On November 22nd, Shooting People turns 10. Whoo hoo! Filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search set up Shooting People in 1998 after making their first short film and it has grown from 60 members to 37,000 over the past 10 years. I am hugely proud to work for an organization that fights so hard to create a vibrant independent filmmaking community that is all about collaboration and innovation. As Mike Figgis says:

“Congratulations to Shooting People! Shooting People continue to be at the forefront of filmmaking and technology. I believe their next ten years will be even more transformational and I want to be along for the ride. Viva independent film!”

Here are 10 things you may not know about us:

1.    The Shooting People official anagram is Pigeonhole Post.

2.    It took filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search all day to think of the name Shooting People in a messy bedroom in 1998 when they launched the network with 60 filmmaker friends signed up to help each other make films.

3.    Shooting People shares its birthday with 349 of its Members on 22 November. That makes Shooting People Sagittarius. Sagittarians are sometimes distracted, but this is only because they are so forward thinking that they forget about the present.

4.    Director Shane Meadows (‘Room for Romeo Brass’, ‘This Is England’) was the first guest to speak at a Shooting People event – in 1999. He had to sit on the bar with a microphone because there was no stage. Cheers, Shane.

5.    Someone once posted in asking for a flea-training expert. They got one.

6.    1.3m people have watched Shooting People’s Watch Film facility since its launch last December.

7.    Shooting People has crewed up over 50,000 films in the last 10 years– fiction, animation, documentary, music video every week.

8.    As far as we know NO ONE has ever got married because of Shooting People. Sorry.

9.    Shooting People sends out 7,500,000 packed email bulletins to Members a year. That’s a lot of envelopes to lick.

10.    Shooting People is celebrating its tenth birthday this year, just like Google. Shooting People thinks Google is a slightly bigger brand and wishes them all the best.

Rooftop Films are doing a bunch of great screenings this week. Here’s the info:

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Tuesday, Sept. 16th, 2008
Rooftop and IFP Independent Film Week present
Trinidad
FREE SHOW, FREE OPEN BAR!
40 years ago, Dr. Stanley Biber transformed a sleepy mining town in Colorado into The Sex Change Capital of The World.
Venue: Along the water at Solar One
Address: East 23rd Street and the East River in Manhattan
Directions: 6 Train to 23rd street and walk East to the river. MAP
8:00: Doors Open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by FRANCES
9:00 PM: Films
10:30 PM: FREE Open bar with complimentary beer courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
*Admission: FREE

Wednesday, Sept. 17th, 2008
Rooftop, IFP and Indie GoGo present
Selections from the IFP Narrative and Documentary Labs
FREE SHOW, FREE OPEN BAR!
A sneak peek at trailers and scenes from independent narrative and documentary films that will be next year’s hot festival and indie releases. Presented in partnership with IFP and Indie GoGo
Venue: Along the water at Solar One
Address: East 23rd Street and the East River in Manhattan
Directions: 6 Train to 23rd street and walk East to the river. MAP
8:00: Doors Open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Action Painters
9:00 PM: Films
10:30 PM: FREE Open bar with complimentary beer courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
*Admission: FREE

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Thursday, Sept. 18th, 2008
Rooftop Films and True/False present
October Country
Buy Tickets
A beautifully filmed portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse.
Venue: on the roof of the Open Road Rooftop
Address: 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side)
Directions: F/J/M/Z to Essex / Delancey
8:00: Doors Open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Phosphorescent
9:00 PM: Films
11:30 PM: Open bar at Fontana’s with complimentary beer courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
*Tickets: $9 on Going.com

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Friday, Sept. 19th, 2008
Rooftop and IFC Films Present
The Pleasure of Being Robbed
Buy Tickets
A curious and lost Eleonore looks for something everywhere, even in the bags of strangers who find themselves sadly smiling only after she’s left their lives.
Venue: on the roof of the Open Road Rooftop
Address: 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side)
Directions: F/J/M/Z to Essex / Delancey
8:00: Doors Open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music.
9:00 PM: Films
11:30 PM: Open bar at Fontana’s with complimentary beer courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner

*Tickets: $9 on Going.com

Manohla Dargis has an interesting piece in The New York Times about the current state of independent film. She traces a brief history of indie film in the US, and, reaching the present, draws a line between the “independent” of speciality divisions (basically cheaper, artier Hollywood) and the truly “independent” of filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt, Ronald Bronstein, Lance Hammer and Azazel Jacobs.

The news [of speciality divisions shutting down] has inspired passionate response, as well as the usual gloom and doom. Certainly it is bad news for those who have lost their jobs, but I’m not persuaded that it means all that much for true independents, those who have never worked inside the studios, never wanted to and probably couldn’t if they tried. I don’t think it means much for Kelly Reichardt, who made the lovely independent film “Wendy and Lucy,” and is unlikely to direct the next comic book blowout, because her aesthetic sensibility and worldview are of no economic use and interest to the studios or to most audiences either. That’s not a bad thing, not even remotely, especially for those who think films have worth beyond their box office returns.

I suppose my immediate response is that I hope that more of these kinds of films can be nurtured and encouraged because it seems to me that it is awfully hard to make a living on the truly indie end of the spectrum. Is this the price we pay for trying to make films that mean something or are we just buying into outdated ideas about “suffering for our art”? Artists contribute to the economic health of the communities and societies that we live in more than we perhaps realize (see Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class) and in our haste to avoid being seen as crassly commercial or financially driven we accept that we will never be able to pay our rent if we want to make these kinds of films. I’m over-simplifying the case somewhat but this is what I often see and hear when I talk to real, live filmmakers in the real, live world that I live in and to be honest I veer between delighted optimism (exciting technology, brilliant filmmakers, innovative thinking) and crashing despair (debt, endless work, debt) in the work that I do.

The Times of Harvey Milk has been one of my favorite documentaries ever since I first saw it in a politics class at Berkeley (it won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1984). Now Gus Van Sant is bringing the story of the first openly gay city official in the United States back to the screens with Sean Penn in the lead role. I’m really thrilled that more people will get to know the story of this remarkable man and this crucial moment in San Franciscan political history and the struggle for gay rights (and understand the outrage over Dan White’s “Twinkie defense”). The trailer is below and it looks really good.

Big indie film news this morning as SnagFilms launches a Beta site with free streaming features including Super Size Me, Run Granny Run and Dig! – films that you can also embed as a widget which I am very excited about (I’m a big fan of widgets). I’m desperate to have a play with SnagFilms but am so snowed with work in London that I only have time to write this very brief blog post. So check out all the news on indieWIRE and explore SnagFilms on my behalf.

Here’s the indieWIRE Critics Poll for 2007. Now I’m even more desperate to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Charles Ferguson’s No End In Sight tops the documentary poll and I’m really pleased to see Seth Gordon’s wonderful The King of Kong at number 3. Eugene Hernandez discusses the lists here.