LAFM finally ends its Los Angeles Film Festival drought

When it comes to film festivals, Los Angeles seems cursed. This doesn’t make any sense, considering that Los Angeles is the home of Hollywood. However, unlike New York — which hosts the New York Film Festival every fall, along with other festivals like Tribeca and DOC NYC — Los Angeles has faced a veritable festival drought over the past half-decade.

The Los Angeles Film Festival has been running for 18 years, premiering titles such as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse And Things beyond the sun, before ending in 2018. Just last year, OutFest — an LGBTQ+-themed film festival held in the summer — ran into serious financial troubles; Her future is now unclear. That leaves events like Beyond Fest (a genre festival that highlights horror, sci-fi, and fantasy) and the AFI Festival (which takes place in the fall and typically hosts Oscar premieres in Los Angeles) — but there’s a general lack of a local film festival showcasing a wide range of genres. Independent and international films.

Now, filmmakers and film enthusiasts Micah Gottlieb and Sarah Winshall are looking to change that with the new Los Angeles Film Festival, running April 4-7.

“(The festival) is a mix of regional American independent films as well as international arthouse films and some major restorations that we were really excited about,” explains Gottlieb, who programmed the festival with Winshall, in an interview with The Daily Beast’s Zoom Obsession. “Some of our audience comes from people who have been attending the mezzanine shows over the past couple of years.” Gottlieb is the artistic director of Mezzanine, a non-profit series dedicated to showcasing independent and arthouse films from the past and present.

When the LAFM lineup aired on March 7, it caused quite a stir online — especially for hosting the premiere of comedian Conner O’Malley’s debut, The world of rap. Almost all events and screenings are Sundance favorites I saw the glow of the television To speak with Kim Gordon, it has since been sold. (Gottlieb and Winshall confirm that more tickets may become available at the door on the day of the show.)

“We got a lot of positive feedback from people about the lineup — which, you know, we definitely wanted the lineup to be very eclectic,” Gottlieb says. “We’re really happy that people have embraced this and are excited about it.”

Below, Gottlieb and Winshall explain how they launched LAFM, how they’re challenging Hollywood, and how they hope the festival will evolve in the years to come.

What inspired you to start this festival, other festivals, films in particular, or current trends in cinema?

Winchal: We definitely take inspiration from Filmex, which is a film festival that eventually became what is known as American cinema. They stopped doing that in the 1980s. But that was one of the things that we (looked at), when Micah and I sat down and said, “What do we want this to be?” That we looked at. We spent some time browsing through their old software. There are other festivals like New/Next in Maryland, or BAMcinemaFest, which I don’t think is happening now, but it was a really special program.

Gottlieb: I’d also like to add True/False in Columbia, Missouri, which is a great documentary film festival. The unifying thread of all these festivals is that they feel structured and have a distinct personality. They feel very audience friendly and focus on supporting a certain type of independent film that is sometimes forgotten within the usual machinations of commercial filmmaking. We wanted to show that there is a very large audience in Los Angeles for these types of films that some might interpret as “less commercial” but are still vital and take risks.

How did you decide to name the festival the Los Angeles Film Festival? I’m curious, because most festivals are considered “film Festivals.”

Micah Gottlieb: So, the festival was definitely a bit ironic. There’s always this conversation about, “Do you call it films or do you call it films?” Everyone knows that’s Los Angeles film town. This is where the Hollywood film industry lives, where commercial filmmaking is centered. We felt that even though this festival is mostly focused on independent and arthouse cinema, we still want people to enjoy it, and for these films to be readable and accessible.

Sarah Winshall: And we thought there was also something about a “festival” – like we knew there was a book festival. There are other “festivals”. Instead of trying to put it in the tradition of, you know, “Blah Blah International Film Festival” – every place has that name – we wanted to kind of pull it into more of a framework where it’s a film festival. People come here to watch movies. We’re not a film festival where you necessarily reach out. I mean, if that happened, I wouldn’t be mad at you. But the idea is that it’s a movie show, and we’re in Los Angeles.

What was the initial reaction to the festival in Los Angeles, based on what you were hearing?

Winchal: It’s amazing how quickly things sell out. We really put this thing together very quickly on our end. It’s definitely a bit of a rollercoaster endeavor in our first year trying to achieve something. I’m so grateful for the patience of our fans, who have been putting up with us, watching us learn as we go, and who have been incredibly tolerant, thoughtful, and supportive. I know this only happens once. I hope we can accommodate more, it will give us something to look forward to next year.

This is kind of a silly question, but why April? Why should people ditch their spring beach plans and spend a few hours inside a dark room instead?

Winchal: (He laughsGreat question. We want to feel part of the fabric of the city and not try to trample on anyone else’s time. We’re very aware that Beyond Fest and AFI take place in the fall, and there may be some overlap in the types of films they show. But now, with the fate of OutFest up in the air, we felt like there was a great spot on the Los Angeles calendar.

Gottlieb: We’re also taking notes from festivals like New Directors/New Films and First Look, which are held in New York and have served as a platform for new or emerging filmmakers from around the world, who might (also) get platforms at spring festivals like Sundance, SXSW or Berlin. We’re really happy to have some of our favorite films from Sundance as well as SXSW, and then other things that maybe premiered last fall or even last (spring) that maybe slipped through the cracks, didn’t find a distributor, things like that.

Earlier, these films were described as “less commercial” – but only as an example, advertising The world of rap Owns Lots of attention online. Tickets for it sold out very quickly. I would say it is a commercial success!

Winchal: It’s great, first of all, to hear that. When Micah said: “I think, you know The world of rap It’s our closing film,” and the whole team was like, “Oh, man. This is so cool.” We can’t wait for it. It was one of the very early films that we knew might be ready to release at the right time, and we started chasing it very quickly. It’s only an hour-long feature film. That’s the one thing I’m proud of. So, there are quite a few movies in our program that have runtimes that some traditional distributors might not encourage someone to produce. It’s not traditionally what is considered a marketable runtime. Well, there’s a lot of things about this movie that I think, in terms of The theory, however, may be difficult to sell, without a quote.

How were the locations where LAFM would be held determined?

Gottlieb: This festival takes place in (three venues) all located on the East Side of Los Angeles, an area that, before the Corona virus, did not have as many exciting and diverse venues for independent cinema as it does now. It’s truly incredible the way the Los Angeles landscape has changed and blossomed post-quarantine. We really wanted to capitalize on that, both from the excitement around these new places, but also from the growing audience for independent films that you can see almost any night of the week going to these places.

How do you see LAFM expanding? Do you have bigger goals in mind that go beyond your size now?

Winchal: There’s a really nice needle to thread (trying to grow and also) not trying to become something too crazy. I’m really happy with the scope of the festival we covered. It feels really good to not be a competitive festival at the moment, to be a curated, curated programme, and for the range of films to be really manageable. We really want people to feel like they can see almost everything we host. I don’t want to lose that in the future.

Speaking of how quickly things sell out, it would be nice to be able to serve a larger audience. This is something we will look at next year. There are other things we’ve talked about in terms of goals, what we want – but let’s get that over with first, and then see what happens.