Lights, camera, action: A sneak peek into the 30th annual SLO Film Fest this upcoming weekend
In planning since July 2023, this year’s San Luis Obispo Film Festival celebrates the event’s 30-year anniversary. Starting Thursday, April 25, SLO Film Fest will bring more than 70 filmmakers to the Central Coast and screen 152 films in local venues such as The Palm Theatre, Fremont Theater and Downtown Centre Cinemas.
Kyle Plummer sits on the SLO Film Fest Board of Directors with 10 other members who represent different film specialties.
“The big goal is to celebrate 30 years,” Plummer said. “It’s to mark the milestone and to program a festival that both celebrates the amount of time that has passed since the festival started and celebrates the rich film history that exists not just in the industry, but in our area.”
Friday through Tuesday, films will be screened all day long with each film in the program playing at least three times. After certain films, there will be live Q&As with the filmmakers for audience members to engage in.
The Film Fest will include classic community-favorite events like Friday night’s Surf Nite, which is part of the festival’s annual programming.
Surf Nite will include a screening of “Trilogy: New Wave,” a film about three Billabong surfers making their hobby into a career. In tandem with the showing, Riff Tide surf band is set to perform.
In partnership with Surf Nite, Sunday night features a new event called Community of Skate.
There will be a showing of the short film “4DWN,” followed by legendary skate film “Dogtown and Z-Boys” with director Stacy Peralta expected to be in attendance for a Q&A.
SLO Film Fest Executive Director Skye McLennan came up with the idea for Community of Skate as a tribute to the 1990s when the festival started.
“The goal, hopefully, is then we make those new people who show up want to come back and they want to come see other cool films that are shown here,” McLennan said.
A new event taking place on Saturday is in partnership with local business Kreuzberg Coffee, where the coffee shop will host a music video showcase featuring live performances.
In addition to the special themed nights, SLO Film Fest will host camera demos and panel discussions about being in the film industry, bringing in an educational component that is unique to the film festival experience.
“The transformative power of film is like being there with other people in the dark,” McLennan said. “In an age where there’s a lot of streaming and people aren’t going to the movies as much, I guess I just want to remind people that, yeah, it’s a very special experience that happens when you come and see a movie in person.”
Another distinctive aspect of film festivals is the many short film packages shown throughout the weekend.
These packages consist of the back-to-back screening of multiple short films in the same genre or relating to the same topic.
Monday’s theme is centered around the Central Coast, which includes both filmmakers from the area and films shot and produced on the Central Coast.
The Cal Poly Shortcuts event takes place Monday night, exhibiting films made by students in ISLA 341 (Media Arts and Technologies: Cinematic Process). Cal Poly students write, produce, film, direct and edit high-quality films to be shown at the Palm Theatre.
The board of directors, in collaboration with the Palm Theatre, is currently overseeing a new project called the SLO Film Center.
“The film festival collab for SLO Film Center is supposed to bring a place where people can have a community space to enjoy film, have events, celebrate film history, and learn more about cool movies,” Plummer said. “This is something the Palm has already been doing.”
The Palm Theatre, owned by Jim and Patty Dee, is known for screening more alternative-leaning films and independent cinema, fostering a space for film culture in San Luis Obispo.
“That’s kind of like the first step of what we want the Film Center to be, is truly like a community building environment as well as a way for this Film Fest to be able to give back,” Plummer said.
When choosing the programming for the weekend, SLO Film Fest tried to strike a balance of comedies, dramas, documentaries and more. The films are meant to reflect the times we are living in and what we are all going through.
However, with the misconception that films are too sad or hard-hitting, a variety of films have been selected to share a message of hope, according to McLennan.
“Even the sad films we have, I feel like they leave the message of like, ‘okay, like we’re going to be okay and get through this,’” McLennan said. “They make you feel something that’s like, ‘Okay, this is a good one.’”
To draw in a new audience, there will be a lot of retrospective films such as “The Matrix,” “Double Indemnity” and “Muriel’s Wedding”.
According to Plummer, SLO Film Fest has tried not to program certain film genres in the past, to keep everything in a mainstream appeal. For the first time ever, they have partnered with another small festival called MicroHorrors for a screening of horror films on Saturday night.
This event will include a late screening of “Dawn of the Dead” at the Fremont Theater .
“There’s a real sense of community camaraderie and just excitement of seeing what people are doing,” Plummer said. “Those past and current films and being able to kind of put those next to each other and see how far we’ve come, see where we can go in the future.”
The festival ends Tuesday night with a closing award ceremony. For more information on event times and ticket prices, visit slofilmfest.org.
