The continued tradition of Great Films.
I first covered this event in 2011. I remember thinking the festival director must be a nice guy, because he gave me press credentials the day of opening night. I was new in town and loved the idea of a festival in a beautiful Library (with a State of the Art screening room). Immediately, I felt that the SoCal F.F. was about the filmmakers and their work. The festival’s mission to help films and filmmakers advance on their artistic path, as held true for 9 years.
This year, the festivities kicked off with some shorts and music videos and a great party at the Courtyard Marriott where I met filmmakers from Past God (which took home the “Special Achievement in Feature Filmmaking” Award and Director Jeremy Weiss, of the Jazz film Riff Raff, which is showing in the online screening room 9/30-10/6). Weiss had great tastes and exactly what a Director needs to have, a wide variety of multiple topics and he’s from Jersey so he brought some East meets West to the dance.
The second night, I caught an excellent Australian short that won one of the festival’s awards, titled Cough. The film is set in a world where most of the world has been infected by a deadly disease, the main character (who is not infected), must face the moral dilemma whether or not to help an infected pregnant women? The director asked us to evaluate are we more important than the world around us? Do we care for our fellow man or do we live in our own bubble?
*****
Other (very) notable films were Red Poppies (winner of ‘Best Director’), an excellent story about the human condition and how the past can haunt us. On the comedy side, I fell in love with, Love and Disorder, a superbly made comedy that had two characters with turrets syndrome and the film broke down some social stereotypes about the disease.There was an excellent blend of comedy and drama in the shorts while maintaining the thread of humanity all films need.
My favorite thing about this festival is the Festival director doesn’t censor content. Way Too Many Problems, another one of the award-winning films, dealt with one of today’s hottest topics (Gay suicide). The festival is for the filmmakers, but celebrates art. I don’t believe art should be censored, so this event is a welcoming party. The kind of party where you feel like you are reconnecting with old friends, but in reality they are new friends (and future associates).
The Socal Film Festival capped-off with Past God winning the Grand-Jury Prize. The Audience Choice Award is still up for grabs, because…
If you missed SoCal Film Festival, you are in the luck. Visit www.socalfilmfest.com (9/30-10/6) for some films that played SoCal F.F. and many other selections will be available in their Online Screening Room portion of the Festival. Live events may be over, but the movies continue!
Paul’s Grade: A+
Festival Review by Paul Booth
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