Over the past 20 years a revolution has changed the way that filmmakers operate. In the past, filmmakers had to pass through a succession of gatekeepers and raise enormous sums of money in order to get their work made and seen. Today, filmmakers are empowered by  digital tools that enable them to raise funds, control production and engage with audiences in myriad new ways that could not have been imagined in the past. What do current practices such as crowd sourcing, social media marketing, free online distribution and cloud-based collaboration portend for the future? Now that anyone can make a film, will anyone watch it? These questions are particularly relevant as program copresenter ITVS celebrates its 20th anniversary.

How Soon Is Now? takes a deeper look at our digitally democratized world and charts possible scenarios for the future of filmmaking. On hand will be a panel of filmmakers and trendsetters including Shawn Bercuson, founder and CEO of Prescreen.com; Carlton Evans, cofounder and codirector of the Disposable Film Festival; Jen Gilomen, filmmaker and BAVC Director of Public Media Strategies, and Jonathan Marlow, Fandor cofounder and vice president of content development and acquisitions. ITVS Senior Programming Manager Richard Saiz will deliver a keynote address and San Francisco Film Society Director of Filmmaker Services Michele Turnure-Salleo will moderate the panel.

Following the discussion, filmmakers in the audience are invited to participate in the Laptop Shop, a professional show-and-tell during which attendees screen clips from their current or recent projects on their laptops and solicit feedback from peers. It’s a lively exchange and a unique opportunity to see what’s brewing in the Bay Area film world. Filmmakers wishing to screen their work should bring a short clip, headphones and a well-charged laptop.

SFFS Film Arts Forum is the Film Society’s bimonthly information-sharing, discussion, networking, professional development jamboree. It’s an opportunity for local filmmakers and cineastes to meet one another and talk about their craft. SFFS gets the conversation started with dynamic presentations, topical panels, works-in-progress screenings and trade secrets. It’s an entire conference in the span of a few hours.


KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Richard Saiz
ITVS Senior Programming Manager
Richard Saiz oversees Open Call, ITVS’s largest funding initiative. He has over 35 years experience as a television journalist, producer, director and writer in both public and commercial broadcasting. Aside from managing Open Call, Saiz conducts workshops and seminars throughout the country for directors seeking funding from ITVS. A long-time producer/director, his credits include writer/director of 18 documentaries. He has won numerous awards including the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton and Best TV Documentary from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

PANELISTS

Shawn Bercuson
Prescreen Founder & CEO
Sean Bercuson is a self-proclaimed start-up junkie in a state of relapse. He is currently CEO of Prescreen.com—an online movie marketing and distribution platform—and an angel investor focusing on social commerce and new-media platforms. Before relocating to San Francisco, Bercuson was a principal at Chicago-based Lightbank, an early-stage technology venture fund focused on applied technology to fragmented industries. Prior to Lightbank, he was VP of business development at the online collective buying pioneer Groupon. In September 2008, he joined the ThePoint.com as VP of business development and was instrumental in helping transform that collective action platform into Groupon as we know it today.

Carlton Evans
Disposable Film Festival Cofounder and Codirector
Carlton Evans is a San Francisco–based independent film producer and screenwriter whose productions have screened at top festivals worldwide including Sundance, Tribeca and Rotterdam. He is also the cofounder and director of the Disposable Film Festival, currently in its fourth season, which celebrates achievements in new-media filmmaking internationally. Evans produced and cowrote the documentary feature Connected and the short Yelp and was a creative consultant on the narrative feature The Woods, all of which premiered at Sundance 2011. He was the associate producer and director of distribution of The Tribe (Sundance 2006), which was singled out by the New York Times, Variety and the Sundance Institute for its groundbreaking distribution strategy. Evans has taught film theory, art history and architecture at Stanford, SF State University and SF Art Institute and lectures worldwide about film and new media. He holds a PhD in Art History and Film Theory from Stanford University.

Jen Gilomen
Filmmaker & BAVC Director of Public Media Strategies
BAVC's Jen Gilomen works to develop innovative national initiatives for public media production, distribution, education, and collaboration, and currently is leading BAVC's first foray into public access television station operations. These initiatives include the development of a next generation Internet coalition called National Public Lightpath, educational applications and demonstrations and innovative community-based production and storytelling programs. She has acted as a strategic, technical, and creative advisor for nearly one hundred independent producers and nonprofit organizations, managed youth and adult media programs, developed interactive web sites for companies, nonprofits, and artists. Jen is also an active independent producer who has produced nationally and internationally distributed films, including her current ITVS-funded documentary for public television, Deep Down, and the associated Virtual Mine game, which was prototyped at BAVC's 2009 Producers Institute.

Jonathan Marlow
Fandor Cofounder and Vice President of Content Development & Acquisitions
Despite occasional distractions, Jonathan Marlow is a curator, critic and composer. An accomplished cinematographer with over two dozen films to his credit, Marlow was (until his retirement in May 2011) executive director of San Francisco Cinematheque, following stints at Amazon.com, the rent-by-mail/video-on-demand service GreenCine and the VOD/IPTV enterprise VUDU. In addition to his role at the SVOD service Fandor, Marlow frequently presents film screenings throughout the country showcasing remarkable cinematic works from his personal collection that are otherwise unavailable elsewhere.