops. The folks at Swingset taught some workshops on lighting and sound.

We have a new HD edit suite with a new G5 quad-core computer, a new Eclair camera, and a new Panasonic mini-DV camera. The animation stand had to leave us, but that means that we now have a room where a whole passel of people can all learn how to edit while sitting at their own computer.

In this past year, S.J. Chiro made her film Little Red Riding Hood and it played at Bumbershoot and will be at Local Sightings. Robinson Devore is making his film In the Forest. Linas Phillips made Walking to Werner. Pete Wick is editing Movie Pizza Love. As part of the Signature Shorts program, four filmmakers will make four shorts to be finished on 35mm and which will play at our theatres. Britta Johnson and Stefan Gruber have made theirs. Matt McCormick and Wes Kim will be making theirs soon.

We will be having the ninth Local Sightings Film Festival coming up this October 6th through the 11th. There will be a huge opening night party on the 6th along with the opening night film, Brady Hall's June and July. There will be a cool festival lounge in Cinema 2.

The 2006 Screenplay Competition for Washington State was won by Winda Benedetti. Special thanks go to Jen Peel for heading up the competition.

On Programming-

Adam spoke of many exciting films that we have shown, including Crossing the Bridge and Land of Plenty. Ellen Forney just had a spectacular evening to launch her book, I Love Led Zeppelin. The evening included dramatic narration by Ellen, madcap emceeing by Sarah Rudinoff, burlesque dancing by Miss Indigo Blue, and a Led Zeppelin cover band. Chris Jeffries produced a show of Busby Berkeley musical numbers with newly minted songs performed live to accompany many classic Berkeley dance sequences on the big screen. We will be having a retrospective of the films of Peter Whitehead. Adam mentioned that he continues to be impressed by the audiences here in Seattle when compared to those in Minneapolis. We have had a number of generative programs. The Karaoke Challenge wherein filmmakers made karaoke videos was sold out. The bicycle film challenge produced a number of beautiful films on bicycling that were shown out at Magnuson Park. Coming up soon, we will be screening Crispin Glover's new film What Is It? (ok, it will be screened at the Broadway Performance Hall, but we will be hosting it, and Mr. Glover will be there.) On Friday, October 13th, we will be holding the 24 Hour Film Challenge (think 48 Hour Film Challenge, only about half as long.) which will have a set theme and rules. The films will be screened on October 31st.

On the Financial side-

The board just passed the Fiscal Year 2007 budget. This will be the first year where the budget will have been approved prior to the start of that fiscal year. We will be ending this year with a surplus. The budget will see an increase of $23,000 in expenses, most of which have been dedicated to long overdue and extremely well deserved staff salary increases. Now that the Capital Campaign is completed, we will be focusing on funding the Production Fund, thereby funding the current Start to Finish film and the Signature Shorts.

As for the Film Co.-

The Film Co., started by Gregg Lachow and housed at NWFF, will go from being a non-profit to being an LLC and will possibly move to New York City. The next three projects they have green lit are based in Seattle. The film that they produced with Winnipeg¹s cinematic darling Guy Maddin, Brand Upon the Brain, just premiered to wild acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival and is going on to New York. Lynn Shelton's We Go Way Back will soon play at the Landmark's Varsity Theater.

On Start to Finish-

David Russo is in preproduction on #2. It has a new producer and there will be a cast and crew call soon. It will have the largest production budget we have worked with.. The new Production Fund model should make the funding situation better.

And then we voted on Board members-

Vice President of the Board, Peter Vogt, has been a member for 2 years and was reelected for a second term. He asks that we bring in some organic popcorn to the theatre.

The four provisional board members - John Sinno, Elizabeth Heile, David Fassio, and Johan Liedgren - were all voted in on a single slate by unanimous consent of the cheering hordes present.

We then voted on some edits to the Bylaws-

We voted unanimously to update Article 3, section 10

Article 3 Section 10. Quorum for Meetings - A quorum shall consist of the majority of the members of the Board of Directors. Except as otherwise provided under the Articles of Incorporation, these Bylaws, or provisions of law, no business shall be considered by the board at any meeting at which the required quorum is not present, and the only motion which the Chair shall entertain at such meeting is a motion to adjourn.

will now read

Article 3 Section 10. Quorum for Meetings - A quorum shall consist of five or more members of the Board of Directors. Except as otherwise provided under the Articles of Incorporation, these Bylaws, or provisions of law, no business shall be considered by the board at any meeting at which the required quorum is not present, and the only motion which the Chair shall entertain at such meeting is a motion to adjourn.

The vote for the deletions from Article 5 passed with numerous ayes, no nays, and 2 abstains.

ARTICLE 5

Committees

Section 1. Committees - The Board of Directors may, by a majority vote of its members, designate a committee as may from time to time be designated by resolution of the Board of Directors. These committees may consist of persons who are not also members of the board and shall act in an advisory capacity to the Board.

Section 2. Meetings of Committees - Meetings and action of committees shall be noticed by the committee¹s self-appointed secretary in accordance with the provisions of meetings for the Board of Directors in these Bylaws. The secretary of the committee must report all meetings to the Secretary of the Corporation. Minutes shall be recorded at all committee meetings and reported to the Board by a committee secretary or a member present and appointed to do so.

Section 3. Duties of Committees - The President or the Board of Directors may from time to time designate and create committees and shall give duties and responsibilities as the President or Board of Directors may deem appropriate and as may be consistent with the purposes of the Corporation as defined in the Articles of Incorporation.

Section 4. Quorum - A majority of the committee members shall be necessary to constitute a quorum. If a quorum is not present, a majority of the committee members present may adjourn and must report adjournment and rescheduling of such a committee meeting to the Secretary of the Corporation.

will now read

ARTICLE 5

Committees

Section 1. Committees - The Board of Directors may, by a majority vote of its members, designate a committee. These committees may consist of persons who are not also members of the board and shall act in an advisory capacity to the Board.

Section 2. Meetings of Committees - Meetings and action of committees shall be noticed by the committee¹s self-appointed secretary in accordance with the provisions of meetings for the Board of Directors in these Bylaws. The secretary of the committee must report all meetings to the Secretary of the Corporation. Minutes shall be recorded at all committee meetings and reported to the Board by a committee secretary or a member present and appointed to do so.

Section 3. Duties of Committees - The President or the Board of Directors may from time to time designate and create committees and shall give duties and responsibilities as the President or Board of Directors may deem appropriate and as may be consistent with the purposes of the Corporation as defined in the Articles of Incorporation.

The official business having been concluded, the floor was opened to questions and comments-

There were the usual questions about our mission statement and what our relationship to film and video are. It was explained that we started as an exclusively filmic organization that has, over the years, due to the desires and whims of our membership (as we were designed to do) invested in more and more video camera and editing equipment and run more video workshops. We still do have a large number of filmmakers making films on everything from S-8 to 35mm.

Peter Lucas said he is looking forward to more non-fiction documentary filmmaking. Two of the four projects mentioned by Dave Hanagan in the Production Update are documentaries. Lots of our fiscal sponsorships have been for documentaries. It was asked if perhaps we could develop some documentary making classes.

One member asked if we are going to grow and the answer was yes. We are working hard on expanding the grant giving with the Production Fund. Start to Finish used to be everything but money and now there is a fair amount of money for it. We want to keep people making films and making them in Seattle. Programs like the Signature Shorts are what will keep people working and staying here.

What about those Mint Juleps? As the Annual Meeting is now later in the year and after Labor Day, do we have any excuse for having Mint Juleps or should we have something else? Suggestions abounded, with the Martini receiving the bulk of the support as somehow being the most cinematic, but in the end it became obvious that more discussion would be needed and the question remains open.

Some people have asked about the name WigglyWorld and it will remain as part of the organization.

A filmmaker who just got here from Nebraska seems to be excited by what he sees going on here and looks forward to working with us as a member. It was unanimously agreed that Nebraska is flat and cold.

The HD Cinema Group folks mentioned that anyone interested should check out the upcoming HVX class.

It was asked what our upcoming equipment purchases will be. Dave would like to upgrade the light kit. Nora would like to upgrade our 16mm projectors and our 35mm sound heads.

The Annual Meeting was adjourned at 8:43PM.

JDD/jdd

Northwest Film Forum Annual Meeting Minutes

September 12, 2005

Board president Alan Pruzan called the meeting to order at 7:15pm. Alan introduced the Board members present: Peter Vogt, Serge Gregory, Betsey Brock and Michael Seiwerath. Michael introduced NWFF staff present: Susie Purves, Adam Hart, Matt Cunningham, Jaime Keeling, Peter Lucas and Dave Hanagan. Alan read the NWFF mission statement and declared that "we're delivering on the mission."

The 5th anniversary NWFF film produced by Michael Chick was shown with thunderous applause from the audience at its end.

Michael provided an organizational update. NWFF moved into its new location almost a year ago and is going great guns. The film vault has been cleaned out; staff and volunteers are racing to finish touching up the space, including installation of a new marquee, for the 10th anniversary party on September 21. Michael summarized the highlights of the 30 films to be shown in 10 days as part of the NWFF "Super Hits" series following the anniversary party, including a showing of Jim Jarmusch's "Down by Law" to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Highlights of the last year include a doubling of membership, the comprehensive Yasujiro Ozu retrospective, significantly increased workshop attendance, the sold-out Childish Film Festival and the explosion of the Local Sightings festival. The NWFF space has subtenants, including $3 Bill Cinema, the sponsors of the annual Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Dave Hanagan summarized WigglyWorld Studies activities. The primary mission of WigglyWorld is to provide filmmaking resources to the Seattle arts community. This year we added an Oxberry animation stand. Highlights of visiting artists participating in WigglyWorld workshops include collage filmmaker Martha Colburn and legendary title designer Pablo Ferro, who's collaborations with local filmmakers will be shown in the Super Hits series. Anna Oxygen led Loop Girls, a songwriting and video camp for girls 10 to 15. Wiggly World has acquired a new Bolex and upgraded its video projector. The book and film archives are up and running with over 1,000 16mm films available for checkout. Highlights of WigglyWorld's grant program include a Signature Shorts grant bestowed to four local filmmakers and funded by 4 Culture. NWFF has also taken over administration of the Washington State Screenplay Competition.

Susie Purves presented the financial report. Although the NWFF just "squeaked by in 2004" prior to the move to the new facility, fiscal 2005 has been much stronger: revenues for the past 11 months have been up 74%, memberships are up 120%, rentals are up 700%, workshop fees are up 85%. Fiscal sponsorship has reached $298,000 YTD. At the end 0f 2004 the organization had $160,000 in net assets. The Capital Campaign started in January 2004 with a goal of $600,000. Over $500,000 has been raised so far, and it is anticipated that the campaign will be closed out by December 2005.

Michael introduced Greg Lachow to provide a summary of The Film Company, an organization of film artists working within the NWFF space. Greg summarized the highlights of the past 11 months: completion of William Weiss's feature "The Telephone Numbering System;" production of Guy Maddin's film "The Brand upon the Brain;" completion of Lynn Shelton's feature "We Go Way Back." Two additional features have been given the green light for next year.

Michael recapped the current exhibition of films completed under the Start-to-Finish program, and announced that the newest Start-to-Finish film will be David Russo's "#2".

Board members present who were up for re-election introduced themselves. Sue Corcoran, who had previously served on the Board and has been nominated to re-join the Board, introduced herself. The membership voted on and unanimously approved the slate of new and re-elected Board members:

• Alan Pruzan
• John De Shazo
• Nick Hanauer
• Michael Seiwerath
• Betsey Brock
• Jennifer Roth
• Serge Gregory
• John Jeffcoat
• Sue Corcoran

Alan Pruzan presented proposed changes to the organization's Bylaws: the addition of the phrase "electronic mail" to Article 3, Section 9 "Notice of Meetings;" simplification of membership and donor levels described in Section 2 "Classifications." The membership approved the changes.

The meeting was opened up to questions and discussions from the floor. Questions covered the following topics:

• Request for additional information on the Washington State Screenplay Competition
• Desire for a centralized Web site listing active Seattle-area film and video productions
• Suggestion to create a listserv to more actively engage the membership ship in ongoing conversation; the desire for more frequent meetings, including panel and informal discussions along the lines of previous "Filmmakers' Saloon" events which were deemed to be very popular. Three separate types of gatherings were discussed: 1) presentations/panel discussions, 2) membership meetings regarding the organization, and 3) film enthusiast gatherings to discuss cinematic culture
• Equipment requests: jibs, dolleys; a 35mm lens mount/setup for DV/HD cameras

The annual meeting was adjourned at 9 pm.
Respectfully, submitted by NWFF Board Treasurer Serge Gregory