Latino Hispanic Culture, Art and Film at Bullfighter’s Cafe

by Angel Aviles-McClinton
As most of you know, I was the Program Director for the 2009 Other Venice Film Festival. When Ruby De La Casas asked me to take over this position, I gladly acquiesced. After all, festival programmer is a film lovers dream. Right? I must admit, I had NO idea what I was getting myself into. Over the last couple of months, I have probably watched around 400 films. I’ve had stacks of dvds piled high in my office, as good, bad and ugly films from all over the world took up every spare moment of my life. We had meeting after meeting about how the fest should run, who should do what, when and how. There were arguments, bouts of hysteria and many laughs that all lead to 4 days of perfect bliss…lol! The days were not perfect but they did yield some major highlights.

# 1 The Poker House by Lori Petty. Lori and I have know each other for close to 20 years. She’s a no nonsense Venice artist who has gotten into a bit of trouble at times. Her film is based on her own True Life story and it is DEEP. At her QnA, Lori described her film making process. From casting to working on set, her perspective clearly comes from having spent years in front of the camera. Her young cast agreed that she is an actors director. Poker House now has distribution and can be rented at Blockbuster.

#2 Meeting the amazing women behind The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC); an arts center that produces, preserves and conducts educational programs and uses public art (like murals and graff) as an organizing tool for addressing contemporary issues, fostering cross-cultural understanding and promoting civic dialogue. SPARC makes it’s home in the Old Venice Police Station. The Venue is awesome, especially since there is still an old cell in tact, in case anyone decides to get tricky.  I couldn’t elaborate on all that SPARC has done to promote peace in Venice but an in depth interview is sure to follow.  Judy Baca, Deborah Padilla and Pilar Castillo are nothing short of SUPERHEROS!!!

#3 Vicious Circle Directed by Paul Boyd, and starring Paul Rodriguez Jr., Emily Rios, Robert Zepeda, Richard Edson, Perrey Reeves, Paul Rodriguez.. This film was Best Picture Winner at the NY Latino Film Festival and it is visually stunning! Shot in Venice Beach and starring a talented, young Latino cast, it was the perfect movie to screen at the OVFF. Vicious Circle has been picked up for distribution and will be coming to a Blockbust around your way. I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

#4 The Food, The Art, The Music and the People!  We had three venues going for 3 days and most of them were full. Thank you to Venice locals, Todd Hallberg from Jaguar Spirits serving up Metl Tequila Margaritas, Sassan Rostamian bringing the most unbelievable appetizers and Prima Tivo serving up Paella, just to name a few.

Everyone was just laughing and having a great time.  I’ve heard Venice described as grungy, artsy, edgy, to me it will always be a gem; my refuge from all the surrounding squeaky clean Westside towns where I still feel a little too “Out there” to call home…So, the OVFF was a lot of work, sort of like a wedding where the bride is planning and I was a BRIDEZILLA! I may have lost friendships, severed business partners, squashed my chances of working with some filmmakers but in the end, it looked fabulous and was a success!!!

am/10/09

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• Lori Petty’s Directorial Debut to Hit Screens on July 17 (cinematical.com)