On Saturday the Oceanside International Film Festival (OIFF) launches its 15th year with a day of surf films at the Brooks Theatre. But this year has some new challenges that are forcing the festival to split its event over two weekends and two venues.
"Typically we do the film festival in one spot," explained executive director Lou Niles. "It's been the Brooks Theatre, but the Brooks is under construction right now. They're expanding, and so we're looking forward to that being complete to have a wonderful, better place. But we've got our kickoff night and day of Surf Saturday on February 21 at the Brooks Theatre. And then we'll move over to the Star Theatre Wednesday through Saturday February 28."
OIFF is no stranger to the Star Theatre, where it hosts midseason film events. Oceanside is lucky to have a pair of vintage theaters capable of being single-screen venues for film just blocks apart from each other. And for those unfamiliar with the Star, you can find it easily at night by looking for its gorgeous neon marquee.
In addition to films, the Star will host the festival's closing night awards ceremony as well as a one-on-one talk with filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke.
Artistic director and co-director of programming Carly Starr Brullo Niles has a close connection with Hardwicke.
"Catherine Hardwicke and I worked together on three different films," Starr Brullo Niles said. "She's an extraordinary artist, extraordinary human being, and we're really excited. She's going to bring clips and all her notes. She's just going to go through her process of how she makes a film and how she develops it. She's going to share her storyboards. And the best part is, at the end of the conversation, we get to have audience questions for about a half an hour."
OIFF's other co-director of programming is Sterling Anno.
"Every year, Carly and I go through hundreds of titles to program the festival," Anno said. "It's about a six-month process to go through so many films. It's an arduous process, but also a very rewarding one. Seeing all the stories that come out to the zeitgeist in a given year, you really know what the primary talking points of the world are. This year, a lot of that happened to do with very important non-fiction tales."
In fact, this year there will be no narrative features, only documentary features. But that does not surprise Starr Brullo Niles.
"We've always been known for really thoughtful subjects, so they lend themselves to documentaries," Starr Brullo Niles said. "This year, it took a turn onto the theme of our Earth and taking care of the Earth and the ocean."
Niles added, "Every year people often ask us, what's your theme this year? And we don't go for a theme. We don't set a theme because it's set by the filmmakers that submit. And those films often tell a story of how people are feeling in the world that year. So this year it's the Earth, protecting the Earth, a lot of introspective, a lot of documentary type formats and shorts."
Surf Saturday takes place at the Brooks Theatre this Saturday and features shorts as well as the documentary "Surfing Taiwan: Past, Present, and Future," from San Diego filmmaker James Wicks who grew up in Taiwan. Then next Wednesday, it kicks off four days at the Star Theatre with the documentary "Desert Angel," about the journey of Rafael Larraenza who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico and then devoted himself to systematically searching for lost immigrants.
The full schedule of films and events is available online.
