[Michael Madison is a partner in Nelson Madison Films with Linda Nelson.] The SKID ROW screening at the DNC in Denver on Sunday before the convention opened, began for us weeks earlier as we worked with the organizers to pull off this amazing event. The screening itself was at the Harkins Theatre at 7pm. Just before, I met Michael Sanchez, a student filmmaker from the Colorado Film School. He asked Orlando Ward and Pras Michel some really good questions. I filmed while he interviewed both of them. Also Morgan Heim from the Rocky Mountain News spent the entire evening with us. The song you will hear is a song Pras did for SKID ROW.

Orlando Ward interview for SKID ROW at HARKINS THEATRES from Michael Madison on Vimeo.

The President of Harkins and three of his staff flew in from Phoenix just for the event. Harkins Theatres lists over 25 locations and multiple screens at each location, making them a power theater group in the SouthWest. The theater staff were superb and so prepared, we couldn’t have asked for anything more. The theater was just about full, everyone stayed for the Q&A and then we went to Bar Louie for a nice late-night reception where people stayed and discussed the film and the issues. We met a ton of great people and overall it was a huge success. Pras, Orlando and John Parvensky did a great job of course and Jason Tyrell of Indiepix had a great setup outside the theater for DVD sales. Colorado Coalition for the Homeless had a nice booth for signing up voters.

Lisa Kennedy is the Film Critic for the Denver Post, a very film oriented city, which makes her comments especially important. She interviewed Pras in the lobby tea room of the Brown Palace and we were surrounded by big time politicians, as we sat in the middle of all the buzzing activity. Pras and Lisa spoke for about an hour and then Lisa and I spoke about independent film distribution in general. The next morning, we all went to an incredible breakfast at Earls Resturant, put on by The Creative Coalition, which honored Pras and several very important civil rights icons, which we shot. Everyone gave very inspiring speeches and we’ll be publishing them on our blog in the few days. Lisa also attended and talked with us a little more about indie distribution.

You can see the FLIP camera in action at the Earls Restaurant breakfast. Screen Media and The Creative Coalition honored Moviemakers & Civil Rights Icons. I filmed it with the little FLIP camera and edited with Windows moviemaker. In the video you’ll see Pras Michel, Anne Hathaway, Alan Cumming, Rachael Leigh Cook, Angela Bassett, Josh Lucas, Richard Schiff, Spike Lee and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Screen Media & The Creative Coalition honor moviemaker/civilrights from Michael Madison on Vimeo.

You can find Michael’s blog at www.michaelmadison.com.