The Pallet Racks are now in India. Bangalore to be precise. But they got their start nearly a decade ago in 2002 when they began to be pieced together (erector set like) at the old Edison Electric Powerhouse on 660 Venice, now the home of L&M Art Gallery.

It was there in 2002 where a dot com millionaire with generosity and a penchant for stirring things up met an Italian Prince and then things started to get interesting. A front page article in The Argonaut really then threw it all into overdrive as the fledging Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative (LAFCO) parked their bus after years of driving it in circles helping those who were voiceless to have a voice with digital images. Hundreds answered the call to help make film be true art with the "materials as inexpensive as pen and paper" when this band of pre-youtube-revolutionaries wrestled with how to make and share films and art with the world.

"It was a year that I am sad to say could probably not happen again" explains Cesar A. Becerra, The LAFCO powerhouse former marketing director and Incubate LA consultant who has spent nearly 6 years developing the book and researching/interviewing dozens of LAFCOnians and Brewery members who participated in the Warholian-like "Factory" journey at what probably could have been the last time any sort of eclectic group could meet and gather and create at all hours ofthe night.

The book tracks the up-the-river swim that most members of these coops faced as they wrestled with both giving access to expensive cameras and editing equipment (a standard high end camera in 2003 was still $2,500 whereas today you could purchse an HD Digital Video camera for 77 bucks!) and the slow nature of posting/hosting films on the net (again in 2003, not everybody had even the ability to run flash technology much less video clips past one two or three minutes).

And so as the youtube revolution allows a more solitary environment of filmmaking, Becerra’s book champions and illustrates the importance of banding together to create any art. Travel back to a time when these eclectic artists could be found under one powerhouse or old brewery to nurture digital media to life.

Read about the early adventures of LAFCO in this massive 11" x 17" 225-page coffee table spiral-bound book.

View a larger version of the cover here, and get a peek inside the book here.

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