"The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed."

- Stanley Kubrick

EVEN IF YOU don't see a film or run into a celebrity around town in the next weeks, the buzz is palpable when the Mill Valley Film Festival opens. Wherever you turn, you're likely to overhear people talking about what they've seen in the 10 days that the festival, now in its 32nd year, takes over theaters in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera. Whether it's about big issues - abusive families or single parenthood - or a 12-minute profile of one of Marin's most endearing characters, toilet seat guitar inventor Charlie Deal, the 143 films in the festival this year open our eyes, tug at our hearts and hold up the mirror.

For San Anselmo cameraman Michael Anderson, it's a chance to show off his first feature film, "Tenderloin," one of the festival's many films celebrating the power of the human spirit. Anderson chats with here reporter Jesse Hamlin in this week's Covered.

Let us know what you think of the festival this year; e-mail me at editor.here@gmail.com, drop me at line at here, P.O. Box 6150, Novato 94948 or fax me at 415-883-5458.

- Vicki Larson, here editor

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