Since first grade, Oscar Alvarez has had a difficult time assuring his parents that his dream job ““ filmmaking ““ is actually a legitimate career. Fortunately, this tough sell just got easier. The second-year graduate film student’s short film “Broken English” made it past two rounds of judges to be selected for the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Having a film play a festival does more than help convince one’s folks; studios and agencies are also likely to take note. With requests coming in from The Weinstein Company and Creative Artists Agency, Alvarez is already feeling the effects of festival attention.
“Since I’m the first person from my family to graduate from college … they have this notion that success needs to be instantaneous,” Alvarez said. “This experience is finally providing the validation that (my parents) have been craving to see.”
Alvarez, who also received his undergraduate degree from UCLA, isn’t the only Bruin heading to Park City this winter. Several UCLA students, faculty and alumni are involved with projects both at the Sundance Film Festival, which has gained a reputation as the preeminent festival for independent film distribution, and Slamdance, the fiercely independent home of filmmaking’s underdogs.
“(These festivals) are great exposure for students,” Barbara Boyle, chair of the film, television and digital media department, said. “It’s the real world meets the theoretical.”
Making the jump from theoretical student to real-world filmmaker, however, is no easy task. To ready his 10-minute short for the premiere, Alvarez had to add a few more hyphens to his job title. Just call him the “Broken English” director-writer-sound editor-publicist-web designer-go-to guy.
“It’s been a trial by fire,” he said of the exhausting three and a half months since he submitted the film to the competition. “In school we’re usually focused on the art aspect and technical aspect of filmmaking. Festivals are a good primer of what you need to do on the business side of things.”
When Alvarez shot “Broken English” last February, Slamdance was not on the agenda. He had enough to worry about already, such as getting approval to shoot at his alma mater Venice High School and scrambling to find actors for his leading roles. In the end, he asked his mother and cousin to star in his story about a high-achieving high school student hindered by a counselor who refuses to see past his skin color.
“The film is intended to portray the emotional consequences of racism … and that anyone and everyone can be racist,” Alvarez said.
After encouragement from classmates, Alvarez decided it was “now or never” and submitted his still-unfinished film for consideration. For Alvarez, choosing Slamdance over that other major Park City festival was an easy decision.
“(Slamdance has) films that are gritty and very honest that are exactly the types of stories I want to tell,” he explained. “There’s a bit more diversity in the films than most other festivals.”
Programmers at Slamdance unanimously selected “Broken English” as one of 10 to screen before feature-length films.
“It was really raw and such a strong story,” Slamdance Programming Director Sarah Diamond said. “It’s hard to pull something like that off without being too preachy.”
Slamdance and Sundance may share a snowy locale and time of year, but at their core the two festivals’ credos are distinct.
As Diamond explained, Slamdance ““ heading into its 14th year ““ is reserved for first-time filmmakers with budgets of less than $1,000,000. Their motto, “By filmmakers, for filmmakers,” is put into practice in their system of asking past filmmakers to program each successive year.
Across town, the legendary Sundance festival is larger in size and budget and, according to alumna Lisa Wiegand, M.F.A. ’98, much harder to tap into.
“It’s difficult to get a film into Sundance unless someone knows of you ahead of time,” she said.
Even with this obstacle, Wiegand, a director of photography, has two Sundance appearances on her resume: this year’s feature “Adventures of Power” and last year’s documentary “Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade.”
With Wiegand’s years of experience in the volatile film industry, she is realistic about her expectations for the festival.
“I thought things like Sundance were totally going to change my career, and honestly, it doesn’t,” she said. “Every little thing adds to your validity … but it’s not like you go to Sundance and wham-bam you’re famous.”
Even though not every film can have the runaway success of Sundance finds such as “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Once,” every bit of exposure helps.
“It’s not the way, or the only way (to get a film noticed), but it’s a way,” Boyle said.
Wiegand agreed: “Every film has to find a home, to find an audience. Films that are quality projects will find a home somewhere. If they didn’t get into Sundance, they will attempt to get in to other festivals.”
Boyle was also quick to put the benefits of festivals in perspective. “You can spend your life going to festivals with your single film,” she said. “(But) the object is to get noticed and do your next film.”
Should Alvarez find himself in Park City again in the future, he will be a pro at working the festival circuit, thanks to “Broken English.” He’ll also be more prepared to experience the elements of Park City.
“I’m a total L.A. kid ““ I’ve never seen snow,” he said last week on the eve of his departure. “That alone is freaking me out, because when it dips to 40 (degrees), I’m dying. I don’t know how I’m going to cope.”