The people of Sacramento better be geared up for a week full of local, independent and foreign film and music as the 11th annual Sacramento International Film and Music Festival kicks off its first showing Friday. The festival is organized by co-directors Nathan Schemel, who also founded the festival, and Tony Sheppard, and will show more than 140 films from July 23 through Aug. 1. The festival is different from most Sacramento Film Festivals in that it does not have any specific focus. “The specialty of the festival is that, essentially, we don’t have a specialty,” Sheppard said. “We are all genre, international, submission based. Our programming model is to basically have films sent

Who is Ted and why is he so popular? The nearly 200 people who attended Sacramento’s inaugural TEDx conference last night at Hinde Auditorium at Sac State discovered that “what is TED?” is the better question. TED is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds--Technology, Entertainment, and Design--and now its scope has become ever broader. Since the launch of the TEDx program only six months ago, thousands of individuals have gathered to enjoy independently organized TEDx events. Last night, Sacramento made local history with its first TEDx conference. TEDx Sacramento curator Brandon Weber, co-owner of