I spent the weekend in Los Angeles attending the Liberty Film Festival, which featured two short videos from this website (The Clinton Legacy and Peace Out, a special 16-minute compilation of protest interviews available only on the Brain Terminal DVD) as well as Brainwashing 101, my recent film on campus political correctness.

Despite being held in the heart of liberal Hollywood, the self-described conservative film festival was remarkably well-attended. The Sunday showing of Brainwashing 101 played to a packed house and elicited a standing ovation, which was very gratifying. (Unfortunately, I missed the screenings of my other two entrants.)

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, I talked for several hours with the folks who came out for the festival. A number of readers of this site stopped by to say hi, which was quite nice. I was glad to be able to (finally!) put faces with some of the names and e-mail addresses I’ve gotten to know over the last few years.

Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty, the organizers of the event, deserve a lot of credit for putting together such a successful festival. As with the recent American Film Renaissance festival in Dallas, I left with the feeling that there’s a movement starting in conservative film. I suspect that both of these festivals will be far bigger next year, and that in a decade, we’ll look back on these events as a turning point.

There is a huge market that’s been ignored by the film industry for years, and it has left opening for relative amateurs like me to build our own audiences. Rather than be upset by the liberal bent of Hollywood, we should be thanking them for providing us with such a big, gaping opportunity!