Why Hala Pickford's "The Rudolph Valentino Film Festival" Is A Scam

For the better part of 18 months, we have all been hearing about Hala's latest & greatest "masterpiece," "The Rudolph Valentino Film Festival."  The festival, which was purported to be happening in May, 2010 flopped, like the rest of Hala Pickford's many projects.  The festival and its' haphazard and ever-changing dates and details have been spread around the world wide web like a bad case of herpes.  According to one website, geared towards film makers, Hala's festival has already happened.  We are avoiding posting the link to the site because, contrary to the many lies she told in court, she's posted her home address and telephone number there.

What's interesting about the info on that site, however, is that on top of being advertised as a month-long event, she is charging a $15.00 "submission fee" for each filmmaker that would like to have his/her film considered for use at the festival.  The problem with this is that the festival isn't happening, so to ask people to pay a fee for an event that isn't happening would be fraud.  The following was taken from the "official" website for Ms. Pickford's festival.  Keep in mind that this info has been the same for over 6 months.

"Hello everyone!  You may have noticed the site is temporarily down.  That's because we are currently working on confirming the venues and our new date, which will take place in Autumn 2010 here in Hollywood.

Never fear Rudy Fest is still happening!  We were offered a wonderful last minute venue for May but due to some setbacks the decision was made to postpone the festival so we will have a little more time to gather funding and submissions.

Check back soon for submissions call, our new date, and our new venue!  If you want to be alerted automatically, make sure to join our mailing list.

We'll be back ;)."

Now, we aren't rocket scientists, but Autumn, 2010 was over 4 months ago.  Where did all of the submission fees for this event go?  We are assuming that they went into the same bank account that all of the pre-order money for all the 1921 PVG Publishing books that never come out went.  We'd imagine that all of that money went into the same bank account that the Rudolph Valentino Society dues went into.   More than likely the same bank account tied to the store where Pickford "hocks her wares" of cheap ripoff Valentino mugs, key chains and the like.  We are, of course, talking about the bank account of Katie Lynn Birchard.  "Hala Pickford's" legal name.

According to the aforementioned website, here are the fine details of the festival.  Our notes are in RED.

MISSION & OBJECTIVE

Our (Hala Pickford's) mission is to promote the films of Rudolph Valentino, Silent Films, and new filmmakers of all types

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Founded by The Rudolph Valentino Society (Hala Pickford) the Rudolph Valentino Film Festival Scam was created with 3 missions in mind:

*To promote the films of Rudolph Valentino  Hala Pickford.

*To promote silent films Hala Pickford to new audiences

*To promote new and promising filmmakers who wish to make the best films possible  Hala Pickford & 1921 PVG Publishing.

Our month long (MONTH LONG?) event will be held at a Hollywood, CA theatre which will be announced in August 2010.  (You're a little late, sweetheart.) A grand spectacle our festival will feature many lectures, signings, shorts, contests, and belly dancers! (Hala Pickford has a LOT of belly.) It will be a film festival to remember! (Like ALL Natural Disasters!)

For more information please see:

http://therudolphvalentinofilmfestival.com
http://rudolphvalentino.org

ORGANIZERS
Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) ; Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) ; Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) ; Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) ; Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) ; Hala Pickford (Festival Registrar) (Has anyone noticed that this seems to be a ONE woman show?)

GENERAL RULES
Though we have a focus on promoting the art of silent film we are NOT A SILENT FILM ONLY festival. ALL TYPES OF FILM ARE WELCOME! Below is what we are looking for:

Short Films:

We are looking for several short films, under 30 minutes in length.

Feature Indie Films:

We are looking for 2 independent films of feature length (1-2 hours long) to showcase.

Any filmmaker may submit, be the a youtuber or Academy Award winning artist.  (We are very sure that Academy Award winning film makers are just lined up at your door, Hala!) All ages are welcome and young filmmakers are especially encouraged to submit. We will have both standard projection and digital projection. Our focus is on good solid films, the best of the best no matter where they come from. Valentino believed in finding art in film, and we are glad to promote his legacy by encouraging it. 

We hope you got as much of a laugh from this as we all have. If you see any other notable places on the web where this festival is featured, please write in so that we may alert the proper authorities.

Until next time,

The EXPOSE "Hala Pickford" Team