Oceanside International Film Festival X Goes Digita
Speaker 1: 00:00 The Oceanside international film festival had big plans for its 10 year anniversary, but they had to be scrapped as the festival was forced to move online. KPBS arts reporter, Beth Huck Amando speaks with the festivals, managing director, Lou Niles about what to expect Speaker 2: 00:17 The Oceanside international film festival has a anniversary, a milestone to celebrate this year. You are turning 10, but address some of the complications you've had with this particular year and the Corona virus. Speaker 1: 00:32 Yeah, absolutely. We were really excited to celebrate our 10 year celebration and we're even launching a sustainability and social consciousness related initiative, which would have been very timely. So we've had to go virtual explore different platforms. So we're lucky to found one and we're just about ready to go. We had to make the decision probably about maybe two and a half, three weeks ago. So we are just scrambling to get everything loaded in the platform and get it ready to deliver these great films to the public. Speaker 2: 01:10 So I have to confess the first film of yours that I went to watch was honor, and the opening kind of a drone shot of this gorgeous landscape. And I think being in quarantine and seeing that suddenly, I felt like, man, I really want to go outside or I want to go to a cinema and see these images on a massive screen. So a number of your films do have this really great sense of the expanse of the outdoors, which is quite enjoyable to be watching from inside quarantine. So talk a little bit about those choices. Speaker 1: 01:49 Yeah, we were lucky. I mean, every year we're really kind of at the whim of boom submit. Um, so, uh, you know, the programming team, uh, Sterling ADOT and Karlie Starview, the Niles, they really go through that. What do we have? And we really liked to have themed blocks. So we have these theme blocks of films that may not be just documented, just love stories. You know, there might be a Nixon there and they're tied together somehow by another thread, that's moving through the stories. Um, and we have some really beautiful films. So hopefully it'll be that kind of inspiring thing where you're trapped inside and you can live vicariously through these films and not be like, I wish I could get out there. Um, so just some beautiful films that are in our sustainable block or even in our lineup block, which is mostly about surf and skate. There's even some kind of social justice stories. That'll take you off on a trip. Photo journalist takes a trip from central America on the train, trying to come to America, following their children, trying to immigrate and get to America to be with their family. Then I learned that I can hide behind the camera only so long before I can't see through the, you find it because tears are coming down my eyes, but if I couldn't stand to do that, I would do something else. I shouldn't do it. It's not for everybody. Speaker 1: 03:23 The goal here is to teach viewers. This is what happened behind the scenes, the struggle of people in failing countries. It's just some amazing, um, you know, it's hard not to, to pick those beautiful films that have been done so well on independent budget, Speaker 2: 03:44 You talk about these theme blocks and sustainability is one of them. What are some of the other categories you have Speaker 1: 03:50 At eight different themed film blocks as we call them, there'll be four or five films in each blocks. Most of them are short, but we have, like I mentioned the lineup, which has a number of surf related films, or one film from Iceland that you talked about, and it's not really a surf film, but there's surfing in the thread. It's more about a man and his daughter and his love for surfing. Then in our sustainable block, we've got a lot of beautiful cinematic films, as well as films about the environment and sustainability coming of age and dark, kind of a dark comedy block. It features a short film that actually comes from San Diego. A Dick Shawn died on stage at the Playhouse and for a long time during the performance people thought it was part of the act and it wasn't. So it was a short film about that. Golden hour is a set of films that are the thread. There is the people on the films are in there. Kind of the older age groups change is a block of films just having changed in life. There's some really interesting socially conscious films. There are great independent short from Oceanside. Actually art house is another block with some, some of my favorites in it. And then culture has got some beautiful photos, really one of the special ones and the culture block is isolated in Stromboli. There's the eight blocks. And then we have four separate features, Speaker 2: 05:20 Particularly excited about any particular block or film that you're going to be highlighting. Speaker 1: 05:25 Really a tough one. We should probably answer the same, that question the same each year that, Oh, I really love these songs. It's really great. I'm really excited about the top rack, um, is an amazing film. And then one of my most favorites is eat the rainbow, which is kind of a musical short, but very deep social issue that they approach it in such an interesting creative way. So I guess we'll become some sort of a neighborhood melting pot [inaudible], but instead of a melting pot, think of it as a salad bowl with many different ingredients of all colors each with its own unique flavor. Speaker 2: 06:09 Right. Well, I want to thank you very much for taking some time to talk about your 10th anniversary. Speaker 1: 06:13 Yes. Thank you so much for having us [inaudible] that was Beth Huck. Amando speaking with Oceanside international film festivals, Lou Niles. You can find complete program information@osidefilm.org.
