Film Fest
The Malibu International Film Festival attracts small but enthusiastic crowds for its screenings and after parties.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Last Thursday and Saturday, Malibuites and other attendees warmly received the 12th Annual Malibu International Film Festival, even on chilly fall evenings, at the Malibu Cinema movie theater and the Malibu Lumber Yard. On both nights, after parties took place at the Malibu Lumber Yard shopping plaza.
On hand at Malibu Cinemas on Thursday were Malibu residents actor Pierce Brosnan and wife Keely Shaye Brosnan, sponsors of this year’s opening night. They introduced film festival founder David Katz’s romantic comedy, “Kissing Strangers,” and presented the Festival’s Cinematic Environmentalist Award to director Mary Lambert for “Miss South Pacific: Beauty and the Sea.” The latter, a short documentary with a message regarding climate change and its effects on Pacific Island countries, resonated with moviegoers as they exited the theater.
“It was a beautiful story and it was very poignant,” said Ann Cutler of Los Angeles, who attended the fest with Santa Monica resident Steve Steelman, at the after party.
In the past dozen years, the film festival has been dogged by complications such as limited budgets, peripatetic screenings and, during its first year in 1999, bad weather that nearly destroyed the tents that housed the movie screens. This year, the scaled-down festival encountered some nippy weather and light wind at best.
While Saturday’s screenings were well attended, Joyce Ferber, among the modest throng at that night’s after party (where DJs spun mash-ups of ‘80s favorites such as The Clash, Duran Duran, and the Bee-Gees), said from her patio table she found the evening “under-attended, under-appreciated, but well-intended. To me, it seems forced and an excuse to promote coconut water and mediocre wine,” referring to some of the sponsors’ products. Her less cynical friend, who observed the proceedings with a smile said: “It’s nice and relaxing. Very chill.”
Eagle Yu and Jennifer Tang enjoyed the Magic Castle magicians entertaining the party. Magicians such as Jordan Gold, a self-proclaimed “master of objects of items owned by other people.”
“He’s been practicing two and a half decades on his rubber band trick,” Tang added. “He brought some magic into this night.”
As the screenings let out, Katz and a group of friends were feeling festive at the after party.
“Every year, we try something new,” Katz said. “This year, it was free screenings. The theater was packed for both screenings.”
For Katz, the event represented quality over quantity, and an important chance for “creating new businesses and relationships.”
Lucas Dick, son of comedian Andy Dick and a star of Katz’s 2010 romantic comedy “Kissing Strangers,” reflected on shooting Katz’s independent movie on a shoestring budget.
“It was a great experience,” Dick said. “I learned a lot about the process, especially shooting on short ends. One take! Don’t [mess] up!”
Dick also recalled growing up on his father’s sets.
“On [the mid-90s sitcom] ‘NewsRadio,’ I would just explore. Man, I was like nine, ten [years old]. They would let me loose on the lot. I would wind up in these huge spaces. It was a lot of fun.”
On night two, the Lumber Yard became a makeshift movie theater as a large crowd watched entries, such as Darian Lane’s “The Collector,” on an outdoor screen.
In Lane’s slick, smart short feature, a stunning predatory Malibu brunette, Jess, quick with the double entendre and sushi-restaurant seductions, rips through many conquests until she meets her match in a handsome art collector, also named Jess.
Post-credits, Lane told the packed audience, “This is the girl I wrote it about” as he put his arm around his friend, local girl Jessica McCormick.
“It’s his vision about what he knows about me but it’s kind of tweaked,” McCormick said, particularly her level of promiscuity, she noted.
Lane told The Malibu Times that “everyone was very supportive” during the four-day shoot, which utilized Canvas Boutique and Gallery, and Zooma Sushi as locations. Lane will next shoot his interracial film “Tess,” because “I don’t think ‘Jungle Fever’ accomplished what I wanted it to do.”
As for the audience, following a screening of “Vaude and the Villains” and some other films, it was back to the Lumber Yard’s courtyard for another night of after party.