top to bottom: Ross J. Hawkins, BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL founder and president with Carl Reiner and Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols; 2008 Ince Award recipient, Carl Reiner with award presenter and son, Rob Reiner; Ken Lock with 2007 Ince Award recipient Budd Shulberg and presenter, Ben Stiller; 2008 BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL held at the Culver City Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

THE BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL is held the first week in April every year in Culver City and Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2004 to cultivate an appreciation of the rich heritage of the motion picture industry and to bring greater understanding of the debt filmmaking owes to the earlier Pioneers.

The mission of the BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL is to:

-give independent filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their work for industry executives and distributors;

-create a better understanding of the major art form of the last one hundred plus years-the motion picture;

-explore the rich film history of Culver City, West Los Angeles and the beach cities of Santa Monica, Venice and Playa del Rey, often referred to as 'The Other Hollywood'.

With the goal of educating, encouraging and empowering young filmmakers in the production process of filmmaking and the art of storytelling, the BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL aims to continue this ongoing dialogue on the future of film while recognizing and revealing the wonders of its past.

THOMAS H. INCE AWARD

Thomas Harper Ince was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of the American film industry. His combined output as a director, producer and screenwriter extended to thousands of films during the formative years of the film industry. He introduced production procedures and the quality of standards that set the model and helped mold the distinct image of Hollywood films to this day.

In 1915 he worked with real estate entrepreneur Harry Culver in constructing the first of two major motion picture studios in the new town of Culver City. These two studios dominated the economic, cultural and civic life of the town.

The legacy of Thomas Ince is enormously important to the history of the development of the motion picture industry in the United States. It is most appropriate that the BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL should establish the Thomas H. Ince Award to honor those filmmakers who have made a contribution to the history of the film industry. (from the BACKLOT FILM FESTIVAL 2008 program)

A rabbi, a yogi and a TV evangelist spend a weekend at a retreat in the country. But there are only two beds in each cabin. On the first night, the rabbi says, "I will go sleep in the barn." And he goes out to the barn. A few minutes later, there is a knock on the door. It is the rabbi. "I can't sleep in the barn," he says, " there is a pig out there." Then the yogi says, " Okay, I'll sleep in the barn." And he goes out to the barn. A few minutes later there is a knock on the door. It is the yogi. "I can't sleep in the barn," he says, "there is a cow out there." Then the TV evangelist says, "Okay, I will go sleep in the barn." And he goes out to the barn. A few minutes later there is a knock at the door. It is the pig and the cow.

This election season, I look beyond the personalities to the issues. I want to know what people are for, not what they are against. In political ads and everywhere else, I look for the good.

The modern robber barons have bought off not only congressional legislators, but governors and state legislators, cementing their hold on the economy and staving off reform. It will take a major paradigm change to break the hold the greedy have on this country. A revolution? Maybe, but I think that the masses are too anesthetized by the media and are reluctant to forego their Starbucks mentality to effect the necessary changes. I hate to sound pessimistic but older people are too psychically numb to give up their creature comforts to become a We Nation. The young will have to take it from us.

George Bush saw Moses walking down the street and yelled, "Hey Moses!" But Moses kept on walking. George yelled again, "Hey Moses!' But Moses kept on walking. Finally Bush catches up with Moses and says, "Moses, why are you ignoring me?" Moses said, " The last time I spoke to a bush, I wandered in the desert for 40 years."

For eight years, Republicans and Bush have been allowing Wall Street and financial institutions to play fast and loose with the rules and have deregulated the industry whenever Wall Street pissed and moaned about having too tight a yoke over their activities. They kept advocating free-market capitalism (first of all, there is no such thing as free-market capitalism outside of the Mafia and organized crime-tax breaks, subsidies, strict or lax rules and regulations[depending on which business sector one is in] skew the market and economy one way or the other, favoring one company over another, and the rich over everyone else.)

When Bush came out with a bailout plan, you can bet it was created by Wall Street and Republican campaign contributors. Unfortunately, this will turn out to ge another trickle-down rip-off: people in debt and mortgage hell will just get pissed on while Bush's friends profit. This further cements Bush's(and McCain's) economic theories as dangerous and destructive crap. Let us pray that Obama will get things back on track and return this country to prosperity.

(in California, there is a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage; this is my response)

In biblical times, people mostly lived in extended families or small tribes. There was a limited amount of land available for hunting and gathering, and even less land available for agriculture. These families and tribes were constantly trying to expand their holdings to ensure their survival. One way to do this was to take land away from other tribes and families. Brute strength, economic and political manipulation ruled the day; not what one thought was ethically or morally correct. In order to protect themselves, keep their land, and provide workers for the extensive labor that was part of their daily lives, they needed to increase the number of their family or tribal members. This was achieved through raids where they kidnapped and enslaved other family or tribal members, or by inviting travelers to join their family or tribe. But it was mainly accomplished through procreation.

The prohibitions against homosexuality were not promulgations enacted by religious leaders enforcing morality, because morality as we know it today was not practiced back then. The bans were enforced by family or tribal elders because people in homosexual relationships did not procreate and provide more family or tribal members to ensure the continued existence of these entities. ( In the Grecian culture, homosexual relationships were accepted if the men or women had satisfied their culture's procreative imperative, i.e., they had had a heterosexual relationship that provided offspring.)

Also, homosexual relationships were the products of romantic attraction. Up until the sixteenth century relationships were determined by parents and tribal elders. (The romantic love you read in books and see in movies is the product of creative license, not historical accuracy.) Licensed marriages did not become an official institution until the Roman era when property rights became important. In biblical times marriage occurred when a man, after the family arrangement, declared a woman was his wife, and it was sanctioned by the tribal elders.

While the Bible, in numerous passages, prohibits homosexuality, people need to understand that the Bible as we know it has been translated and reinterpreted so many times, that we are not reading the Bible as it was written and compiled almost two millennia ago. A literal acceptance of the Bible is not feasible because of the creative license taken by interpreters, and opinions injected into rewritings of the Bible by religious and political leaders.

I am not gay, but I advocate acceptance of same-sex marriage because it is a matter between two individuals and should not be subjected to people's misinterpretation of Biblical morality, or their own moral or physical objections to homosexuality. Do you see homosexuals trying to break-up heterosexual marriages? I say live and let live.

A Bright Idea

HIP is uncontrived uniqueness.

ART is any type of creative expression that is appreciated by anyone other than the person who created it.