With film fest, kids’ viewing options get a boost
WHEN adults want a respite from the latest blockbuster playing at the sprawling cineplex, they can see something unusual at their local art house. Kids, however, don’t get much of a choice. Typically, it’s Disney, Disney Pixar or bust.
CalArts is broadening those options this year with the REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival, a program of 38 animated and live-action shorts and features representing 15 countries, including Mexico, Japan and Iran.
Planning a film festival for the tykes was a natural move for REDCAT, says executive director Mark Murphy. “Our audience tends to be in their 30s and 40s and a lot of them have kids,” he says. “There isn’t that much theater, film or performance programming specifically for children. It seemed an important niche to fill.”
Most of the program has been selected from the country’s largest film festival for kids, Cinema K: Children’s Film Festival Seattle, curated by Elizabeth Shepherd of the Northwest Film Forum. She also took the reins for the REDCAT festival, which came together in a couple of months. “Kids are used to a certain visual diet,” Shepherd says. “It’s like they’re eating nothing but potato chips and this offers them something different.”
Different is good, but are the films still relatable? Can they compete with TV, “Cars” and nap time? Absolutely, says Shepherd, who tested all the films on her two young daughters.
“Gettin’ Grown,” for instance, is about a 12-year-old sent to fill a prescription for his grandmother, encountering several obstacles. “It’s a simple story about moral choices that speaks really well to children,” Shepherd says.
Though the festival offers a break from the mainstream, the stars of the films are just as magnetic as any Tom Hanks-voiced creation. “Garpenfargle,” about a mischievous dog who struggles to behave when left alone in the house, could be the new “101 Dalmatians.” “Because of that movie, we now have a little white dog,” Shepherd says with a touch of defeat. “He’ll probably start yapping any minute now.”
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Films for kids
What: REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival
Where: REDCAT, in Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A.
When: Saturday through next Thursday
Price: $5 per screening
Info: (213) 237-2800; full schedule at redcat.org/season/0506/fv/childrens.php
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