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Third director in film festival’s 10-year history

In a Wade on Birmingham exclusive, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival announced the hiring of new executive director, Chloe Collins (pictured at left). She succeeds Catherine Pfitzer, who was let go in February.

The board had originally planned on having someone in place by April 1, but made the offer to Collins on Monday. Hundreds of applicants applied for the position.

In a media release, board president Alan Hunter described Collins as “a self-starter and leader who can effectively interface with the corporate and film communities while keeping the office running smoothly.”

Collins’ previous jobs include director of corporate communications for Enjoy the City, a national nonprofit fund-raising coupon book organization; senior account executive with Birmingham marketing firm WilbanksElam; and director of marketing and public relations for the Birmingham Music Cooperative, a nonprofit agency handling three music organizations.

The Sidewalk board previously offered the executive director position to Melissa Kendrick, owner of downtown retail store Sojourns and newly hired part-time development director for the annual film festival. She says she turned down the offer for “personal reasons” but is “still helping with fund development.”

Full media release, on the jump …

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Shift Workspace opens in May next door to What’s on 2nd?
(via Google Maps)

We’re just a few weeks away from the grand opening of Shift Workspace, one of the first coworking spaces in Birmingham.

Drew Jones, a Birmingham author and consultant, gave us a quick tour of the facility, with renovations under way.

The timing seems prescient, as thousands of laid-off area workers look for resources in managing their job search, including networking, office support and flexible meeting space.

Jones said rates have not yet been determined, but that the ground floor would be a shared space available for short-term members, while the second floor would be reserved for classes and offices leased to long-term members. The second floor would be available for rental for meetings, parties and other events.

Our exclusive inside look, after the jump …

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Three fund-raisers for Birmingham-based nonprofit organizations take place tonight and Friday. Here’s a quick peek:

Drive It Forward: Have you wondered what’s it’s like for a top executive, a head honcho? At the Drive It Forward event for Junior Achievement of Greater Birmingham, you can bid of the CEO of your choice at the silent auction. Big coporations, entrepreneurs, retailers, publishers, utilities and power players will be up for grabs. Starts at 5 tonight at Tom Williams Porsche, Grants Mill Road and I-459 [map]. Tickets $25 in advance, $30 at the door.

Dancing With the Roses: See Hoover’s Fabian Sanchez, dancer and reality TV star from “Dancing With the Stars,” at the second annual Roses Dinner benefiting the Central Alabama Women’s Business Center. Win lessons at his Fred Astaire Dance Studio. Starts at 5:30 tonight at the Harbert Center, 2019 Fourth Ave. N., downtown [map]. Tickets $50, $80 for couples, $500 per table.

Raise the Volume: Rock band Better Than Ezra takes the stage Friday at Sloss Furnaces [map] in a benefit gig for the Laps for CF Foundation. Doors open at 6. Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

Birmingham film festival to hire leader by month’s end

The next person in charge of the state’s largest film festival will need to be an organizer, a fund-raiser, but not necessarily a film buff. So says Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival’s Alan Hunter.

The Birmingham event finds itself seeking a new executive director for the second time in two years. Catherine Pfitzer was let go in February.

Hunter, president of the board, discussed by phone the challenges ahead for the 10-year-old festival for this exclusive Wade on Birmingham report.

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If you have cable, or satellite, or Amish beliefs, stop reading: You’re not affected.

(Also, if you have a newfangled DTV-ready TV set, you can also stop reading.)

Otherwise, if you’re a TV watcher in Birmingham, you might still be confused about the digital TV transition. We certainly are. But we’re here to help.

If you currently watch regular broadcast television, the kind that comes in for free via antenna, your free ride may be coming to an end — though it may end either late Tuesday or June 12. Yeah, see, confusing.

The federal government has required TV stations to switch from analog to digital transmission. The switch was to take place at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, but the DTV Delay Act gives those stations the option to switch now or on June 12.

Conversion schedule

Switching 11:59 p.m. Tuesday:

• Alabama Public Television (WBIQ 10)
• CW21 (WTTO)
• My 68 (WABM)

Switching June 12:

• ABC 33/40 (WBMA)
• CBS 42 (WIAT)
• Fox 6 (WBRC)
• NBC 13 (WVTM)

So if you do nothing, starting Wednesday, you will not receive APT, CW21 or My 68 on your TV set.

Making the conversion

What do you need to do to keep receiving that sweet, sweet signal?

1. Either buy a DTV-ready TV set.

2. Or, buy a converter box. (The federal government has $40 coupons, but they take awhile to arrive. To order, visit the DTV Web site or call 1-888-388-2009.)

3. Connect antenna to converter box, then connect the box to old TV set.

For more assistance, the United Way of Central Alabama will help the estimated 36,000 area households make the conversion. To request help, call 211.

Barely two years on the job, executive director Catherine Pfitzer is out at Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. She was fired Wednesday, according to an e-mail sent by board president Alan Hunter.

Pfitzer had been promoted from program director to festival head in February 2007, following the departure of previous executive director and co-founder Erik Jambor. He resigned in November 2006 citing differences with the board over the festival’s direction and his role in it.

Hunter announced the change in an e-mail to festival staffers and volunteers. While he praises Pfitzer’s work, he says the board felt she wasn’t the correct choice for the future:

“After much deliberation we decided we needed to go in a new direction for the sake of the AMIA down the road. We wish Catherine all the best, and we are grateful for her hard work over the last several and sometimes difficult transitional years. She stepped up when times were shaky and helped get us back on our feet. But as is sometimes the case, the people who get the ball rolling or work hard during shifting times aren’t always the right fit for the future.

That said, we are optimistic about the future and will be on the hunt for a new Executive Director almost immediately. We hope this person exists in our area, but we want to make sure the rest of the country knows we’re searching.”

When asked by e-mail to explain what had happened, Pfitzer replied:

“Wish I could. Trying to figure that out myself.”

The festival, which started in 1999, runs for three days each September.

Update: Pfitzer sent out an e-mail on Feb. 15, thanking supporters. An excerpt:

My time with the festival has been truly amazing: chock full of challenges and triumphs, of high highs and low lows. The intrinsic satisfaction I’ve enjoyed by being a part of Sidewalk and all things AMIA over the past six years can’t be measured — from providing opportunities for filmmakers, to supplying access to independent films to a hungry audience, and most of all contributing to efforts that make Birmingham a better city.

It’s because of these reasons that I encourage you to continue to support Sidewalk, Birmingham Shout and all AMIA programs, now more than ever. Not simply because the organization is enduring another challenging transition, but because these are difficult times for all of us, and during times like these it is art and entertainment that allows us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get us up and running again.

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More Sidewalk coverage.

Top-down and grassroots presentations prolong the conversation

Birmingham is bleeding. After a homicidal four-day stretch over the holiday weekend with nine deaths, police officers have long days and nights ahead keeping the peace. But the city continues to bleed residents, too, forcing schools to consolidate shrinking resources in an already troubled system.

Can we turn it around?

I visited two evening forums this week to hear what leaders and citizens had to say about crime and education, two issues that continue to limit Birmingham in numerous ways.

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June 20, 2008

City Stages
1929 Third Ave. N., No. 900
Birmingham, AL 35203

Dear Guy McCullough and George McMillan:

Thank you for your hard work for the past 20 years on City Stages, including this year’s milestone festival. While your dedication and past success have kept the event going, we’ve decided to terminate your services effective immediately.

It should surprise no one that ticket sales didn’t reach stated goals and that the event will again lose money. This follows the pattern of previous years. And though you’ve publicly stated that each year would show an improvement in revenues, even with costs under control, the event bleeds money.

And while attendees and non-attendees can continue to debate the quality of the lineup or the importance of other factors (timing, weather), your track record has been one of continued debt, unresponsive leadership and increased dependence on public funds.

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ABC affiliates in Dothan and Huntsville are among the 52 stations fined by the FCC for broadcasting “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” Or to be more specific: Charlotte Ross’ bare tush on “NYPD Blue.”

Five years ago. Between 9 and 10 p.m.

The $1.43 million fine — $27,500 per station — is the second-largest indecency fine ever. No telling how many serial killers this 42-second scene spawned.
• Poynter: “FCC Fines 52 TV Stations for Airing “NYPD Blue” Episode”

The shocking video, after the jump …

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Any idiot can blog. Don’t believe me? See for yourself at next week’s panel.

As part of its monthly meeting, the Alabama chapter of the Public Relations Society of America will sponsor “To Blog or Not to Blog?” a discussion of whether corporations should blog.

The panelists:

• John Archibald writes a thrice-weekly column for the Birmingham News, which can be found in the Metro section and on his blog. For example, he exposed Mayor Langford’s election payoff of local media personalities to attack other candidates and the newspaper.

• André Natta founded the Terminal, an online publication about Birmingham and the surrounding area. He also writes on his personal site, Dre’s Ramblings.

• And me.

(Hint: I’ll be the one without the beard.)

The moderator:

• Carl Carter, of Carter-Harwell Public Relations, writes on his business blog Over Coffee and his personal site, the Carter Family Workbench.

The event, $14 at the door, takes place at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Alabama Power Metro Auditorium, 1313 Sixth Ave. N. To reserve your spot, fill out the form. The deadline is noon Friday.

The blogosphere has spoken.

With such a wide field of nominees, how will Birmingham voters decide how to cast such an important vote?

The mayoral election? Nah, the Birmingham News’ annual Readers’ Choice Awards, which closes at 11 tonight. More than 500 nominated their faves in 80-plus categories. Now, you can vote among five contenders in each category in the online ballot, broken into three sections: City Life, Food and Drink and Leisure and Entertainment.

But this isn’t about the best of the city.

This is about mocking the regrettable list of candidates (and thereby indirectly mocking the nominating readers and the selection process). How will they stack up against the 2006 winners? Did our pal Matt at Alabama Live make the right call with his picks?

Our catty contenders, after the jump …

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I’ve been a faithful City Stages fan for years, at least 15 or so. Most of the last 10 years, I’ve paid for my tickets and happily headed downtown for three days of music and fellowship.

I dare say I’ve spent more supporting the festival than most people I know. I consider that a point of pride, almost to the point of foolishness.

After all, even if the lineup was weak — and many a year, the lineup was weak — I could count on seeing old friends and discovering worthy up-and-coming acts.

Not this year. Not with my money.

Updated with Preserve Jazz Festival attendance, plus additional links.

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The progressive young professional group known as Catalyst will progress without a leader.

Cherie Fields, executive director for the past 12 months, will step down Thursday. She plans to continue serving on the advisory board. Meanwhile, the organization plans to discontinue the position, with the executive board resuming leadership duties.

Under Fields’ watch, Catalyst’s biggest venture has been Sustain City Stages, a fund-raising effort to erase the downtown music festival’s $800,000 debt and establish a rainy day fund. She also led the group in establishing its six key pillars, including leadership development, political awareness and arts and culture.

The group also recently relaunched its Web site. (more…)

Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival named its new staff at Monday night’s monthly Salon. Catherine Pfitzer, right, has become the new executive director after having served as program manager.

Erik Jambor, left, will become executive director of BendFilm Festival in Bend, Ore., on Feb. 15. A Sidewalk co-founder, he resigned in November after having served as director for eight years.

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Birmingham dominates the tube tonight, on network and cable television. First, see how August’s first ever local auditions for “American Idol” turned out. Our guess: screechingly bad. An AP reporter shares her experience trying out for the singing reality competition. It airs at 7 tonight on Fox 6.

Then, at 9, flip over to MTV for the season premiere of “Two-a-Days,” with a shocking start to the reality drama about the Hoover High football squad. (Check out our review, complete with spoilers, free previews and advance airtimes.)
• Associated Press: Reaching for the American (Idol) dream
• New York Times: In High School Football, Crunch Time Can Be Literal

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