Many many thanks to the audience who came out to see the films. We always get new people coming to the festival, and I can never figure out how they hear about us, but however you found your way there, I'm glad you stopped by. Also double thanks to those audience members who picked up copies of Hyphen. We really value your support.

And to the filmmakers, for doing their thing. That's one damn expensive artform to work in. And I admire people who put their money where their ideas are.

The people at Aurora, they do that. They fund Slant. And unlike many film festivals, we don't charge any entry fees. Plus, we pay the filmmakers an honorarium. Not much, but a little something. We want to pay our artists.

But it's not easy. It's not easy to put together a film, or start a microcinema to screen those films, or run a independent magazine that reports on that kind of film (among other things) for that matter. All of this takes money. And sometimes it seems the only support we get is from other people who don't have much money either.

Now, there's plenty of wealthy people who enjoy and support the arts. See any endowment list for the ballet or symphony. But that's not the kind of art I mean. The established, solid instutions of art. How about the people starting out, exploring something different? Who supports that? This is something I think about a lot while trying to see if it's possible to steer this magazine to some semblance of financial security. We've been around 3 years now, but we're always hanging on by our fingernails.

Well, I'm not going to lecture you on supporting the arts. I hope that you understand why it's important to do so. And that you do.