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Beth Accomando
Arts & Culture Reporter
Beth Accomando covers arts and culture around San Diego for KPBS News. Beth studied film at UCSD and had her student film Writer’s Notebook screened as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s "Forty-Two Emerging Artists" showcase in 1981. She has edited the sequels to "The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and video documentaries on Billy Wilder and roller hockey. She is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and is the past President and former Education Chairperson for the San Diego Film Critics Society. She is the festival director of Film School Confidential: A Showcase of San Diego Student Filmmaking. In the past she has served on the film selection committee for the San Diego State University Student Film Festival, San Diego International Film Festival and San Diego Latino Film Festival. She has been a film critic for more than 20 years (she began at KPBS in 1987). Since 1997 she has been covering independent and international cinema as well as pop culture for National Public Radio and Public Radio International’s The World. She has received numerous Society of Professional Journalist Awards and San Diego Press Club Awards for her radio and web site work at KPBS. She has also received 11 southwestern area Emmy Awards in the categories of producing, writing, and sound design for promotional spots as well as national Pro Max and Telly Awards while working at Fox. She has a passion for Hong Kong cinema, Japanese monster movies, horror, and film noir. She collects movie posters and toys, and loves putting on a haunted house every year.
Recent Stories
Animal Cracker Conspiracy's 'The Collector'
Animal Cracker Conspiracy is pushing the boundaries of puppetry with their new production, "The Collector" at 3rd Space in University Heights. I went behind the scenes to see what it takes to create puppet theater.
CineCucina: SDIFF Pairs Food And Film
In May, the San Diego Italian Film Festival serves up CineCucina, two evenings of film all about food (and wine) and a party on the pier.
Opening: Battleships And Babies
Here are trailers for the latest openings: "The Dictator," "Battleship," and "What to Expect When You Are Expecting" (all opening May 18 throughout San Diego.
Rants and Raves: The Soskas, Yes They Cannes!
The Cannes Film Festival kicked off last night and while you could find celebrities from all over the globe on the red carpet, the one thing you couldn't find was a women director in competition for the Palm D'Or. The Internet was in an uproar over the fact that female directors have been overlooked in almost all of the Festival's 65 years. But outside the main event, at the Cannes market, Canadian twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska are doing their best to prove that women are not only making films but working in the male dominated horror genre.
Weekend Preview: Art, Pirates, And OB Beach Ball
Barbarella Fokos, author of Diary of a Diva for the San Diego Reader, and correspondent for NBC, and Enrique Limon, writer for San Diego CityBeat and editor for the website El Zonkey Show have some diverse weekend suggestions.
The Living Coast Discovery Center Opens New Exhibit
The Chula Vista Nature Center changed its name to the Living Coast Discovery Center last month, and the first exhibit under the new moniker is Washed Ashore, which turns trash into art to call attention to ocean pollution.
Washed Ashore Project
The Chula Vista Nature Center re-launched last month as the Living Coast Discovery Center. Its first exhibit under its new moniker is Washed Ashore: Plastics, Sea Life and Art. Take a tour of the exhibit with its creator. Listen to the radio feature or watch the video.
Review: 'Dark Shadows'
There was a time when a film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp was cause for celebration but sadly those days are gone. Their latest collaboration, an adaptation of the cult TV show "Dark Shadows" (opening May 11 throughout San Diego), is in desperate need of a transfusion.
'I Am Not A Hipster'
"I Am Not A Hipster" was shot in San Diego by SDSU grads and focuses on the San Diego indie music scene. The film has its official San Diego premiere on Friday at 6pm and 9pm with a musical performance at 8pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts.
Review: 'Sound Of My Voice'
Brit Marling is a rare creature, a woman with a penchant for unconventional science fiction, and who works on both sides of the camera. Her latest film, "Sound of My Voice" (opened May 4 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas), is a nice way to follow her film from last year, "Another Earth."
