The work of many talented filmmakers, directors and writers was on show during this year's Silicon Valley Film Festival.

One of the short films I caught on the first day of the event was a well-scripted and directed story by Shankey Srinivasan and produced by Shahla Motamedi of Raggamuffin Productions. Half Horizon is a haunting film of an unmarried Vietnamese-Catholic woman's betrayal against her traditional and religious values for a man whose cultural differences and sexual conflicts stand in the way of their relationship.

Srinivasan, an electrical engineer in his day job is also a film student at DeAnza College, where Half Horizon was edited and actors in the film were his colleagues. You can find his student works produced at De Anza college Film/TV department.

I caught up with the team members Sean McCarthy, Liz Mitchell, and Sean O'Hare of Guerilla Wanderers, a Silicon Valley-based film company, at the SV Film Festival.

The creative team submitted two films at this year's festival: Boxed Up, a psychological dramatic film and Cutting Seams, a music video originally produced for a heavy metal band.

A fun team whose creative output ranges from edgy music videos to corporate video stories, Guerilla Wanderers aims to grow their business by continuing to produce great videos and delivering great service.

I attended this year's Silicon Valley Film Festival where I checked out the offerings of up and coming filmmakers, most who self-fund their creative pursuits.

Jim Cummings is one such guy. Owner of San Francisco 3d Films, Jim bootstrapped his 3d comedy The Flamingo, taking time out to walk me through a few of the steps required in making his short film.

I'm always on the lookout for side opportunities at conferences. However, it does get a bit intense when you're also prepping for and co-leading an interactive workshop like we did at this year's WorldFuture 2011 conference in Vancouver, Canada on Corporate Innovation 2030: Revolution or Reinvention?

Luckily I met Brad Palmer, CEO of Vancouver-based Jostle, while he was busy setting up the demo for futurists interested in learning about his company's product--an organizational platform that aligns teams and connects people inside of companies.

We had a spirited discussion about ideas for future product releases that Brad indicated would include the "layering" of people dynamics, e.g. organizational politics.

Brad’s rich operational experience with over 30 years of private, public and governmental organizations played a key role in defining the underlying need for, and the unique design of, Jostle. 

Mary Vincent's career path has taken her on a journey that would make a good movie. It was after reading the U.N. climate change report in 2006 that Mary decided to shift her focus on how she could make a difference reducing climate change conditions using clean technology. 

Today, Mary's consulting business, Green Star Solution, along with her Gratitude Gourmet site has her circling back to a decades-long passion. Following her mini-workshop on ecopreneurship at this year's She's Geeky Unconference held in the Bay Area, Mary shared the interesting path her career has taken her on the road to fulfilling a life mission.