Oceanside Film Festival Runs Wednesday Through Sunday

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's a celebration of Surf and cinema. The ninth annual Oceanside International Film Festival begins tomorrow night. This year. The festivals, independent films come from France, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, as well as a showcase for local film makers. KPBS arts reporter, Beth Hulk. Amando sat down with the festivals, managing director Lou Niles to preview the festivals. Full slate of movies. Speaker 2: 00:27 Lou, you are returning to run the ocean side film festival. So what are any particular challenges you've had Speaker 3: 00:35 this year? Um, well it's always a challenge putting together the events, getting together with the filmmakers, seeing who you know, once, once have all been decided and the judges have chosen, uh, which films will be in the festival, uh, coordinating with who could, who could be there, who, or what are some of the special events we can plan to kind of anchor, uh, the week of the festival. And that's a, that's a lot of organizing. Yes. Speaker 2: 00:59 And I take it you've just had a confirmation that you're adding a one on one kind of session with Joanna Kasey. Speaker 3: 01:06 Yeah. So really excited and honored to have Joanna Cassidy, a star in legend of television. And Film. Uh, she's been a, she was a mainstay on six feet under for a long time. She, of course is as very famous as Zuora, the replicant in blade runner, the snake lady and a recently on a, a pretty buzzing hit, a mini series on Amazon prime called the too old to die young. Speaker 2: 01:30 Now San Diego has a lot of film festivals. We have the Latino Film Festival, the Asian Film Festival. How does the ocean side film festival kind of distinguished itself? Or what kind of a personality would you say it has? Speaker 3: 01:42 Well, I think it's evolving. Uh, obviously with me coming on board, bringing a little bit of music to it. Um, Marconi youth last year and this year, uh, Mrs Henry's last waltz. Um, so I'd like to have that kind of flavor with a Carly starved millenials coming on board, there's going to be a little more Hollywood, uh, added to it. But we try to keep some local, we try to keep some surf because of ocean side being right there on the coast and having a lot of surf culture and we just sprinkle in these different kind of edgy things, surf, skate, music, and then of course all the regular film zonules from animation, the whore to a drama documentary and romantic comedy and others. Speaker 2: 02:26 Yeah, you mentioned surf. You are going to have a special program with Taylor steel and this is not just a screening of a film. So explain what people can expect from this. Speaker 3: 02:34 Right. It's real. I'm really excited about this too. I'm a Taylor Steele is a, is a real legend in, in surf film making is award winning, uh, extremely influential in, in the genre. He started off his career filming a lot of his footage. They're in north county. I'm with local Surf Stars like Rob Machado or Jack Johnson and Taylor Knox. And those films were kind punky and had skits and costumes and weird themes to them. Speaker 4: 03:05 Two years in the making Speaker 2: 03:08 best surfers in the world. But what if they never served? Speaker 3: 03:14 And then he suddenly, he evolved into this very international cinematic film maker and really influenced the genre of what we see today. You know, kind of an out of focus, a wave in the background and in Morocco or Iceland, things like that. And he came out with these amazing set of films. I like castles in the sky and sipping jet jet streams and the drifter about Rob Machado. So, uh, it, it's amazing to have him come and he's going to hand select clips from his three decades of film making and talk different stories about, you know, behind the scenes or tell something about a special clip that's going to be really interesting to see what he has to say. Special guest, Taylor Knox and Kalani. Rob will be there as well to tell some stories. Speaker 2: 03:57 Now this was one of the things that I really enjoy about film festivals is it's not merely seeing a film, but it's this opportunity to interact with some of the filmmakers that have, are bringing their film. So are you having other filmmakers as well? Speaker 3: 04:10 Yes. Yeah, absolutely. On Wednesday night, we've got animal kingdom and the star from a animal kingdom, Shauna toes, he plays pope a is directing another episode and his bringing, Speaker 4: 04:22 not everything you do is for you. What the hell have you given me? Keep me in the loop. Stay everything you have, everyone you've ever loved. I'm going to take it off Speaker 3: 04:46 on Thursday night. We've got a, a mix of films from around the country and some local films. Uh, emerita products is showing us some called, we are islands, all these different genres. And then of course we have the director of cities champions on Saturday morning, which is about the San Diego City basketball team. And their run to the championship by a bunch of basketball players will be there as well. Um, and it's a small theater. It's really intimate. There'll be Q and A's after a lot of the uh, film blocks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And it gives you an opportunity to meet some of the people that acted in the films, maybe shot the films, edited them, directed them or, and possibly wrote them. Um, there'll be right there for the Q and a and then in the lobby afterwards too. It's really nice. Speaker 2: 05:34 And another one of the films that you have that's a documentary is all about Tony Alva. Speaker 3: 05:38 Well, Tony Alva is a cultural icon. Sure, sure. He's a famous skater from, you know, if you're familiar with Dogtown or vans, uh, shoes, really brash. Uh, not everybody likes him, but, uh, he's had a full ride up and down and back again. Um, and he had a in Oceanside for about three years, lived in Oceanside, uh, surfboards and skateboards and, uh, van's is presenting the Tony Alvis stories, kind of chronicles. It's like everybody is in this film. Uh, you know, from Tony Hawk to Henry Rollins is in the film talking about, um, what an icon Tony Alvez. So the film's only shown once before at the Newport beach film festival. Uh, so we get to show it, uh, for the second time only publicly. Uh, the film is not going to be released until later in the winter. Uh, so we're really excited to have that film and, and have it only be the second opportunity for people to see it. The San Diego premiere Speaker 2: 06:34 in programming the festival, you have sidebars with animation, with short films. Do you kind of set up the programming based on the entries you get or do you kind of seek out certain kinds of film to create that programming? Speaker 3: 06:47 Yeah, a little bit of both. I mean, I, since coming on board, we are trying to seek out special, you know, like I, I s I sought Taylor Steele and discuss with them I want to do something special. I don't want to just show one of your films or on an anniversary of your film or something like that. Let's create something special. And we created that kind of talking story with Taylor Steele. And then, um, as the films come in, it's the hard job of Carly star Brulin Niles and the wonderful sterling ano to kind of formulate these blocks and find these box of films. And I think it's a really fun way to see a film festival to you buy one ticket, you can go for the animation block, like animations and documentaries, then you, you seek that out and you go see a, you may be, you're even targeting one film, but you go for the whole block and you see a, some other animation or documentaries or romantic comedies that you want to see. So I think it's a really fun way so far it's working and, uh, we try to find special things, you know, whether it be the Marconi youth or animal kingdom, which is TV, not film, but it's shot. Uh, a lot of it's shot in Oceanside. So that's the tie in there. I'm trying to find these special events to kind of anchor it, make it exciting, and bring people in to experience something new and see some films that maybe they wouldn't go target. Normally. Speaker 2: 08:07 That was Beth Armando speaking with Lou Niles, the ocean side International Film Festival runs tomorrow through Sunday at the Sunshine Brooks Theater.