Curatorial Statement

New movies for a new medium: Traditionally, that medium has been the Internet and the New Venue has served as a highly selective, curated exhibition space for exemplars of web cinema.

NEWVENUE/takeout offers a remarkable extension of the site's original mission by bringing you movies for the Palm O.S.

The simplicity of the Palm platform is exactly what makes it so exciting. The New Venue has aligned with Generic Media, developers of gMovie, software which plays back movies on a screen never meant to show much more than a day planner.

The 1st Aggressively Boring Film Festival includes 69 films submitted over a week and a half (in early November, 2000). The films were made to play on a 1.5" screen at either 4 grays, 16 grays, or 256 colors; no sound. This modest showcase is truly monumental as the first festival of its kind open to the general public.

You will think some films are better than others. The festival recognizes 5 finalists and 1 grand-prize winner ("I Love You" by Louise McKissick).

Viewed as the sum of its parts, the festival offers an encapsulated history of cinema's evolution from the kinetoscope to the cathode tube to the world wide web, and now, to your handheld.

By showing every entry, I hope to raise the question, "What's next?" and, in so doing, let you shape the aesthetic of this new medium.