MOFEST 4
November 2008 •  300 attendees

This was our first year at the relatively new Odd Machine studios on the west side near Kedzie, thanks to the very generous owners of the facility. It was also our breakthrough year in the community when attendance nearly doubled and opened up to a tremendous variety of individuals – from crew, producers and vendors, to executives, owners, and agency. As this was a very raw and disheveled space when we first arrived, this was the first time we had a big crew of volunteers, led by Eldridge Huntington, help out with the effort. We brought John Adams back to do the photo gallery and brought on a fresh new volunteer in Sharon Lomasney to handle our first art gallery.

Eldridge and his crew took it upon themselves to art direct not only a bar area for beverages but an entire lounge for people to relax and chill throughout the night. Mario Coletta provided his sound services for the first time while Marcus Quandt cranked out the tunes once again.

Josh Levy took advantage of his first time volunteering and created a very last minute and quite amazing ambience with donated gear and paper lighting. The screenings commenced on the back of a white cyc wall and founder and festival director Mo Wagdy took the small stage in front of a noisy audience. We went through a couple of separate beer runs through the night and vowed never to do cans again if we could help it!