FOCUS ON: Film

Ralph DeLauro wants to share his passion for cinema, the kind of films rarely seen in San Diego, with as many people as possible.

DeLauro began to show the kind of films he loves on the roof of a seedy building in the Gaslamp Quarter. Now, with the help of a small grant, he’s showing films in the auditorium of the downtown public library.

The $3,000 grant awarded by the library to cover a six-month period enables DeLauro to show a different free film every Monday night. Although $3,000 isn’t much, DeLauro said it was enough to make the program successful.

“When I was showing movies on the roof of Greenwich Village West (a downtown artists’ colony that no longer exists), the money was coming out of my own pocket,” he said. “I was renting a projector and checking out films from the library.

“In 1984, I walked off the street into the library and offered to run a film program there. They had all the resources, but needed a manager. At first we just used the films in the library, but in 1986, I got the grant. So now I’m working with a distributor out of Los Angeles where I have a good variety of films to choose from.”

DeLauro shows movies from the 1920s to the early ‘70s. Most of the films are foreign with English subtitles. This month he’s showing Jean Renoir’s “Toni” and an animated version of George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm.” On Monday, Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus” will be screened.

“I try to choose movies that I think the San Diego public hasn’t seen or films that are only shown once or twice a year,” DeLauro said. “I would really love to show contemporary foreign films, but I just can’t afford them.”

“We’re working on the ambiance,” he said. “The room is actually working out real nice. When we first started, my wife and I built the screen. Since then we have bought one. We’re working with ‘60s vintage 16-millimeter projectors. We’ve tried to use the newer projectors that the library recently purchased, but the room is too small so the images are larger than the screen. I would like to eventually get better speakers. The sound is a bit murky now, but that’s sort of charming with foreign films.”

DeLauro said an average of 70 to 100 people attend the Monday night showings.

“It’s a real cross-section of people,” he said. “We get a lot of downtown artists and European people because of the foreign films. But we’ve also had plenty of punkers and people from La Jolla come.”

The free films may come to an end since the grant is practically exhausted, DeLauro said. However, the library’s development officer, Dennis Hart, is writing a proposal to seek new funds.

“We have a support group, ‘Friends of the Library,’ that has been keeping it going in the last couple of months,” Hart said. “We are in the process of sending out grant proposals. We’ve applied for $13,200 to cover us over two years. If we don’t get a grant within 30 days, I’ll have to resort to a short-term means of getting the money.

“We would like to expand the program and have matinees in the afternoon for senior citizens. It’s a wonderful and unique series; there’s nothing like it in San Diego. This is probably one of the only chances for San Diegans to see these types of films.”