Bolinas is having its inaugural film festival this month, showcasing independent films by locals and selected works that represent the town’s principles, said festival co-founder, Enzo Resta.
Each film will be screened at Calvary Presbyterian Church, which will be renamed the Starlight Theater next weekend and retrofitted with high-end audio and visual equipment, blackout blinds and cinema-inspired decor. Dinners accompanied by jazz music will follow screenings and community-led discussion panels on local issues.
Mr. Resta, a Bolinas native and a filmmaker himself, said the selection of films is inspired by the ethics of regeneration—a word he prefers over sustainability. He and the festival’s co-founder, Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker Chealy Jean, conceived the event over two years ago and formed a nonprofit and an advisory committee to find the right films that abide by the theme of regeneration and do-it-yourself ethics.
“Bolinas is full of incredible storytellers,” Mr. Resta said.
The festival begins Thursday, Sept. 21 and continues through Sunday, Sept. 24. A kick-off event next Sunday, Sept. 17 features a table reading of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” at Smiley’s Saloon, which will act as an artists’ lounge during the festival. The film was chosen for its humor and vignette-style narrative and will feature local talent like Annabelle Scott reading Uma Thurman’s role and Zack Fuller playing Samuel L. Jackson’s.
A gala event will feature jazz duo Piro Patton and Jon Francis and a screening of four short films. Among them is Gary Yost’s “Invisible Peak.” Narrated by Peter Coyote, the film explores the West Peak of Mount Tamalpais through historical footage alongside interviews and 3-D mapping. The location, which was sacred to the Coast Miwok, was bulldozed and developed by the military in 1950 for an Air Force base that was abandoned 30 years later.
Friday morning will feature the first of the festival’s guided experiences: a bird walk with Keith Hansen followed by a walking tour of Gospel Flat Farm. The evening will begin with dinner at the Coast Café, followed by a procession to the Starlight Theater led by artist Ernesto Sanchez. The night’s film is “Coup 53,” co-written and edited by Bolinas resident Walter Murch. The two-hour documentary was directed by English physicist Taghi Amirini and focuses on the C.I.A.-instigated 1953 coup d’état to overthrow the Iranian prime minister.
Saturday will feature another bird walk and a hike on Mount Tam, followed by a screening of Conor Hagan’s “High Country.” The documentary focuses on Crested Butte, a former coal mining town in southwest Colorado that became a hippie enclave and is now a world-class skiing resort with scarce housing and jobs. When it faced the threat of being bought out by an international mining corporation, a community group formed and activists traveled to Bolinas to seek the advice of people like author Orville Schell.
A panel discussion led by KWMR programmer Jeff Manson on the topic of nourishing community will follow, featuring farmer Dennis Dierks, artist Harriet Kossman, health advocate Anna O’Malley and others. More documentaries will follow the panel, including a short by photographer Marty Knapp about Stinson Beach artist Tess Felix and her mission to turn coastal waste into art.
Sunday morning will feature a yoga session by the sea and a series of free daytime screenings. Oliver Whitcroft’s short on rogue skateboarders in Bolinas precedes two films that explore the relationship between humans and their environment in Greece and in Afghanistan. “Pozzo” is a Shakespeare-inspired short by Lisa Townsend and her son Lucian, starring Howard Dillon playing an actor nearing the end of his life in the material realm.
The final screening is Bolinas filmmaker Jeff Warrin’s 2017 narrative short, “The Near Far Shore,” which follows a father and daughter’s uncertain adventures on a dinghy on Tomales Bay.
To purchase tickets, go to https://www.bolinasfilmfestival.com/.