Cafe Cinema Top Spot for Lovers of Film

Jude Eberhard gets on a roll when she starts talking about her dreams and aspirations for Cafe Cinema, the combination nouveau coffee shop and film room she opened recently with her husband, fellow filmmaker Isaac Artenstein.

“There are many different arts communities within the community,” she said, picking up speed, “but the film community doesn’t have a support system within this community.”

As much as anything else, Eberhard and Artenstein, best known as the producer-director team of “Break of Dawn,” hope that Cafe Cinema will provide the local film community with a spiritual base. They envision the Front Street cafe as a gathering spot and screening room for independent film and video makers, not just from San Diego but from around the country.

In addition to the food and cappuccino offered in the coffee shop, it includes a 150-seat carpeted screening room, capable of showing a variety of film formats.

“We would like to achieve a space that has innovative and creative global programming and at the same time give a sense of community to the film community,” Eberhard said, sitting in a cushioned vinyl chair in front of a checkerboard. “Maybe we can add some cohesiveness to the dysfunctional aspects of the (local) film community.”

A few months old, the cafe is starting to hit its stride in programming. This Friday and Saturday night, it will host filmmaker and author Sydney Kirkpatrick, who wrote the nonfiction crime book “A Cast of Killers,” a detailed look at the scandalous unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor.

Reflecting the eclectic goals of the cafe, Kirkpatrick will discuss the art of writing nonfiction crime books, particularly focusing on how the genre interrelates with film and videotape. In conjunction with Kirkpatrick’s appearance, the cafe will screen the 1919 silent film, “The Eyes of Julia Deep,” which stars Mary Miles Minter, the underage actress who was the chief suspect in Taylor’s murder.

Upcoming features include a look at contemporary Israeli cinema (Nov. 14) and a screening of the 1991 Academy Award-winning documentary “Deadly Deception” (Dec. 3-5). Director-Producer Debra Chasnoff will be there to discuss the film.

Although the cafe is nondescript from the outside, inside it is spacious and warm, with a high ceiling and a vaguely southwestern flair. A mural of cowboys riding film cameras painted by Artenstein, Robert Sanchez and Marco Anguiano covers the back wall. Antique film projectors are displayed on a shelf on a back wall. Checkers and a chess set stand at the ready; a huge poster from “Chinatown” looms on one wall.

“They really have a nice set-up,” said Miki Seifert, one of the organizers of the new Film and Video Artists Assn. of San Diego, which recently staged a showcase at the cafe. “There are not that many places a local film or video maker can get their work shown.”

In addition to the regular film programming, Artenstein and Eberhard hope the cafe will develop a less formal side. Eberhard fires out ideas, everything from 24-hour film slumber parties to workshops on cinematography. She gets excited when she talks about the video programs for children on weekend mornings.

The two want the cafe to be a place where filmmakers can screen their works in progress. Or maybe, when directors are working in San Diego, they can use the cafe to screen their daily footage, instead of sending it to Los Angeles.

Artenstein and Eberhard have already arranged to work with Maria Novaro, the Mexican filmmaker who is drawing raves for “Danzon,” now screening at the Hillcrest Cinemas. She is planning to film her next movie in San Diego next year, Eberhard said. Eberhard and Artenstein will work on the production, and the cafe will serve as a screening room for the dailies.

“If we are able to pull off the programming that we want to do, we look forward to this to become a space that keeps people surprised, entertained and informed,” Eberhard said, emphasizing the word “surprised.”

“We want to keep people interested, alive and awake.”

No one else in San Diego is attempting to provide this level of interaction with the Hollywood film community.

Artenstein and Eberhard have the advantage of being filmmakers themselves, which allows them to relate to independent filmmakers as something more than coffee house entrepreneurs. They understand the scene. They know the players.

And, although the cafe is now consuming most of their time, they haven’t forsaken their film careers. Artenstein has finished work on a screenplay he is marketing and Eberhard is preparing to shoot a new film next year.

As many who known them can attest, they’ve been talking about the cafe concept for years. It may be a cliche to call it a dream come true, but there is a lot of truth to it.

“It’s fulfilling a need Jude and I had,” Artenstein said. “It was either this or move to Los Angeles, which we’ve rejected for so long.”

The connection to Los Angeles is there, but Cafe Cinema is not about the Hollywood scene. It’s an attempt to link San Diego to the quasi-underground independent film movement around the world, to break away from the mainstream “Entertainment Tonight” world of films, Eberhard said.

It’s about the San Diego film scene, and making it something more than a collection of movie houses and filmmakers randomly scattered around the landscape.

Sure enough, a few weeks after a turnover in at the top of Gannett radio, owners of KSDO AM (1130) and FM (102.9), KSDO General Manager Mike Shields resigned last week. The ironic twist is that his mentor, former Gannett chief, Jay Cook, who was replaced by Gerry DeFrancesco a few months ago, has replaced Shields as interim general manager. . . .

The new program director at KGB-FM (101.5) is Clark Ryan, who comes from AOR station KLBJ in Austin, Tex., where he was vice president of operations. He is scheduled to begin today. . . .

An internal reorganization at KPBS has reshaped the troika that was in charge of programming. Peggy Cooley has vaulted over Gloria Penner and will be in charge of overall television programming; the third member of the trio, Tom Karlo, will be Manager of Television Operations. . . .

Also at KPBS, the station has hired Bruce Bauer, most recently of KIFM, to fill the all-important role of corporate development director. He will be overseeing efforts to obtain underwriting funds for programming.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Last Round in Mayoral Campaign

This year’s campaign for mayor has turned into a classic spitting match. Peter Navarro tries to portray opponent Susan Golding as a professional politician who did favors for her felon ex-husband. For her part, Golding repeatedly calls Navarro a “liar” who is supported by pornographers.

All in all, it’s been great fun for political observers, primarily due to the candidates’ willingness to stand face to face and slug it out. This hasn’t been a media campaign where the candidates lob grenades at each from a distance. To their credit, they have engaged in an unprecedented series of debates, giving voters dozens of opportunities to see them in action.

Tonight, just a few hours before the polls open, they will meet for the last time, live on KGTV (Channel 10) after “Monday Night Football.” As each attempts desperately to sledgehammer the other, it is sure to be fascinating TV, sort of a combination of “Hard Copy” and “American Gladiators.”

And yet it will be hard not to feel a twinge of sadness that this will be the last installment of one of the most entertaining series on local TV.