Newport Film Fest Rolls Again

It’s been a hectic week for John Mark Maio.

His first feature film will have its world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival, which opens tonight, but the Big Bear-based writer-director has been making last-minute trips to the film lab in Burbank and the negative cutter in Hollywood to ensure that the color and print are just right.

To save time, he’s been staying at his mother’s house in Anaheim all week. But he never made it home Monday night. He was up until 5 a.m. checking the film’s sound synchronization at a studio in Encino.

“I slept three hours,” said Maio, 45, with a mixture of exhaustion and delight. “I’ve been running all over the place. It’s a wonderful, crazy experience, but it’s kind of mind-boggling.”

“Harrington’s Notes,” which is billed as “a romantic adventure in the wild,” will premiere at Edwards Island Cinemas at 1 p.m. Saturday.

It is among 45 features and more than 100 short films from around the world to be shown at the eight-day film festival.

The event kicks off at 7:30 tonight with a 50th anniversary showing of director Billy Wilder’s classic “Sunset Boulevard” at Edwards Big Newport. A post-screening, black-tie-optional gala featuring a 14-piece big band will be held at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club.

The festival is a reinvention of a similarly named event that went belly-up in September. The Newport Beach International Film Festival ended a four-year run when founder Jeffrey S. Conner filed for bankruptcy. But a group of film and business professionals who believed in the concept rallied to revive the festival.

This year, screenings are more centrally located around Fashion Island in Newport--at Edwards Island Cinemas and the Orange County Museum of Art. A free seminar series on the art of filmmaking also will be held Saturday and Sunday in the nearby Newport Beach Public Library.

The festival, which is budgeted at nearly $500,000 in cash and in-kind products and services, recently received two cash infusions: an additional $30,000 from the city, which had previously provided $7,000 in public funds for start-up costs, and a one-year, $50,000 sponsorship from Newport Beach sports agent Leigh Steinberg and his wife, Lucy--the largest single sponsorship to date.

“I think it’s a wonderful reflection of the support the festival has in the community,” Gregg Schwenk, the festival’s executive director, said of the Steinbergs’ financial commitment.

While the festival features a wide range of films--a number are from the Sundance, Toronto and Palm Springs festivals--one segment will be devoted to Orange County filmmakers.

In addition to the world premiere of Maio’s feature, short films by Lorette Bayle (“Mariela’s Kitchen”), Jim Call (“Welcome to Heck”) and Joey Daddario (“Retreat”) will be shown at the “Locals Only” screening at 3 p.m. Monday at the Orange County Museum of Art.

Maio has produced and directed more than 26 documentary and educational films and videos. Most of his films, which he co-produces with his wife, Mary, have been educational films dealing with subjects such as forest ecology and oceanography.

“Harrington’s Notes” is Maio’s first feature-length film.

A year and a half ago he teamed up with first-time producer William Malkin of Huntington Beach, a former actor who now owns and operates apartment buildings, to make the film. The two men met “through a friend of a friend” at a community theater production in Westminster.

The 99-minute feature, for which Maio also wrote the theme music, is about a young man, Doc MacAllister, who comes from a long line of naturalists and environmental activists but has turned against his family to become a successful strip miner.

MacAllister and his partner face financial disaster when a government field botanist finds a rare new plant species near their claim. Mining in the area comes to a halt, but only temporarily, for the botanist and her notes on the location of the rare plant are lost in a snowstorm. MacAllister and his partner plot to find the notes and destroy the plant.

“It’s really about the lead character rediscovering himself through his relationship with nature,” Maio said.

Malkin said he and three other investors put up “slightly under” $500,000 to produce the film, which was shot in 32 days over a four-month period last year. Locations included Big Bear Lake, Running Springs, Mammoth and Convict Lake, but exteriors and interiors also were shot at West Anaheim Medical Center, a mobile home park in Westminster and several houses in Huntington Beach.

Maio’s cast numbered more than 40 with about 50 extras.

The two leads are Jeffrey Vandenburgh, who grew up in Placentia, and Melissa Lewis, who lives in Irvine. Other major roles are played by Clint Hufft, Erin Lee Adamson, Stephen Donovan and Lisa Lee. Phil DeBarros of Westminster has a small role as MacAllister’s John Muir-inspired grandfather.

And keep your eyes peeled for Maio and Malkin, who have bit parts in the film. “I play Congressman Harris; he’s the corrupt politician,” Malkin said. “John plays a car salesman and is very, very funny.”

Malkin said he is especially proud of obtaining the rights to use Kenny Loggins’ recording of “Will of the Wind” and the Chieftains’ “Red Is the Rose” on the film’s soundtrack.

But even though the film is finally in the can, Maio and Malkin’s work is far from over. Next step: Find a distributor.

Naturally, they’re hoping the film’s world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival will attract interest.

*

* “Sunset Boulevard,” Edwards Big Newport Cinemas, 300 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 7:30 p.m. today. Thursday. $50, includes admission to the gala. Student rush tickets, at $10 each, also will be available to students with IDs 10 minutes before the screening on a space-available basis.

* “Harrington’s Notes,” Edwards Island Cinemas, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 1 p.m. Saturday. $5. (949) 253-2880. A question-and-answer session with John Mark Maio will follow the screening.

* WHAT’S SCREENING: A list of the eight days’ events is in Calendar Weekend, page 42.

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Newport Beach Film Festival

An eight-day festival screening 45 feature films and more than 100 shorts from around the world opens today and continues through April 6.

1. Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive.

2. Edwards Island Cinemas, 999 Newport Center Drive

3. Edwards Big Newport, 300 Newport Center Drive

4. Newport Beach Public Library, 1000 Avocado Ave.

On April 1 and 2, a film seminar series will be given at the library. Additional information at https://www.newportbeachfilmfest.com