ANCHOR INTRO: The San Diego Film Festival kicked off its 13th year last night. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando spoke with the organizers about the film line up and the festival’s long term goals. San Diego is in the midst of its film festival season with Oceanside, Temecula, and La Costa finishing up; the Asian, Italian and German festivals coming up; and two horror-themed ones around the corner. So San Diego filmgoers will have a lot to choose from in the coming weeks. Tonya Mantooth says the San Diego Film Festival, going on right now, goes for a broad rather than narrow focus. TONYA MANTOOTH: We really try to reach out and include such a variety of genres… We’ve curated from over 55 countries, 1500 submissions, and so we have a little bit of everything. We have foreign, we have documentaries, you know we cover Native American track, so we really try to be encompassing of so many different genres. Mantooth is the vice president and director of programming for the San Diego Film Festival. Dale Strack is its chairman and CEO. DALE STRACK: Because we don’t have a niche we have the ability to reach across a broad cultural spectrum for a number of different voices, opinions and… I think what we do is create an audience for other festivals that do have niches which enables you to go deeply into that culture or that subject. Mantooth says San Diego audiences are starting to understand what it means to go to a festival. TONYA MANTOOTH: It’s not just about being in the theater, it’s also about having the venues to just talk with people, meet some friends, so it’s really about the film festival experience. DALE STRACK: I think it is the festival experience… and people should experience all aspects of it, they should see definitely go to a panel, they should definitely go to the Q&A’s, so they should definitely experience that range, documentaries, shorts, narratives, all of that I think is incredible and a broad experience. The San Diego Film Festival will host a critics panel with Jeffrey and Ben Lyons, an acting panel as well as one on TV and Film Development. TONYA MANTOOTH: So we have a number of studio executives and development executives coming down, working closely with our filmmakers to help them understand what it takes to really pitch to executives and get a project moved forward. But the heart and soul of a festival are the films and Mantooth has some favorites. TONYA MANTOOTH: We have a world premiere of a film called “Where the Road Runs Out” and that is one of the films from South Africa and it is such a beautiful film. CLIP I could teach them… what do you know about teaching… chocolate TONYA MANTOOTH: We’re really fortunate the director’s coming as well as one of the main actors… one of the documentaries that we have is a military based film called “In the Hornets Nest .” CLIP Nobody’s ever gone in there… I don’t think anyone was prepared for what it was going to be like. TONYA MANTOOTH: You follow a broadcast journalist who goes into combat with the troops so he’s embedded so we are watching him under fire experiencing all the things that the soldiers are experiencing and it is riveting and it’s powerful. There will also be films from San Diego filmmakers like a collection of 48 Hour film shorts and The Nasty Terrible T-Kid 170. But Strack says these local filmmakers had to earn their way into the festival. DALE STRACK: But we are always excited when we have a local filmmaker because we have a lot of pride in that we want to see them grow you know this film festival is also about helping filmmakers find not only an audience but distribution because by being able to monetize those films they live on to tell other stories. And Strack hopes the festival will get to showcase even more of those stories in the future. DALE STRACK: The bigger term goal for us is to build this festival into a very large significant national event, hopefully even an international event, that’s the objectives, so eventually you’ll see the number of days double and we’re going to increase the number of villages which will increase the number of films that we will be able to show. So San Diego audiences better prepare for even more film choice in the future. Beth Accomando, KPBS News. TAG: The San Diego Film Festival runs through Sunday at the Reading [pronounced Redding] Gaslamp and Arclight La Jolla Theaters.
San Diego is in the midst of its film festival season with Oceanside, Temecula and La Costa finishing up; the Asian, Italian and German festivals coming up; and two horror-themed ones around the corner. So San Diego filmgoers will have a lot to choose from in the coming weeks. Tonya Mantooth says the San Diego Film Festival, running Wednesday through Sunday, goes for a broad rather than narrow focus.
"We really try to reach out and include such a variety of genres," Mantooth said. "We’ve curated from over 55 countries, 1,500 submissions, so we have a little bit of everything. We have foreign, we have documentaries, you know we cover Native American track, so we really try to be encompassing of so many different genres."
Mantooth is the vice president and director of programming for the San Diego Film Festival. Dale Strack is its chairman and CEO.
"Because we don’t have a niche we have the ability to reach across a broad cultural spectrum for a number of different voices, opinions and… I think what we do is create an audience for other festivals that do have niches which enables you to go deeply into that culture or that subject," Strack said.
Being just south of Hollywood, the festival does tend to highlight films generating an Oscar buzz.
"Because we have a tremendous amount of studio films that are coming out of the Toronto Film Festival we are opening with 'Wild' with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern," Mantooth said. "And we’re closing with 'You’re Not You' with Hilary Swank and Josh Duhamel. What we’re seeing is there’s a lot more actors coming for the Q&A’s, a lot of filmmakers in attendance, so I think overall we’ve got a really robust film lineup."
"San Diego audiences are starting to understand what it means to go to a festival. It’s not just about being in the theater, it’s also about having the venues to just talk with people, meet some friends, so it’s really about the film festival experience," Mantooth said.
"I think it is the festival experience," Strack added. "People should experience all aspects of it, they should see definitely go to a panel, they should definitely go to the Q&A’s, so they should definitely experience that range, documentaries, shorts, narratives, all of that I think is incredible and a broad experience."
The San Diego Film Festival will host a critics panel with Jeffrey and Ben Lyons, an acting panel, and a panel on TV and film development.
"So we have a number of studio executives and development executives coming down, working closely with our filmmakers to help them understand what it takes to really pitch to executives and get a project moved forward," Mantooth explained.
But the heart and soul of a festival are the films and Mantooth has some favorites.
"We have a world premiere of a film called 'Where the Road Runs Out' and that is one of the films from South Africa and it is such a beautiful film. We’re really fortunate the director’s coming as well as one of the main actors," Mantooth said. "One of the documentaries that we have is a military-based film called 'The Hornets Nest.' You follow a broadcast journalist who goes into combat with the troops so he’s embedded so we are watching him under fire experiencing all the things that the soldiers are experiencing and it is riveting and it’s powerful. And I am so proud we are showing it."
There will also be films from San Diego filmmakers like a collection of 48 Hour film shorts and "The Nasty Terrible T-Kid 170: Julius Cavero."
"But they’ve earned their way into this film festival against all other filmmakers from around the country let alone around the world," Strack said. "So when they are there, they are competing on the world’s stage equally not just because they’re San Diego. But we are always excited when we have a local filmmaker because we have a lot of pride in that. We want to see them grow, you know this film festival is also about helping filmmakers find not only an audience but distribution because by being able to monetize those films they live on to tell other stories and in the end I think that’s what independent film is about, it’s about great stories."
And Strack hopes the festival will get to showcase even more of those stories in the future.
"The bigger term goal for us is to build this festival into a very large significant national event, hopefully even an international event, that’s the objectives, so eventually you’ll see the number of days double and we’re going to increase the number of villages, which will increase the number of films that we will be able to show," Strack said.
So San Diego audiences better prepare for even more film choice in the future.
The San Diego Film Festival runs through Sunday at the Reading Gaslamp and Arclight La Jolla Theaters.
