Q&A; -- Finding the films for a festival

When the Newport Beach Film Festival opens Thursday, Features

Programmer Keiko Beatie and a host of other volunteers will breathe a

sigh of relief and then start running. The eight days of the festival,

which ends with an awards ceremony April 19, will bring nearly 200 films

from 25 countries to this seaside town. It will also bring a slew of

filmmakers and movie-goers.

Helping to choose the films and deciding when they will play is part

of Beatie’s job, a job she volunteers for. Beatie sat down with Features

Editor Jennifer K Mahal to talk about the festival and the films.

What does a features programmer do?

A features programmer’s goal is to see as many films of quality and

caliber and make a decision if those films would be worthy and justified

and a service to the public or the community where you’re having your

film festival at to screen those films.

My personal outlook -- I enjoy films from all over the world and I

enjoy independent films. When I was growing up, my grandmother didn’t

speak English, she spoke Japanese, and as a treat my uncle and as a treat

my uncle and father would drive us to a Japanese movie theater. I was

maybe 5, 6 years old when I started going. I had to learn how to read

subtitles real fast. And, thank goodness to my mother, we were very

voracious readers and became very used to seeing films with subtitles.

And it just transcended from there at an early age on. And seeing what

it was like in different worlds, different countries and how people

lived. It inspired me to always know we’re just a small microcosm here in

California, and there’s a whole rest of the world to look at and

appreciate. I was very enriched at that age.

For features programming, I think that’s why I want to be able to

share with people the wonderful aspects of the world and how people live,

what they have to offer to enrich us.

The Newport Beach Film Festival is a wonderful community and there are

people here who are really wanting to see films from all over and not

getting the opportunity on a day-to-day basis. We have so many people who

comment and thank us and just really appreciate what we try to bring to

them.

Sometimes it’s very hard making the decision what will be in and what

may not be appropriate.

How do you make the decisions? I understand it’s not just you, but

how do you bring the films forward that you think are worthy of being in

the festival?

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to different states and cities

and fortunately enough there would be large film festivals when I would

be there traveling and that was a very fortunate thing. Going to other

film festivals, you have people who are experienced in programming

bringing you the best of what their festival has to offer.

To be able to sit there and view the best of their best -- you can

glean from that and give support to other festivals with the knowledge

you gather about some gem from India or some really wonderful action

piece from Australia. You do take from that and if you are able to see

the film, sometimes talk to the producer or director, invite them to your

festival or invite a submission.

There are other organizations that you put the word out there that

there is a film festival looking for submissions and from that we get

submissions from all over. Some are first time filmmakers and some are

experienced. A lot of times ... a buzzword or film that wins an award can

create a whole new career for someone, such as Steven Soderbergh with

“Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” He’s a name brand writer-producer-director

now because of that experience.... People are looking for the next one to

come out of a film festival.

You watch hundreds of films. What makes a film stand out to you?

I find more so I am visual as well as a good story. A good story is

everything. I still believe that there are good stories that deserve to

be told and if it’s mixed with the cinematography. I want to see the

story unfold with deep richness and a presentation that just takes you

into wherever the story is set. That’s two factors right there.

And if it has a good cast, good acting. I don’t need the special bells

and whistles of special effects, which are always great. The story is

everything. And that’s why I think many of the films that do make it here

in Orange County are generated by the larger studios with their own

formula. And not that I don’t appreciate that at times, because I do, but

when I go out to the theater and see something that grabs me like a

“Memento” -- something completely out of the ordinary, extremely

original, a story that has not yet been told like that with wonderful

acting. That’s a film that grabs me....

I believe we have some extraordinary films in our festival that can

present the same thing to the community.

What’s the hardest part of the festival for you, in terms of

putting it together?

Actually, I enjoy so many aspects of it that I can’t think of a

hardest part. One of the hardest parts was sitting down and formalizing

the films and scheduling them to the appropriate feature at the

appropriate time. If a film is in, every filmmaker wants that

Friday-Saturday evening, 7-8 p.m., and not that their film is not worthy

of being there, it’s just that we have time constraints.

I respect the filmmaker. I think one thing about our festival is more

unique than other festivals, we have a real support team here just for

the filmmaker. We know how incredibly hard it is for them. They put so

much of their life, their soul, their sheer inner being out on the line

to be vulnerable and make this film be out there. I think we really

support them with so many things that other festivals do not. It’s an

honor that they will be here and come and show their film. And it’s an

honor that we can be there to be able to support them in their creative

expression.

How many films were submitted or seen versus the number in the

festival?

Over 600 were screened and around that number, I’m not quite sure on

submissions. definitely screened over 600. Of the films that are in we

have 73 features this year, which is about 35% larger than last year. And

22 of those are documentaries and we have over 100 shorts. We have the

largest short film festival within a major film festival. And I have

talked to other film festivals -- the largest film festival in North

America is the San Francisco Film Festival. They’ve been doing it for 45

years. This year they have a total of 198, including features and shorts,

so we are right up there with some of the major festivals....

This is the first year you’ve had more than one screening for

certain films. How do you decide which films screen more than once?

And that was something that a lot of time was invested into

discussing, the pros and cons of showing a film twice and how to make

that decision. Having made a decision was definitely on the caliber, the

appeal of the film and the possibility of participation by either the

filmmakers, cast, crew, etc.

We wanted to be able to play films twice that were films that... we

felt the community wanted to see as well. So that was a hard decision to

make. We have possibly up to 15 that will be replaying twice.

What film are you personally most excited to see on the big screen?

“The Broken Wings of Elijah Footfalls,” I will be very excited to see

that on the big screen. There’s one I did see on the big screen that I

did enjoy, and I would like to see how other people appreciate that.

There’s another one I’m really looking forward to is “When the Rain

Lifts.” The cinematographer for that -- Shoji Ueda -- has done many films

for Akira Kurosawa. I’m really looking forward to seeing that on the big

screen.

Both of those would have to be chosen more for the visual effect, and

for the story too. The stories are great.

And “Interstate 60,” not that it’s visually up there, but it is

interesting in story and has a fun cast.

BIO BOX

Name: Keiko Beatie

Age: “Old enough to know better, young enough to still try harder.”

Occupation: Features programmer/special projects for the Newport Beach

Film Festival, a volunteer position

Residence: Laguna Beach

Family: College-age son

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, minor in film and music from

UCLA

Hobbies: Volunteering, kayaking, reading, dancing, foreign films,

music, playing guitar and kickboxing