The Ojai Post

It was a late and so I missed the red carpet arrivals. I arrived at 8pm and ran into Lisa Snider who told me it was wonderfully, professionally done. She was telling me how well her interview with Ray Bradbury had gone as the crowd was being herded into the Hacienda Room for the start of the awards ceremony. I left Michael Shevchuk in the lobby taking pictures and went inside with Lisa. Mayor Sue Horgan greeted us and thanked us for our service to the community. We speculated on the outcomes of the local elections which won't be confirmed for another week or so. It made me feel good being appreciated and Lisa and I discussed the comments on my post, which I had read just before leaving for the event. We chalked it up to there's always a few bad apples and took our seats up close. Bill Monot started out with introductions of the evening's hosts, Malcolm MacDowell and Peter Bellwood. Both seemed to be in their cuffs, so to speak, so the banter was a bit on the brusque side.

Before the award were bestowed OFF chairman David Shor took the podium. He gave a shout out to the cities of Ojai and Ventura and thanked Mayor Horgan and Mayor Christy Weir. As I turned to see them stand I noticed from the big cheer that there was a strong Ventura contingent in the audience. At first I assumed it was Michael Kelly's fan club come to cheer him on. But as David's remarks continued it became clear that there are things in the works that point towards some sort of collaboration between Ojai, Ventura and possibly Santa Barbara, as well. He said there would be a major announcement on January 29th. Right during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Hmmm...

Malcolm and Peter were in rare form, so thankfully their duties were kept to a minimum. The first to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award was the husband and wife team Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner. James Edward Olmos gave them a touching tribute that set the tone for the rest of the ceremony. His heartfelt thanks touched everyone in the room, lettting us know how dear and loved the Donners are, not only for their string of feel good movies but for the amount of humanitarian work they do and how they use their success for good. (I don't know what those humanitarian activities are but I'm certainly going to find out.) A short clip of their many box office hits was shown and then a video greeting that an actor friend of theirs who is doing a play in Africa. They were presented their award by the only person they know in Ojai, John Langley. Their acceptance speeches were gracious and appreciative. And they said they were most honored to be there sharing the evening with Ray Bradbury.

Mr. Bradbury had quite a day. I caught up with him and his entourage as they waited outside Matilija auditorium as the talk back for LADYHAWKE was wrapping up. Among those with him was Joe Montagna, one of the stars of THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT, the 1998 film version of his short story. Montagna, I'm told, traveled from San Diego where he is filming a television series. He had just 45 minutes to visit, then would be off to San Diego and missing the awards ceremony. But Montagna's co-star James Edward Olmos was on hand to give Mr. Bradbury his lifetime achievement award and his tribute to Bradbury once again was moving and sincere. And before that there was another video greeting, this one from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. I loved when Spielberg wrapped up thanking the festival for recognizing Ray Bradbury and Tom Hanks chimed in, “Way to go, Ojai!”

Bradbury started out his acceptance speech taking credit for Arnold Schwartzeneger being the governor. He told the story of being on a panel of judges for a film festival that requested the screening of PUMPING IRON be stopped for disinterest. He protested, demanding that the movie be turned back on. He told his fellow judges that he grew up on Muscle Beach and his brother was a body builder and people would be go crazy over the movie and it would win an academy award. He then went on to tell the crowd of his first visit to Ojai when he was 25 years old, coming to sit under a tree to listen to Krishnamurti speak. He had not been back to Ojai until that night to receive his award and felt most grateful to be returning for that reason. I felt we as a community were blessed to have him in our community for what could possibly be one of his last public appearances.

Next were the film makers awards. The ceremony was anticlimactic in that there were a scant few winners on hand to accept their awards. There were more who accepted their honorable mentions – I wished they had won. I didn't like seeing a table filled with trophies waiting for shipment. And I also wished that the film makers got their awards at their party, as in previous years. I think it was hard to share the limelight with such high profile personalities. But nonetheless, guest returned to the lobby where the party went on until midnight.

As for the films, I think this was probably one of the best years for films. Saturday's standout film for me was GUEST OF CINDY SHERMAN. I loved learning about this iconic artist and the art scene in New York City and the price of celebrity for those who get lost in the limelight of the adored. I could only stay for the first 20 minutes of THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT. It was wonderful and I'll definitely be picking it up from the library when the film festival movies are available. My favorites on Sunday were PASSING POSTON, DON'T KNOW, WE'LL SEE: THE WORK OF KAREN KARNES, THE CHEF'S LETTER and FOR A FEW MARBLES MORE. I have to say I couldn't recommend CHILDLESS, a star-studded cast trapped in a not so great script. But overall the festival took a flying leap forward from last year's fumble that motivated my friend to exclaim, “Would someone please shove something up my ass and MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I'M ALIVE AGAIN! The festival succeeded in its mission to, “Enriching the human spirit through film.”

*ON ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

I just wanted to respond to the comments I received from my first posting regarding the opening line. I won't explain the obvious ploy of using that line but I will say it certainly wasn't to discourage anyone from attending the festival. If you don't know me, you are unaware of what it means to me to practice a craft that I set aside many years ago and only with Tyler's invitation to be a contributer to the post have I returned to my first love of writing. That being said I just want to say how discouraging that I'm most compelled to write on the post when I feel I have to defend myself or bitch somebody out. For those of you who feel they have to police the pens of other writers, you do the Ojai Post and the community a dis service. For one, I write for the Arts and Entertainment subject because I like entertainment reporting. It's fun and I get much enjoyment from it. And writing for the Ojai Film Festival was not just for the few who religiously read the post but for the film makers, many who have come from great distances and spent precious resources to attend the festival. It gives them a place where they can see their films being promoted and where they can tell others to visit the site, generating more traffic to the post thereby promoting Ojai throughout the world. For people to visit to post and have to read narrow mindedness and intellectual bigotry doesn't do our community any good. And it makes it a hostile environment to come into. It makes me not want to contribute at all and I know many others in the community who feel the same way.

But on the contrary. I was inspired by Ray Bradbury who said the way to be a writer is to write something everyday. So, you will have to put up with my crass, superficial, gossip column type reporting even more. If you're too sensitive to take it my style, just don't read my posts when you see them. But don't discourage others with your judgmental comments.