AJ Circhirillo
Filmmakers, actors, directors, producers, musicians and anyone who enjoys the beautiful art that they create gathered at the Performing Arts Center at Pierce College Thursday night to celebrate the twelfth annual Methodfest Film Festival.
A beautiful corroboration of film creators and spectators gathered together to celebrate an art form. Even though many of the films were made with low budgets they were able to create scenes meant to celebrate the creativity of the individual, not high explosives and computer technology.
“Welcome to the only film festival that celebrates the actor” said Don Franken who is the executive director and founder of the festival. This motto echoed through the voices of many of the actors and directors who were called up on stage to tell their story of how their movies came to be. The Film Festival is a means for directors and producers who do not have a whole lot of money, but ample drive and motivation to find a medium in which they can share their art with the world. There was great food brought in by Morton’s Steakhouse, as well as Barefoot wine to liven the already cheerful spirits of the great people that filled the Performing Arts Center. A stage was set up outside where performers that will be playing in the festival added to the evening with good music.
The first festival was in Hermosa Beach. From Hermosa Beach the festival moved to Pasadena, then to Burbank, and finally found a great home in Calabasas. “A lot of people think that we make money from the ticket sales, but its really through great sponsors that we are able to do this” said Bob Arnef, who is the President of Methodfest Inc.
One person that is responsible for attracting this great event to Pierce College is Dennis Washburn, who is the Executive Director, foundation of Pierce College. He is also a council member for the city of Calabasas and a long time supporter and mediator of the event. Washburn seemed very pleased with the versatility of Pierces media arts and theatre departments stating, “students can come to Pierce to learn anything they need whether it be radio, journalism, broadcasting, or theatre”.
Methodfest is a non-profit organization that strives to gain great sponsors and display the beautiful art that has been submitted throughout the years. Nearly 2000 or so entries are filtered each year and somewhere around thirty to forty of them are shown over the six days. Some of the movies shown in Methodfest in previous years went on to the Academy Awards. The festival is not only about the movies that are submitted, there are also live bands that come to the six-day event and show their talent as well.
The movies that will be shown in the Festival came from not only American filmmakers and directors but international as well. The movies that will be shown throughout the festival are: The Beginner, Big Things, The City Of Your Final Destination, Desert Son, The dispensable, Do elephants Pray?, Footprints, The Good Heart, The Greatest, Handsome Harry, The House Of Branching Love, Krews, Laid Off, The Lightkeepers, The Loneliest Road In American, Looking For Eric, Mercy, Nightbeats, Nonames, The Penitent Man, The Red Machine, The Rock’n Roll Dreams Of Duncan Christopher, Seducing Charlie Barker, Station Of The Forgotten, Strayed, The Be All And End All, Tic, Urfrenz, and Wid Winner & The Slipstream.
Some of the Directors had some interesting stories regarding their films and the things that happened during shooting. The director of Krews, Hilbert Hakim told a story about some of the challenges that came into shooting a story in South Central. Hakim said that one night they were shooting and gunfire began to erupt around them, he had to call off production for the day and have everyone get inside.
The cast of Wid Winner & the Slipstream had to deal with some extraordinary situations when shooting their film. Director Alex Gaynor talked about how on the first day of shooting they got a tornado warning. The second day when they went out to shoot, they watched as the tornado flew past them. “The locals were telling us to get inside, while the guys from California watched”, said Gaynor. Their story was about a road trip and ironically the cast would have to take a road trip of their own in order to complete the film.
Director Justin Monroe spoke about his trouble with the law while taping “The Rock & Roll Dreams Of Duncan Christopher”. An energetic and lively Monroe talked about his experiences while shooting in Oklahoma. Monroe and his cast had to shoot while in a moving car, so he had one of his taller cast members stretch out of the car while shooting at around forty mph. Fortunately he was able to get the footage that he needed, however he was pulled over a few times while doing it. All in all he was very appreciative of Oklahoma for having him there and talked very highly of their karaoke culture.
Music is also a high priority of Methodfest and they have nearly a dozen musical groups coming to play over the six-day span. “Really great talent supports the art in all of its forms”, said Ashley Miers when asked how she felt about Methodfest. She is the lead singer and guitarist of her band that will be playing during the festival.
Method fest will be in Calabasas from March 25- 31st, it will be a great opportunity to view cinematic art and musical art at their purest form.