B-List Glitz

No A-list celebrities or studio moguls limoed in, but opening night of the fourth Newport Beach International Film Festival managed to produce its own version of glitz.

His cameraman at the ready, Scott Forrest, host of a news magazine about independent filmmakers, interviewed an excited crowd arriving at Edwards Newport Cinemas on Thursday to celebrate the bootstrap indie-film spirit as the 11-day festival got rolling under a drizzly sky.

Forrest’s “Smash Cuts” has yet to screen--even though he’s been shooting footage for three years. But no matter. The tall, glib anchor pointed his microphone toward aspiring actors and directors, including Anaheim-reared Harris Done, director of the festival’s grand opener, “Storm.”

The venerable Sundance Film Festival, Forrest said, is “seriously looking at” producing his program. “This thing is about to crack,” he said enthusiastically.

Martin Sheen and Luke Perry, who star in the high-action “Storm,” didn’t show, but there, hyping their film, “Going to the Chapel Chapel,” were actresses decked out in white satin wedding gowns. Ren Blood, “Chapel’s” director, wore the obligatory baseball cap bearing the movie’s title.

Done’s proud father was one of 200 family members, friends, cast and crew members given free tickets, hugs and handshakes by Done.

“His mother ordered us to come,” said Gerri Winkelman, a family friend for 30 years.

The poor-man’s Cannes did attract foreign press, including a reporter from the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao, a Chinese-language daily with a Los Angeles bureau. Directors of the Asian film entries also turned out.

Arthur Chyu of Taiwan (“Falling Up Waking Down”) and Casey Lai-Ying Chan of Hong Kong (“The Poet”), among others, flew in. They came with actress Kieu Chinh (“The Joy Luck Club”), a festival board member and former juror.

“There are so many smaller-budget filmmakers, especially Asian, who need a place to show their films,” said Kieu, a Newport Beach resident who said she just filmed an episode of “Touched by an Angel.” “We’d like the festival to be a bridge to Hollywood.”

About 800 people filled two-thirds of the Edward theater’s 1,240 seats, an Edwards official said. That was about 50 more than last year’s opener, the official added. The night wasn’t without minor glitches, however.

A brief mix-up over myriad guest passes (Done was among many to receive a stack for distribution) mildly perturbed a few folks, and “Script Doctor,” a short preceding “Storm,” started 20 minutes late.

Nobody seemed miffed, however, not even Done, introduced as Harris Drone.

“I want to thank you guys for supporting the festival,” Done told the audience before his film began. “You should give yourselves a hand.”

Although it was hard to find anybody unrelated to Done or not connected to a cast or crew member, many moviegoers seemed to like the “powerful” film and its flashy special effects. Some found parts of it unrealistic. The movie is about a sinister general (Sheen) who controls a contraption that can--almost--move hurricanes around the globe.

But Sunshine Rhone of Laguna Niguel thought the plot was plausible. Rhone, an administrative assistant, was among the capacity crowd munching chips and pizza at the opener’s gala at Windows on the Bay, a Newport Beach restaurant-bar. You never know, she said, what sort of top-secret projects the government may be cooking up.

“I was in the military,” said Rhone, a former U.S. Air Force electrician. “I think there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know about.”

Party guest Todd Blood said that all nine of the festival’s award-winning films will be screened at the theater he owns and operates, Captain Blood’s Village Theater in Orange, April 2-4. (Todd Blood is Ren Blood’s cousin.)

Upcoming galas will kick off the festival’s Spanish-language and Asian film components:

A party tonight will follow the screening of “Divine” at Edwards South Coast Village 3 in Santa Ana as part of Festival del Cine.

A party Sunday night will follow “Falling Up Waking Down,” part of the festival’s Asian Cinema Kaleidoscope. It screens at Edwards Island Cinemas in Newport Beach. Movie only, $7; movie and gala, $20.

* For more festival information, call (714) 546-3456.