Flood of films rolling in for festival

By DAVID GUNTER

Feature correspondent

SANDPOINT — In a town famous for its love of the arts, one medium has emerged as a perennial — if not completely well known — player in that field.

For more than 10 years, local screenwriters, cinematographers, actors and producers have tried to get the idea of a vibrant film community to take root here. And though attempts at things such as film schools might have fallen short of the goal, one core group of advocates has managed to keep the dream alive in the form of an annual film festival.

Chief among them is Janice Jarzabek, who first rubbed elbows with local filmmakers as an extra in a local film and, later, led the drive to screen independent movies on the Panida Theater’s big screen.

The fruit of her labors has been the current incarnation of the Sandpoint Film Festival — an event that first started in 2010 as a select showing in the Panida Little Theater and subsequently moved to the larger auditorium when Jarzabek became involved four years ago.

“It brought in about 200 people and it’s getting progressively bigger,” said Jarzabek, who has added both festival promoter and film producer to her credits since that time.

“But as far as festivals go, it’s still small,” said Erik Daarstad, Oscar-winning cinematographer and film festival proponent.

Daarstad’s involvement on the team marries his lifelong career in movie making with a keen eye for good films. And it’s a combination that comes in very handy this time of year, when the Sandpoint Film Festival starts to get inundated with entries for its showings on the first Saturday in November.

The festival picks up to 20 candidates — the longest of them about 20 minutes in length — for the categories of narrative, animation and documentary films. Access to technology has ramped up interest in the craft, as virtually anyone can now afford a high-definition camera and film editing software. Factor in the ability to post films online and there’s no limit to who can turn out a movie and, in theory, share it with the world.

Case in point — the Sandpoint Film Festival now receives more than 1,000 entries each year. Not all of them, according to Daarstad, are worth watching.

“I don’t think there’s been any increase in quality,” the Academy Award-winner said. “You still have to pick through a lot of quantity to find the good ones.

“We’re trying to find the little gems — and it’s not always easy,” he added. “But last year was our overall best quality of films.”

“That’s because you’re the eyes now,” said Jarzabek, crediting Daarstad with bringing a higher level of professionalism to the selection process.

In 2010, that involved daily trips to the mailbox to fish out DVD submissions. Today, the entire process happens digitally, which has simplified matters in some ways, but kicked up both the number of films submitted and the geographical areas from which they arrive.

“Technology has changed everything,” said Jarzabek. “We have films coming in from countries like Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Russia and Egypt. We get a lot of films from Bollywood.”

“Most of them are what you would call narrative films, but there are quite a few animated films now — probably because it has become easier to do with a computer,” Daarstad said.

Where once movies would have been shot on film and remained in that format right up through projection, modern filmmakers shoot digitally, edit digitally and send their work online. After receiving entries, Daarstad, Jarzabek and a few others preview the films on computer, with the winning entries then downloaded by Sandpoint Film Festival projectionist Becky Revak and screened on the Panida’s digital projector.

“It’s wild,” Jarzabek said of the fact that the work never leaves the digital domain.

The theater’s digital projector was made possible by a massive community fundraising drive by the Panida’s then-executive director Karen Bowers, its board of directors and, at the front of the pack, Daarstad, who made his name committing images to film, but saw the digital handwriting on the wall. It was the same dilemma faced by all theaters at a time when major studios announced that future movies would be delivered exclusively in digital format, rendering movie house film projectors instantly obsolete.

“When I was on the board I kind of said, ‘This is what’s coming and we have to go with it,’” the cinematographer said. “If we wanted to show movies any more, that is.”

Jarzabek, an early enthusiast for readily available digital filmmaking tools, has tempered her enthusiasm after several years of winnowing out finalists from a mountain of prospects.

“I have a different sentiment now,” she said. “Some of the things we see are so far out there that it’s just wrong.”

“On the other hand, when you see a good film that’s well made, it’s very rewarding,” Daarstad said.

For the first few years, the festival awarded cash prizes to the top tier of winners. A winner’s check is no longer part of the equation, which only seems fair, since Sandpoint Film Festival has waived all entry fees, as well. So, what’s in it for the 15-20 or so filmmakers who do make it to the big screen? A non-monetary “prize” that is more caché than cash.

“It’s still a good way for a filmmaker to get recognition,” Daarstad said. “And prizes are an important way to make that happen.”

Plowing through entries from now until November means that the festival’s secretary-treasurer, Bernice Webb, will now get involved in gearing things up, followed shortly by Eric Ridgway, who acts as master of ceremonies for the event.

Although the format will remain the same as in recent years — a pre-production party the Friday before at Trinity at City Beach, a filmmakers’ coffee on Saturday on the Cedar Street Bridge, three blocks of showings at the Panida and a wrap-up party back at Trinity — new wrinkles might include a closer partnership between the theater and the festival, as well as a pre-festival showing of Daarstad’s latest project with longtime creative partner, director Terry Sanders.

“It’s a feature-length, coming-of-age film that’s just now reaching film festivals,” said Daarstad, adding that the movie is titled, “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Gray.”

“I think the timing would be right, to show it in conjunction with the Sandpoint Film Festival,” he continued.

Daarstad might be the only Sandpointian who can claim ownership of an Oscar, but he has turned into a tireless cheerleader for nurturing the local film scene. Each year, there are three or four entries from the home turf, along with regional films from Coeur d’Alene, Boise and Spokane.

“It’s a small festival — just a day long,” Jarzabek said. “We do it mostly for fun. The minute it’s not fun any more, we’re over and out.”

Information: Sandpoint Film Festival, 208-290-0597, or www.sandpointfilmfestival.com