Roll Credits:
The 2011 Mendocino Film Festival a Resounding Success
The 2011 Mendocino Film Festival demonstrated the uniqueness that the Mendocino Coast is known for, with a variety and depth of offerings that delighted the overflow crowds. The films, including two Oscar winners, covered a wide range of subjects, and there were many high points over the June 3 weekend, including:
- A special screening of the film Happy was shown to a packed and enthusiastic crowd of students and teachers at Mendocino High School, which school counselor Tom Pepper called "life-changing".
- Alan Arkin, Jonathan Winters, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Theodore Bikel and Norman Jewison each made individual video tributes to the local Mendocino community in honor of the screening of The Russians Are Coming, shot here on the coast in 1966.
- A tasty surprise serving of garlic bread was savored after the screening of Les Blank's Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers.
- San Francisco Chronicle columnist/critic Mick LaSalle appeared at a special showing of the documentary Complicated Women, based on his book, with a lively Q & A following the film.
-A meeting via Fuze was arranged with the director and star of The Athlete, Rasselas Lakew, who spoke to the audience in real time from New York.
- In what is becoming a Festival tradition, a program of silent films was shown with musical group Eggplant Cinema Ensemble providing live accompaniment.
- Many Festival awards were presented, including the Albert Maysles Award to Les Blank, the Audience Choice Award to Happy, Best Documentary honors to Pianomania, and the Special Jury Award to Guilty Pleasures and Desert of Forbidden Art and Best Global Issue to My Perestroika.
- Violinist Joseph Gold, subject of the short film Gold Violin: Bow of Death, performed a marvelous recital with the eponymous bow after that film.
- Numerous sessions of Q & As with filmmakers and experts were presented, including a panel of women directors for the Women Behind the Camera discussion, beekeepers after Vanishing of the Bees, and so many filmmakers with their productions it would be impossible to list them all.
These and so many more unforgettable moments make the sixth annual Mendocino Film Festival "one for the books." Thanks are due to the many volunteers and helpers who made this an affair to remember. Be sure to save the dates June 1 through 3 in 2012, when the Festival will once again bring a bit of cinema magic to the Mendocino Coast.
