Low Res Digital Film Festival was founded by Bart Cheever and Jonathan Wells

Jonathan Hale Wells

Jonathan Hale Wells is the co-founder and Head of Programming of RES Media Group, which produces the global touring digital film festival, RESFest, and the digital culture publication, RES Magazine....

. The first event took place in October 1995 at a small art gallery, 111 Minna St. Gallery in San Francisco’s SoMa

South of Market, San Francisco, California

South of Market is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States.-Name and location:Its boundaries are Market Street to the northwest, San Francisco Bay to the northeast, Mission Creek to the southeast, and Division Street, 13th Street and U.S. Route 101 to the southwest...

 district. The first year’s program featured work from pioneering music video and motion graphics studio H-Gun Labs, England’s design collective Tomato, digital designer Nick Philip

Nick Philip

Nick Philip is a graphic and multi-media artist and clothing designer operating out of the San Francisco Bay area.-Career:As a teenager in London, Philip first developed his skills as a cut-and-paste artist active in the city's freestyle bicycle/skateboard subculture...

 and filmmaker Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...

, whose early skateboard short films were screened.

The Festival focused on how desktop computers and digital video tools are affecting the way people make independent films.

In 1996 the festival toured to New York City’s Kitchen, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...

, Los Angeles’ Directors Guild of America

Directors Guild of America

Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...

 Theatre and London’s ICA

Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...

. After the 1996 tour, the founders split and dissolved the festival. Wells went on to found Resfest

RESFest

RESFEST was by the 2000s the most prominent digital film festival in North America. It was a leading global showcase of new digital filmmakers alongside England's Onedotzero festival. The festival toured the world and in 2005 travelled to 35 cities in the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia,...

 and co-found RES Magazine and Cheever went on to create the D.FILM Digital Film Festival and online movie maker. Low Res provided inspiration to Matt Hanson who founded England’s onedotzero

Onedotzero

onedotzero is a contemporary, digital arts organisation with a remit to promote innovation across all forms of moving image and motion arts....

festival whose first event in 1997 was partnered with RESFEST.