MOFEST 6
April 2011 •  575 attendees

This was the first year we utilized the historic Portage Theater at the famed six-corners of Portage Park. It was also our first time utilizing a dedicated art crew under the supervision production designer Angela Finney, utilizing the help of carpenter Ira Amyx, seamstress Adri Siriwatt, and assistant Chris Carini. Needless to say the results were absolutely top notch. Attendees walked in to find a giant golden walkie-talkie rotating in the main lobby, with an awe-inspiring art and photo gallery on either side of the custom built bar created by Brian Babarik.

Walking into the venue revealed a full spread of catered food, all under the meticulous lighting direction of Josh Levy and music direction of Marcus Quandt with gear from Mario Coletta.

The final room of the tour took attendees into the theater, and enough can’t be said at the art direction, lighting and ambience created by our phenomenal art crew. We built a second and larger art gallery by Sharon Lomasney and photo gallery by John Adams close to the stage, started the event with some organ music by venue owner Dennis Wolkowicz, and kicked-off our best screening yet after a killer intro by Jonah Ravine, and a presentation by founder and festival director Mo Wagdy.

Intermission saw the presentation of the Mosie to the volunteers of Mofest, along with the main raffle prize of the (then) newly released iPad2, with our scouts Janice Wagdy and Ginger Bogle working the crowd for donations. Our second round of films featured the finalists from the 48-hour film challenge by Brian Babrik and we closed the night with our “shot-heard-round-the-production-world” of Jagermeister.