The Great Non-Event of the 2009 Las Vegas CineVegas Film Festival:
The Art of Storytelling in the 21st Century -- Why Its Cancellation Matters

Was there anyone other than myself who was disappointed about the abrupt cancellation of the proposed panel discussion on The Art of Storytelling in the 21st Century <Sat 6/13 at 1:30pm>?
This very special feature of the annual 11-year-old film festival was being presented by Planet Illogica, of Los Angeles. I was curious to know the reason(s) for the cancellation of the panel discussion. No one among the chief CineVegas staff knew for sure, or could or would say.
Fine as many of the films debuted are, just the idea of having a conversation -- a public discourse -- on such seemingly old-fashioned form of human communication as storytelling was newsworthy to me. But, with the cancellation, the most noteworthy story became the reason(s) for cancellation of this singular event.
Why does it matter? Given its title and description, this discussion surely would have been a stimulating, lively, and well-attended event, offering up something for everyone -- screenwriter, director/producer, actor, student, teacher. After all, filmmaking is storytelling -- another form of simple narration, employing modern technological tools, but still fulfilling what novelist-poet-dramatist-essayist-professor Reynolds Price describes as the "essential" human "need to tell and hear stories".
Kudos to CineVegas for even daring to consider such feature amid the panoply of entertaining and provocative films and the usual surreal events surrounding them.
I hope that Mike Plante along with Trevor Groth will not abandon this idea. I look forward to CineVegas pulling off the panel discussion next year.

scp