African-american Film Festival, Indie Fest Usa Expo, Tejano Music Convention, Flashforward2008, London Frightfest, Nvision, Highlight August's Media a

BMI will sponsor the Amplify Music Conference and Festival taking place in Downtown Las Vegas, through August 8. The agenda includes daily conferences, workshops, nightly showcases and more. HBO will be present at the Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival, August 6-9 in Vineyard Haven, hosting the HBO Short Film Competition on August 9 at Katherine Cornell Theatre. Process is an international Hip Hop Theatre workshop festival, August 7-9 in Manchester, delivered by Breaking Cycles as a tool to preserve the language of Hip Hop Theatre within the British culture and as a provision to nurture and develop the talents of emerging young artists.The film festival will exhibit films inspired by and representative of global Hip Hop culture.

Indie Fest USA Expo and International Film Festival, August 8-15 in Anaheim, combines eight days of independent films, live music artists, celebrities, the opening night welcome party and closing night awards show. Village 8 Theatres in Louisville hosts the August 15 premiere of 'Last Breath', a horror and gore genre flick about a canabalistic killer on the loose, preying on young women, and the close-knit band of police detectives on his trail. Tejano Music Convention, August 15-17 in Dallas, seeks to increase and enhance the Tejano or Tex-Mex music genre, and to showcase new artists and assist in the development of the next generation of Tejano artists and fans. An example of one featured event used to reach these goals is the Tejano Mega Dance which will happen at the Dallas Convention Center. Flashforward2008 San Francisco, August 20-22, includes the international Flashforward Film Festival and Awards ceremony and a Flash-related industry Expo Hall and community center with opportunities for the entire Flash community to network and share knowledge. The Flashforward Conference party happens at Ruby Skye.

London Frightfest is held each August Bank holiday weekend. Over 75% of the films shown have been UK, European or world premieres of the latest must see fantasy, sci-fi and horror films. NVISION will gather visual computing professionals, world-class gamers, innovative artists and designers, and cutting-edge researchers to share their ideas, experiences, and passions, August 25-27 in San Jose. It will also be held in conjunction with the Fifth Annual iGames Expo. Telluride Film Festival sticking to its annual custom opens during the Labor Day weekend, August 29 to September 2, in the mountain village of Telluride. Los Angeles Film Acting Coach, Molli Benson, will be holding a free two day Film Actors Workshop, August 30-31 in Albuquerque. For more details contact mollibenson@aol.com.

The above events are only a sample of what is fully listed. Complete details are on the "Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events" page. Video and podcast versions of this news summary are also available at popular video sites around the Web like MySpace, YouTube, Bit Torrent, as well as on The Actor's Checklist podcast blog, a great place to get your iPhone, ipod or Apple TV download from. The Free Home Video Showcase serves as an archive for all past video presentations. This month on video you will see trailers and sample clips of 'Last Breath' from C&T Productions (www.myspace.com/tracyandchase), a murder mystery about a cannibalistic serial killer called the "Southside Slasher" has an August 15 premiere at Village 8 Theatres, 4014 Dutchmans Lane, Louisville, Kentucky. A Spoilt Video Production release of a Mirko Virgili film, 'Ganja Fiction' an Italian short film, in the pulp style genre, starring Claudio Caminito Attore, in which the lives of the characters intertwine behind a single common denominator -- marijuana. Modern electronica experimentalism band Phoenix Block. Comedy portrayals of Kim Waldauer, and Robert Christophe, from their Cube News 1 series, and Adventures of Cubegirl, that follows Kim, a cubicle worker by day and superhero when needed, rescuing employees from corporate abuse.