Low Res Digital Film Festival was founded by Bart Cheever and Jonathan Wells. The first event took place in October 1995 at a small art gallery, 111 Minna St. Gallery in San Francisco’s SoMa 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 and filmmaker Spike Jonze, 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, Los Angeles’ Directors Guild of America Theatre and London’s ICA. After the 1996 tour, the founders split and dissolved the festival. Wells went on to found Resfest 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 festival whose first event in 1997 was partnered with RESFEST.