In Hollywood, film festivals are often paparazzi-swarmed, red-carpeted and star-studded. In Venice, it’s another story.
With lots of locals, mingling, cocktails, art shows and live bands, the word “festival” in the Other Venice Film Festival, which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday, will ring true.
“It’s almost like looking at ourselves and kind of giggling and thinking, “˜Who needs another film festival? You know what, let’s just do our own thing,'” said OVFF cofounder A.J. Peralta. “So we haven’t really focused on red carpets and stuff like that. We look for really quality films.”
Founded in 2004, even the festival’s title as the “Other” (i.e. not the prestigious festival in Venice, Italy) comments on the excess of film festivals today.
But in focusing on Venice as a diverse community of film lovers, cofounders Peralta, Gary Ellenberg and Reuben de la Casas have created something that is fun for both filmmakers and audience members alike.
“We all lived in Venice and we wanted to make a festival that was very Venice-centric; Venice filmmakers, Venice locations, themes that were pertinent to Venetians,” Ellenberg said. “Let’s make our own home-baked film festival.”
And it’s not just the vibe; the history of Venice as an early foundation in the film world makes it a prime location for a celebration of the art.
“(Many would say that) filmmaking in Los Angeles was born in Venice,” Peralta said. “And if you go back to the 1920s and ’30s, there was a lot of stuff down here because there was carnivals, piers, open land and beach where a lot of films and shorts were made.”
Charlie Chaplin’s first films were shot in Venice, as were “The Little Rascals” and “Keystone Kops.”
Besides the shorts (a particularly strong category this year) and features, the other film series include music videos, political, experimental and youth-oriented films.
The experimental series consists of avant-garde and non-narrative films ““ what Ellenberg calls, “really cool, cutting-edge new work.” The series includes the world premiere of “Next Film,” directed by UCLA film student Evander Reeves (screening on Saturday).
This year, the main venue is the first 100-percent green theater in the world, the Electric Lodge, referred to by cofounders as “The Founding Venue.” The other venue for this year’s festival is a high-definition theater called Switch Studios.
Since the festival began four years ago, the number of exhibited films has increased from 17 to 90, 60 of which are world premieres. This year, four of these 60 are directed by UCLA students.
Third-year graduate film student Jeff Warden is one of the four UCLA students contributing their work. Warden’s short film, “Secrets,” is premiering on Friday at the Electric Lodge.
“It’s a way to showcase my talent, actors’ talent, the crew’s talent, all together,” Warden said. “When you have a story to tell, you have a lot of people who you want to witness that.”
The Other Venice Film Festival gives filmmakers like Warden, a Venice local, the chance to share their message with a diverse and passionate group of film lovers.
“(The film) highlights the fact that we all have secrets or parts of our lives that we’re uncomfortable with,” Warden said. “So the most exciting part is to be able to shed some light on that issue.”
According to Peralta, the music video category is particularly strong this year, including a long-form music video for The Killers’ “When You Were Young” by director Anthony Mandler.
This year’s festival will also include “The Rat Thing,” a get-rich-quick comedy crewed entirely by Venetians and shot in Venice, and, for the first time in the festival’s history, a staged screenplay with prolific actors and the screenwriters as a way of displaying the makings of a film before shooting. The reading cast for “Riding the Pine” includes Steven Weber (“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”) and Emmy-winner Camryn Manheim (“The Practice”).
The success of the Other Venice Film Festival is epitomized in the success of the short film “JAM.” The reception at OVFF helped to turn the short into a feature-length film.
“It already has a distribution deal, so it’s really quite exciting,” Peralta said.
With such success stories, an increasing amount of world premieres, and often sold-out seats, the Other Venice Film Festival is by no means getting too big for its britches. In the long haul, quality outruns glitz and glamour.
“We try to make it really unpretentious. We just want to show film and have a good time. We always have a good vibe,” Ellenberg said.
“It’s just filmmakers who are eager to meet each other and people who like to watch film. It’s a laid-back Venetian attitude.”