San Diego ExperienceSan Diego Film Festival - part two
It's A Wrap The San Diego Film Festival has come and gone leaving proof positive that this town does indeed have a great heart when it comes to the arts. Being a first time Film Festival patron it was incredibly gratifying to see all of the attendees in mass waiting, watching, partying and most of all discussing the myriad films screened during the festivals run. To walk out of a packed theatre only to see a huge line of folks waiting to get in for the next screening was a pleasure. “Local Love” was a great night for us locals with screenings of shorts, either filmed in San Diego or created by San Diegan’s. The shorts covered the gauntlet invoking laughter, tears, disgust, heartache and smiles. Some were beautifully presented with fine scripts and acting. Some tried way too hard and just tuned out silly. Others told a simple story that as the immense credits rolled made you realize that “simple” has nothing to do with it. There is something magical about seeing the filmmakers and realizing all the work the goes into even a short 10-minute reel. We are so numb from watching credits roll for Hollywood flicks that you forget that it takes a lot of hours to put even the smallest film in the can. One film in particular was produced, written, edited, did make-up, song written, lit, and pretty much everything else by the filmmaker. Busy dude. A shining feature was the premiere of “The Boys Are Back”, a beautifully filmed and acted story of loss and recovery starring Clive Owen. Look for this one to make some noise come Oscar time and yes, some can have the bragging rights to say, “we saw it first” at the San Diego Film Festival. There were audience “buzz” favorites including a delightfully silly and sweet tale called “Love in Bulk”. The couple featured are, well, big-boned individuals, shopping at a Costco-type store. In the span of a few minutes, they meet (looking at each others cart of goodies through the metal shelving), romance, (sharing a feast of endless samples seated amongst the display items), fall in love (sealing the deal is sharing the same cart), break apart (so sharing a cart is not always a great idea), heartbreak (wondering the aisles alone), to reconciliation (paying for the groceries together – with one heck of an ending line). All accomplished within the span of 15 minutes. It was sheer delight. Awards were presented, as is the nature of all film festivals. Best Acting awards went to James Van Der Beek for “Formosa Betrayed” and Mira Sorvino for “Like Dandelion Dust”. The Audience Choice Award Feature went to “Reach For Me” and Best Short Film was “True Beauty This Night”. Then there are the endless nightly parties. We enjoyed the GQ Lounge party presented by Patron where the drinks flowed as much as the conversation. Mingling with the filmmakers eagerly discussing their films brought a lot of insight into the process experienced determining the story they want to tell. If you haven’t enjoyed the San Diego Film Festival we whole-heartedly encourage you to give it a try. Next years run is September 22-26, 2010, which sounds like a long time off but with the way time flies, it’ll be here before we know it. It’s 5 days of beautiful and ridiculous creations that will please the most eclectic of tastes. Those 5 parties and the occasional celeb sighting is a big part of the fun. When was the last time you had a tequila with William Shatner or Richard Dreyfus? Not recently? Too bad…we did and guess you’ll just have to put it on your calendar for next year. We’re ready for our close-up (fade to black………)  Kevin Leap and Steve Persitza About the author: Kevin Leap and Steven Persitza have been writing reviews of Southern California restaurants since 2006. Kevin was formerly Associate Publisher of the North County Times, Publisher of San Diego Magazine and President of Modern Luxury Media. Steven spent 10 year as Vice President of Marketing for Food For All, a national charity focusing on the grocery industry. Their writing has been acknowledged for its excellence by the San Diego Press Club and also appears in the La Jolla Light weekly newspaper. More by this author Subscribe to Experience:
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