Anup - press articles

Film Festivals and More Film Festivals

by Beth Accomando
KPBS Online
October 2003

Twenty years ago just about the only film festival you could find in town was the San Diego International Film Festival. Now we have a slew of festival all occurring within a week. Here’s a rundown.

The San Diego Asian Film Festival calls itself “a grassroots festival, born out of a love for independent film and the desire to represent different aspects of the Asian American experience in San Diego.” Now in its fourth year, SDAFF runs October 2-5 at Madstone’s Hazard Theaters as well as at a few satellite venues. The festival emphasizes Asian-American independent cinema (both features and shorts) but also highlights international titles (such as South Korea’s “Memories of Murder”, Japan’s “The Returner”, The Philippines’ “Small Voices”). Anyone wanting to support local San Diego filmmaking should check out Vikram Yashpal’s feature “Trade Offs”. Set against the dot-com boom of the nineties, the film focuses on one young, just-married Indian couple’s coming to terms with their newly adopted country. The film begins lightly but takes some surprising turns as it nicely sidesteps a formula plot about assimilation.

For a complete schedule and more information, go to their web site at www.sdaff.org.

This month also marks the debut of two film festivals: the Imperial Beach Film Festival on October 3-5 and the San Diego Girl Film Festival on October 4.

The Imperial Beach Film Festival is the inspiration of Steve Futterman, an Imperial Beach resident who looked around his community and decided that it could use some more cultural events for young people. So he decided to put together a film festival complete with workshops and seminars geared toward young people. Futterman plans to make the festival a fixture within the emerging community of filmmaking by creating and sustaining a professional environment that supports and promotes film artists in this country and abroad. His goals are commendable and the festival will showcase a few independent features as well as a showcase of locally made short films.

For more information, visit the web site at http://www.ibfilmfestival.com.

The first annual San Diego Girl Film Festival will be held on Saturday, October 4 at the University of San Diego. The free, one-day event will highlight films about young women created by women of all ages. The festival will also provide opportunities for women film producers and directors to act as mentors to a new generation of female youth. Jennifer Spell will present her film “Unforgettable: The Little Mo Connolly Story” and the Reel Grrls of 911 Media will participate in a panel discussion after the screening of their films, “Reel Grrls” and “Can You Hear Me Now?” The festival will also host a screening of the San Diego Asian Film Festival’s collection of nine short films from their women’s category. The day’s films will conclude with New Zealand’s “Whale Rider”, written and directed by Niki Caro.

For more information, visit http://www.sdgff.org or contact sdgirlrocks@yahoo.com.

And speaking of strong women, Strong Women Enterprises will present BuffyFest San Diego 2003 on Saturday, October 11th. It’s a daylong celebration of all things Buffy. BuffyFest will include stunt fighting workshops, theatrical presentations, celebrity appearances, academic discussions, a Buffy screening room, and a writer's panel hosted by San Diego Buffy writers Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte. BuffyFest's proceeds will go to several charities including: The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Breast Cancer Fund, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, and San Diego's own Sanctuary, located in Ocean Beach.

For ticket information, go to www.buffyfest.com.

And finally, a quick note about the Chinese Underground Film Festival at UCSD on October 8-10. The festival will highlight thirteen films made but never screened in China and will have some of the filmmakers in attendance. This is truly an incredible opportunity to see how Chinese cinema is changing and redefining itself in the new millennium and in the digital age of filmmaking. For more information go to http://cuff.ucsd.edu.