Venice Filmmaker Makes Good Her First Feature: “An Irish Vampire in Hollywood”

By Herbert B. Fishberg

After years of planning and preparation, an award winning Venice, California independent filmmaker has accomplished making and distributing her first feature length film.

Pegarty Long started planning, writing and rewriting her film, The Irish Vampire Goes West in her small Venice apartment on Park Ave.  After many promises and disappointments involving cast and crew, locations and editors, she finally went into production in 2004. Pegarty spent the rest of the time editing the film herself and searching out sales agents. She was the writer, producer, director, editor and co-star of the film which, to quote Irish publications, is “the first Irish vampire film”.

House of Film (with its secondary label Maison Noir, Black House Films, which represents genre based, cutting edge films) and its CEO Ava B were instrumental in finding a distributor nine years later. Pegarty’s film, which the distributor changed to An Irish Vampire In Hollywood, was picked up by Reality Entertainment, and is being sold in DVD form through its subsidiary, Worldwide Multi-Media.

This reporter sat down with Pegarty recently in what her twin sister, the late Poet Laureate of Venice, Philomene Long, described in her poem as “Pegarty’s Burgundy Room”, a Bohemian apartment located a half a block from the ocean, in the heart of Venice. With Pegarty dressed in her usual black velvet, we discussed her motivations and experiences in making the film.

What brought you into the film world?

Pegarty: “My parents, the Catholic Church and Mark Twain. The Catholic Church is filled with powerful images and symbolism through its many statues and paintings of saints. It is also filled with ritual. Going to Mass is a lot like going to a film. When I was nine, my Mother handed me Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer  and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  That did it for being girls, which didn’t look at all exciting. My sister and I “became” Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and spent our youth playing imaginary games. The rebel life was for me. And what better way to be a rebel and play imaginary games as an adult than to make films? So as an adult I enrolled in UCLA’s film program and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Film. I was also the recipient of the Jim Morrison Award for Best First Film, which was called Irreversible.”

What made this film possible?

Pegarty: “I was the recipient of a Panavision New Filmmakers Award (grant), which allowed me to use one of their Super 16 mm film cameras for free. And through advances in technology, I was able to transfer the Kodak film to digital and edit it on my MacBook Pro Apple computer.“

After an exhaustive search for an editor – she went through three or four – she edited the film herself. It took about three years to shape the film to her satisfaction, with the unmistakable “Pegarty-esque” style, as her admirers called it.

What is the film about?

Pegarty: “It is a tale of mystery, magic, faeries, mad scientists, blood, vampires and love. When Hollywood beauty Manananaan is kidnapped by a creature of the night, her artist twin sister Mara journeys to Ireland to rescue her. Resisting the powerful sensual allure of the demons of darkness, Mara finds the luck of the Irish turning against her. Filled with creatures, faeries and lots of blood, this fight between good and evil has the Emerald Isle as its prize.”

Manananaan is played by Pegarty’s real twin sister, Philomene Long. The Irish Vampire, Vanquo, is played by film and TV star Chris Payne Gilbert. Long cast ten of her Irish relatives to add to the Gaelic flavor. The film also stars Emmy award winning actress, Peggy McCay, from Days of Our Lives, and actor-writer and old time Venice resident Vincent Coppola.

The film was photographed on locations in Los Angeles and Ireland, including ancient Celtic graveyards and Pegarty’s ancestral home of Kilclousha, which has been in the family since the early 1800’s.

What difficulties did you face in making the film?

Pegarty: “Getting the film rolling took an immense effort. Casting and finding locations were like being Sisyphus (the King who was eternally condemned to roll a heavy boulder fruitlessly up a steep hill in Hades). It was like getting behind a freight train and pushing it.

“In Ireland while shooting in an old Celtic graveyard in the middle of the night, and while in the character of Mara, I fell into a sunken grave. Later, my assistant cameraman, who was also a local mortician, told me in his sweet Irish brogue (referring to the hole I was in), ‘Sure, I didn’t  want to tell you then, but the rats come out at night and chew on the corpses.’

“On another occasion at the same graveyard, deep in the night, we decided we needed some dirt. Just then two Irish police (Garda) arrived, summoned by neighbors. The neighbors thought we were grave robbers. My assistant cameraman convinced the Garda we were shooting a film and had the papers to prove it. Of course we didn’t really have the papers. ‘Ok, then’, said the Garda, smiling in that special Irish way, and walked down the road saying, ‘Ah, sure, we thought you were digging somebody up.’ They were not even out of sight when a crew member shouted, ‘Ok, guys,… the coast is clear, DIG!’

“Then my twin sister died in 2007, four days after our birthday. It was so emotionally draining while editing the film to watch her daily on the monitor dressed in what she loved to wear the most, her long white gown and her first communion veil. It was like we were still playing together as we did as kids. But, not really. She was gone.”

But Pegarty was able to overcome that difficult time and follow through with the film and its distribution. She is also the publisher of two of her sister’s books, as well as Philomene’s late husband’s, the Venice Beat poet, John Thomas.

Pegarty plans to continue making films and publishing  under her production company label, Raven Productions TM, which can be accessed on the internet at: www.raven-productions.com. The trailer for An Irish Vampire in Hollywood can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKH9KpnGGPQ

Another Night at the Other Venice Film Festival

By CJ Gronner

The Other Venice Film Festival 2012 is in the books, and once again, a great time was had by all. Due to logistics, I could only partially attend this year, but according to all the attendees that I spoke to, it was another smashing success organized by long-time Venetian, Reuben “Ruby” De La Casas.

Opening night was another big party at OVFF’s headquarters at Beyond Baroque, with all the fun and casual order of an event in Venice. In accordance, the friend that I brought with me said, “I’ve never seen such a group of characters in one place before.” I had, but it was close. The red carpet was rolled out for the occasion, and local and international luminaries strode down it to get inside and behold the films and the spectacle.

Natural Hi-Fi was the band kicking off the festivities, and they blew our mind – truly – with their one-armed guitar player, Paul Gunby. I don’t know how he does it, but their version of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blue” was very true to the original. With one arm on guitar. We were super impressed.

I was not as impressed with either of the films featured this opening night. The Ballad of Danko Jones was all over the place, but featured cameos by Elijah Wood, Selma Blair, Ralph Macchio (the Karate Kid!), and the best one, Lemmy.

The feature presentation was Tony Tarantino’s Underbelly Blues, and was perhaps the very worst movie I’ve ever seen. Ever. Mr. Tarantino told me that, “It’s a spoof on Pulp Fiction, it’s funny, and it’s really, REALLY nasty.” Well … He got the last part right. I have nothing good to say about it, so I’ll say nothing more other than I know for sure how much hard work getting a film made is, so good for them for getting something done, but bad for them that this thing was what they used their efforts for. Bllllech.

Highlighting Day Two was the inspiring (Slamdance winning!) documentary Getting Up from director Caskey Ebeling.It’s the incredible story of disabled graffiti artist, Tempt One. He suffers from ALS, but can continue to draw and create with crazy new technology that allows him to create with his eyes. See it.  By far the best entry in this year’s festival, in my opinion. Wow.

I wish I’d been able to attend every minute of all the films, musical performances and parties … but Congratulations to all the Abbot Award winners and artists that got to see their hard work pay off with an audience of supportive Venetians at another of our good time events. Cheers!

Best Feature: Bring On The Mountain

Best Documentary: The Webtel.mobi Intercontinental Challenge

Best Short: Franky and The Ant

Best Music Video: Dogtown Days

Featured Artist: Matthew Schildkret

See you next year!

The Other Brother: “Salt of the Earth,” The Film They Tried To Kill, Lives On Thanks to Technology

By Jim Smith

A lot of people in Venice know that Edward Biberman was the artist who painted the Post Office mural, The Story of Venice.

But few probably know that his older brother, Herbert, directed Salt of the Earth, a classic film about a New Mexico miners strike that ended 60 years ago. That film, shot and edited amid government harassment and vigilante violence, is now credited by the Library of Congress as being one of the greatest films ever made, and among the first – perhaps the first – feminist film. The film is told from the viewpoint of Esperanza Quintero, the wife of a striking miner.

Salt of the Earth recreates the miners’ struggle, and strike, for a new labor contract at the Empire Zinc Mine, near Hanover, in southern New Mexico in 1950-52. The film was completed two years later.

The Latino miners nearly lost the strike when the company brought in strike breakers and won an injunction against picketing. It was at this point that the wives of the strikers, who were not covered by the injunction, picked up the picket signs and marched.

Even though they were routinely jailed, the women walked the picket line for seven months and saved the strike. This was a bold move in tradition-bound, male supremacist, rural New Mexico at mid-century. It’s the way that the issues of class and racism are portrayed during the day-to-day progress of the strike by a group of very poor miners, and how they are forced to confront their own sexism, that makes this a great film.

The 1950s had much in common with today’s war on terror. Back then, the House “UnAmerican Activities” Committee, Senator Joe McCarthy and their ilk, were busy destroying the optimistic and inclusive Roosevelt era, and replacing it with an anti-communist witch hunt that terrified millions of liberal Americans. You didn’t have to be a communist to fall under suspicion and possibly lose your job or your career. You were called a “Red” if you didn’t want to rat on your friends.

In Hollywood, and in the union movement and most companies and organizations, it was easy to get rid of a rival by planting the seed that he was a communist. Today most people could care less if someone is a communist, socialist, libertarian or anarchist, but 60 years ago it was a different story. The hysteria against communists, liberals and New Dealers permeated the social fabric of the nation. In some ways it laid the basis for the current “war on terrorism,” which casts suspicion on Arabs, Iranians and followers of Islam.

And so it was that well-respected Hollywood Director, Herbert Biberman, and nine other prominent film artists, became known as the Hollywood Ten and were held in contempt of Congress for failure to confess their beliefs and affiliations or to rat on their friends.

Herbert Biberman was sentenced to six months in a federal penitentiary. Fortunately, Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 was not in force back then. It allows the indefinite incarceration of a U.S. citizen without trial. While six months in the pen would have been enough to frighten most people, but the Biberman brothers were made of stronger stuff. Herbert immediately began work on Salt of the Earth.

The film shooting encountered immediate harassment. How could a film about workers struggling for their rights, that was about fighting sexism and racism, and was being created by members of the Hollywood Ten be anything but Red propaganda? In fact, it wasn’t. The film never mentions communism, socialism or the Soviet Union. Its themes of equality and justice are subscribed to by most people today.

Nevertheless, the production had trouble attracting fearful Hollywood actors (Will Geer, who plays the sheriff, was a notable exception). Biberman was unable to view “rushes,” since the film companies refused to process the daily output. The leading lady was deported to Mexico in the midst of filming. And carloads of vigilantes invaded the set and beat up actors and film production workers.

Originally, Biberman was going to cast his wife, actress Gale Sondergaard, and a white actor in leading roles. But others, including his sister-in-law, Sonja Dahl Biberman (Edward’s wife), convinced him to cast Latinos in the leading roles. He ended up with Juan Chacon, the union’s local president and a strike leader, playing himself, and Rosaura Revueltas, a star of the cinema in Mexico, as his wife.

The editing process was as harrowing as the filming. The raw footage had to be hidden away with editing taking place at night in a variety of locations, including Topanga Canyon. As the weeks went by, Biberman and the film editors stayed one step ahead of the FBI, which desperately wanted to censor the movie by confiscating the film.

In the end, the film was censored by pressuring theater owners to refuse to show it. It enjoyed a nine week run in New York and a few days at ten other theaters around the country.

It was technology that finally beat the censorship. First VHS (yes, that’s technology), then DVDs, YouTube and finally Netflix, which will stream it to your computer, iPad or TV without requiring you to sign a loyalty oath.

Does this mean that if Salt of the Earth was made today, it would be readily available? Perhaps not. A British-Spanish film made in 2000, entitled One of the Hollywood Ten, about Herbert Biberman and the making of Salt of the Earth, starring Jeff Goldblum and Greta Scacchi, is unavailable for viewing in the United States. It’s not on DVD, it’s not anywhere on the internet. A European DVD is for sale on the web, but it is not compatible with U.S. video players. Wikipedia calls it “A curious state of affairs given the subject.”

I was fortunate enough to have known three of the people involved in the strike and/or the film. Bob Hollowwa was one of the top union organizers during the 1940s and early 50s. At the time of the strike he was the regional director of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, which represented the strikers. Unfortunately, the national union did not want the workers to strike, believing they could not win in such repressive times. Hollowwa sided with the workers who believed they could win.

According to historians, Hollowwa did more than anyone else to convince the women to take an active and equal role in the struggle. For his efforts, he was fired from his job with the union. He was also written out of the film, either by pressure from the union, which helped fund the film, or simply because it would have made a confusing story to show the union doing something bad.

I met Hollowwa 20 years later. At the time I was pursuing a PhD in Economics, but I told him I’d rather be a union organizer. He started coming to my house at least once a week, where he attempted to teach me about strategy and tactics. It must have been a frustrating experience for him, since I kept missing the point and asking stupid questions. I felt like Carlos Castenada sitting at the feet of this shaman of worker struggles, and only half getting it.

In the end, Hollowwa taught me many useful lessons which I put to use during the next 25 years of my involvement in the labor movement. But I believe the most important thing I learned was to stand up for one’s principles regardless of the consequences. He never had any doubt that he had done the right thing by siding with the workers against the union brass, and thereby getting fired and failing to be immortalized in the film.

Then there were Lorenzo and Anita Torrez. Lorenzo Torrez was a miner and one of the strikers. He’s in the film as well. His big scene is jumping up at a union meeting and making a motion. Had it not been for the film, he might have lived out his life as a miner. Instead, he was inspired by the experience of the strike and the film.

When I met him in Los Angeles in the 1970s, he had become a political activist and teacher of labor topics who frequently lectured around town. He taught from the point of view of Chicano workers who are always confronted with racism and economic repression.

Many of us who are white have a tendency to belittle the impact of racism on people of color. Torrez was able to explain to me the insidious nature of racism and how it is used to maintain this unequal social order. His wife, Anita, who has been fighting for women’s rights ever since she joined the picket line at the strike, added the explanation of sexism to the mix. It is triple oppression for women of color, she emphasized. “We are oppressed as workers, Chicanas and women.”

I’ve been thinking about Lorenzo a lot lately. He died New Year’s Day at age 84 in Tucson, Arizona, where he had founded the Salt of the Earth Labor College. He was fighting Arizona’s assault on immigrants and bilingual education to the end. He was, indeed, the Salt of the Earth.

A new DVD of Salt of the Earth may be obtained from Organa.com.

The Other Venice Film Festival

By CJ Gronner

The 8th Annual Other Venice Film Festival was another success – and a blast – this year, featuring wonderful work from our own local filmmakers, as well as entries from around the world. The festival ran from October 13-16 this year, and it all started out with a big rager at Beyond Baroque for Opening Night.

The Featured Artist of the OVFF was William Attaway, whose art was displayed in and around the entrance to Beyond Baroque. It was great to see so many creative people all coming out to support each other in their different mediums, and something that I hope will only grow as more and more, our circles overlap.

The first event drew all sorts of local legends of skate and surf, as the Feature competition kicked off with a screening of big wave surfer, Allen Sarlo’s, documentary, Work To Surf. It was the hottest night of the year in Venice, I think, so we watched the film in chairs outside under the stars – and close to the open bar. I chatted a bit with festival founder, Reuben De La Casas, before the film started, and he said they had far fewer feature length submissions this year, and the ones that were submitted were mostly documentaries, as people are into them and really, real life is better than fiction most of the time. With the economy being what it is these days, shorts are more prevalent, and easier to produce, obviously. The economy being down also severely hampered the sponsorship support that has been contributed in past years, so most of this year’s Festival was coming out of Reuben’s own pocket. Ouch. Hopefully that can be sorted out for next year, as it really is a valuable display of the deep talent pool here in our Venice.

Work to Surf was super entertaining, and most deserving of the Best Feature Abbot Award that it ultimately won. Jaw dropping big wave surfing plus laugh out loud funny at times, it takes you to the “War Zone” of 1970’s Venice, when, as Jeff Ho says in the film, “Their JOB was to go out and tear the waves apart!” Then they grew up, and Allen Sarlo decided to get into real estate so he could subsidize his travels to go surf big waves, and there you get the title. The working just to surf tied in with the soul surfing ethic, and Sarlo and his good friend, Mark Foo, made a pact that they would always “Work to Surf”. Foo died at Mavericks on a day that Sarlo didn’t go. He was crushed by his friend’s death, and the film is dedicated to Foo. Known as “The Wave Killer”, Sarlo is described in the film by Kelly Slater as, “The thing about Sarlo is he’s just a good guy … until he gets in the water, then he’s an animal!” And now, still working to surf, Sarlo’s legacy will be carried on by his two surfing kids, Sophia and Colton. I loved this film, and agree with Mr. Slater that Allen Sarlo couldn’t be a nicer guy.

 

 

The bar re-opened for an intermission, and then we saw another good and funny skate film, A Day At The Pool, about how maybe a guy named Benton Shakely was really the guy who started the whole skating pools thing. After that, the party was on, and off the record.

Friday night’s “Premiere Night” segment saw the brilliant short film, Admissions, (directed by Harry Kakatsakis) steal the show. It was produced by local Venetian, Gavin Behrman, who told me that they finished it under the wire, as it was important to him that it premiere in Venice. Starring Academy Award nominee, James Cromwell, as the guy at the Admissions Desk leading to Heaven or Hell, the film is a (15:00 timed) discussion between an Israeli couple and the Palestinian suicide bomber who killed them. It is so wise and well written (by John Viscount) that I honestly feel like it should not only win the Oscar for Best Short Film next time (maybe it will!), but probably deserves a Peace Prize too. Honestly. As Cromwell says in explanation to both outraged parties, “You can’t want Hell for other people without being in hell yourself”. It’s very deep, very profound, and should be required viewing for people in conflict the world over. After this (truthful) gushing, you will be happy to know that Admissions won the Abbot for Best Short, (voted on by the audiences over the weekend) so it’s off to the races! GO!

Short Films that stood out to me on Saturday, (which ran very behind, as everyone shrugged, “It’s Venice”) were Sandbox Lullaby, directed by Joey Indrieri – a very dark tale shot all around very sunny Venice, and The Unicorn Girl, a beautifully shot fantastical story about a girl (local Amelia Mulkey, who also directed) – and a unicorn. Thanks to Amelia’s swag of a headband with a unicorn horn attached, I also had a Halloween costume! Win, win! The New Bicycle was a good one all the way from India, by Arshdeep Singh Jawandha, about a kid who is desperate for a bike – Venice people can understand that one.

The Abbot for Best Music Video went to “Love Is Love” by Gabriela Tagliavini, and I had to miss that section as there was a beautiful wedding on the beach in Venice that I had to attend. But Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone that participated at all! Making a film is hard work, from idea to screening, by everyone involved, and it’s kind of a drag that there even has to be a “Best” of any of it. Having said that, the ones that won were really, really good.

Everyone had another ball at the Closing Night award ceremony, hosted by the hilarious Jill Jacobson. The three Abbot Awards were given out (cut back to three this year as those things are expensive) and the fact that great film making is alive and well in our community was duly celebrated. It’s a special festival, and also a lot of work – done mostly by Reuben DeLacasas by himself with volunteers. There may have to be a change of venue next year, as it’s all been too expensive, and even non-profit Beyond Baroque wouldn’t budge much on their profit, but maybe the local community can help each other out a little more and band together to make this thing awesome – and not break one guy’s bank. Venue donations, sponsorships, HELP – I think we have it in us, right?

Cheers to the Other Venice Film Festival, for a great time/s, and for giving all this excellent and thought provoking film work a place to be seen, right in the neighborhood.  Bravo!!!

Film Review: Venice West and the LA Scene

By Mary Getlein

On April 17, Venice West and the LA Scene, by Mary Kerr, was shown at Beyond Baroque. It is part one of a two-part documentary covering the Venice and San Francisco Beat scene in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The film showed the lives of local Venice poets and artists: Stuart Perkoff, John Thomas, Philomene Long, Frankie Rios and Tony Scibella, among others. The artists represented included Wally Berman, John Altoon, Artie Richard and Saul White, among others.

Venice was very cheap then and people could afford to live somewhere and work on their poetry and art. A lot of artists felt that their art was just for themselves and would give it away to their friends.  They didn’t have the desire to do commercial art. It was very innocent in that respect.

Wally Berman was a very influential artist in the Beat scene – he was the one who coined the phrase “Art is Love is God.” He was arrested on a pornography charge in the Syndale Studio, the first gallery that would show Beat artists’ work. He was arrested for a small drawing representing two people having sex. Two plainclothes policemen came in, found the drawing, arrested him and took him to jail. He was eventually bailed out, but it was quite traumatic for him.

Colorful John Atoon was professionally trained as an artist, and became an Abstract Expressionist and influenced many artists around him. He was one of the few that held down a job, as an art teacher, and also did his own art. Most artists and poets lived in voluntary poverty and worked odd jobs here and there to pay the rent and buy food.

Another artist who was important was Artie Richards, who was not allowed in his own shoe at Ferris Gallery. The owners of the Ferris Gallery were afraid of how he would act once he started drinking, and didn’t want him to offend potential clients. So Artie and his friends went to the back of the gallery and built a make-shift bar out of some wood planks and set up shop there, in the alley.

Stuart Perkoff was a major poet of the ‘50s. He was very careless with his poetry, would perform it and then crumble it up and throw it on the floor. He was known for writing line after line of poetry and not stopping, as if he was in a trance. After his death, a big book of his poetry was published, at the urging of Allan Ginsburg. Stuart got heavily into drugs, which lead to him going to jail and his early death.

There is a scene in the movie where John Thomas, Philomene Long, Frankie Rios, Tony Scibella and Saul White were gathered around the table talking about the good ol’ days. Of the five, only Frankie is left. Tony, John and Frankie talked about the relief they felt of discovering they could write poems – that this was their profession. Discovering the talent that was buried under the rough exterior.

The concept of “the Muse” was discussed by many poems. The Muse was about finding the inspiration inside yourself. It was necessary to open yourself and receive the inspiration to do poetry and art. An artist or poet should keep themselves pure – you didn’t do art and poetry to make money. Stuart Perkoff felt the Muse would take away your inspiration and ability if you allowed yourself to be corrupted by the capitalist culture. Many people would use drugs or alcohol to as a way to be open to the Muse – this might work in the beginning, but by the end you couldn’t write anything at all. This happened to many poets and artists, among them Frankie Rios and Stuart Perkoff.

The film includes footage from the Gas House and Venice West, where people used to go and listen to poets “blowing” their poems and musicians playing their music.

The beatniks were dropouts from regular society, which was primarily described by conformity. America was in the prosperous ‘50s, when people were encouraged to move into the suburbs and the men would go to work and the women would stay home and raise their children. Everyone looked the same, dressed the same and aspired to the same goal: success.

Or you could drop out, run away from your pre-described role in society and go to New York, San Francisco or Venice and hang out with madmen and crazy poets. Venice was cheap then, and you could practically live on nothing. Some poets were given rooms above the Gas House.

Philomene Long talked about becoming a nun and at the last moment deciding to be a poet. She was already wearing black, she had already embraced poverty, she spent all day staring at the sky, so she was already a poet. She said that when she met Stuart Perkoff, after a minute of knowing him it was like she had known him a thousand years.

Mary Kerr tied all the pieces together in this engaging film of young voices emerging from the strange hold of the ‘50s.

In the Q&A after the movie, Mary said the movie was especially encouraging to art students, who feel that deep pull to do art, while everyone around them are telling them not to.

Elaine Trotter was the editor of the film. Jimmy Z, Theo Sauders, Ben Perkoff and, Si Perkoff (son and brother of Stuart Perkoff, respectively) performed the music in the film. Mary is planning a two DVD set that covers Venice and San Francisco. She needs money to help produce it and has a website: beatera.org, and indigogo, where you can go and view parts of the movie and donate money. The title of the two documentaries will be “Swinging in the Shadows’, part one: “Venice West and the LA Scene” and part two: “San Francisco’s Wild History Group.”

Two Views of the Other Venice Film Festival: Opening Night

By Jim Smith

The Other Venice Film Festival is not like any film festival you might have attended or heard about. It is informal and casual. Except for a few extremely high heels and two men wearing suits with ties, it was like any other Venice gathering.

The kick off took place in an old Venice bungalow on Rose Avenue, now a store called the Big Red Sun (athough it’s blue). Unlike the big, ugly boxes that are springing up around Venice, it has a back yard and a front yard. The movie screen and projector were in the back yard. The Margarita bar was in the front yard. This reporter was in the front yard in earnest conversation with photographers Edizen Stowell and Gisele Reberio (name dropping is required in film festival reviews) and missed the beginning of Venice (Beach) in the Sixties, A Celebration of Creativity (just the main reason he was there!).

I wandered into the viewing area in time to see Big Daddy Nord on film. He was the proprietor of Gas House, the first Beat coffee house in Venice. It was torn down by the city of L.A. which thought we shouldn’t be corrupted by such things (always looking out for our interests).

Leland Auslender, who shot the film and is a long-time acquaintance, finally assembled his footage and did a voice-over to turn it into a picture. I’m surprised that he got away with shooting at some of the beat pads in the early ‘60s. Even in the late ‘60s, anyone with a camera was considered to be a Narc, which Leland certainly isn’t.

His short film also has a scene shot in the Venice West Cafe which was located at 7 Dudley Avenue. In it we see its owners John and Anna Haag, without a doubt the most influential couple in Venice history. John, a Harvard graduate, took the Venice West to its greatest fame as its third owner. It was founded by the great Venice poet, Stuart Perkoff. He was also a founder of the Free Venice movement, the Peace and Freedom Party (today the largest socialist party in America), the Free Venice Beachhead, and helped integrate the Lincoln Place Apartments in his spare time. Anna, a dark-eyed beauty from Italy, was perhaps the first vendor in Venice and on Ocean Front Walk. She made jewelry which she sold in Venice from the ‘60s until her death in 2003. Together, their political and cultural influence on modern Venice was second only to Abbot Kinney’s.

Also visible in Auslender’s film inside the Venice West are poet Maurice Lacy, who is described as an “albino” (does any of his poetry survive?), Claire Horner, who wrote little books of “sayings,” and was by no means a Beat poet but was still part of the scene, and Tamboo, Venice’s first conga player who started the Drum Circle without knowing it. He and friends would play at the Cafe and at the Dudley pagodas. By the late ‘60s, the drums had moved to the Brooks “hill.” Later, the city built a platform out by the bay at the Brooks jetty (now buried under the sand), and finally it settled smack in the middle of the beach.

The film is available on DVD from www.canyoncinema.com.

 

A Dennis Hopper film from 1961, Night Tide, includes shots of the basement bar at the Town House (which played jazz in the film, not a bad idea today), the Santa Monica Pier and the Venice Police Station (now SPARC).

Hopper was without a doubt a good actor which was obvious in this, his first starring role. But was Hopper a Venetian. He did live in Venice for many years, at a compound at Hampton and Indiana, but did not involve himself in the community. Hopper was more conservative than most Venetians, perhaps being influenced by his father who worked for a forerunner of the CIA. Venice artist Bill Ataway, who was introduced as a friend of Hopper’s, said he only saw the actor twice, even though his studio is right across Hampton from Hopper’s home. Katherine LaNasa, who was one of Hopper’s five wives, had only good things to say about her late ex-husband.

While taking a quick toke down the street with new friends I watched a homeless man I know walk by with his dogs. It made me think about the relation of art (film) and real life. The great Russian poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, once said, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Today many art critics, perhaps including some of those at the Other Venice Film Festival might say that “it’s art for art’s sake, man, that’s all.” It seems that social consciousness in art is at a historic low ebb. Is it because living is so expensive that only those with a trust fund can practice art? Or is it the constant barrage of the mass media that pretends social issues don’t exist and that consumption is the ultimate experience?

As I was biking home, I cruised down Third Street between Rose and Sunset. There are no homes on this street, only buildings. It is a perfect place for RVs to park (and perhaps would make a good venue for next year’s festival?). I ran into a friend who was walking up the street from her RV. She told me that police harassment is almost constant. The patrol cars cruise by during the night clicking their sirens and loud speakers. From time to time, they bang on camper doors and demand that everyone comes out. Sleeping in a vehicle is not permitted (although it is permitted on the sidewalk). She told me that a lawyer had advised her to say she wasn’t sleeping, that she had been having sex next time she got a bang on the door. Or, if she was alone, to say she was masturbating, which is also legal.

Pedaling onward down Hampton to Broadway I notice a silent-running police car (speeding without any lights) zooming up the street. It was almost one year to the minute from last Oct. 15 when a silent running police car had killed Devin Petelski on Venice Blvd. A memorial to Petelski still exists at Glyndon Avenue, but the perpetrators who surely would have been convicted of second-degree murder had they not been police officers received only a slap on the hand. (http://bit.ly/5oLQws). After Petelski’s death, the LAPD denied knowing what silent running meant, and furthermore denied that they still engaged in it.

Arriving home to a warm and cozy environment, I felt good about our own “other” film festival, which is becoming an essential part of our community. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Reuben De La Casas, who has shepherded it through seven years, and to all the volunteers who made it possible. Don’t miss it next year.

Yet the evening left me wondering: should we be happy that we have a great film festival in Venice, or should we be sad that art cannot change our world which is so crummy for so many people?

Two Views of the Other Venice Film Festival: Soccermom: The Movie

By CJ Gronner

The weekend was another one of those gloomy, mist all day scenarios, which actually made it perfect to tuck inside and catch some film. As The Other Venice Film Festival venue of Beyond Baroque is my spitting distance neighbor, it made it pretty easy to catch the 2010 OVFF WINNER for Best Documentary, Soccermom: The Movie.

If you’ve lived in Venice for any time at all, you should know the band Soccermom. They’ve been a staple at music clubs around town forever, and its members, Helen, Matty, Cecil and John, have probably all been squeezed in next to you at a party at some point.

I loved Soccermom with all its humor and punk glory (and I say lovED because I have no idea what’s going on with them right now, and haven’t seen them play in quite some time. Or seen Helen around, for that matter …). This film about them – though cut a little sloppy in places, and in need of some sound tweaking – captures all of it, and really, only makes you want to see more of them.

The talking head interview bits spotlight all sorts of Venice characters: Jeff Ho, Valerie of Slave fame, Nik from Trim, and all sorts of friends of the band, that clearly love them. These are the funniest parts, as the surfer dude qualities that crack you up, and the sheer irreverence, make you instantly recognize YOUR people, and laugh along with them.

Helen says at one point, “I met Matty and he said, ‘Can you sing?’ and I said ‘No’, and he said, ‘Perfect.’ …. He taught me how to be retarded.” Then it cuts to them all going absolutely mental patient on stage.

They are punk rock, in sound, look, and attitude. Helen and Matty have gotten into fistfights on stage. They played their first show for some Realtor meeting, and opened with a song about what assholes Realtors are. They have hot girl groupies, and a song called “Mangroupie” about just that, the guys that show up to love Brazilian born, and adorable, Helen, of whom one guy fan says, “She’s like a Joseph Conrad character, the Heart Of Darkness.”

Their punk tunes are informed by surf and skating (and vice versa), and skate legend Jeff Ho is a treat to hear spin tales of Soccermom, and how “In Venice, something is always gonna happen … stabbings, beer bottles thrown …” and another guy talks about how “Soccermom usually plays somewhere where your car WILL get broken into …”. Classic, and we love it all.

It’s a bit of a time capsule about the early millennium in Venice, CA, and makes you feel a little nostalgic for the balls out way they – and we – would party here. (Ok, and sometimes still do). I think Helen puts it best when she says, “Aside from the blood and the tears, it’s all happiness.”

A bit like life here itself.

Check out Soccermom, both the band and the movie, whenever and if you get the chance. It’s a rowdy-good time, every time.

 

GASLAND – A Movie Review

By Suzy Williams

“I am not a pessimist,” narrates the banjo-playing, under-30-something filmmaker Josh Fox. He’d been offered $100,000 to lease part of his property in Mylanville, in the deep woods of Pennsylvania. A stream runs near the red cabin that his hippie parents and their friends built in the late ‘60s. Josh spent idyllic childhood days playing beside that wooded stream, its mysterious bends beckoning to other woodland adventures.

He decides to investigate this offer from an oil and gas company, and visits Dimock, PA, the nearest town where such deals were accepted.  He finds a community suffering from serious water contamination.  The people are getting sick; their pets are going bald, the tap water is flammable.  One resident hands Josh a jar of nasty chartreuse-brown liquid – supposedly regular drinking water – to take somewhere to be analyzed.

Soon Josh was sucked into the drama and tragic reality of HYDRAULIC FRACTURING. Dick Cheney had somehow rolled back the great steps taken by the Clean Water Act, enacted in the early 70s, and managed to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from reporting anything about this insidious practice, which has been going on since 2005.

What is HYDRAULIC FRACTURING?  “Fracking,” as it has been nicknamed, blasts a mix of water and chemicals  8,000 to 11,000 feet into the earth, causing a mini-earthquake, releasing the “natural” gas. Then the combination of toxified water and gas is separated above ground. 576 chemicals are used in this process.  The gas is sold; the poisoned water is able to seep back into the soil and water system. Each “fracturing” takes one to seven million gallons of water;  each well can take up to 18 blasts. In the U.S., there are now 450,000 wells. Multiplied by 18 – that’s a lot of tainted water.

Josh Fox set out west and found communities in Wyoming, New Mexico and other states that were coping with the same problem. Many had signed an agreement not to complain once they’d been paid off, but had found that the reverse osmosis filtering system they insisted upon had membranes that were eaten by glycol ethers, one of the poisons used in the hydraulic fracturing process. Frustrated at having to buy their water at Walmart, they decided to break their vow of silence. Especially since they had massive headaches, cancer, and had lost their sense of smell, and could only taste salt and sweet. All subtleties of taste were gone. A peach had only texture, no flavor

People’s lives are being ruined. But the wildly scary thing is that this threatens our lovely and vital water systems. What happened in the Gulf of Mexico with BP is terrifying enough- this puts the reality that the Louisiana fisherman are facing right in our kitchen faucet.

This is an important film for all people to see. It is beautifully made, with lots of footage of fresh sweet rivers, sometimes with gracious trees dripping from a recent rain. Josh plays his banjo, once with that strange two-pronged mask on, protecting his breathing near one of these awful fracking derricks, once with his friend out in the midnight sticks near his home.  My sister Jennie once told me that one day, water will be the new gold. Rare and pricey, only the rich will have it plentifully.

This Hydraulic Fracturing has to stop immediately.

I’d like to get copies of this film to anyone who wants to watch or show it. Please call me, Suzy, at 310-306-7330. Better yet, order it from Josh’s website: gaslandthemovie.com.

Avatar – The Film

By Jim Smith

They say that capitalism will sell anything – even ideas or arms designed to bring it down – as long as it makes someone a profit. Capitalism’s interest in making a buck was confirmed with the release of Avatar, a profoundly anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist film. Some say as much as half a billion dollars was sunk into making the film and promoting it.

Avatar is a “breakthrough” film in a number of ways. Technically, it is a cut above anything else. It creates an imaginary planet, and makes it believable. It is the Star Wars of the twenty tens. It creates a new industry for 3D films and 3D TVs. The technology has been around a long time but has never had a film worth seeing for reasons other than the special effects.

Politically, Avatar is a breakthrough film because it is the first major film in at least 10 years to be anti-military and to support those who the Bush administration would call terrorists. Of course, this criticism could not take place in the here and now, no matter what those who think this is a free country say. It had to take place in the future and in a different solar system. No matter. Not since Nov. 11, 2001, when Karl Rove laid down the law to Hollywood moguls that they must fall in line with the war on terror has there been anything like Avatar, except for small budget films and subtle criticism.

Director James Cameron said filming could have begun ten years ago, but that he wanted to let technology catch up with his vision of the film. Just as plausible is that he and his backers did not believe this film could have been made under the Bush regime, nor could it have gotten the audience that is now flocking to it.

In Avatar, the Marines are actually ex-Marines (a distinction that could be missed by the average moviegoer) who work for a Blackwater-type mercenary group in service to a giant corporation that is strip mining the moon called Pandora. It is a scenario much like the theft of the Black Hills, sacred to the Sioux, or, more recently, the theft of oil from Iraqis. The worldwide petroleum corporations again have their talons on oil resources that had been nationalized by Iraq and were used to pay for free college education, health care and other benefits.

A couple of the Marines in Avatar reminisce about their battles in Venezuela. “That was quite a fight,” or words to that effect, says one. Venezuela’s president, of course, is Hugo Chavez, who is the leader of the anti-imperialist movement in Latin America. Marines are currently in the neighboring country of Colombia attempting to destroy the jungle-dwelling insurgents of that country. The U.S. in currently planning seven new military bases in that country.

This is not a depressing film, even though Marines are merrily bombing and shooting the indigneous Na’vi humanoids. Not only are some of the scientists on the Na’vi’s side, particularly Dr. Grace Augustine, played by Sigourney Weaver who is Avatar’s only well-known star. In addition, several of the mercenaries go over to the Na’vi’s side, including Sam Worthington, who plays the pivotal role of wheelchair-bound Jake Sully. A Latina helicopter gunship pilot, Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) also breaks ranks with her commanding officer. What will the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Columbia think about this?

Avatar is clearly the brainchild of Canadian director and writer James Cameron, who studied at Roger Corman’s studio in Venice and co-founded the visual effects company Digital Domain, which is located at 300 Rose Avenue. He went on to direct a number of successful feature films, including Titanic, The Terminator and Aliens, among others. Cameron has acknowledged that the film, Dances with Wolves, bears a parallel to Avatar, since they are both films about the destruction of indigenous peoples by the U.S.

Cameron’s creation of a non-industrial, but wise society among the Na’vi is a remarkable achievement. At one stroke he creates sympathy for a “primitive” and alien people and a strong sense of environmental protection.

My only reservation about Avatar while watching it was thinking about all the action toys that would be created and sold (Capitalism wins again). Can a jungle theme park at Disney World be far behind? And if you were worried, two sequels are already planned. This is indeed the Star Wars of the 2010s.

Go see it, and act accordingly.

The Irish Vampire Comes To Venice

Venice Premiere

The Irish Vampire Goes West

7:30 pm Sunday, Nov. 1 (All Saints Day)

Beyond Baroque (Old City Hall),

681 Venice Blvd.     Admission $7

By Jim Smith

Vampire films are in vogue again. As politics and the economy get weirder and weirder, and daily life often seems unreal, anything that is otherworldly or bizarre becomes more popular.

Most of these films are routine and predictable. Not so, The Irish Vampire Goes West, by Pegarty Long. This film reminds one of some of the writers and filmmakers that Pegarty Long admires. They include James Joyce, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and Alain Resnais.

Says Long, “I was not actually influenced by these filmmakers as much as I liked and connected with their films. I saw them while I was first making films. “But, when I began making films it was the constriction of the Super 8mm format to tell the story visually with voice-over verses onscreen intertitles, as in silent films, that led me to make films in the style that I do. Basically, they just came out of me that way. And then I saw how closely that particular experience on the screen was to the experience of the power of a dream and I liked that.”

Although it was filmed on location in Ireland, Venice, Topanga and downtown Los Angeles, it was, like the t-shirt says, Hecho in Venice. Several well-known Venice characters – as in character actors – have featured roles. It stars Philomene Long, Venice’s late poet laureate, as Manananaan (a feminized name of the Irish God of the sea). Vincent Coppola who plays the mad scientist, Dr. O’Nosital, was a regular on Ocean Front Walk for years where he walked his beautiful English Sheep dogs every evening at sunset. Buddha, one of Coppola’s dogs has a barking part in the film.

Venetian stage actress Lisa Robbins has a pivotal, but too short role, as well. The Associate Producer, Peter McCarthy, was a long time resident of Venice and shot his film Floundering in Venice. The second unit set decorator, Fawn Walenski, is a long-time Venice resident.

Others in the cast include Chris Payne Gilbert as the vampire, Vanquo. Gilbert is a well-known TV star who has appeared in CSI, Friends and Sex and the City. He’s completed two films since Irish Vampire including Refuge: The Movie and Murder World, also known as Pearblossom.

Long says she began writing the screenplay for The Irish Vampire Goes West in UCLA film school 35 years ago. Shooting began in December 2004 and was finally completed in 2009. The film received acclaim at a standing room only audience of film industry types and critics at a screening in August at the DeMille Theater on the Culver Studios lot. The Venice screening will be the first for a general audience.

Long laments the loss of theaters for art and independent films during the past few years. “We’ve lost the NuWilshire, Mayfair, the Fine Arts, a couple of venues in Westwood, and more,” says Long. The Fox Venice, which would have been an ideal location for the film has become a swap meet.

The Irish action takes place in County Cork. Some of the scenes are filmed in the Long ancestral farm, which is still in the family. The scene at the farm’s Georgianstyle mansion features Pegarty and Philomene’s aunt, Mary Coghlan. Several other Irish cousins have parts or worked in the film, including Bride and James Coughlan and Conor, Cecily and Natia Coghlan. (The cousins dispute the proper spelling of their last name.)

Two next generation cousins in Ireland, includes identilcal twin girls, Eimear and Daire Kiely, who play Little Girl Faeries.

The film score, by Vincent Gillioz, won the Best Film Score Award at last year’s Moondance Film Festival.

The film also includes songs by Ken O’Malley, a well-known Irish folksinger who lives in Los Angeles. He sings Raglan Road and Finnegan’s Wake. Long says this is the first Irish vampire film and is the second vampire film produced in Venice after Roger Corman’s 1966 film, Blood Bath.

Fans of Philomene Long’s poetry should get to the screening early. Her only poem is read in an opening scene. It’s appropriately named Ireland.

A trailer can be seen www.theirishvampiregoeswest.com