Twenty Somethings: The New Generation

This panel , will feature filmmakers indie thirty years old whose films are debuting at the Festival, will explore the different experiences that together create a “twenty something” genre. Fresh and energetic, these films exhibit recurrent themes of maturation, self-exploration, confusion and disappointment, but the set of circumstances embodying these themes differs according to the personal environment and attitudes of the filmmaker. John Pierson will moderate. Having represented and/helped to finance fifteen first time filmmakers, including Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater, Lizze Borden, and from his year’s Festival, Rob Weiss, Nora Jacobson and Leslie Harris, Pierson has remained a neutral observer of you filmmakers and the challenges and problems they face. In addition to examining the firsthand experiences of these filmmakers as they begged and borrowed to make their first feature, Pierson will lead the panel in a discussion of “what’s next?” Once a filmmaker’s lifetime of experiences, knowledge and passion has gone into his or her first film, and what are the industry opportunities that become available.