By Christian Kallen
“I haven’t been this busy since I had a newborn,” said Pamela Demorest, co-founder with her husband Kirk Demorest of the Healdsburg Short Film Festival. She’s lining up lodging for the visiting filmmakers who will show off their works, trying to make last-minute adjustments to the screening schedule for the three-day event and making sure this year’s iteration of the festival is even better than the last.
Formerly residents of Sebastopol, the Demorests moved to Nevada County last year to take care of family matters, but that hasn’t lessened their commitment to presenting the best Healdsburg Short Film Festival they can.
They put on their first short film festival in Bodega Bay in 2013, but realized that the film-friendly town of Healdsburg was not only closer to the audience they sought, but boasted a prime venue in the Raven Film Center and, more recently, the Raven Performing Arts Center. That’s where this year’s festival will be held next week, from Friday to Sunday, Sept. 27-29.
Obviously, they know how to pull this off. One of their secret weapons is a judging panel that includes hard-to-find local celebrities Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, the songwriters behind some of the more notable entries in Waits’ eclectic catalog. This is their third year wearing the judge’s toque (or whatever judges wear).
Other judges include veteran character actor Ed Begley Jr.; award-winning Cameroonian-American filmmaker Ellie Foumbi; film editor, producer, writer and story consultant Kristina Motwani; and multi-hyphenate Daedalus Howell, not only the editor of the Bohemian and the Pacific Sun but a filmmaker in his own right (Pill Head, Werewolf Serenade).
“Judging a short film is like enjoying an appetizer prior to the feast of a filmmaker’s career,” said Howell (who is also an editor of this publication). “You get a good sense of what they could be cooking up in the future in terms of their themes and interests. And judging several short films is like binging on a charcuterie board. Pair with wine.”
Films to Watch
One might expect films that are by design short (some are under a minute, some almost 20) to be simple and easy to grasp, but a surprisingly complex palette of emotions and ideas can be compressed into their brief runtime, especially by filmmakers who pay close attention to the medium.
Several known actors are to be found in the brief span between opening title and credits: Brat Pack heartthrob Molly Ringwald shows up in Catherine & Michael as one half of an unhappily married couple; character actor Jack McGee delivers a haunting performance about a man in his 70s suffering from dementia in Involuntary.
Some of the films even seem directed at a Healdsburg audience, such as Dirt to Glass, about the Sonoma Valley winemaking Bundschu family, and The Big Wait, about a tourist destination that doesn’t quite take off. With Waiter for Life, one can believe many locals will be grimly fascinated by this candid look at long-time waiters at Scoma’s Restaurant in Fisherman’s Wharf.
Then there’s an example of the same point being made in different ways. In the touching-yet-hilarious Chauncey we meet a grown woman who is afraid to introduce her new boyfriend to her old stuffed animal. Meanwhile, in Puppy Love a different young woman forms a deep connection with a dog, then decides to date the dog’s owner, no matter how strange he is.
Special Events
As is de rigueur at film festivals, having actual filmmakers in attendance is to be expected—no fewer than a dozen will show up in Healdsburg to tout or explain their works through screenings and Q&A sessions with attendees.
Special events are scattered throughout, including the opening night “Champagne Cinema Soiree” at 6:30pm on Friday night, to be held at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts gallery on Center Street, which will include not only flutes of the sparkly but is followed by a screening of some of the festival’s most intriguing entries.
A quick look at the film schedule at healdsburgfilm.com/2024official_selection/ shows about 10 films per screening block, from an atlas of countries on a glossary of topics.
The next day, after a filmmakers breakfast on Saturday morning (by invitation), the screenings continue with a “Youth Perspectives & Beyond” program at 1pm, providing a window into the world of modern youth. This set is designed to be equally entertaining for adults as well.
Two other mixed-genre program blocks follow, at 4 and 7pm, and Saturday wraps up with a wine mixer for all pass holders, filmmakers and sponsors, at 9pm. This open-bar event should provide networking opportunities, and perhaps social intercourse if not romantic rendezvous for fans of short-form cinema.
Sunday provides a documentary film program at 1pm, followed by a mixed-genre program of film in French from France, Quebec and French territories.
The finale comes Sunday at 7pm with the awards presentation from the Raven stage itself, and a selection of “handpicked gems that showcase unique perspectives from all walks of life.”
The 44 films to be shown, from 18 countries, were selected from 472 entries made on the filmmakers’ portal www.filmfreeway.com, winnowed down by arduous screenings. “Selecting films is trickier than it looks. We’re hunting for the whole package: cool story, slick production and nailing the execution,” said Pamela Demorest.
“We need that emotional grab, plus it’s gotta look good,” she continued. “The real duds? Easy to spot. We don’t even finish those.”
The Healdsburg Short Film Festival is presented in collaboration with the Healdsburg Center for the Arts (HCA), and coincides with HCA’s Healdsburg Arts Festival (Sept. 28). Festival tickets and information at healdsburgfilm.com.
