For close to 25 years, the Valley Film Festival (VFF) has been highlighting films and filmmakers native to the San Fernando Valley and beyond. But this year’s upcoming festival will be bittersweet as the organizers both celebrate their 25 years of achievement and their decision to make this their very last event. While their next move is in flux, they want to take stock of what filmmakers really need to elevate their projects to the next level.
This final festival will start Sept. 17, and will showcase 49 films over five days; several of the films were created by filmmakers in the valley.
The opening night of the event will include the world premiere of “Dorothea,” a film that was shot in the San Fernando Valley and that follows the story of an infamous serial killer as she faces her final moments behind bars, but not before revealing secrets of her dark past.
“The Prospect,” another film shot in the valley, will be part of the closing program for the festival on Sept. 21. It’s a comedy that follows a high school senior, desperate to escape his small-town obscurity, as he masterminds a scam to pose as a star baseball recruit despite never playing before.
The VFF is divided into a number of programs that center around certain themes, including the Made in the 818 Shorts Program. Films in this program are described on their website to take “audiences on a journey across every corner of the human experience and the San Fernando Valley,” which include “The Shadow of Snow,” “The Runner” and “El Bar de Hernando.”
There’s also the Dramatic Short Film Program, which includes “Tarzana Boy” by valley native Tomas Jason Carrasco. It’s an experimental film about the unruly obsession with an 1980s pop anthem, “Tarzan Boy,” that leads into a conflict with a tough crowd.
Carrasco said the concept of the film came after his recent move to Tarzana, and having grown up listening to “Tarzan Boy,” he came up with the idea to combine the two.
“There are these specific places within the valley that garner and attract characters,” Carrasco said. “I wanted … somebody who was shaped by the strange spiritual guidance of the valley, … a character that was molded by pop culture and the neighborhood.”
Carrasco is no stranger to the film festival scene, he volunteered for the VFF last year and has been a part of other film projects in the past. He stars in the film, in addition to writing and directing it, he feels pretty vulnerable putting himself onscreen.
“That’s kind of frightening and exciting at the same time,” Carrasco said. “When I create a movie, I don’t have an audience [in mind], but for this one specifically … what I had in mind to be perceived was that certain people have different ways of expressing things.”
First in the Valley
The VFF was founded in 2000 by Tracey Adlai, who is currently the executive director. A native of Toluca Lake, Adlai put the festival together after noticing that there were no similar events anywhere in the San Fernando Valley. The festival was a means to not only have an annual film event for valley residents, but showcase and support the work of filmmakers local to the area.
David Krouse, a co-producer of the VFF, has been involved with the festival for close to a decade, starting out as a production assistant. He said that as the festival has evolved, it has also included more panels and networking for up-and-coming filmmakers.
“Anyone can just make a movie and find a way to get it out there, but a lot of times they’re missing the business side of it or missing other stuff,” Krouse said. “So we hit that really hard in 2017, 2018 and kept it going. … We’re a bit slimmed down this year, we do have two really great panels.”
One panel will focus on indie film distribution, while the other is about equity crowdfunding – which Krouse explained is essentially when people can invest in a film project and can later earn their money back.
The Business Side of Filmmaking
Despite the festival’s strong presence in the valley, the organizers have been clear in their decision to make this year its last. The reason is twofold.
When the VFF was founded 25 years ago, there was a strong need to support independent films. Film festivals in Los Angeles are now overly saturated. The problem is further exacerbated by the closure of smaller, independent theaters where festivals have been held. Independent theaters were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and home entertainment. Festivals had to move to areas outside of their communities to utilize theaters still open where similar events were held.
For example, the Pasadena Film Festival now holds its events in North Hollywood after the independent theater it usually rented for screenings was closed down. The North Hollywood CineFest holds screenings in Glendale.
The next goal is to move toward helping artists on the business side of filmmaking. As Krouse said, many people find it daunting to market their film projects or get them distributed, or sometimes don’t understand how licensing works when using copyrighted material, including songs and music in their movies.
Although the first film festival in the valley is sunsetting this year, Krouse isn’t worried about the future of local filmmakers due to the large number of other events still available to them.
“That need has been met,” Krouse said. “We’re not concerned that our filmmakers are going to have trouble getting onto the screen, there is more than enough opportunity – but there is a lack of professional development.”
Adlai has sent out surveys to filmmakers asking them what they want and need, and the responses will be reviewed at a future advisory board meeting so they can come up with the best service for filmmakers.
Professional development is needed to include the business side of making movies in order to successfully market and distribute independent films.
“Filmmakers may know how to make a movie artistically, [but] don’t necessarily know [ the business side],” Krouse said.
“There’s just a lot of different aspects of that over the years we’ve tried to hit, and I think we’re probably going to do more of that.”
The last Valley Film Festival will be held at the Laemmle NoHo 7 theater at 5240 Lankershim Blvd., starting Sept. 17. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to: https://www.valleyfilmfest.org/.