Within the world of cinema, only movies with the biggest names, biggest budgets and biggest studios behind them seem to be shown by our local theaters.
Films coming from independent, foreign or experimental directors with just as much to offer oftentimes find no venue to share their artistic value.
This is where second-year cinema and media studies graduate student Phil Coldiron comes in. As the new director of Melnitz Movies, Coldiron is responsible for coming up with a slate of new and older films that deserve to be seen by the film-hungry audiences that Melnitz Movies brings in.
“A lot of the movies that I am working on getting don’t have a distributor, which means that they won’t be in a movie theater ever. This is one of people’s only chances to see them. It’s a really great opportunity to be exposed to the different aspects of cinema and to films that may not have huge stars in them or a multimillion-dollar marketing budget.”
Funded by the Graduate Students Association, Melnitz Movies is a series that screens films twice a week in UCLA’s James Bridges Theater.
As the sole person in charge of the series’ programming, Coldiron plans on finding films through review screenings, film festivals such as Toronto and Sundance, connecting with UCLA graduate filmmakers, and by simply e-mailing directors whose past work is familiar to Coldiron and who he hopes can deliver new work up to those same standards.
“This is the kind of thing where you have to keep a balance,” Coldiron said. “I’m not going to program all four-hour Chinese documentaries because no one wants to see only that. It’s good to have entertaining American comedies in there too. It’s all about trying to find a good mix that will give people a chance to see things that they wouldn’t see otherwise.”
With Coldiron’s sense of balance and knowledge of what exactly is out there in the wide world of cinema, one can expect this year’s collection of movies to be one of substance and diversity.
“He has exquisite taste, and that’s something I think that, to a certain extent, you can develop or learn but is really something that you just have,” said Monica Peña, a fellow cinema and media studies graduate student. “He’s always on top of new, independent films. … I can maybe think of only one or two times where I’ve mentioned a new movie to him that he hasn’t already heard about.”
Aside from putting together a comprehensive schedule of films to be shown this school year, the director’s list of other responsibilities is a long one, according to last year’s director and UCLA alumnus Andrew Hall.
On top of programming, Coldiron will also be in charge of all promotions, getting filmmakers and stars to come to the screenings, moderating the Q&A sessions, coordinating with GSA, and ultimately ensuring that everything runs smoothly.
Even with such a full plate, Coldiron has clear goals that he hopes to accomplish during this year’s round of Melnitz Movies.
“I’m really trying to stick to getting a director, or a producer, or a star at as many screenings as we can,” Coldiron said. “I think that really does enhance the experience … being able to have that interaction. Not just having it be “˜OK, I’m going to sit and watch a movie for two hours and go home,’ but instead, “˜OK, I’m going to watch a movie and talk about it with the people who made it.’ At an excellent academic institution like UCLA, having those conversations going on about these movies is really important to me.”
While many other film series and festivals are stunted by guidelines and restrictions as to the types of films shown, Coldiron is proud that his only directive is showing a diverse, yet still coherent, group of films that are engaging to a wide variety of people.
While this is indeed easier said than done, Coldiron said that he is looking forward to the challenges.
“He’s got his hands on the pulse of what’s happening in contemporary film right now,” Hall said. “He really knows what’s playing around the world, what’s going to be coming out and which of those things are really going to work for our student audience … and that’s ultimately the most important thing for the job.”
He may have his “hands on the pulse” — but Coldiron’s (if that is even his real name) recent (2013) piece for CinemaScope was idiotic.