Robert Bucksbaum loves movies ““ perhaps too much for his
own good.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and Bucksbaum is in over his
head between screenings at the Majestic Crest, the venerable
Westwood theater he currently owns and runs. He’s quickly
discovered how overwhelming it is to put together a film festival
almost single-handedly.
“Imagine being surrounded by a burning fire, and you have
no clothes on and no sign of water in sight. That’s basically
what it’s like every day. Maybe you’ve got a water gun
in your hand to hopefully put out some of the fires ““ what
I’m doing all day is taking the gun and doing a little
360,” he described half-jokingly.
“Four years as an airborne ranger in the military, and I
thought that was difficult, and owning my own movie theater when
everyone thought I was insane for buying the Crest ““ whatever
else I’ve done in my life, nothing compares to this. Other
than that, it’s been great.”
Bucksbaum has solicited, reviewed and selected from some 400
submissions for the inaugural Westwood International Film Festival,
set to kick off at the Crest on Friday, Sept. 30. On this
particular day, the issue of the moment is the still-incomplete
festival book, which Bucksbaum needs in order to generate publicity
and support in the area.
“I’m going to take the festival book and
hand-deliver it to local businesses,” he said. “People
tell me, “˜You can get anyone to do that.’ But
that’s the point. If anyone just gave it to them, the books
would be in the garbage can in five minutes. I want to convey to
them, “˜Hey, this is the owner and he’s helping both
Westwood and his theater.'”
The festival is being billed as one that celebrates truly
independent film, and that’s not just lip service. It’s
something Bucksbaum would know a thing or two about, as the Crest
has been one of the very few independently owned and operated
theaters in Los Angeles since he bought it out in 2002.
When he talks about the do-it-yourself, independent route in the
industry, he speaks from experience; as an owner, he’s been
known to roll up his sleeves and take care of business himself
““ everything from taking tickets and sweeping up to working
the popcorn machine.
“Oh yeah, you can see me on any given night. I’ll be
there for the 4:30 and 7 today, doing whatever it takes, running
the projector. I love being there and doing anything at all.
It’s my passion and it makes everything worthwhile,” he
said.
The festival will screen films all day long for two weeks
straight, offering cash prizes in five categories and ““
perhaps more enticing to fledgling filmmakers ““ guaranteed
distribution deals. The deals include a two-week run at the Crest
itself, and possibly other theaters around the country; Bucksbaum
has connections through another company he runs called ReelSource,
which advises other theaters on what films to show. As an
independent festival showcasing independent films at an independent
theater, the festival lacks studio support and A-list stars, but is
perfectly suited to spotlight fringe talent ““ something
larger festivals have outgrown.
“It’s great ““ that’s what’s so
appealing about it, in comparison to Sundance, which has become
something of a studio festival. The truth is there are no real
independent filmmakers anymore,” said filmmaker Sheri
Sussman, who will have a night dedicated to her work on Oct. 1.
Sussman experienced Sundance firsthand in 2001, when the
feature-length “MacArthur Park,” a film she co-wrote,
screened in competition.
“The only true independent way is to go raise the money
yourself and shoot it yourself and try and sell it. And there
aren’t any true independent companies anymore. The smaller
companies that pretend to be are run by studios. A lot of those are
what you see in festivals, even something like the Hollywood Film
Festival. They’re all A-list films and studio films … so
many festivals now put in these bigger films.”
Sussman will have three very different works screened,
highlighted by “Life in a Basket,” a half-hour
documentary about what homeless people have in their shopping
carts. The film has screened at a number of other festivals,
including Full Frame, one of the premier documentary film festivals
in the country, and the Beverly Hills Film Festival, where it took
home the award for best documentary.
“These people use their carts to pick things up and sell
them. They’re up at 7, and they work all day. It’s this
subculture in the homeless community, the shopping cart
workers,” she explained.
“We went down to the Salvation Army and just shot in a
warehouse in the middle of skid row. … They were happy to talk to
us, because we weren’t asking about their mistakes or how
they had gotten there. It showed their strength and how their whole
demeanor had changed.”
Like almost all the films at the Westwood festival,
“Basket” is a film with a specific and non-mainstream
niche in the industry. The festival is taking these kinds of films
and putting them front and center. There are two days dedicated to
women filmmakers, a documentary day, a family day, a Middle Eastern
day and a gay pride day, among others.
There are also a number of student films, including at least 10
from UCLA students and alumni.
“We wanted to give them preference, but we didn’t
need to. Their films were superior to the other student films we
received,” Bucksbaum said.
Among them is Rachel Pearl, who graduated in 2004 and whose
thesis film “The Shabbos Goy” is about an Orthodox
couple that hires a non-Jew to help them conceive children.
“The subject matter is not something that makes studios
salivate. … The mainstream is so narrow; there’s not a lot
of room,” she said. “At the same time, this is not a
Jewish film, but just about Jewish people ““ it’s
universal, a love story.”
The exclusive nature of the industry is a reality Bucksbaum
understands all too well.
“I feel such an affinity with these filmmakers because
they’re going through exactly what I’ve been going
through as an owner of this theater. It’s on different
levels, but it’s the same stuff,” Bucksbaum said.
“I’m talking to studios and asking for support, and
I’m getting turned down left and right. Without the support,
I’ve been playing second fiddle to all the major chain
theaters for so long, and it’s the same thing the filmmakers
are going through ““ submitting to high-end festivals or
distributors and getting turned down left and right.
“I know exactly what they’re going through, and
that’s why we started the festival ““ to make it their
day, to make it their night.”
For lesser-known filmmakers, having a night at the historic
Crest is a major draw.
“It’d be wonderful to show it there,” Pearl
said of her film, which has screened in about 15 festivals
internationally. “It’s the most lavish theater the film
has shown at, and it just showed at the (Directors Guild of
America) for the Los Angeles Film Festival. I’m surprised it
took this long to get a Westwood film festival.”
And Pearl is not alone in expressing her surprise that there has
not been a festival in Westwood before now.
“I love the theaters here, and there’s a history to
it,” Sussman said. “That was one of the reasons I
entered ““ a festival in Westwood, it’s about
time.”
In the end, the festival is very much about Westwood. Both
Cannes-nominated Robert Young and Tami Hoffs ““ mother of
Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and wife of a professor at the UCLA
medical school ““ will each be featured, and both live a short
distance from the theater.
Many local filmmakers have also taken ownership of the event by
treating the screenings as a premiere, sending out advertisements
and spreading the word.
“It’s not just about my theater; it’s also to
restore Westwood. It was a mecca for moviegoers just 20 years ago.
People have forgotten the single screen, but the magic is still
there,” Bucksbaum said.
But Bucksbaum and the participants in the Westwood festival
aren’t the only people who recognize the great potential the
area’s single-screen theaters have to offer. The Los Angeles
Film Festival has announced that it will move the location of its
summer 2006 festival to Westwood.
But of course it wouldn’t be a true Village event without
parking problems. And for the Westwood festival, Bucksbaum has
helped alleviate the problem by making a deal with the Ampco
parking lot behind the theater, which will offer all-day parking
for $2.
And, characteristic of Bucksbaum’s hands-on approach to
organizing a film festival, he plans on taking care of the problem
himself.
“I’ll constantly be putting quarters in the
meter,” he said. “I’ll walk six blocks to fill
them myself.”