Scott Beibin, video jockey and co-founder of Evil Twin Booking Agency, brought his multimedia road show, the Lost Film Fest, to an audience of about 50 members of the Tucson community on Thursday night at the UA Modern Languages building.
Beibin showed several short independent films that touched on topics ranging from the upcoming presidential election, racism and the riots following the recent Democratic and Republican national conventions.
“”I’ve always been a bit a media glutton,”” Beibin said. “”Other people like to consume things, I like to consume and synthesize information.””
The Lost Film Fest “”was started in 1999 by a couple of 17-year-old high school students who had this brilliant idea to have film sand bands in a baseball field,”” he said.
The students approached Beibin to book bands from his record label Bloodlink, but ended up finding a business partner to help further the cause of independent media.
The show premiered over two days in a warehouse in west Philadelphia, where Beibin has lived since 1995, to a crowd of more than 1,000 and included “”films, bands, a punk-rock haircut booth and puppet shows,”” Beibin said.
Since then, Beibin has taken the Lost Film Fest all over the world, doing guerilla screenings everywhere from the side of airplane hanger in the Czech Republic to the front of the Skull and Bones clubhouse, the Crypt, at Yale University, he said.
A life of traveling is nothing new to Beibin. “”The only consistent thing in my life is being plugged into the Internet, reading news and constantly absorbing information,”” he said.
“”I am very interested in the democratization of media, creating an environment in which the fine arts can be used in a very accessible way,”” Beibin said. He said he puts a “”very strong emphasis on creating well-thought out and well-executed art that is also rich in content.””
Brad Spaulding, a 40-year-old Tucson resident, said “”the majority of the media is under corporate control so you don’t really get to see films like this.””
In this show, “”you get to hear from people that don’t have a lot of money”” and work on shoestring budgets, Spaulding said.
Luke Romano, a Tucson resident, said the show was “”a good mix of entertaining, funny films”” and educational content.
Romano said he particularly liked a short film that demonstrated the lack of mainstream media coverage of riots during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
“”I enjoyed (Beibin’s) contrast between actual footage of what went on and mainstream media’s coverage of it,”” Romano said. This show is “”the real deal … it’s honest,”” he said.
