While the U.S. National soccer team played against Brazil this weekend, one of the top teams in the world, Malibu High was doing its share to put the United States on the soccer map.

Malibu High School’s fourth-seeded Sharks (15-4-4) won the California Interscholastic Federation Division V championship on Saturday, 5-0, against the unseeded Ontario Christian Knights in Cerritos.

The team won the first CIF championship in the history of the school, making it the top team for the Southern Division, which covers half of the high schools in Southern California.

And to top it off, this was the biggest margin of victory in the CIF championships since 1964.

“Nobody ever won this way in any division,” said Mike Doyle, one of three assistant coaches for the team. “They really played solid.”

The championship was not a sure shot. In a semi-final championship match against Pasadena Poly on Feb. 28, the Sharks were down for most of the game, until they made up for lost time at the very end of the second half.

To win the CIF semi-final, the team had to play for an extended period of time in heavy rain.

The Sharks were down 2-0, with about five minutes left in the game, when they scored a goal at the three minute mark and another one soon after, which tied the score. The game went into overtime and Malibu won with the penalty kicks, said head soccer Coach Frank Page.

“The game the other night was the most exiting game I’ve ever been involved in,” said Doyle of the Feb. 28 match.

“To come back and score two goals in the last three minutes and play two overtime sessions of 15 minutes and two more of 10 minutes over and above the regular game and then take the penalty game is quite a feat,” said the British soccer enthusiast who grew up playing soccer in Liverpool.

“Considering the conditions, there weren’t that many mistakes, it was a really well played game. The standard of soccer was excellent.”

And the Sharks outdid themselves on Saturday at Gar High school in Cerritos in the final championship match.

“The team was built from the back and you could see it in the results,” said Malibu City Councilmember Jeff Jennings, whose son, Miles, 17, plays on the team.

The team did not give up many goals during the season and they gave up none at all during the finals because all the players were in place and each knew exactly what to do, he said.

“We were very fortunate,” said Page, as he spoke about this year’s team. “I have a number of club players on the team and these kids play year round and at a high level.

“They not only have experience and talent but they also know how to play the game well,” added Page.

High school soccer is composed of teams blended with players who have varying skill levels and the team has to function as a whole.

While this year’s 16-member team includes three sets of brothers, as well as eight players who took part in club soccer before, and four who are on the Olympic Development Team, it also includes players who have not had as much experience.

But this is not an impairment for the team because every player does his part. The team trains every day for an hour and a half, allowing each player to gain as much experience as possible.

The season started after Thanksgiving and the dedicated team had to struggle through injuries to fight their way up to the championship, as they played against much larger schools.

Compared to most other schools who take part in the CIF, Malibu has a small population of students and this makes it difficult at times to find enough players for the team.

Last year, the Junior Varsity team folded because there were not enough kids on the team. This year the JV program made it through the season, but they had a tough year.

However, the Sharks do benefit from the support of parents and other adults who spend time assisting the boys as they work on their game.

Rob King, Walter Mehring and Doyle assist Page with coaching. They help with the tactical part of the game, said Page, who multifunctions as he works at Malibu High.

Aside from coaching the soccer team, Page is the bookkeeper for student body funds and the athletic secretary. He is also the track coach. This is his first year as head coach of the soccer team.

Malibu High sports under the gun

By Chris Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times

In the now fiercely competitive world of high school athletics, smaller schools like Malibu High, which have always had trouble fielding broad based sports programs, find it a grueling road toward success.

Facing those odds, the binds of short financial means and sparse community support, Malibu High School’s sports programs, nevertheless, fight on. The Sharks soccer team’s recent championship win in the California Interscholastic Federation, Southern Section, Div. 5, shows that hanging in there is worth it in the long run.

Malibu, with its 600 students, is the second smallest high school competing in the Frontier League, where in the bigger sports they sometimes don’t stand a chance. The Sharks football team runs with less than 40 players every year, while competing against championship squads, 65 players or so deep. Head football coach Rich Lawson saw a nightmare one Friday evening last fall when MHS went to play a colossal opponent: “They came out with over 60 players, I had 22. You know what happened.”

Principal Mike Matthews said they’re getting close in baseball. But in basketball, he said, “Well, we don’t do well.”

The Junior Varsity soccer team folded last year because of too few players, but is back on track this year, though it was a tough one.

It is also a real challenge for the coaches to operate their programs on limited budgets. Malibu High has an unique situation, in that they have only a single booster club that raises most of the money for all the sports teams. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District only pays for the coaches and half of the bussing fees, which usually amounts to about $50,000 per year.

“Our booster club is critical,” said Matthews. “If the booster club didn’t exist, sports couldn’t exist here. They take care of equipment, uniforms, everything.”

And in this day and age of dog-eat-dog athletics (even at the high school level), even Malibu High coaches face pressure to win.

However, it may be a saving grace that Malibu is such a small, young school. “It isn’t as tremendous as it is in other schools that are more established,” said Matthews. “I’ve been there, I’ve seen that pressure.”

Even with the added sense of urgency and the watchful eyes, coaches get what they pay for. Mike Mulligan, the seven-years-straight league champion water-polo head coach, said that money creates a positive aura around a program and inspires a sense of pride in the athletes.

Coach Lawson agreed: “I think there is definitely a correlation. Money has got to equal wins on a certain level. And it also creates a pride.”

Sharks Athletic Director Brian Banducci said he sees it as definitely a case of the more the merrier in respect to numbers of players on the teams, and the money in programs’ budgets. Yet, Coach Mulligan could only realistically point out that, “right now, it’s the few doing the work of the many.”

However, Mulligan sees a window of opportunity for Malibu sports. “All it takes is hard work. Hard work equals wins.”

All the coaches said hard work and especially commitment, from players and the community, are key. Commitment could create a positive cycle, set traditions, and establish winning as a habit.

Even if “success doesn’t mean winning league championships,” as Matthews said, “success is putting a well-prepared team on the field ready to play.”

Banducci adds, “We’re building character here, and if we can do that we’ve done our job.”

The New Malibu Theater must have been as welcome as a blue sky in a rainstorm to the 2001 Malibu Film Festival. The two-theater venue is a cozy improvement over the roadside tents that housed film screenings in the festival’s first year.

Inadequate parking and the constant threat of film getting soaked by the spring rains were a nightmare for David Katz, president and founder of the festival, during the first festival in 1999. “I had to worry about water leaking in and getting on the screens, on the film. I had to get these expensive tents and seal everything,” he said. “Oh, it was rough.”

With warm and dry seating in The New Malibu Theater, and ample parking nearby, participants and film buffs at this year’s festival could concentrate on movies instead of the weather. The only tent to be seen was the central gathering spot for the event, a carnival-size big top filled with sponsor booths, posters and merchandise for the festival and for some of the films, where, for instance, you could pick up a sample bottle of sponsor Paul Mitchell conditioner. The tent contained televisions screening commercials for major sponsors, and had a section for filmmaker question-and-answer sessions where fans and film buffs could pick writers’ and directors’ brains about a film they liked. Outside, the festival’s main sponsor, Audi, offered test drives in new cars throughout the weekend.

“I was here last year and it’s not the same,” Santa Monica resident Morgan Akins said. “They have definitely turned the corner.”

Katz agreed, saying that the festival is now “established.” The local event is “for the community and for the industry,” he added.

When asked about attendance halfway through the festival’s first day, Katz said that it was “slow.” But the numbers went up from there. Early in the weekend, audiences numbered anywhere between one and 10 people per screening. Saturday saw a peak in attendance at the overflowing screening of the short films “Dreamer,” “Fightin’ 4 the Forty” and “Righteous Indignation,” where dozens of people had to squeeze into the aisles or sit against the wall. The crowd favorite in that screening was “Indignation,” a film by Katrina Bronson, daughter of Charles Bronson, and winner of the Malibu Film Festival’s Emerging New Director Award. Attendance was also steady and heavy on Sunday.

The New Malibu Theater allowed Katz an extra day so he could screen an encore performance of films that won audience-choice awards. Upon entering the theater at every screening, participants were handed a ballot and a pen with which they could rate the movie, from 1 (“average”) to 5 (“excellent”). The audience also voted for their favorite films in the short film, feature length, documentary and foreign categories. Those screenings were held on Monday.

The festival kicked off with a fashion show and a black-tie affair at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Industry seminars took place throughout the weekend, such as “New Talent–What Agents Look For,” conducted by people established in the film business.

The awards gala that capped this year’s fete took place Sunday evening at the Miramar. Awards were presented to Shirley MacLaine, Charles Bronson and the late Lloyd Bridges for lifetime achievement in the arts. Other notables included Nick Nolte, James Cameron and Roger Corman. The Grand Prize award for the most outstanding film in the festival was also handed out at the dinner, as were other trophies. Actor Stacy Keach was master of ceremonies.

The festival is a nonprofit organization. A portion of the proceeds will be donated as a grant to Malibu public schools, and children from the HeadStart program were bused in to attend the festival.

With the 2001 festival under his belt and forward momentum building, Katz was optimistic about the future. Confident that the festival has become an institution in the community, Katz has designs on bigger and better film in the years to come, returning to a seven-day format in August of 2002.

An often-unanimous Malibu City Council was anything but that at the Monday night meeting when small cracks in the unified council front, which had appeared at earlier meetings, suddenly widened into a chasm. Councilmember Ken Kearsley made a motion, seconded by Sharon Barovsky, to temporarily stop the Ad Hoc Committee, consisting of Mayor Tom Hasse and Mayor Pro Tem Joan House, from negotiating for any further real estate deals in the Civic Center.

The Hasse/House Ad Hoc Committee has been negotiating for months with local landowners on behalf of the city. Recently, in talks with the owners of the proposed La Paz Development on Civic Center Way, there have been negotiations for a deal that would include a City Hall in return for commercial development. The committee has also been negotiating with landowner Roy Crummer and the state over Bluffs Parks in an effort to save or replace the ball fields.

The motion appeared to indicate that Barovsky and Kearsley were no longer willing to have the negotiations operate in this manner.

The motion was finally withdrawn after Jeff Jennings, who appeared to be the swing vote, indicated he would not vote for it at this time. But it was apparent that both Barovsky and Kearsley were upset and said they were being left out of the loop.

Hasse and House were also upset with the prospect of the Ad Hoc Committee’s activities being suspended.

The issue arose when the staff wanted to put the issue of the Civic Center design concepts before the Planning Commission — in effect, to move up the plans for the Civic Center for review on March 5. But Kearsley and Barovsky balked because, they said, they were not fully informed about what the Ad Hoc Committee did in the private negotiations over the past few months. Barovsky was also concerned that the plans were not discussed with two homeowner associations in the vicinity of the Civic Center area — the Malibu Colony and Malibu Road Home Owner Associations.

Jennings said he would not support the motion to halt all Ad Hoc Committee activities. The council then instructed Barry Hogan, planning director, to meet with the two associations before they would consider the concepts further.

In another matter, the renewal of the lobbying contract for city lobbyist Jim Dantona of the lobbying firm of ‘Governmental Impact,’ the same 2-2 split was apparent with Barovsky/Kearsley on one side and Hasse/House on the other and Jennings again as the swing vote.

The cost of the contract ($66,000 a year) was questioned by Barovsky and Kearsley, who also said that Dantona, who was to have reported to the council in writing about his activities, hadn’t done so.

They were also unhappy that the legislature passed last year and the governor signed two bills which the city opposed while Dantona was lobbying for the city.

AB988 took away the city’s ability to write its own local coastal plan and gave it to the Coastal Commission, and AB885 shifted regulatory control of onsite sewage treatment systems away from the city.

The council compromised temporarily and voted to renew Dantona’s contract for another month, until councilmembers could review the contract and its applications in more detail.

Both Hasse and House supported renewing the contract and suggested if Barovsky and Kearsley feel out of the loop about what the lobbyist is doing, they should pick up the phone and call him.

The council also considered amending the policy for Dial-A-Ride services. Julia James, administrative services director, suggested, in the agenda, that the services should be limited to transportation for medical purposes only.

But the council disagreed because it wants to enable people who are unable to drive to participate in community activities. The service is a subsidized taxi service intended to provide transportation to senior and disabled residents who would not otherwise have a means in which to transport them.

The current program, which is funded by propositions A and C, is going to be cut in half in July 2001, and the city will either have to absorb the $60,000 cost from the general funds or cut costs.

The prospect of limiting Dial-A-Ride moved Barovsky to ask, “Why do we have enough money in the budget to pay $66,000 a year for a lobbyist, but do not have enough money to make sure our elderly and disabled can get to and from the grocery store?”

The City Council sent the proposal back to the city staff to review potential money saving and accountability measures to prevent abuses of the services.

During the public comments, Emily Harlow, Ruby Fader and Charleen Kabrin, volunteers for the city’s dolphin decal program, indicated that they were disturbed about “irregularities” that exist in the program.

The decal program was created to allow Malibu residents quick access to their homes in case of disaster.

The dolphin stickers were only available at Malibu City Hall and distributed by the volunteers until staff members took the initiative to allow other outlets for the decals.

But the volunteers thought the city staff felt threatened by their participation in the civic affairs of Malibu and their participation in the decal program.

In response to the public complaint, Interim City Manager Christi Hogin and council members thanked the volunteers for their service to Malibu but they said the additional distribution outlets would speed up the process, thereby helping the program in the long run.

Part II of a series of stories that examines efforts to bring back the Southern California steelhead trout and the effect on the flora and fauna, as well as people’s lives, in Malibu Canyon.

By Ann Salisbury/Special to The Malibu Times

State, federal and local agencies are preparing to conduct a $1.5 million – $2 million study to try and determine if the Rindge Dam in Malibu Creek should be torn down in order to save a run of what they believe are 10 to 75 steelhead trout.

The plan to reintroduce the steelhead trout, which was declared an endangered species in 1997, to area streams, may have been originally initiated simply to bring back an at-risk species. But efforts to restore the fish in Malibu Creek have evolved into a wide-scale water quality movement.

Recently, water quality and pro-fish groups have joined forces to reintroduce the steelhead trout. The steelhead need clean water to survive, and programs to cleanse water will apply to people as well as fish.

The linchpin, or the hammer as some describe it, is the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which makes it illegal to harm the fish or its habitat. If steelhead are living in Malibu Creek, then no one can put anything into the water that’s bad for the fish.

Under ESA rules, households and businesses near an endangered species’ habitat must curtail use of anything harmful to the species, such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, farm and ranch waste, horse manure, general trash and street run-off, and unnatural excess water flow. Environmentalists say that 100,000 houses are within Malibu Creek’s watershed boundaries, meaning that much of the western San Fernando Valley and the eastern Conejo Valley, as well as Malibu, could be impacted by the reintroduction of the steelhead trout into Malibu Creek.

All of which might comfort environmental protection organizations such as Heal the Bay, which regularly gives “F” ratings in water quality to Surfrider Beach. Citing a series of water quality studies, including UCLA’s highly publicized 1999 report (indicating high levels of bacteria, nitrates, and some viruses in lower Malibu Creek and Lagoon), surfers say they contract eye, ear, skin and respiratory infections from polluted water.

Meanwhile, representatives of local water-quality groups are realizing that steelhead fish restoration can be a legal and financial bonus because the effort attacks pollution at its source and can take advantage of governmental money directed at species restoration.

For example, when the Tapia Water Treatment Plant was constructed by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District at its Malibu Canyon site in 1972, the prevailing assumption was that Malibu Creek would serve as a natural viaduct to carry treated water to the sea. In years since, however, Malibu Bay water quality has deteriorated and studies demonstrated that treated water with unnaturally high levels of some substances, such as nitrates, could distort natural environmental conditions. Two years ago, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) ordered Tapia to reduce nitrates from 13 milligrams per liter to 8 milligrams per liter.

Now, the Tapia plant must make some difficult concessions to the fish and the facility is in a serious dilemma: Diverting excess water away from the bay is costly, but not to do so, environmentalists say, causes a series of complicated land-use and health problems.

“When water levels rise, breaching the berm, all kinds of contaminants flow into the bay,” said Bob Purvey, a member of the Malibu Creek Watershed Executive and Advisory Committee’s Lagoon Task Force and a local environmental activist. Purvey charged that “One person contracted that flesh-eating disease, someone got pneumonia in December, and a few years ago, a man died of uremic poisoning caused as a result of an E. coli infection and subsequent heart failure.”

So as surfers and environmentalists fight to prevent discharges of excess water and other pollutants into Malibu Creek, and as they work to design a water-level management plan for Malibu Lagoon, water-quality advocates are taking full note that the area below Rindge Dam contains one commodity that is very precious to their cause: an estimated run of 10 to 75 fish that is one of the southernmost runs of steelhead trout in North America.

More helpful to their cause are estimates by some environmentalists that before the dam was constructed in 1929 a population of 1,000 steelhead spawned in the vast Malibu Creek watershed.

How to bring back the fish? One method would be to re-create a natural setting by removing or modifying artificial barriers that settlers have constructed over the past 200 years, including roads through streambeds, man-made waterfalls, and the Rindge Dam.

Environmentalists are focused on the removal of Rindge Dam, which could cost up to $40 million, along with taking down smaller barriers along other streams. (See Part 1 in the Feb. 15 edition of The Malibu Times.) For several years, dismantling the dam has been discussed as a way to allow fish into the upper reaches of the Malibu Creek watershed, which is the most extensive watershed in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“A local agreement is being prepared with the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an environmental impact study determining how to do this,” explained Suzanne Goode, senior resource ecologist with the California Department of Parks and Recreation. “It will be a three-year study involving public participation, and we will look at numerous options, including removing the dam and the sediment and other alternatives,” she said. State Parks and Recreation spokesman Roy Stearns added that if the department approves the estimated $2 million study, it will be funded by State Parks, the RWQCB, the Army Corps of Engineers, L.A. County supervisors, and the California Coastal Conservancy. Should the study recommend destruction of the dam, the final approval on executing the dam project itself would rest with Mary Nichols, secretary of the State Resources Agency.

But removal of the 100-foot-high concrete dam is questioned by a number of people, including Serra Retreat area residents Ron Rindge, grandson of May Rindge, in whose name the dam was erected in 1929, Judge John Merrick, who authored a book with Rindge, and other individuals, including local Realtor Louis Busch. Busch points out that the dam is a historic site which, in 1977, was included in the National Registry of Historic Places.

Removing the dam, located 2.5 miles inland, will accomplish nothing, said Busch.

“I have a photograph of people fishing there,” he explained, adding that the photo shows a 10-foot, naturally occurring waterfall that was at the site before the dam was built.

“The steelhead never could get into Malibu Canyon above the dam,” he said. “The photo proves that the fish never could have jumped the falls.”

But Goode said that the dam, decertified in the 1960s, serves no good purpose and also could harm beaches by retaining sediment meant to be deposited along the coast. Releasing the sediment naturally might have prevented erosion at Las Tunas Beach, she said.

Also among those favoring dam removal is Jim Edmundson, conservation director of Caltrout, who points out that a project enabling the fish to find upper reaches of the river need not be done all at once and can involve compromise.

“It can be done over a period of 20 years,” he explained, noting that experts now favor notching the dam in increasing yearly increments to allow a gradual dispersion of accumulated sediment. As a salute to May Rindge, he points out, the spillway could remain.

Faster methods that were once considered, such as having the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dig out the sediment and truck it away, or demolishing the dam, might release sediment too quickly, cloud the lagoon and smother trout eggs.

“The fish are trapped right now,” said Edmundson. “We want to get them out of there and into the upper reaches of the creek where they thrive.”

Beyond striving for water purity, a second concern of environmentalists, biologists and steelhead proponents is to maintain a more natural, or more normal, flow of creek water.

Almost two years ago, local state parks officials said they would like to expand the lagoon to accommodate additional water coming through Malibu Creek from the Tapia Wastewater Treatment Plant and from landscaping on increased inland development.

“The lagoon needs to be larger because there is more water in the watershed,” Goode said then, as state parks officials toured the site. She suggested the state may acquire property in the Malibu Colony in order to widen the area of the lagoon.

Today, however, efforts are being focused on reducing water flow. While in 1997 the RWQCB ordered Tapia to eliminate water discharges into the creek from May 1 through Oct. 30, only two years later, in December 1999, the board carried its ruling one step further, expanding the period by extending it from April 15 through Nov. 15.

Reintroducing the steelhead now goes beyond merely putting fish into the water or creating structures to help the steelhead on their annual migratory journey to spawn upstream.

The effort involves more than 60 local civic, governmental, private and volunteer entities concerned not only with eliminating pollution in the 100-square-mile Malibu Creek watershed but also with monitoring activity at Tapia Plant.

Among other organizations studying the restoration of water quality and reintroduciton of the steelhead are: the National Marine Fisheries Association; U.S. Department of Fish and Game; the Southern California Steelhead Coalition; Sierra Club; Caltrans; the Resource Conservation District, a special State Department of Conservation subdistrict; the California Coastal Conservancy; and the Malibu Creek Watershed Executive and Advisory Committee, which was formed 12 years ago and now represents 54 governmental environmental, and volunteer groups and agencies.

The city has adopted a new Standard Urban Storm Water Management Plan (SUSWMP) to lessen the impact of storm-water runoffs on local shores and watersheds.

This new SUSWMP ordinance (Ordinance No. 219) is part of a statewide plan to reduce and clean storm-water runoff emptying into natural resources.

However, while large commercial developments of under 100,000 square feet will not have to comply with this new city ordinance, new and redeveloped single-family homes on hillsides will be expected to comply with the new rules.

The new management plan also affects gasoline stations, auto repair shops, restaurants and home subdivisions of nine units or more.

Basically, “You can’t make water dirty from your property,” said Chuck Bergson, public works director for the City of Malibu.

The storm-water pollution control measures will require new development and redevelopment on hillsides to keep water discharges at or below the level they were at prior to development.

Redevelopment means the creation or addition of at least 5,000 square feet of impervious surface on an already developed site.

“They can’t increase the amount of water that naturally flows off their property and they can’t change the quality of the water,” said Bergson. So excess water has to be detained and cleaned to keep the flow rate and water quality the same, he said.

The new rules apply to properties where development contemplates grading on any natural slope of 25 percent or greater, which basically includes all areas where the terrain is on a hillside, as is the case in most of Malibu.

The intent of the law is to improve the water quality, but it seems that single-family residential hillside properties are unfairly targeted, while commercial developments of 100,000 square feet or larger are exempt, said Bergson.

Moreover, if someone builds an impermeable parking lot of less than 5,000 square feet, where approximately 25 cars can park, they will not have to comply either.

Meanwhile, residential homes are going to get the brunt of it, said Bergson.

“We adopted it [ the ordinance] because we wanted to comply with the RWQCB,” said Bergson. However, many cities have appealed the same ordinance as it is currently written because of the inconsistencies. As a result, the RWQCB is expected to review the regulations.

Meanwhile, there are provisions for waivers. These waivers can be granted by the city after they are reviewed and approved by the RWQCB.

According to the new ordinance, a waiver of impracticability may be granted only when all structural or treatment controls have been considered and rejected as infeasible. These situations can include redevelopment projects whose space for treatment is extremely limited or unfavorable, and unstable soil conditions that inhibit filtration attempts and the risk of ground-water contamination because a known unconfined aquifer lies beneath the land surface.

“It doesn’t sound like it’s fair across the board, and Public Works and the City Council are both working on these issues,” said Bergson.

But the RWQCB believes that the new measures are necessary and that they will help homeowners in the long run.

Water authorities state that once an area is built out, the risks of erosion are greater if the new rules are not followed. Therefore, the RWQCB wants to hold all rain discharge to the existing flow and keep it as is.

“The new rules means that if you are building on a hillside, then you have to put in controls to prevent soil erosion and pollution after the construction is complete,” said Xavier Swamikannu, chief of the Storm Water Program at the RWQCB. These rules are parallel with Coastal Commission rules, he said.

This is a federally imple-mented program that has been delegated to the states, which, in turn, delegate it to local agencies such as the RWQCB and the cities. The RWQCB is trying to minimize the water-pollution impact on natural watersheds, said Swamikannu.

But the cost is not that much more because properties may be able to redirect water flow, he added.

In a California Water Resource Control Board order, it was indicated that while storm-water management plans are improving, the impact of urban runoff was determined to be a significant contributor to impairment of waters throughout the state.

For L.A. County, this means beach closures are sometimes associated with urban runoff.

The new regulations for storm-water discharges will help minimize this impact in the future, said Swamikannu.

Despite the downpour of rain, the Starlight Ballroom at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica was packed Sunday evening, as festival filmmakers mingled with celebrities during the Malibu Film Festival’s Awards Night Gala, honoring winners of the festival and veterans in the film industry.

Actor and Malibu resident Stacy Keach was master of ceremonies for the event, opening the evening with the remark: “Malibu used to be just a dirt road. [And] it’s still a dirt road,” causing fellow residents and celebs to laugh about their hometown.

John Paul DeJoria, of Paul Mitchell Systems, which presented the festival, spoke about “family values” and the need for positivity in the film business, with more family-oriented fare. Famed director Arthur Hiller (“The Babe,” “Love Story,” “Man of La Mancha”), seconded DeJoria’s appeal to fellow industry members, and to the new hopeful filmmakers, saying it is possible to make interesting and entertaining films without gratuitous violence.

Hiller was honored with an Achievement in the Arts for Directing Award. Actors Shirley MacLaine, Charles Bronson and the late Lloyd Bridges were awarded with Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Awards. Jeff Bridges was on hand, with mother Dorothy, to accept the award on behalf of his father.

Academy Award-winning producer Barry Spikings (“The Deer Hunter”), received the Roger Corman Award, handed out by the man himself, Roger Corman. James Cameron (“Titanic”), presented Katrina Bronson, daughter of Charles Bronson, with the Emerging Directors Award.

Actor Nick Nolte arrived just before ceremonies began, joining his red-haired son, Brawley. Nolte had the crowd going with his recitation of how he has worked his way “down” in the film business. “[I] had the great fortune of working my salary down … working for zero money,” said Nolte, of working in independent films.

Camera-dodging Sean Penn was present at the gala, sitting at the Bronsons’ table, and the legendary Milton Berle stood and took a bow as his presence was announced.

The City of Malibu’s own Mayor Tom Hasse was present and announced the Best Screenplay Award, which went to Glen Trotiner and Dean Garvin for their screenplay “Overnight Sensation.”

Actor Frances Fisher stood and applauded director Tom Rice for his feature film “The Rising Place,” which won the Grand Prize. Fisher was one of several notable actors who had parts in the film.

Swiss director Tomi Streiff won the Audience Choice Award for his feature “The Wedding Cow,” for which he seemed quite surprised. Streiff echoed new filmmakers’ struggles to get their films seen when he spoke of how he is often told how there is no audience for his film, yet everywhere he screens it, audiences always love it. The film has won 10 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director as well as Audience Choice awards, at other festivals.

An excited and amusing director, Andrew Ainsworth, won Best Foreign Film for his feature “Too Much Sex.”

“I’m up here because of ‘Too much Sex,'” punned Ainsworth.

The Audience Choice Award for a short film went to directors James Binaski and Hso Hkam for “Fightin’ 4 the Forty,” and for a documentary to Will Oxx for “Above a Frozen Sea.” Best Cinematography was given to Marc Leidy for his work on “Dreamer,” Best Documentary to director David Brown for “Surfing for Life,” and Best Short to director Luke Greenfield for “The Right Hook.”

While the four-day event was deemed a success by founder David Katz and other organizers, some filmmakers were disappointed with industry turnout during screenings. One filmmaker told of how he organized an audience to be present at the screening of his film, and of how a shuttle was to pick up industry people from the American Film Market event, but the shuttle never showed.

“Two levels are needed [for the festival],” said the filmmaker. “From the community and the industry. Neither were there.”

It was the sentiment of many that the festival needed more publicity and advertising, which was evident at the Awards Gala.

The only noticable press present were the two local Malibu papers and the International Film Festival magazine.

“[The festival] needs a root in the community,” said one filmmaker.