Story by Alexandra Wallachy
Photo Courtesy of Cinema Pacific Film Festival
Eugene is often associated with alternative arts and culture. Building on Eugene’s love affair with the eccentric is a budding film scene that is providing a much-needed outlet for Eugene filmmakers. Accompanying this growing film culture is an abundance of upcoming festivals and screenings.
The Cinema Pacific Film Festival (CPFF), which includes the Adrenaline Film Project and Fringe Film Festival, is coming to Eugene Wednesday April 17 through 21 at various locations. The CPFF is based out of the Cinema Studies department at the University of Oregon.
In addition to Cinema Pacific Eugene hosts the Disorient Asian American Film Festival (April 26-28 at the Bijou Art Cinemas), the BANFF Mountain Film Festival (April 18 at the McDonald Theater), the Good Works Film Festival (March 16-17 at the Bijou Art Cinema), and North West Animation Film Festival (May 31-June 2 at the Bijou Art Cinema), just to name a few. The increased migration of film festivals to Eugene highlights the community’s increasing interest in the motion picture culture.
The film scene in Eugene has drawn attention from big name industry folks like acclaimed screenwriter Guilermo Arriaga, who will be speaking at Cinema Pacific. The festival will screen two of his films, The Burning Plain and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
Landing distinguished guests like Arriaga is no small feat, according to Richard Herskowitz of CPFF. The “courtship” process and “marshaling” of resources involved in bringing film’s finest creators to Eugene takes months—last year’s guest Daniel Wu took over four months to persuade before he returned to his alma mater. This year Herskowitz has been contacting guests and wrangling sponsors since October of last year.
Herskowitz describes Arriaga as, “Dynamic, intelligent, engaging, and charismatic.” The legendary screenwriter will be lecturing at several Eugene events during the Film Festival at the Bijou Art Cinemas, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and the Oak Hill School.
Herskowitz acts as a sort of, “Curator of independent and foreign films.” As a film programmer, Herskowitz’s job is to keep his antenna up year-round to scout the best films from across the globe for the Cinema Pacific Film Festival. He is mainly looking for “high quality films that aren’t available commercially.”
The rate of return of festivalgoers is a testament to the quality of the Pacific Film Festival. Herskowitz wants patrons to place their trust in festivals like Cinema Pacific year after year. Most film festival viewers watch two to three movies in a day, so it’s important that the films are more than something you could see at any multiplex.
The ultimate goal of the Cinema Pacific Film Festival is to attract a wide audience from around the country and the world, but the first step is a local audience. Annually the CPFF brings in many films from the Pacific Rim, and this year’s festival showcases films from Mexico, Singapore, and the West Coast. The candidates for next year’s festival are Chilean and Taiwanese.
This year Cinema Pacific features many works by Portland filmmakers like Brian Lindstrom (Alien Boy), Steve Doughton (Buoy), and Orlando Nutt (Woodchips II). Oregon’s film production has been growing steadily, while Eugene has been growing through the Adrenaline Film Project, according to Richard Herskowitz. The project encourages community members to make quality films with professional assistance.
The premise of Adrenaline is organized chaos. Three professional filmmakers mentor twelve teams of students and community members who have 72 hours to write, shoot, and edit their films. The hyperactive production schedule yields interesting local films and collaborations, in addition to sleep-deprived filmmakers.
While Adrenaline focuses on narratives in a mini studio format, the Fringe Festival is all about expression and experimentation. The festival takes a classic public domain film, Macario, and challenges participants to remix it creatively. Fringe culminates in a huge party on Friday April 19, including video submissions projected on the walls, digital piñatas, and Mexican food. Herskowitz is careful not to oversell the Fringe Fiesta, but forecasts that it will be one of “the best parties of the year.”
If leaving campus isn’t in your wheelhouse there are plenty of free film screenings on campus through the cinema studies and other departments.
Cinema studies graduate student Anthony Hayt recently founded the group Oregon Film Enthusiasts. Last term they introduced the Remake Series, which shows original films and their remakes. Hayt hopes that the Remake Series will draw in more than just cinema studies students and will foster informal, intelligent, and unstructured conversations about film.
Whether you stay on campus or ventures off campus, whether you prefer local or international films, the growing film culture in Eugene may have just what you’re looking for.
