RESFEST (1996–2006) is a defunct American film festival. It was by the 2000s the most prominent
digital film festival in North America.
History
RESFest was a leading global showcase of new digital filmmakers alongside
England's
Onedotzero
onedotzero is a contemporary digital arts organisation based in London that aims to promote new work in moving image and motion arts. The organisation conducts public events, artist and content development, publishing projects, education, produc ...
festival. The festival toured the world and in 2005 travelled to 35 cities in the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil and in various cities in Europe, Asia and Africa. A large part of the festival's latter content focused on cutting-edge music videos and short films, and directors like
Michel Gondry,
Spike Jonze
Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Jonze began his ca ...
,
Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham (born 15 October 1970) is a British video artist and music video director, best known for his music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and most notably Aphex Twin on videos for "Windowlicker" and " ...
and
Jonathan Glazer all had their catalogs of work showcased at RESFEST over its 10-year run.
The film festival was founded and directed by
Jonathan Wells after the dissolution of the Low Res Digital Film Festival which he had previously co-founded.
Low Res Digital Film Festival first took place in October 1995 at an art gallery in
San Francisco’s
SoMa district. Founded by Wells and Bart Cheever, the first year’s program featured work from pioneering music video and motion graphics studio
H-Gun Labs, England’s design collective
Tomato, digital designer
Nick Philip and filmmaker
Spike Jonze
Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Jonze began his ca ...
, whose early skateboard short films were screened. The New York City screening in January 1996 featured work by
Rox,
Emergency Broadcast Network, and
Sofia Coppola.
In 1997 the producers also created the digital film lifestyle magazine
RES
Res or RES may refer to:
Sciences
Computing
*Russian and Eurasian Security Network
*Spanish Supercomputing Network (''Red Española de Supercomputación'')
Energy
* RES - The School for Renewable Energy Science
* US Renewable Electricity ...
, which was affiliated with the online media site
Sputnik 7. The original founders parted ways, with Cheever establishing a D.FILM festival and Wells championing RESFest.
Both the festival and magazine stopped updating their websites in the midst of RESFEST 10, the organization's 2006 tour, and have since been inactive.
References
* John Alderman (September 25, 1998
"All Digital, All Weekend"Wired
* Wendy Mitchell (12 September 2005
"RESFEST kicks of global tour in New York this week"Screen Daily
External links
(archive - June 2006)
RESFEST(archive - January 2006)
Flux
Defunct film festivals in the United States
Film festivals in California
Film festivals established in 1996
{{US-film-festival-stub