Film buffs descend on Davis to check out a wide variety of independent movies
By ELIZABETH BUNT — arts@theaggie.org
Film lovers packed into the red velvet seats at the Davis Veterans Memorial Theater for a series of independent movies, short features and documentaries on Nov. 3 from 2 to 9 p.m. Members from the production crews of each film were required to be in attendance and entered the stage at several points to receive awards and answer questions.
The festival had two sections: one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The afternoon portion was open to all and showcased 11 short films, all under 25 minutes. The highlighted film of this section was “A Journey Home: The Story of Sahaya Vietnam,” a documentary that tells the story of a Davis-based non-profit organization that grew to be a major force of education and housing projects in Vietnam. After the showing, director Andy Lauer spoke about the project, took questions and accepted the Best Cinematography Award on behalf of his team.
A brief intermission was called at 5 p.m., and attendees were offered dinner and music from Americana band “According to Bazooka.” As an alternative to the live show, three extra films were played quietly in the theater.
The evening section of the festival began after dinner and was restricted to mature audiences. The evening schedule featured three films: “The First Rule,” “Vasomotor Rhinitus” and “Sally!” which was the main event on the playbill.
“Sally!” — directed by Deborah Craig — tells the biographical story of lesbian, feminist activist Sally Gearhart. Gearhart spearheaded the lesbian feminist movement in San Francisco in the ‘70s and ‘80s. With the help of Harvey Milk, she defeated the Briggs Initiative in 1978, a proposition that would have banned gay and lesbian individuals from teaching in California public schools. Additionally, Gearhart was hired by San Francisco University in the ‘70s and established one of the first women’s studies departments in the country while also being the first openly lesbian professor in the nation to receive tenure. Despite these accomplishments, Gearhart’s name has been largely lost to history, along with many of the details of the lesbian feminist movement that took place so near and so recently. Craig’s adaptation of Gearhart’s story in “Sally!” hopes to reintroduce the movement and its key figures to collective memory.
After the showing of Craig’s film, there was a second set of awards and Q&As. For her work, Craig was awarded Best Director of the Davis Film Festival. In the past month, “Sally!” has also won the Audience Award at the Seattle Queer Film Festival, Way Out West Film Fest and Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ Film Fest.
Once the final awards had been handed out, the audience shuffled out, talking in groups of three or four about the films they’d watched over the course of the evening. The concession stand shut off its popcorn machine, and the theater closed and locked its doors. The little crowd dispersed, and after a few minutes it looked as if nothing at all had happened at the Veterans Memorial Theater that day. The Davis Film Festival occurred quietly, tucked away amongst residential neighborhoods. Its advertising was sparse; there were only one or two small signs outside of the theater itself. The people in attendance seemed mostly to be traveling the film festival circuit or associated with one or another film’s production. Still, it was not just an event for those entrenched in the independent film world.
The Davis Film Festival showcased a handful of films you can’t see anywhere else as well as people who love to talk about them. Anyone who has any love for movies should mark their calendars for next year’s festival; it is a uniquely Davis event and offers an experience you won’t find at any other theaters in town.
Written by Elizabeth Bunt —- arts@theaggie.org
