MENDOCINO
FILM FESTIVAL
Goddamn
(note my swearing), I had one hell of a great time at the 1st Annual Mendocino
Film Festival!!!!! (Note all the exclamation points.) The town is one of the
most scenic and beautiful locales in California; set on the coast with dramatic,
rugged cliffs reminiscent of the coast of Ireland, in a town whose picturesque
Victorian buildings, evoke images of the old gold rush Wild West. Mendocino
has a rich history of film. It’s the kind of place where people who’ve
had it with big cities come to get away from it all. Thus, a lot of transplanted
film folks from Hollywood have made Mendocino their new home. Such transplanted
notables as Back To The Future’s Christopher Lloyd have expressed
interest in taking part in future festivals.
One ironic feature, though of the Mendocino Film Festival, is this scenic town doesn’t have a single movie theater in its locale. Thus a bit of ingenuity was required to turn various Victorian town locales into cinematic venues for the dozens of films shown at the festival; many of whom utilized the local scenery as a setting and backdrop.
One local resident who made an appearance at this year’s festival, as a guest of honor, was legendary, Oscar-winning director a Sydney Pollack (he owns property in Mendocino). What a treat—who doesn’t love Tootsie! Outside, under a large tent, Pollock entertained the attentive crowd spinning tales of a career that’s spawned 46 Academy Award nominations, including two for best picture. It’s pretty impressive that a guest of this caliber is attending a first time film festival (then again, it’s so damn beautiful in Mendocino). It was amazing that a man of this kind of cinematic stature would not only support such a festival, but also be so darn nice.
My favorite event of the festival was the panel workshop with legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovac (the man behind photographing such film classics as Easy Rider, 5 Easy Pieces, Shampoo, Ghostbusters, and Paper Moon). Kovac, one of the first to bring the French New Wave style of cinematography into American films, and was joined on stage with his lighting designer, Rich Aguilar for some serious Q&A from the adoring crowd crammed into the small hall. A very nice, congenial man, I loved hearing him spin tales involving everything from getting advice from Orson Wells (who was in hiding for tax evasion at the time), to using red filters to get the crisp clouds in the black and white film Paper Moon. A screening of his film Paper Moon preceded the Q&A. Though filmed in 1973, the film still stands up to time and doesn’t seem dated (though it was set in the 1930’s). From a cinematographer standpoint, the black and white composition of shots of Depression-era America brings to mind the photographs of Walker Evans and Dorthea Lange.
There were also a wide variety of quirky films within the festival. Angle of Inspiration (directed by John Antonelli and Jessica Abbe) follows the design and construction of a new bridge in Redding California. Sure, that might not sound too exciting, but the architect for the $23 million dollar bridge was world-renowned designer Santiago Calatrava. What I liked about the film was the use of architecture as an art form. What some local citizens, who opposed the project, might not understand was carefully explained through the creative thought process, where one might see the bridge as an obtrusive object, others could understand it as complying with nature in its slight resemblance of a bird’s wing.
The Jumping Flea (director Paul Kraus) is a documentary about the modern ukulele. I sure learnt a hell of a lot about the ukulele that I didn’t know before. Truly this film is a labor of love by the filmmaker (but I thought a concise, half-hour version of the film, for the layman would have sufficed). Also, for some reason, there was a tinny quality to the audio in the talking head shots. The director, himself, was an interesting character who used to work in Hollywood as a special effects man for such notables as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. When the advent of digital effects came in, he decided to retire to Mendocino to take on his other passion shaping surf boards (which he also made a documentary about). The reason he made The Jumping Flea is because building ukuleles is his other big passion.
The key to the success of the 1st Annual Mendocino Film Festival is how overall the entire town seem to come together to put on the event, attributing to the good-natured enthusiasm of the event. One local citizen opened up her home to throw a huge, catered party for the filmmakers and festival participants. In a beautiful house that overlooked the dramatic cliffs of the Pacific Ocean, we all enjoyed endless bottles of fine wine and food catered from local restaurants as we all got to casually mingle and discuss film. Lethal Weapon star Danny “I’m getting too old for this shit!” Glover was supposed to be on hand at the party to give out an award, but unfortunately (as I overheard in the festival office) he got stuck in traffic and wouldn’t be able to arrive on time. So instead, a friend and actor on the TV show Alias gave out the award. After the screenings and the party, the rest of the evening was spent by joining forces with a handful of the filmmakers and live it up with the locals at the one bar in town, which is unfortunately named Dicks. But overall, it’s the warm feeling left from events like this, the locale, and people that make Mendocino a festival to watch in the future!