Lighten Up Ojai! The Ojai Film Festival
I knew that would get your attention! I just thought I'd round things out and offer a bit of levity - I think we're ready. All this politicking is getting me down, so I thought I would remind everyone to take advantage of the Ojai Film Festival, which opens this Thursday night. A perfect opportunity to check-out, tune-in and suspend belief for awhile (that is unless you are taking in a documentary, so pace yourself). I wrote an article about it, which is also now on newsstands in the Ojai Visitors Guide:
Photo from "The Cave of the Yellow Dog," courtesy of the Ojai Film Festival.
I will always say the best time to visit Ojai is during the autumnal equinox. Whenever anyone quips that Californians don’t have seasons, I simply retort, “Sounds like you haven’t been to Ojai in October.” The liquid amber trees’ verdant leaves seem to turn to earth, rust and gold right before your eyes while an early morning light casts an umber glow across the valley that signals fall’s arrival. Shadows lengthen and crisp sunny days yield bright blue skies that frame the Topa Topas in such a way that you’re sure you can reach out and grab Chief Peak’s nose. And clear starry nights beckon you to a bench under a blanket in Libbey Bowl beneath 200-year-old oak trees to gaze up into a movie screen on the opening night of the Ojai Film Festival. It’s nothing short of magical.
The 7th Annual Ojai Film Festival runs October 12-15 and will screen more than 50 independent films in three venues over four days. The festival presents a unique opportunity for locals and visitors alike to take in films ranging from student and first-time filmmaker screenings to films from Oscar-nominated veterans in a wide range of genres. It’s also a chance for the community to mix with filmmakers at one of the many planned special events.
It all starts on Thursday with an opening night community barbecue at the Art Center Theater followed by a free screening at Libbey Bowl of The Cave of the Yellow Dog, a narrative documentary – with real people based on real events. Oscar-nominated director Byambasuren Davaa’s’s follow-up to the hugely successful The Story of the Weeping Camel “tells the story of the age-old bond between man and dog, a bond which experiences a new twist through the eternal cycle of reincarnation in Mongolia.”
“Sounds like Ojai, doesn’t it?” remarks the festival’s Artistic Director and Board President, Steve Grumette, referring to the more spiritual qualities our little town is known for.
It was on a trip to Moab, Utah in 1998 to serve as a juror at the Canyonlands Film Festival that it first occurred to Steve to start a festival in Ojai. “I thought to myself, if a small town in the middle of nowhere could do so well, it seemed to me Ojai could do it.”
Now in its 7th year, the non-profit festival has steadily gained in reputation as a place where emerging filmmakers can meet new audiences who know they have arrived at a small town festival with big time impact. In fact, in recent years, more than a few have gone on to win Oscars, including local Bobby Houston’s documentary short Mighty Times: The Children’s March. “Few festivals can claim such a high percentage of success,” Steve notes.
And just what is it about this annual festival that makes it particularly relevant to Ojai? “Ojai is well-known as a center for culture and the arts, and film embodies all of the arts,” Steve explains. “It’s an event that celebrates the only true new art form of the last hundred years.”
Following the Thursday special screening is a weekend jam-packed with films, seminars and special events. One event in particular has the attention of the nation’s top film students. The Panavision Into the Limelight Project was started last year and brings the nation’s top 10 graduating film students to network with industry professionals and showcase their work before a festival audience. The young filmmakers will arrive by limo and have their thesis short films screened on Friday evening. One student will be awarded with a Panavision $60,000 camera rental package.
On Saturday, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Laszlo Kovacs, foremost cinematographer of critically acclaimed films such as Easy Rider, Paper Moon, Shampoo and Miss Congeniality. At 75, he is still working and going strong. Laszlo will also present two seminars using 20-minute segments of his films to explain why you see what appears on the screen, providing keen insight into the filmmaking process.
Sunday, the festival continues its outreach to youth with Teen Filmmakers in Action, coordinated by Ojai’s own John Zatkowsky a Nordhoff High School senior. “It’s of, for and by youth,” explains the festival’s Executive Director, Maggie Wellman Cerminaro.
The festival’s theme is “enriching the human spirit through film,” and having waded through some 400 submissions, the cream of the crop will certainly be evident with films like The Trials of Daryl Hunt, the story of a man wrongfully convicted of rape and murder, and King Leopold’s Ghost, which details King Leopold II's colonial brutalities in Congo. An animation festival will showcase the festival’s lighter side. And there will be a local connection with a screening from one of AFI’s most recent graduates, Charlie McDowell. His film, Bye Bye Benjamin, a comedy short about a ten-year-old business executive, stars Ojai residents Ted Danson and Charlie’s father, Malcolm McDowell. And Danson’s wife, Mary Steenburgen, serves as one of the film’s executive producers. “It’s our own offspring coming back to us!” Maggie beams.
So come rub elbows with luminaries in Ojai. For more information, visit www.ojaifilmfestival.com to get the full schedule, view film clips and to purchase tickets, or tune into Radio Ojai for this week's Ojai Moment for Lisa's and Matt's perspectives.
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Comments (4)
Great article Lisa - looking forward to hearing the Radio Ojai report... I feel lighter...
Comment #1 Posted by: Tyler | October 9, 2006 08:35 PM
Thanks for the enlightening, lightened up film heads up. Hope to see you there.
Comment #2 Posted by: Dennis Leary | October 10, 2006 06:47 AM
FYI, I am chairing the awards gala on Saturday at Glen Muse. This is my third year of being involved with the festival. It's always fun and exciting. Along with Ojai Day and the art tours October is my favorite month in Ojai!
Comment #3 Posted by: Demitri Corbin | October 10, 2006 09:52 AM
Press Release from the OFF:
Firefighters Honored with Cash Award at Ojai Film Festival
Ojai, CA Oct 10, 2006 The seventh annual Ojai Film Festival, held on
Thursday, October 12th through Sunday, October 15th, will present the
cream of this year's groundbreaking films along with a number of
special screenings. One of them honors the life of firefighters.
Filmmaker Bill Couturié's documentary "Into the Fire" will
have its first public theatrical screening at the Ojai Playhouse on
Sunday, October 15th. How fitting that Ojai, protected from the Day
Fire by the brave firefighters who have been so visible in our town,
should be showing this film at this time. It captures the terror,
exhilaration, heartbreak and joy of those who have chosen this
difficult and dangerous career.
How fitting, too, that one of Ojai's own filmmakers has chosen
to contribute a cash gift to accompany the screening of this wonderful
homage to firefighters. John Langley, Hollywood producer and Ojai
resident, is contributing $5,000 to the National Fallen Firefighters
Foundation (NFFF). The NFFF works with the Fireman's Fund Insurance
Company, who conceived this film, to give donations associated with
"Into the Fire" to firefighters and fire service organizations
nationwide for needed support.
Other special events include the free screening of "Cave of
the Yellow Dog," open to the community at Libbey Park on Thursday.
There will also be a pre-release screening of the political thriller
"Catch a Fire" at the Ojai Playhouse on Saturday. On Sunday, at the
Art Center Gallery, another special event will be a case history of a
documentary, "The Creek Runs Red," with a free screening followed by a
discussion with the filmmaker, Julianna Brannum, who received the
Festival's 2005 Irwin Allen Environmental Award of cash to support the
completion of this documentary.
As in previous years, the meat of the Festival is of course
the 53 entrants - chosen from among more than 500 submissions by a
jury of film professionals - that represent the very best in
filmmaking today. Ranging from 3-minute animations to full-length
narrative features, the films are each shown twice so that filmgoers
can pick and choose their personalized viewing schedules.
This year there is a special emphasis on the filmmakers
themselves. An unprecedented number of them, more than 60 at latest
count, will be coming to Ojai. To honor them and give them an
opportunity to meet each other and Festival participants, there will
be a Filmmakers' Reception on Friday at the Arcade Plaza. On Saturday
and Sunday, they will also have the opportunity to attend "Craft
Talks" covering such topics as Promoting Your Film... Camera as
Paintbrush, Screen as Canvas... and two sessions with master
cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs on Visual Language... and Developing
Your Cinematic Style.
From the opening on Thursday afternoon of Festival Center at
the Ojai Museum Courtyard, to the final screening on Sunday, Ojai will
be abuzz with superb examples of current filmmaking and exciting
events throughout Festival weekend. These include an Opening Night
Barbecue at the Ojai Art Center on Thursday; a two-hour presentation
of Teen Filmmakers in Action; a collection of shorts from emerging
filmmakers representing the Panavision "Into the Limelight" project;
and two screenings of Animation collections (including one that will
keep viewers up till midnight!).
Capping it all off will be the Awards Gala on Saturday night,
held on the Ojai estate grounds of Glen Muse, at which Peter Strauss
as Master of Ceremonies will announce the winners of the 2006 Ojai
Film Festival. At the Gala, Malcolm McDowell will present the
Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award to Laszlo Kovacs during this
elegant event in celebration of film.
Advance passes and ticket six-packs can be purchased at the
Festival office - call 640-1947 - or online at
www.ojaifilmfestival.com. Six-packs (admission to six screenings, a
$48 value for $40) can also be purchased at Ojai Creates!, Ojai Video,
the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce and Tottenham Court. During the
Festival, all pass and ticket sales will take place at Festival Center
in the Ojai Museum Courtyard, 130 W. Ojai Ave.
Descriptions of all Festival films and events, along with
details on when and where they will take place, can be seen on the
Festival's website: www.ojaifilmfestival.com.
Comment #4 Posted by: Lisa Snider | October 11, 2006 01:16 PM