In Kino Veritas at Wine Country Film Festival August 16, 2007Steve Ashton, founder, brains, and Number-One Honcho of the exclusive California "Wine Country Film Festival", is a fairly well-known figure on the European festival circuit, for he not only shows up regularly at some of the best ones in search of off-beat flicks for his own festival, but -- and this is what he's really known for -- sponsors a California Wine-tasting party at Berlin every chilly February to warm shivering...

Steve Ashton, founder, brains, and Number-One Honcho of the exclusive California "Wine Country Film Festival", is a fairly well-known figure on the European festival circuit, for he not only shows up regularly at some of the best ones in search of off-beat flicks for his own festival, but -- and this is what he's really known for -- sponsors a California Wine-tasting party at Berlin every chilly February to warm shivering festivaleers up a bit between mid-winter screenings. As northern Californ...

Al Milgrom, founding father (along with Mpls. Businessman Tim Grady) of this most eclectic of hinterland festivals, has been waging a relentless battle for nearly two and a half decades to introduce off-beat celluloid Americana and quality foreign film Esotrica into this Land of Sky Blue Waters, Pillsbury flour silos and (ulp) Norveegin farmers. Says Dr. Milgom: "Sometimes it's a hard sell, but we feel it's our cultural duty to cinema-educate these plain(s) folk and show them that there's mor...