Hope and Change. Change and Hope.

Only the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War 
come close to the amount of hope and change I’ve seen in the 
past year.

Our new president Barack Obama (star of last year’s Lake County
Film Festival film, Senator Obama Goes to Africa), certainly 
has us hopeful, even as our entire banking and housing 
industries are going through a rather violent change.

As far as change with the Lake County Film Festival is
concerned, shortly after the last festival the store that gave 
birth to the festival, Dog Ear Music & Movies, closed. Because 
the original purpose of the film festival was to help promote 
Dog Ear, I am both happy and sad to find out that the festival
has outlived the store.

Unfortunately, the economic climate has made it very difficult 
to put together this year’s festival. You’ll notice a drastic 
decrease in sponsors in this year’s program. If it weren’t for 
the tremendous support from the College Of Lake County, I’m 
sure I wouldn’t be writing these words right now. Now more than
ever, the Lake County Film Festival can use your help in 
spreading the word about this year’s festival. 

Of course these are internal changes, and in general a festival 
attendee from last year won’t notice many changes. Our focus 
remains the same: to bring you a great, diverse collection of 
interesting independent films at a great price with as many 
filmmakers to mingle with as possible. The only substantial 
changes are our late-night screening area, the Greenbelt
Cultural Center, our free educational panels, and our free 
METRA shuttle to the college.

As always, a great debt is owed to our volunteers and staff who 
help pull this off every year. Please treat them well, and if 
you are interested in becoming a volunteer, or can help us 
find sponsors for next year’s festival, please contact us.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend,
Nat Dykeman
Festival Director