Anima Mundi 2009, Alameda Writers Group, Sacramento Film and Music Fest, Conference on the Arts in Society, Independent TV Festival, Highlight July Me

The One Mic Nite Open Talent Showcase (OneMicNite@gmail.com), happening every Monday night in New York's East Village, is a combination of of indie music or dance, theatre, poetry, art, and informal networking, in an open mic acoustic style setting. Latin Alternative Music Conference opens in New York July 7-11, and is geared towards the marketing of Spanish-language alternative music while striving for maximum exposure for Latin artists and repertoire in the U.S. marketplace. The Los Angeles Post Production Group (LAPPG) is a member driven organization for anyone with an interest or passion for film finishing and the post-production process, and will be meeting July 8 featuring Robert Mellette from 'Dances With Films' as well as A.J. Tesler and Jenny Stames from Independent TV Festival. Several panels are held during the first weekend of the Long Island International Film Expo – usually consisting of a distribution panel, a scriptwriting panel, legal music panel and a filmmaker panel and breakfast, running July 9-19 in New York. The Fourth meeting of The Lacuna (Net)works Film and Tv Networking happens on July 10 in London, and is suited for film makers, crew, actors, models, writers, photographers to do some networking, talk about premieres, meet new people and contacts, get business cards exchanged.

The 17th International Animation Festival, Anima Mundi 2009, in Rio de Janeiro, July 10-19, will present competition screenings, special programs, retrospectives, international guests and professional workshops, particularly one called, Open Studio, that allows the spectator to become the creator and exercise their imagination in seven different visualization techniques. Bryan Bertino, a writer/director who made his feature film debut with The Strangers. will speak at the July 11 Alameda Writers Group Meeting, July 11 in Glendale, about breaking into Hollywood, the struggles of directing your own work, and how he’s built his career. The Urban Individualists, a multicultural network of collaborating individualists working under the direction of Helene Ruiz (ruizhelene@aol.com), will be present at a July 17 public reception in Williamsburg, Brooklyn featuring music and poetry, opening an exhibition of works that will "dissect and examine aspects concerning the heart, from the banal to the complex." The Sacramento Film and Music Festival, running July 17-26 in Sacramento, likes to point to a track record of picking films that go on to win major awards and/or achieve distribution beyond the festival circuit. But they also puts on "Sac Music Seen", an original program for the Festival that pairs local filmmakers and musicians to make music videos, where bands submit their music and filmmakers provide the images.

Casual Games Association holds its annual agenda of events for the casual games industry, July 22-25, Casual Connect Seattle, bringing together talented and knowledgeable experts in the field for essential learning and  networking. Actress Scarlett Johansson will open LA Shorts Fest July 23-31, a festival accredited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, and that reportedly attracts more than 10,000 moviegoers, filmmakers and entertainment professionals looking for new talent. The Fourth International Conference on the Arts in Society, in conjunction with the Venice Biennale, happening in Venezia, July 28-31, addresses a range of issues and themes relating to the arts in society, and is a conference for any person with an interest in and a concern for art practice, public art, art theory, research and policy, curatorial and museum studies, and art education in any of its forms. The Independent Television Festival is a festival for independently produced, original and innovative television pilots and webseries in West Hollywood, July 31 to August 6, and with the support of institutions like Comcast, Current TV, Brightcove and FX and the talent of pilotmakers from all over the world, ITVFest facilitates independent production beyond the silver screen as a viable platform in which directors, writers and producers can showcase their original visions for the small screen.

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, Daily Motion, as well as on The Actor's Checklist podcast blog. Follow the posting of the news summary on Twitter at: twitter.com/actorschecklist. This month on the video news summary you will again see a dynamic array of artists in performance of film and music. These videos are now available on the Free Home Video Showcase which now serves as an archive for all past video presentations but without the audio news narration. The Actor's Checklist is proud announce the return of the photo gallery which you can visit to upload valuable head shots or other photos of your choice, create profiles, and use your pictures or others found on the gallery as ecards which you can email to friends and associates with messages.