Thanksgiving is upon us and I have been reflecting on the things in my own life that I feel thankful for, including moments in films from this past year. So, in the spirit of the holiday, I have compiled my 10 cinematic moments to be thankful for in 2004.

10. Fight at The Film Forum! (Bright Leaves)

The Film Forum is my refuge, the one place I can always go and find something to watch. It's home for me, where I reconnect with movies and New York City. Over the years, I have witnessed some extraordinary films there, and also some extraordinary ridiculousness from the patrons. A few years back, there was a verbal fight when someone stood up at a screening of The Lady Eve and shouted "Preston Sturges is the American Shakespeare!!!" There was also a great argument after a screening of The Trials of Henry Kissinger between someone who stood up to leave and got wrapped up in the credits and blocked the view of a fellow patron who literally began screaming like a small child, asking the man to sit down. While these are classic Film Forum moments in my life, nothing has topped the ridiculous seat saving fight that took place at a screening of Bright Leaves earlier this year.

It's here! The tree is up in Rockefeller Center, the stores are already loaded up with all the decorations. It's the holiday season!

This year, I have decided that, instead of giving people what they want, I am going to give them what I feel like giving them. Remember the shitty gifts you used to get as a kid? Ugly clothes, lame ass toys and the like? Oh, I do. I recently came to the realization that I have spent my adult life trying to be a thoughtful gift giver, never wanting to have anyone experience the disappointment of a lame gift from me. But apparantly, no one else lives by this principle.

It's a cliché to say that "it is better to give than to receive", but it's true to the extent that people like you and me can force our ideas, opinons, and tastes on our friends and family. So, join me in imposing the following items on your unsuspecting loved ones this holiday season. Plus, from the looks of the picture, the holiday is based on a big imposition anyway. Looks like a lot of fun there. Ahem.

Long time, no typing! Apologies; I have recently relocated to Sarasota, FL to begin my work as the Director of Programming at The Sarasota Film Festival. While I have kept my job as Programmer at The Nantucket Film Festival (I am excited for June on the island), I am thrilled to be working in Sarasota. So far, things have been very smooth in terms of the move. My co-workers are all dedicated, nice people and I have been able to hit the ground running with the film program. I have been working hard on the invitations and the line-up, so I haven't had much time to get out and see many movies at all. It also doesn't hurt to be in the warm weather and sunshine here. I am looking forward to a building a strong festival here, and my goal is to get people to come right after Sundance (our dates are January 28- February 6, 2005.). From Sundance to sunshine! (Eugene, Matt, and Brian-- I mean you!)

One of the most encouraging signs so far has been the community support for the festival, which is tremendous. Last night, SFF hosted a screening of the TNT film The Wool Cap, at the amazing Van Wezel Performing Arts Center here in Sarasota. The building was designed by William Wesley Peters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and yes, it looks like a purple clam.

William H. Macy and Director Steven Schachter attended the screening and after party, both of which were a big hit with the crowd. What was most exiting for me was the fact that 1,600 people (that's not a typo) showed up for the free screening. I've been told that the festival always sells out Opening Night in this same theater, and that's 1,736 people. That number is reflective of the audience's appetite for strong films down here, and I am working to build a program that will reflect the diversity of ideas, tastes, issues, and stories. I hope I can challenge the audience with the program. It is daunting to try for a 10-day schedule, but I am working hard on it.

After the Opening Night film, we are holding the party at the Ringling Museum of Art , a gorgeous museum that holds an amazing collection of 16th-18th Century painting and sculpture.

" The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was created in 1927 by John Ringling for the people of Florida. Having made a fortune through real estate transactions, railroads, and the well-known circus that he shared with his brothers, John Ringling amassed an art collection of over 600 paintings, sculptures, and various decorative arts including more than 25 tapestries. Collecting for the Museum over the period from 1924 to 1931, Ringling and his wife, Mable Burton Ringling, gathered important works by Cranach, Rubens, Poussin, Hals, Van Dyck, Pietro da Cortona, Guercino and other major artists who worked primarily from 1500 to about 1750. The Old Master collection, now including approximately 750 paintings, is the most important area of the Museum's holdings and within it, Italian paintings that are among the rarest and most celebrated in the country."

It's also home to the Cá d'Zan mansion, which was used in the Ethan Hawke/ Gwenyth Paltrow version of Great Expectations.

I am working hard to find a great musician for the party (playing in the museum courtyard) and a big film for Opening Night. Stay tuned. A film programmer never rests. But he may get very comfortable....

Note: film writing takes the day off...

Well. Looking at the results of last night's election, it appears to me that the democratic process worked in America. People went to the polls and voted in record numbers, and despite the radically different ideas about the direction in which the country should go, the majority vote and the electoral college both have proven that President Bush has earned a second term as President of the United States of America.

However, the outcome of the election is, to me anyway, chilling. I am less concerned about the voting process and far more concerned about what the result says about my country.

For me, some incredibly shocking trends emerged. First of all, in a campaign that was run on the "They Hate Our Freedoms" rhetoric of the President, it turns out no one hates our freedoms more than US. Bans on gay marriage carried every state in which they were proposed (as I type, Oregon remains too close to call, but appears to be leaning in favor of the ban). Polls showed that so-called "Moral Values" drove citizens to vote in record numbers, and not the usual discontentment with the status-quo. "Moral Values" is code for religious isolationism, and the left has a long way to go to show the right wing in this country that the extension of civic and civil rights to the oppressed is a far more "moral" decision that the exclusion of citizens from the full benefit and protection of the law. I'm sure if you put The Defense of Racial Purity proposal on the ballot in 1960, most southern states would have voted to defend segregation. The problem is, consitutional rights are not up for a vote. And with a conservative Supreme Court refusing to extend rights to those who deserve Constitutional protections, gay rights will remain the last frontier of state-sanctioned exclusion from civil protection for the forseeable future.

The vote for President also can be seen as an endorsement of his born-again Christian agenda, an agenda that prioritizes the Bible over the Constitution as the fundamental organizing philosophy in the social contract. I certainly believe that Americans have the right to worship whatever God they choose, but the Federal and State governments have a responsibility to protect our secular rights and freedoms outside of the context of a single religious interpretation. Apparrantly, my fellow citizens disagree.

What is most troubling to me is that, in a time of international war, xenophobia, isolationism, straight up lies about the "pre-emptive" War in Iraq, job loss across the country, and arrogant disregard for the opinions of our international allies (framed in this campaign as "letting other countries choose what is best for America"), my fellow citizens decided that these issues are less important than punishing their neighbors, endorsing restrictions on the right to free speech (Patriot Act), the right of women to choose freely among reproductive health care options (the forthcoming Supreme Court appointments), medical research on disease (stem-cell research) by voting for a President that they know shares their "core values."

I will say this-- zealotry does inspire organization. The right in this country did a masterful job of organizing and turning out the faithful. Rural and urban, poor and rich, they all put their economic status, class differences, and seemingly competing interests in the world aside and for one night rallied behind the man they believed would lead the nation toward their vision of a safe, traditional, unchanging, isolated shining example of prosperity (for the few) and (enforced) moral "courage."

On the left, the road is long. How can we overcome the tax-exempt political advocacy of the Sunday pulpit and the White House? How can we re-claim the moral highground for our vision of the world? In the past, organized labor, social justice movements, and the economic interests of the poor and middle classes have helped promote the agenda of a relatively progressive Democratic party. Look what has happened to the core issues.

--Labor, based in traditional manufacturing, has been dismantled by big business and outsourcing while workers themselves have no economic hope from either party and have begun to vote their conservative religious and "moral" values.

--Social justice movements were pretty much dismantled by their ultimate collapses in the 1970's. They continue some very good work today, but they have not resonated with Middle America, who sees security and justice as being mutually exclusive, and have lost the mandate of many of their religious allies.

--Economic interests have been spun away from actual jobs and work and into "tax-relief" and "freedom from big government." Of all of the traditional Democratic interests, the left has lost the battle of prosperity in the worst way. Of course, a dismantled and ineffective Federal government offers no real reason to support the notion that investment in tax-funded programs will help anyone.

Ultimately, the nation is scared shitless. Intellectuals and the left in America are now the "arrogant elites"-- the wealthy are simply humble good American boys who played by the rules and won. Anger and outrage at fellow citizens who voted against change and for aggressive isolationism in international affairs, who sought the comfort of faith and "traditional values" in a world that is changing and uncertain is like being outraged at a child crying for being afraid of the dark. The attempt to preserve these values, this traditional identity, this idea of America will fall by the wayside as soon as history catches up to our insecurities and proves that these deceptions, lies, fears, and this divisive hatred of our neighbor's rights are simply teardrops in the unstoppable rivers of change and time.

One final word of caution: You can't vote on or elect History. America had better buckle up. The world has a lot of lessons in store for us.

You live in a representative republic. Your interests are represented by powerful politicians in offices ranging from the local city or town in which you live all the way to the Presidency of the United States. All you have to do is wait on a line and select the individuals who you believe best represent your idea of America. Maybe it is not the best system, but it is our system, and election day is the wrong day to complain about the process. You have four more years to work for direct change. Today, you only have one job.
VOTE.

"Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom."-- Friedrich August Hayek

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." --George Jean Nathan

"Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be."--Sydney J. Harris

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." --Bill Vaughan