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Pacifica Tribune (CA)
August 24, 2005
Section: Local News
Jane Northrop
Pacifica Community Television presents an evening of cinematic pleasure Friday in what may be Pacifica's first film festival ever, certainly the first one coordinated by the community television station. Four highly regarded short - about 20 minutes - documentaries will be shown. Each one has received accolades and favorable reviews when they were shown at other film festivals. And, for a special very local treat, PCT producer and first time filmmaker Dennis Willis will present a trailer from his own work-in-progress, "Unwrapped. The filmmakers will be around to meet the audience and answer questions. The films on Friday's bill are "San Francisco's Broken Promise, "Shellmound, "The Rules of the Game, and "Angle of Inspiration. Political corruption is the focus of "San Francisco's Broken Promise, a piece on the building of Hetch Hetchy Dam, by Carol Lancaster Mingus. The project started out as a class assignment for a television production class at Modesto Junior College. The class was assigned to make an informational video about the possible restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Soon the project blossomed into an intriguing news story. "After researching the topic, the class decided on focusing on the little known story of how the city of San Francisco has defied an Act of Congress and a Supreme Court ruling (for more than 80 years) and has kept the citizens of San Francisco from securing its rightful public power system! wrote filmmaker Carol Lancaster Mingus in an e-mail to the Tribune. "Interesting side note: Professor J.B. Neilands (interviewee) had tried for more 30 years to get San Francisco newspapers and Bay Area TV stations including KQED to run this story...with no luck. Only The S.F. Bay Guardian has covered the story of the city's politicians who favor PG&E and have fought to keep public power out of San Francisco. "Shellmound, by Andres Cediel, tells the story about a 3000-year-old native burial ground steeping with toxic sludge at the Bay Street Shopping Center in Emeryville. When the shellmound was bulldozed in 1924 to build a paint factory on the site, 651 bodies were discovered. In 1999, when the decrepit paint factory was dug up so a shopping center could be built, workers discovered hundreds more bodies, some saturated in toxic sludge. "Shellmound tells the story through interviews with Emeryville city officials, the developer, archaeologists and Native Californians who worked on the site. This was a master's thesis Cediel created in 2004 at the UC-Berkeley School of Journalism. "I've gotten a lot of positive response. One of the main responses is 'Wow. I never knew this. How could this have happened?' Which is the whole reason I made the film, Cediel said. For more information, go to shellmoundthemovie.com. "The Rules of the Game by Garance Burke and Monica Lam follows the conflict that erupted when a Native American tribe decided to build a casino in Rohnert Park. Another project out of the UC-Berkeley graduate school of journalism in 2004, "The Rules of the Game was born out of the filmmakers' fascination with changes that came about after voters passed Proposition 1A in 2000. Proposition 1A permitted Native America tribes to purchase land to build casinos. In 2003, a tribe announced to the city council of Rohnert Park its intention to purchase a site for a reservation and casino at the edge of town. "When we looked at the whole issue of Indian gaming, we saw the tables had turned, Lam said. "Before Proposition 1A, tribes had very few options in terms of economic development. With the passage, that drastically changed. They had the ability to engage in a form of economic development that was lucrative and they had the exclusive right to do so. Suddenly, it seemed the rules of the game had changed. They now have capital and they can contribute to political campaigns. There has been some backlash now that tribes have this new-found clout. The film covers the outcry against this tribe when the protestors came out and made passionate speeches at city council meetings. It stirs up a lot of emotion. "Angle of Inspiration by John Antonelli and Jesssica Abbe documents the turmoil of turning a world-class architect's vision into a beautiful bridge in Redding. Architect and artist Santiago Calatrava is world renowned for designing bridges and other public works. Redding is the site of his first American foray. "Angle of Inspiration features interviews with the architect and with New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as well as construction engineers and local visionaries who made the dream of this bridge a reality. The film documents the extraordinary construction of this asymmetrical structure with its single leaning pylon, and the passionate controversy among townspeople over the design and its $23 million cost. And, finally, the trailer for "Unwrapped, a short, dramatic film written and directed by Dennis Willis and Steven Kirk, starring Kristina Hughes and Paolo Cascardo will be shown. "Unwrapped is an unblinking look at one night in the lives of Carly and Joe, a passionate couple tested by a shocking revelation. "The film was shot in July, entirely in Pacifica, and it's nowhere near done. We have a rough cut with no music and much of the sound needs to be smoothed out. But considering that PCT was such a huge part of the production, we wanted to do something special for this fundraiser. The biggest challenge was not giving too much away in the trailer! Willis said. The idea for a film festival came to PCT through its new executive director, Marty Anaya, who is also the executive director for the Sacramento International Film Festival, a position he held since 2000. Last year the festival screened more than 100 films. "It's rewarding. When you do it right, you realize that you have contributed to the arts scene in a very unique way and you realize you have done it en masse, Anaya said. He's had a fascination with films ever since he was a little boy. He took the leap into producing and directing a few film and video productions. The first one he can remember was "Food Wars, patterned after "Star Wars when he was 12 years old. But no one is going to dig out that old relic for Film Night Pacifica. The artists who will be showing their films worked very hard to present both sides of thorny issues. Their documentaries are highly regarded artistic representations of important issues and events. "This is a great cultural thing for the city. It's an opportunity for Pacificans to connect on an artistic level and on a cinematic level with the arts. That's something that a lot of Bay Area communities do very well and we can do it very well. The artists at Sanchez really love the idea of this. It could be a good component of the art scene. We can get people down here from the city and from other parts of the Bay Area. Everybody has nice things to say about Pacifica. All we're giving them is an excuse to come to a place for which they already have a fondness, Anaya said. "PCT Presents Film Night Pacifica will be held Friday, August 26 at 8 p.m. at the Sanchez Art Center, 1220 Linda Mar Blvd. Tickets cost $12 and can be purchased in advance by calling 355-8000 or purchased at the door.
(c) 2005 Pacifica Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.