EC talks with Lisa Franek, Curator of the San Diego Latino Film Festival
March 11th, 2010 by Scott Marks
While it may not be our town’s longest running film festival (that honor goes to the Jewish Film Festival), the San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF) is easily the most ambitious.
Included in the 185 shorts and features to be screened at the 17th annual fest are programs dedicated to animation, gay cinema, women directors, documentaries and experimental shorts harvested from media centers and schools throughout the country.
But the movies don’t stop with the eleven-day festival, which runs from March 11-21 at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center. Throughout the year the Media Arts Center, the nonprofit parent company of SDLFF, holds special screenings. They include fall’s Cinema en tu Idioma series that features workshops, parties and celebrity meet-and-greets in addition to six movies.
The festival’s curator is Lisa Franek, who works closely with founder/executive director Ethan van Thillo.
Franek, a 34-year-old Colorado native, moved to San Diego to attend grad school at SDSU, where she received a master’s degree in film. Before joining the festival three years ago, she taught classes at San Diego State, City College and Platt College.
Though busy with the Latino Fest, Franek didn’t sound the least bit frantic during a recent interview.
Scott Marks: What is it about movies that caught your attention in the first place?
Lisa Franek: I started out as an undergrad in music and I also studied dance and theater. Movies are really the only art form where you get to combine all the other art forms. Once you hear a movie camera and the film running through it, it’s magical to the point where it becomes an addiction. I love movies.
How did you get your job as festival curator?
I started out by volunteering and they called me and said, “Hey, you weren’t bad. Why don’t you come back and help us out some more?”
How many movies did you watch in order to whittle it down to 185 selections?
This year it was over 600.
That includes features and shorts?
Yes.
Do you remember the first film you ever saw?
In my life?
Yes.
(Laughing) No. I do remember my very first favorite film when I was a kid and that was “The Black Stallion.” It remains one of my favorites to this day.
Do you have an all-time favorite movie?
Wow, that’s a tough one. It kind of changes.
Continue reading EC talks with Lisa Franek, Curator of the San Diego Latino Film Festival
Tags: Carlos Saura, Cinco Días Sin Nora, ethan van thillo, Io Don Giovanni, Lisa Franek, Media Arts Center, Nevando Voy, San Diego film festivals, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Scott Marks, SDLFF, SDNN, UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard CenterFiled Under Interviews
Will Academy Award nominees include San Diego’s Destin Cretton?
January 30th, 2010 by Scott Marks
When the Motion Picture Academy announces its nominees on Feb. 2, don’t be surprised if San Diego’s “Sundance Kid,” Destin Cretton, turns out to be an Oscar contender. The 31-year-old director of the dramatic short “Short Term 12″ could soon go down in history as South Park’s only Academy Award-winning resident.
So far, his film has racked up seven awards at festivals across the country.
“Boston was our first audience award, so it’s nice to know that normal people like the film, too,” Cretton joked about winning the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film at Boston’s 2009 Independent Film Festival.
In addition, “Short Term 12″ took home another audience award at the Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, special mention at both Aspen and Chicago, a Jury Prize at CineVegas and Best in Show at Seattle and Sundance.
Why did it take a year for the Academy to catch on?
According to Cretton (and the Academy’s bylaws), in order to qualify to submit to the Academy Awards, “you have to win one of their qualifying festivals. Sundance and the jury prize at Seattle International Film Festival qualified us to win,” Cretton explained. “That’s how they narrow down the number of short films that they allow to be submitted.”
“Short Term 12″ is a knockout: a semi-autobiographical tale of a supervisor at a residential facility housing 15 kids who have suffered from child abuse and neglect. Destin was fortunate enough to get actor Brad Henke (”SherryBaby,” “Choke,’ “World Trade Center”) to star as Denim, the leader of a staff that is only slightly less pressured than air traffic controllers.
Many of the kids are just one step away from “juvy.” In just under 22 minutes, his camera pinpoints crucial details, befitting a far more experienced director, and skillfully tells us everything we need to know about these characters.
He did that before with his feature documentary “Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey” (2006), made in San Diego with then-partner Lowell Frank. Lauded by local critics, the story of a fiercely committed boy hobbyist went on to HBO after director Bennett Miller (”Capote,” “The Cruise”) came to San Diego for an award and was given a copy of the film by Cretton. (Fortunately, Cretton had brought a screener with him.)
Writing and directing movies wasn’t even a blip on Cretton’s radar when he was picking pineapples near his hometown of Haiku, Hawaii. Soon after Cretton graduated from high school, he moved to Ocean Beach and attended Point Loma Nazarene University, where in 2001 he received a B.A. in communication.
Continue reading Will Academy Award nominees include San Diego’s Destin Cretton?
Tags: Academy Awards, Born Without Arms, Brad Henke, CineVegas, Denim, destin cretton, Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Haiku Hawaii, hbo, Lowell Frank, oceanside, Oscars, Point Loma Nazarene University, Scott Marks, SDNN, short term 12, south park, sundance, TLCFiled Under Interviews, Rants
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