thenationofartists.com

By Elliot V. Kotek
(April 28, 2010)

The past few days at the 2010 Newport Beach Film Festival have whirred by me. From the world premieres of “140″ (Frank Kelly’s innovative effort in outsourcing filmmaking to a global community via Twitter), “Cancer to Capricorn: Path of the Modern Gypsy,” Joshua Pomer’s “The Westsiders” and hip-hop outreach flick “Bouncing Cats” starring Rock Steady Crew’s Crazy Legs, the NBFF has once again cemented its position at the forefront of action sports and alternative indie programming.

There are the usual successes from the fest circuit here at play, but the true measures of this festival are its art and architecture and its action sports series, which manage to find audiences at both ends of the demographics spectrum and leave them wanting more.

I’ve been fortunate enough to moderate a panel of documentary filmmakers: Mark Claywell (“American Jihadist”), Amanda Pope (“The Desert of Forbidden Art”) and Joshua Pomer (“The Westsiders”); and to host the Q&As following the first screenings of “140″ and Nabil Elderkin’s “Bouncing Cats.” I juried the Volcom-sponsored youth film showcase (congratulations to Ben Kadie for “Sparks in the Night” — a fantastic film noir rife with humor and class) and have attended the nightly soirees at Fashion Island’s various restaurants and retail outlets, experiencing the requisite amounts of Absolut, Stella Artois, tacos and Häagen-Dazs.

As a moderator, juror, Q&A host, film reviewer and producer, I’ve been walking around the festival with three festival badges in my pocket that read “filmmaker,” “industry” and “press.” Although that presents an interesting identity crisis during the day, I’ve been thrilled by the range of films presented here, and can see that the local community has also hustled with gusto to rush to some 300 screenings and events over the week.

Kudos to Gregg Schwenk and Leslie Feibleman for their efforts at this fest. I selfishly hope next year they program fewer films and let each screen twice so that we can all catch up to ourselves.