In anticipation of its 11th annual festival, CineVegas has teamed up with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for the CineVegas Café Series, a weekly event featuring conversations with local film experts, giveaways and chances to win Locals Ticket Packages to this year’s Festival. All four events will be held at different The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations around the Las Vegas valley and will give film-goers and coffee-lovers alike the opportunity to enjoy their favorite drinks over ice, or a delicious Ice Blended beverage, while learning about film festivals, independent films and CineVegas 2009. Those who attend all four events will be entered to win a grand prize at the final event, which includes a pair of all-access Royal Flush passes and a hotel room to use during the Festival.
“CineVegas is delighted to partner up with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on this cafe series,” said CineVegas Managing Director Anita Nelving. “Our aim is to offer interested members of the community an inside look at independent films, film festivals and CineVegas from some of the city’s top film experts. The series will give locals the unique opportunity to engage with these experts as well as other film and coffee lovers.”
“The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has long supported artists through art viewings, book signings, film reviews and musician performances, so teaming up with CineVegas on the CineVegas Café Series was a natural fit,” said Phil Patent, president and chief operating officer for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Nevada franchise.
The series will kick off on Saturday, May 9 from 11am – 12 noon at the location at The District at Green Valley Ranch with CineVegas Artistic Director Trevor Groth. Since 2002, Groth has been responsible for selecting and programming films and events and for developing relationships with studios, filmmakers, distributors, agents and other film festivals around the world. Groth also serves as Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, where he programs narrative and documentary features and heads the short film section of the festival.
Next, on Saturday May 16, the Canyon Point location in Summerlin will welcome local screenwriter Sean Clark and local director Gary Nelson from 11am – 12 noon. Clark created the Graduate Screenwriting program at UNLV after more than a decade in Los Angeles as a working screenwriter and producer. He wrote and/or produced several television series including Coach, Evening Shade, Northern Exposure, Sirens and Early Edition. The most prestigious of his awards as a playwright is the Lorraine Hansberry Award, which was granted for his play, Eleven-Zulu. Best known for directing the 1979 classic THE BLACK HOLE, Nelson has directed almost 100 television shows and movies since the 1950s, including Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, The Patty Duke Show, Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart and Happy Days.
Continuing the series on Saturday, May 30 from 11am – 12 noon at the Town Square location is local writer/director/producer David Schmoeller, who recently completed producing the comedy THOR AT THE BUS STOP, the feature film debut of writer-director Jerry Thompson and Mike Thompson, which will have its world premiere at the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival. He has been an internationally recognized feature film and television writer-director (nine feature films, hours of network television and numerous award-winning shorts) for more than three decades and has numerous feature film projects in development. Schmoeller is currently an Associate Professor of film production at the UNLV and runs the Film Department’s UNLV Short Film Archive.
Concluding the series on Thursday, June 4 from 7pm – 8pm at the UNLV location will be Mike Plante, associate director of programming for CineVegas. Plante plays a primary role in viewing and selecting the films that play in the Festival each year, and he is also responsible for the general organization and art design of the Festival, the Festival’s outreach to the film industry and hospitality during the Festival. From 2003 – 2006, Plante was one of the short film programmers at the Sundance Film Festival, and has served as a programming consultant there since then. He launched Cinemad, a film magazine covering avant-garde and underground filmmaking, and is also a contributor to Filmmaker Magazine, Razorcake, The Believer and other publications.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will be featuring refreshing blended concoctions including, the Coffee Ice Blended® Drinks, Tea Ice Blended® Drinks, Fru-Tea® Ice Blended® Drinks, and Coffee-Free Ice Blended® Drinks. These perfectly blended specialty drinks come in more than 20 flavors and varieties to choose from.
About CineVegas
The 11th Annual CineVegas Film Festival will be held June 10 – 15, 2009 at the Palms Casino Resort and Brenden Theatres in Las Vegas. The CineVegas Film Festival is a platform for artists and art lovers who are drawn to the edge. Held amidst the unique, unpredictable and intoxicating environment that is Las Vegas, the CineVegas Film Festival pushes the boundaries of cinema. The Festival annually presents work by innovative, uninhibited, and renegade artists to an audience of local and national film lovers, journalists, and film industry representatives. Robin Greenspun serves as the festival’s President, Trevor Groth serves as Artistic Director and Dennis Hopper serves as the Chairman of the Creative Advisory Board. For more information on the CineVegas Film Festival, please call 888-8VEGAS8 or visit www.cinevegas.com.
About The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Founded in 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is the oldest and largest privately-held chain of specialty coffee and tea stores in the United States. With a reputation for excellence, the company is a leader in product innovations, having developed The Original Ice Blended® beverage. Providing the highest quality coffees and teas for forty five years, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® currently has just under 700 stores, 289 of which are company owned and 403 are franchised and continue to expand both domestically and internationally. The first Nevada location opened in November 2001 by local entrepreneur Jeff Fine and has grown to a total of 15 coffee and tea shops.
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