For the past five years, Linhart Public Relations has had the pleasure of providing pro bono communication support for the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF).  It has been a labor of love to help this young film festival gain traction around the country as a must-attend film fest. This year’s festival just ended and, as always, we have favorite moments from supporting the festival and its founders Kathy and Robin Beeck. It takes vision and guts to start new things. We applaud them for their contribution to making Boulder a great place to live.

Here is our team’s “behind the scenes” wrap-up of BIFF 2012:

I’ll start with my favorite moment. With so many inspiring films like “High Ground” and “The Lady,” it’s hard to choose just one moment but mine is watching our young colleagues (this year Kelly Williams and Kat Buxton) run this project. I loved seeing them take charge, lead the project, and accomplish great results. Congrats Kelly and Kat. You did an amazing job!

Kelly Williams: My favorite moment was meeting Martin Sheen and helping KMGH-TV set up for its interview. I was invited backstage for news anchor Anne Trujillo’s interview. When “A Conversation with Martin Sheen” ended, I waited in anticipation as he made his way downstairs and I got to shake his hand and introduce myself.

Martin Sheen on stage at BIFF with (l to r) Kathy and Robin Beeck, and Ron Bostwick

During his time with Anne Trujillo, I got to watch the interview and I was so struck by how genuine he was. He sang a little Frank Sinatra and spoke so freely about his life. I loved getting to see that.

Paul Raab: My favorite BIFF moment always is interviewing filmmakers on-stage.  This year, I particularly enjoyed talking with Macky Alston, director of “Love Free or Die,” a documentary about the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in the U.S.  I like helping BIFF audiences discover something interesting about a film or filmmaker through the interview process.

Noel Runkle: Hearing from the people behind the films was my favorite moment. They had such great insights into filmmaking. After their presentations, you’d just run into them on the street, which was really cool. I absolutely loved the short films and one of my favorites is the same as Quinn’s,“A Finger, Two Dots Then Me.”

Quinn Kelsey: I loved the short films! It was so crowded we had to sit on the stairs, which made it even more fun. I particularly liked this one which we learned cost the filmmakers $200 to make. This is one of my favorite Linhart PR events every year.

Chandra Brin: My favorite moment was running into Ernie Bjorkman, the Emmy award-winning news anchor who decided to become an animal veterinarian. He made national headlines years ago for his career move, appearing on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” among others. I offered him a seat — or tried to. I was so star struck, all I could say was: “I have three seats.” Despite my lack of words, he understood what I was saying and was very gracious. It’s the only time I can honestly say I was in awe of a vet.

Randi Abels: I had the chance to talk with one of our clients, Mark from Old Chicago, about beer. He told me an interesting fact about home brewers being influential beer bloggers. Because I get involved on working with Old Chicago programs, I thought it was so interesting to talk about beer while sitting around having one.