Long Beach International Film Festival: celebrating the past, defining the future

By Chan Tran
Daily Forty-Niner

Those who tell the story shape the culture. This belief can be found in the art of filmmaking.

The organizers of the Long Beach International Film Festival have adopted this motto as the theme for this year's event scheduled to be held Oct. 6 - 15 aboard the Queen Mary.

Organizers Darrin Plant and Tim Swanson want the festival to "celebrate the past and define the future."

In doing so, they seek to highlight the effects of technology, in particular the Internet, on the future of filmmaking and pay tribute to the importance of the Balboa Studios in Long Beach during the early era of filmmaking.

Between 1913 and 1918, Balboa Studios in Long Beach predated the booming period of the Hollywood film, but it took a number of years before the studio received proper recognition, according to Plant.

"All these films started showing up and people didn't know where it all came from," Plant said.

Baby Marie Osborne, Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle were some of the more popular stars that made movies at the Balboa Studios.

"Long Beach has a rich past for film," Plant said. "Many of the early films were made at the Balboa Studios on eight acres of land in 20 buildings. By 1917, Balboa Studios was the biggest attraction in Long Beach, but whenever you see specials on film history, they neglect to mention the importance of Long Beach in the history of film."

In order to bring attention to the contributions of Balboa Studios, the organizers scheduled a day for retrospection, including a special viewing of the original "Gone In 60 Seconds," which was filmed and screened in Long Beach almost 25 years ago. A cult hit, the movie was a groundbreaking action movie and many of the car chase sequences set the foundation for action movies today.

Long Beach International Film Festival

Long Beach International Film Festival organizers Darrin Plant, left, and Tim Swanson, right, in front of the Queen Mary, left.

The Queen's Saloon, a venue that has not been used for film projection since World War II will be utilized during opening night for the special screening of "Gone."

"We are transforming Queen's Saloon into a six channel surround theatre for the festival and it will show off what they've redone to the original 'Gone In 60 Seconds,' -- digitally restored with surround sound," Plant said. "We are basically celebrating the retrospection of Balboa Studios with that one film."

Since the days of "Gone," technology has improved the distribution, production and overall quality of movies in the film industry. Filmmakers have also found ways to distribute and make films without going through the traditional industry system.

"Although many purists do not want admit to a film revolution, there is no denying that technology has affected everything in filmmaking today," Swanson said.

Friday the 13th will be the digital day of the festival; set aside to embrace the cyber revolution in filmmaking.

"Digital day will show that the digital revolution is here," Swanson said. "Although we're film purist, the reality is that for young filmmaker, the newest system is the Internet. The Internet and the Web are the next means of distribution."

A seminar on how to create digital effects is scheduled with special guest Jeremy Hunt, a Cal State Long Beach alumnus whose film "405 the Movie" has become the most downloaded movie on the Internet. Since the release of "405 the Movie," Hunt has been touted as the next "Blair Witch Project" phenomenon.

"One of the keys for the festival is that we've set up five to six different, high profile events," Swanson said.

Throughout the 10-day event, the LBIFF will feature competions for short and feature film and screenplay submissions to be judged by industry professionals. A children's day program is also scheduled with activities for families.

The "Best of the Web" event will showcase a selection of films distributed over the World Wide Web.

The highlight of the event, according to Swanson, will be a spoof of the life of Star Wars creator George Lucas titled "George Lucas In Love." In the movie, Lucas experiences writer's block without realizing that all the characters around him are the ones he is writing about for in Star Wars.

Steven Spielberg, a former CSULB student is also scheduled to shoot his new movie "A.I." in the dome next to the Queen Mary during the week of the festival, Swanson said.