Not-So-Silent Short Film Festival Celebrates Women Pioneer Filmmakers

Speaker 1: 00:00 The first of three film programs titled The Not So Silent Short film festival debuts in the East village this Saturday. The focus of the event is women film pioneers KPBS film critic Beth Huck Amando speaks with the founder of vanguard culture, which organized the festivals Susanna parade swap and film curator Scott Paulson about what to expect. Susanna, can you remind me Speaker 2: 00:25 people of what vanguard culture is all about and what they're doing here in San Diego? Vanguard culture is a small all volunteer five o one c three nonprofit. We work to advance San Diego's creative industries. So we do that in three components. We do arts coverage with writers that we send out to review shows a in the arts. The second thing is professional development for creatives. So we do panel discussions, workshops, um, industry mixers to help people learn how to make a living doing the thing that they love. And then we do special events and all of our events are collaborative in nature. They all encourage a creative collaboration across different industries that typically never intersect. So we'll put, for example, an artist and a chef together and say, okay, create a menu inspired by the work of this artist. We've had events in the past where we brought together a poet, a scientist, an artist, and a chef and said, create something inspired by climate change. Speaker 2: 01:20 And so everyone had their take on that and our events try to bring people together in unique and innovative ways and have them walk away feeling like they just experienced something very special. And what do you have coming up is something called the not so silent film festival and what does that entail then also assignment short, film fest is a sort of brainchild between a partnership between a vanguard culture and the La Jolla historical society. It is three interactive evenings of silent short films. Each one of them is themed around three different topics. The first one is the Saturday, June 22nd it's women filmmakers, pioneers of cinema. The next one is July 6th which is a wacky inventions and inventors. And then the last one is our steam punk soiree, and that's on August 3rd and then the, one of the fun things, if you're a popcorn aficionados, chef Daniela Dell appointee, who's our culinary director, is creating a variety of a gourmet popcorn varieties. So Bazell and curry, things that you typically wouldn't expect from popcorn. Now for this not so silent short film festival, you have Scott Paulsa news here with us and Scott, Speaker 3: 02:28 you have a kind of specialized in silent films. So what are the films that will be screening on Saturday? The theme is a women film pioneers. Uh, we have to feature Alice [inaudible] who was the first female director. She's French. She, she started a career in France, but she didn't come, come here as well to America. Oh, for her, we're showing falling leaves, which is a beautiful sentimental film and write for a lot of wonderful musical gestures that I doing and that the will be doing. I, you know, I'll let them play in my heart. I'll let them play in my mind. I'll chime so it'll be fun. We also have to feature Lois Weber who was the first American director. We're showing her 1913 film suspense, which is an amazing home invasion film shot in on very unusual split screen, a triptych, a three split screen, these very nice triangular shapes for it. Speaker 3: 03:22 And I was kind of asked to do perils of Pauline as well. A good, good slapstick films, but I prefer hazards of Helen. They are superior. And Helen in the movie, Helen homes often directed the episodes and that and she really took chances and she did not use a stunt double. And the ones that I watched, and we're also going to feature a wonderful film from baby Peggy, who is the last living silent film star. She's a hundred years old and I talked to her just the other day and she's very excited that we're going to show one of her films where she plays a Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a beautiful pony that you're all going to fall in love with. And you've brought a few instruments here into the studio. You have one here that's a little tower and you said that this is very good for transitions. Yes. Silent films. Speaker 3: 04:07 Yes. A summer from the audience will help me with this one. This is called a bell trees. He's cupped bells that go from smallest to largest. And if you gesture downwards is a very cliche scene change moment, especially effective if the film is Irish. Sing in an Irish thing out, kind of like a James Bond movie. So someone is going to have that lucky job in, in the films. Just doing that little moment for seeing change. Uh, another intimate we have as a slap stick, you know, slapstick comedies get their name from the slap stick. Let's see. You just slap it. When you hear that slapstick, it's a very distinctive sound and you know that the violence is not real. It's cartoon like silver slapstick film. It's a, it's a great tool to use and uh, just let's have, we know that it's not for reals. Speaker 3: 04:56 Another wonderful, wow, bad guy moment would be with this Viber slap you just put your hand through and is this wooden ball and a little box with metal teeth. You slap the ball and you get that spectacular sound that you recognize from the good, the bad and the ugly amongst other things. Yeah. Oh, and you bought yourself a new instrument, a, a little toy, a little toy accordion. And it's very easy to play. You just pick some buttons and then you open and close. It's just your little Tada moment. So yes, we can get carried away. It is kind of all the bells and whistles you can stand, but there are some beautiful moments in the this evening and we'll be doing some beautiful music as well besides the crazy slapstick. So for this accordion, what kind of visual cues might people be looking for that they would use this? Well, the, the Allis g film is about a doctor who finds a cure for um, a debilitating lung disease. And in the beginning all the patients are paraded and they show how well they're breathing. So I think just each time they take a big breath to show off. I think that's an easy one for the audience to cue up too, Speaker 4: 06:09 Huh? Speaker 3: 06:10 Yes, I can very thank you doctor. But for the rest of the film, it's so beautiful. We're actually going to use a modern minimalist music along the lines of, you know, you'll think it's Philip Glass who all it was pretty minor thirds and major sixth is the rest of the home is going to be quite, quite beautiful because it's very sentimental. But we'll start out funny with a boot with a breathing. All right. Speaker 2: 06:31 This sounds like a fabulous night. And uh, Suzana do you want to add anything to this? Yeah, I did just want to say that a part of our intention of, of partnering for this Silent Film Fest, a as an organization who works to advance the creative industries vanguard culture is to give people sort of the behind the scenes, give them an opportunity to learn what it takes to create an original soundscape for a movie. Uh, even in this very sort of minimalist form. But it still feels very satisfying to make a film come to life, you know, with your own hands. And that's what we're trying to do overall as an organization is just teach people and an appreciation for the creative industries from all film, theater, dance, music. You know, this, this wonderful plethora of artistic practices that happen here in San Diego. And where is this going to take place? Yes. It takes place. That idea. One downtown in the East village. We actually have a residency there right now in arts residency where we're producing all of our events at that venue. Speaker 3: 07:28 And Scott, do you want to give us a sound cue to go out? Oh, uh, oh gosh. Oh yes. It's always nice to remind people that when you hear one sound Speaker 5: 07:41 [inaudible], Speaker 3: 07:41 most likely you'll hear another yes, more cow bell. Speaker 1: 07:47 That was Scott Paulson and Susanna Broido swap speaking with Beth Ahca, Mondo about Saturday's not so silent short film festival, Women Film Pioneers. It takes place Saturday night at idea one.