Ojai’s Inaugural Film Festival Comes to Light

Capitalizing on its ties to the film industry--it’s long been a refuge for actors and filmmakers and was the location for the 1937 film “Lost Horizon”--Ojai will host its inaugural film festival this week.

It’s the third such festival in as many months for Ventura County--the Channel Islands Indie Film Festival began in September, and the Port Hueneme International Film Festival was launched in October. But Ojai’s version may have a better shot than most fledgling efforts, thanks to those ties.

Appearances are expected by honorees Jonathan Winters and Tom Selleck, along with “Friends” star Matthew Perry and “White Men Can’t Jump” director Ron Shelton.

There will also be 90 films, seminars, awards and other film-related activities, held at various venues around the Ojai Valley.

The festival didn’t happen overnight. Virginia Swift, former president of the Ojai Film Society, was one of the original promoters, along with society member Steve Grumette, now the festival’s artistic director. Active for 11 years, the film society has sponsored Sunday afternoon screenings and hosted visiting film people.

Initial response from the society board for a festival, though, was less than enthusiastic. “We presented it to a meeting and they flipped out,” Swift said. “They didn’t want to have any part of it. We argued and fought and stuck to our guns. Finally there was a big meeting, and the vote turned out to be 18 for and 3 against. Steve and I looked at each other. That was the beginning.”

This festival was an outgrowth, in a sense, of an animation festival put on by Swift and Grumette at Matilija School, under the auspices of the French animation organization Assn. Internationale du Film d’Animation.

Pauletta Walsh was hired as director last February. Walsh, an actress who had been on the Connecticut Film Commission, was familiar with festivals from her job back East.

“They came to a leadership crisis, which is where I came in,” Walsh said.

Ojai has the built-in population of movie people. “Actors and actresses have lived here for years, even going back as far as Loretta Young,” Swift said. “She had a fine home here.”

Walsh adds that Ojai is “a mecca and a refuge for artists, and it has been forever. We have a lot of people hiding out in the hills here who have come forward and said, ‘It’s a great idea, how can I help?’ Some of them have done that publicly, and a lot of others, privately. . . . That’s fine with us.”

Names do count for something in the festival world, and the festival’s Honorary Advisory Board includes such names as June Allyson, Peter Strauss, Diane Ladd, Malcolm McDowell, Larry Hagman, Ellen DeGeneres, Perry and Shelton. Some of them will appear on panels, including Perry in an acting seminar at noon Saturday and Shelton in Saturday morning’s “Hollywood Confidential” session.

One reason for the growth of festivals is the increasing ease of technology in filmmaking, with digital equipment enabling young filmmakers to readily enter the field. The Ojai Film Festival, after putting out calls in trade magazines, film schools and on such well-known Internet sites as Film Threat and Indie Wire, culled over 300 submissions.

The films on view range from features to documentaries to animation and short subjects. The Cuban film “A Paradise Under the Stars” is part of a focus on Cuban cinema and culture in the festival. Among the American features are “Norma Jean, Jack and Me,” about a drug dealer’s discovery of two famous Americans presumed dead, and “Chutney Popcorn,”a comedy in which transplanted Indian culture and New York City style collide.

The feature documentary selection is especially strong and includes “Uncle Saddam,” director Joel Soler’s behind-the-scenes look at Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Famed cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler’s “Five Days in March” follows Bonnie Raitt and others in a benefit concert in Cuba. Closer to home, director David Rabinovitch’s film “The Compassionate Eye” deals with the late photojournalist Horace Bristol, who lived his last years in Ojai.

Of the thousands of festivals currently in operation, Walsh said, “a lot of them call themselves festivals, but what they really are is something happening in one venue sponsored by one group that [screens] films. That’s a little different than what Santa Barbara is, or Sundance or Telluride, where it really is a whole event.”

Where other festivals, including new ones in Sarasota and Santa Fe, have relied on grants for funding, the Ojai festival was seeded mainly by small monetary gifts and in-kind donations, with an almost entirely volunteer-based work force. “It’s basically a grass-roots effort,” Walsh said. “Everybody is a volunteer, and hundreds of people-hours have gone into it.”

Given the festival boom, finding an identity to separate a new festival from others may be a key to success. Walsh says that this festival’s theme, “Horizons Lost and Found: Enriching the Human Spirit Through Film,” provides such a distinction.

“We’re looking for underrepresented groups,” Walsh said. “We’re looking for the odd, rather than necessarily looking for what Hollywood wants. It’s not that these aren’t fabulous films--they are. But to some extent, perhaps, they might be what might be mistakenly perceived as uncommercial, which I don’t believe they are. I believe that if people had an opportunity to see these films, they would love them. And that’s part of the mission, to make sure that they come to an audience.”

The festival’s schedule, though dense, mostly takes place over three days of screenings and seminars, kicking off with a free screening of “Lost Horizon” at Libbey Bowl on Wednesday and an awards ceremony and a tribute to Winters on Sunday.

Future goals don’t necessarily include expanding the length of the festival. “We really have to evaluate this year,” Walsh said. “I don’t know if length is the real testimony to your success. I would love to see growth in submissions and reputation.”

On the brink of the festival’s official opening, Walsh said, “I feel like I’m riding a tiger, and I just have to ride it well at this point.”

FYI

Screenings will take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Ojai Playhouse, the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa and Matilija Auditorium. Festival events include a free showing of “Lost Horizon” at Libbey Bowl on Wednesday; a free youth film Festival on Saturday; a movie memorabilia exhibit and party at the Ojai Valley Museum; a filmmakers reception at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa; a Cuban fiesta at a private home; and the culminating awards gala at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. Seminars featuring industry insiders will take place every day at the Ojai Art Center Theater. For ticket sales and more information about Ojai Film Festival 2000, call 640-1947 or visit its Web site at https://www.filmfestival.ojai.net. Phone sales: 640-1947.