One night at the Denver Film Festival, when we were hanging out at the Late Night Lounge, I was attempting to have a conversation with some guy. I say “attempting” a conversation because the guy kept asking me questions about Spout but wouldn’t let me get two words out before he interrupted. At one point, as I was patiently explaining “It’s an online community…” he jumped in with “Community! What do you mean by community? I know what that’s all about. It’s a way for you to make a bunch of money off people and not give them anything back.”

Obviously the guy was still worked up about all the money made on the YouTube-Google deal. And it’s true, community can be a slippery word. But sometimes–feel free to call me a Romantic here–I think we see the real thing working in real ways.

At Spout, since the earliest imaginings of the concept, there’s been a strong belief in the power of people coming together and sharing–most importantly sharing emotions and ideas around films. We’ve always believed that this kind of sharing could result in something substantial and important.

Of course, it takes a while to see the tangible fruit of such concepts. But it’s happening. Gradually, more and more content has been contributed to the site, our busiest experts have bubbled to the top, and people are beginning to see how these experts and their content can help them find films. In our most recent build, we even added a way to set apart your favorite film experts from all your other contacts. We’ve also had a couple of our spout.com experts write some posts here on SpoutBlog. It’s all exciting stuff for us (and we hope for you, too).

Perhaps the most tangible pieces to come out of our belief in community are the first-ever Spout Essentials movie packs. Bundling some movies to sell as gifts during the holidays isn’t a new concept, but rather than just pick our favorites, we polled several of our experts to see what they would label Spout Essentials. We received a great response, watched a bunch of films (some we hadn’t seen before), then put together the following packs. We also asked those whose films we chose to write filmblog posts about their picks–another nice little community-building detail (if we do say so ourselves).

So here are the films, along with excerpts from the blog posts and links to everything. Here, in other words, is the Spout community in action. Let us know what you think!

The holiday survival pack:

Winter Passing (2004) from SkyPilot
From SkyPilot’s filmblog: “This movie is full of sadness, but also full of grace. It shows us hurting people in the midst of a winter that\’s passing into spring because of the warmth they\’re willing to share with one another. ”

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer(1964) from Indie
From Indie’s filmblog: “Who has not seen this movie? It is quite possibly the best made-for-tv movie of all time…. It is a Christmas classic without compare. I dare you to find another movie with a nomadic elf that plucks teeth from a gigantic snow-beast. Why can’t every day be like Christmas?”

Trading Places (1983) from i-heart-art
From i-heart-art’s filmblog: “This movie has stood the test of time. From the first time I saw it 23 years ago to the last time I saw it (about a month ago), it has always remained as fresh and funny. I think it will stand as a career highlight for all involved in the making of this film.”

Beauty and the Beast(1946) from Tmoney
From Tmoney’s filmblog: “This is not a