The Source Staff

The latest news on the BendFilm Festival plays almost like a rerun of
last year. The local film festival that's earning an increasingly
strong buzz within the film industry is again saddled with a vacancy at
the top of the non-profit organization. But this time around, there's
more changes written into the BendFilm script, with slumping ticket
sales and a board of directors saying they are looking at an
organizational restructuring.

In fall of 2007, Erik Jambor stepped
down as executive director after less than a year at the helm of
BendFilm and within days the organization's board had named former film
industry powerhouse Sandy Henderson to the vacated spot. But now,
Henderson has announced her resignation from a position she once called
her "dream job" just a little more than a week after the 2008 edition
of BendFilm wrapped up.
Jim Bailey, the president of BendFilm's board of directors says that Sandy's resignation wasn't necessarily a surprise.

Behind mountain biking and pushing babies around in thousand-dollar
jogging strollers, bitching about Mt. Bachelor is one of Bend's most
beloved pastimes. Bendites complain about ticket prices, parking,
grooming or staffing issues just like people in larger, more urban
cities bitch about the coaching decisions of their local sports teams.

While
this is certainly a storied pastime, last season the bitching went from
nit-picking static to fever pitched shouting as winter began with hiked
lift ticket prices and ended with reports of potentially dangerous
chair lift maintenance practices and an earlier than usual closing date.