Special Guests
Gary Meyer was born and raised in the Napa Valley where he started making movies as a boy, showing them with classic films in the family barn renamed the Above-the-Ground Theatre. After obtaining a film degree at San Francisco State University, he was co-founder of Landmark Theaters (head of Film Programming and Marketing), Executive Producer of the annual Tournee of Animation and numerous collections of short films, and Co-Director of Expanded Entertainment Distribution releasing films by Agnes Varda, Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut, Andy Warhol, and others. Meyer wrote thousands of film notes as well as reviewing films at festivals for Landmark publications and various newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner, and Oakland Tribune.
After the partners sold Landmark, Gary consulted and created business, marketing, and programming plans on many projects including Sundance Cinemas, Brooklyn Academy of Music Rose Cinemas, UC Theatre, and Empress Theatre; he also created and consulted on several film festivals. He was invited to join the Telluride Film Festival in 1998 to expand marketing, develop a website, and be on the programming team; he was named Festival Co-Director in 2007 and served in that position until 2015.
He currently publishes EatDrinkFilms.com and consults for independent art houses, film festivals, and filmmakers. The Art of Eating is his first feature as a producer.