Last night, my new short film Brainwashing 201: The Second Semester was shown at the Liberty Film Festival in LA. The film was introduced by academic freedom fighter David Horowitz, whose speech was interrupted by two protesters who ran on stage screaming, “Fascists have no right to speak.” The irony of that statement from the people trying to shut Horowitz up seemed to be lost on the protesters, but it served as a perfect illustration of the intellectual thuggery covered in the film that followed. The protesters were quickly whisked off stage and out of the theater in a fashion that was far more gentle than they deserved.

The audience seemed to enjoy the film quite well, which was rather gratifying, as were the kind compliments from the viewers who greeted me after the screening. I also got to meet a number of Brain Terminal readers for the first time, some of whom I’ve been in touch with by e-mail or recognized from the discussion board. I was glad to have gotten a chance to put faces with the names I’ve gotten to know over the last few years.

After Brainwashing 201 was screened came Dead Meat, a documentary on the Canadian health care system by Stuart Browning and Blaine Greenberg, the executive producers of the Brainwashing series and my partners in On The Fence Films.

This morning, Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution was shown, and unlike last year when I slept through a morning screening of one of my shorts, I managed to drag my butt out of bed and fill my stomach with enough coffee to make it to the theater in time.