The Birth of Open Screen™

Open Screen™ was started by a group of Somerville based filmmakers in the fall of 2003. The original group; Fani Behraki, Keith Brown, Nina Farouk, Mike Fleisch, Derek Frank, Joanna Jefferson, Jeff Stern, Matthew Payne and Pegeen Quinn founded the event with the hopes of creating an open and democratic exhibition space for local films and filmmakers. The early events which took place in the now defunct Zeitgeist Gallery were exciting and loose, but were also VERY time and labor intensive - not to mention expensive. It was a great event though, especially the homemade food and jug wine. However, all good things must come to an end.

Fani moved back home to Greece, Pegeen moved to Chicago, Jeff moved to New Hampshire, Keith went back to Rhode Island, Mike Fleisch moved to Milwaukee while Matt and Joanna were soon to be headed west to Texas . During that time Zak Lee, who also organizes the Boston Cinema Census , began to think that the event was too good to let die. With the blessings of the original crew, and the fact that Jeff had returned to Somerville, Open Screen was soon to be reborn.

Jeff and Zak agreed that while the Zeitgeist was a great venue, Open Screen couldn't be continued there. So, Jeff hit the streets and soon found a very willing host at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Soon, Open Screen® was back in business at its new home where Zak and Jeff have continued to run Open Screen for the last three years - and plan to continue to do so in the future.