Open Screen Night started out with a simple idea: take the same type of open mike night venue that coffeeshops have been providing for crappy poets and whiny singer-songwriters for years except update it to give crappy filmmakers a venue for exposure, too. In the beginning we imagined it would be a pretty painful night of video, with people bringing in old video projects they'd made for their high school English classes or boring old family home videos.
We were wrong.
We still get a few bad movies at every month's show, but over the years we've also had the privilege of seeing the world theatrical premieres of several really talented and amazing filmmakers. Videos that started at Open Screen Night have gone on to Sundance or Atomfilms, and filmmakers that honed their craft and learned about audience reactions to their work at OSN have been hired at MTV or been invited to produce and direct music videos for real bands (not just crappy ones their friends are in), others have had their work featured in Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation, and the list goes on and on and so completely by accident we created the most freeform and truly independent film festival there ever was.
Check out May's winning video, "Garage Skating 1986." This movie is about... roller skating. In a garage. In 1986.
