Nick Mason has always had a vision about bringing the world together.
So in 1998, he attached a screen to the side of a truck on Mulberry Street in Manhattan, New York City, and projected 16 films that maybe 300 New Yorkers saw.
The following year he had to find a new place — Union Square Park — but he already had attracted new support in the form of celebrity judges like Susan Sarandon, Eric Stoltz, Laura Linney, Roger Corman and Tim Robbins.
“That year the festival was scheduled for Sept. 23, 2001, just 12 days after 9/11,” Mason said. “During the days leading up to the festival, Union Square Park became a shrine, a place where people gathered to grieve the loss of loved ones,” and surrounded by news satellite truck covering the terror attacks and Ground Zero. He assumed he'd have to scramble to find another venue.
But then, on Sept. 15, he received a call from the New York City Parks Department, “who requested, no matter what, to please go ahead with Manhattan Short in Union Square Park as scheduled on Sept. 23.”
With the media camped out, the festival received global attention.
“A direct result from this was the following year we received double the amount of film entries than we had from previous years,” Mason said. Furthermore, “When I went through all 500 entries in 2002, I found the films collectively were more revealing of what was happening in the world or how people in the world were feeling at that time than, say, watching ABC or NBC or any other form of news channel.”
And with that came the idea of sharing the event with a wider audience outside of Manhattan.
Today over 350 cities across six continents take part in the festival. Over the course of one week, thousands of people in hundreds of venues watch the same 10 shorts and vote on their favorite films and their favorite actors.
The Jackson Hole Center for the Arts has been one of those venues since 2016, and at 7 p.m. Friday will once again screen this year's finalists for local cineastes to view and vote for.
Get the details about this year's festival and how to participate in this week's Scene section of the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
Contact Tibby Plasse via 732-7078 or entertainment@jhnewsandguide.co
Since moving to Jackson Hole in 1992, Richard has covered everything from local government and criminal justice to sports and features. He currently concentrates on arts and entertainment, heading up the Scene section.
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