IDA's second free membership mixer was off and running on January 7 at Carbon in Culver City, with free suds courtesy of Heineken, choice spins from DJ's Mike D'Angelo and Dollar Short, and great conversation with a wide spectrum of the documentary community. The event was a live-wire welcome mat for our spiffy new Executive Director, Michael Lumpkin, who was personable enough to actually greet several members right at the door! Spotted amongst the packed-like-sardines crowd were DP extraordinaire Shana Hagan; Documentary magazine Editor Thomas White; filmmaker and Man About Town Michael Rose; editor Miranda Yousef; Sundance's Win-sie Tow; Board Members Steve Reich, Moises Velez, LaurieAnn Schag, Pi Ware and Gilda Brasch; and many other talented members, both veteran and brand new.
I personally was invigorated by meeting so many cool filmmakers with fascinating projects in various stages of pre, prod and post, and came away feeling psyched to pull together the community to just plain hang and have fun (and hoping that we, as an organization, can also help). Major kudos to Maria Arzola, Manager of Membership Services, her committee (the aforementioned Mr. Velez and Board Member Beth Bird), and our dedicated staff, many of whom were in attendance, including Controller Meg Madison, Program & Events Manager Peggy Ellithorpe, Webmaster and Technical Director Mark Dischler, and Executive Administrative Assistant MJ Brown. (Fiscal Sponsorship Manager Amy Halpin was there in spirit!)
Up next: Open your Trapper Keepers, there will be a mixer just for students in February.
All photos by Juan Ruvalcaba. See more pictures on the IDA Flickr Photostream.