Coast Film Festival expands footprint, to screen more than 90 films
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Laguna Beach will soon roll out the “green carpet,” as the Coast Film and Music Festival is set to return to town to kick off the month of November.
Ben Warner and Enich Harris co-founded the festival, now in its seventh year, bringing the worlds of ocean and outdoors enthusiasts together under one banner.
The festival, which will run Nov. 1-9, has expanded its footprint in town, distinguishing itself for the lineup it puts out and the audience it attracts.
“Our goal was, from the get-go, to build something different,” said Harris, who grew up surfing in San Clemente. “We wanted to be unique in ourselves and lean into a genre of films that really had a chance to inspire and change the hearts and minds of people. … We were never really worried about if people were going to come.
“We [asked ourselves], ‘Can we build something that really has a chance to be a ripple effect out there into the world and help inspire the next change-makers out there to do better? Can we attract people with these films that are inspiring but leave them with a little bit of something that they’re curious about, or want to do better in their life and do better for the planet with it?’”
Those who have attended the festival from its infancy might marvel at its growth. It debuted in 2019 with 26 films. The following year, it more than doubled that count in a challenging environment for in-person events — screening films on a golf green at the Ranch in South Laguna — during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Ninety-six films are scheduled to be showcased this year, according to Hayley Nenadal, a program manager for the festival. “The Eyes of Ghana,” directed by Ben Proudfoot, will be the opening night’s film at the Rivian South Coast Theater.
“Our films aren’t necessarily about super famous people,” Nenadal said. “They’re kind of about everyday heroes, and ‘The Eyes of Ghana’ is all about a cinematographer who kind of brings to light some history of Ghana. It’s a really beautifully shot film. It almost doesn’t seem like a documentary, because it’s so well lit, it’s so well shot, it’s so well edited and it’s a really hopeful story.”
“Andre is an Idiot,” directed by Tony Benna, is another headlining film.
“The film is all about a comedian who realizes he has terminal cancer,” Nenadal said. “It’s about his last two years on Earth and how he chooses to live them, how he mends relationships and lives his life to the fullest. It’s both funny and heartbreaking at the same time.”
“Out of Plain Sight,” directed by Los Angeles Times environmental journalist Rosanna Xia, is a documentary that expands on Xia’s reporting about the dumping of barrels of toxic waste into the ocean decades ago.
“Epicenter,” directed by Natalie Faye, is a film about Laguna Beach sculptor Casey Parlette, with screenings at 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3 at the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center and at noon Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Forum Theater.
Locals may also be interested in a 75th anniversary event taking place at Hobie Surf Shop at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. The evening will include a screening of “Since 1950,” a surf film, with wave-riding legend Dick Metz, Mark Christy and Pat O’Connell scheduled as guest speakers.
The Coast Summit runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6 at the Rivian South Coast Theater. Films on Forest Avenue will return for a second year that evening at 5:30 p.m. Scheduled short films include “A New View of the Moon,” “Unicorn Sashimi,” “When Dishwashers Were Kings” and “Best Day Ever.”
The Coast Film and Music Festival may not tailor itself toward the bright lights of Hollywood, but it is sporting star power. Laguna Beach revisited the Irvine Bowl noise policy earlier this year, a prelude to an announcement that singer-songwriter Jack Johnson would play two nights at the 2,600-seat amphitheater, Nov. 8-9.
“It was just amazing to see how much demand there was for Jack and the energy that there is within our local community as well as, of course, the greater music community,” said Warner, who added tickets to those performances, after they sold out within 48 hours.
Johnson started off as a filmmaker, and two of his films — “Thicker than Water” and “The September Sessions” — will be double-billed at the Festival of Arts and the Irvine Bowl.
Harris named surfing brothers Chris and Keith Malloy, skier Kai Jones and snowboarder Tina Basich among the athletes who will be attending the festival.
Fledgling filmmakers
As it has gained a foothold in the community, the festival has also brought its art and message into schools. Warner said the Coast Film Foundation has provided a $2,000 scholarship for the past four years to a graduating senior from Laguna Beach High who’s committed to a career in filmmaking.
“We’ve also expanded our emerging filmmaker program, in which we essentially bring filmmakers to schools to teach students about important subjects — including adventure, but also some stewardship lessons,” Warner said. “Through that, we’ve inspired filmmaking and storytelling at schools.”
Laguna Beach High has partnered with the festival from the beginning, but the collaboration has accelerated over the past five years. Students at each grade level participate in environmentally focused projects through a program called FLOW — which stands for fire, land, ocean and water.
Sarah Benson, an English teacher and a FLOW coordinator at the school, said the partnership allows students to hear from guest speakers in town for the festival on related topics.
“Each grade level does a FLOW project in January, and all of them are real-world applicable and the result of community partnerships we have,” Benson said. “The Coast Film Festival is our community partner, along with the Laguna Ocean Foundation for the junior project, which is to create a film on an ocean topic of their choice.”
She explained students work with their English teachers to write scripts and produce short films. The best are showcased at an event held at the Rivian Theater and then entered into the Coast Film Festival’s emerging filmmakers program, she said.
“We’ve had a finalist every year,” Benson said. “Two of those films have been selected to be part of their emerging filmmakers student program this year, so we’re so excited about that.”
For tickets or more information about the festival, visit coastfilmfestival.com.
