UCLA Student’s Debut Film, Made for $20,000, Wins $178,000 Prize

Carlos Avila knows that producing a feature film is a challenging and tedious process. But the odds against success didn’t deter the UCLA student filmmaker, and he recently scored a big hit when he was selected as the grand prize winner of the first annual Film Festival of International Cinema Students in Tokyo.

Avila’s “Distant Water” was one of 250 entries from 27 countries. Avila wrote, produced and directed the film. He was awarded $178,000 that he will use to fund his next film.

“I was pretty much in shock when they said my name,” said the 30-year-old Westchester resident. “I was just so surprised.”

During his high school years, Avila wanted to be a musician but quickly realized his potential was limited. He then worked in a recording studio and started college. As an undergraduate at Loyola Marymount University, he took a few film classes and became immediately hooked, he said. After taking some time off and doing an internship, Avila enrolled in the graduate filmmaking program at UCLA.

It was during his second year that he began production on his award-winning film. With lots of stops and goes, as he put it, Avila produced the film on a shoestring during a two-year period. Much of the financing came out of his own pocket, but he did manage to get some grant money.

“We had $20,000 to do the film,” he said. “And we were able to recreate an era on such a tiny budget.”

The concept for the film came from a conversation that Avila had with a friend about segregation in Southern California. “It was really eye opening to me,” he said. “It got me wondering about a kid growing up, what his experience had been like and how does someone that age process these things.”

Set in 1943 Los Angeles, “Distant Water” is a 28-minute, black-and-white work that chronicles a Mexican-American boy’s coming of age as he deals with a segregated swimming pool amid race riots and home front war anxiety. As a filmmaker in residence at UCLA, Avila is already hard at work on his next film, which will premiere at next year’s Film Festival of International Cinema Students. With the assistance of additional crew, he thinks making this film will be somewhat easier. It will be a political satire that focuses on Mexican vaudeville performers and their travels in the southwest United States during the late 1930s.

The Walt Disney Co. presented its American Teacher Awards to Herbert Holland and Anthony Jackson at a ceremony Nov. 24 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.

The two, selected from hundreds of applications, were recognized for their outstanding achievements in education. Holland, who teaches drama courses at Audubon Junior High School in Los Angeles, was honored in the performing arts category. Jackson teaches elementary math, English and social studies at 99th Street Accelerated School in Los Angeles. He was honored in the general education category.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter has appointed Joe Cunningham to the Westchester/Playa del Rey Community Planning Advisory Committee.

Cunningham, a resident of Westchester, will serve a one-year term. The committee advises Galanter on planning and development issues facing the 6th Council District.

Loyola Law School students Lou Holtz Jr. and John Barber won the National Moot Court Competition for the Western Region held last month at the Los Angeles Superior Court. One of 22 teams participating in the regional competition, the duo will compete in the U.S. finals next month in New York. They will graduate with law degrees in May.

Gerald Margolis has been appointed to the newly established Commission on the Prevention of Hate Violence by Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy.

The commission was created to focus on educating Californians against prejudice and bigotry.

Margolis is director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.