TAKE TWO: BLUE founders Debbie and Charlie Kinder, respectively, a former pharmacist and construction company owner, segued into socially conscious filmmaking through their nonprofit Make a Difference Media. Photo by Nic Coury
Share Sea of Possibility The BLUE Ocean Film Festival will bring powerful content, people and conservation to its new home, Monterey.
By Walter Ryce
Its formal name is the BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit, but you can just call it BLUE. Everybody else does.
BLUE debuted in Savannah, Ga., last June, drawing upwards of 4,000 oceanographers, underwater photographers and filmmakers, scientists, industry players and dealmakers into its five-day creative and scientific net of film screenings, symposiums, workshops and parties.
It landed participants like National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, PBS and Disneynature, which opened the festival with a screening of Earth. It drew luminaries like ocean explorer and filmmaker Fabien Cousteau and underwater photographer Brian Skerry. It screened more than 60 juried films, awarding The Cove the Best of Festival at BLUE. (The film would later win an Oscar for Best Documentary.) It inhabited blocks of venues in the center of Savannah. It was, as they say, kind of a big deal.
But that was last year. This August, BLUE splashes down in Monterey.
Even while the debut was rolling out, the idea to bring it to Monterey was rising, buoyed by National Marine Sanctuary Director Dan Basta and West Coast Director Bill Douros, Pacific Grove filmmaker Bob Talbot and others. They convinced festival founders Debbie and Charlie Kinder to visit Monterey, which they did in July, then again in the fall, as reported by the Weekly Oct. 7.
Dan Basta said, This thing needs to be in Monterey, Debbie says from BLUEs new offices on Cannery Row. At first [we] came as a courtesy.
But as a local delegation whisked the couple across the Peninsula, meeting with prominent people and checking out venues, the natural beauty of the Monterey Bay was also working its magic.
Today, the Kinders maintain ties to the festivals inaugural city. A traveling breakout exhibit will return to Savannah, and Georgia Aquariums Senior Vice President Gregory Bossart is still on the BLUE board, alongside a high-powered roster including Basta, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Paramount Pictures Executive Producer Stratton Leopold, International League of Conservation Photographers Executive Director Cristina Mittermeier and others.
BLUE is primed to make a seismic impact on the Peninsulas standing in the realm of the ocean. The [Monterey Bay] Aquarium coming on board was key, Debbie says of the presenting sponsor. Great partners.
Those powerfully connected people and organizations are one component thats primed to make a seismic impact on the Peninsulas standing in the study and appreciation of the ocean. The main attraction begins with the 60-plus films, not least of which is festival opener Disneynatures Oceans, presented in person by the French head of Disneynature, Jean-Francois Camilleri.
Weve exceeded last years [submissions], Debbie says. A lot of categories are shorts. Well be showing productions by National Geographic, BBC, theatrical films like A Beautiful Wave, a surf and turtle conservation film that will be a world premiere Howard Halls underwater IMAX film Under the Sea 3D. [Kelley Slater documentary] Ultimate Wave Tahiti has made the first cut.
She says Kate Millers documentary on local underwater photographer Bryant Austin looks promising, too, though the films are still being juried, and the line-up for the 19 categories (three or more finalists and one winner for each) is still in flux.
People want to see a firm schedule, and that hasnt come out yet, Debbie says. Well have most of the industry event and conservation summit line-up in mid-June, with a film schedule coming out the beginning of August.
Charlie, who handles the technical back-of-house mechanics, vetted many of the venues for their ability to show the films in their respective formats. They include Golden State Theatre (with some modifications), Cannery Row IMAX and likely Osio Cinemas.
Osio is not that big, so we can do second runs and shorts there, he says. We have new categories this year National Marine Sanctuary shorts, 3D and dot docs, what people call new media.
These dot docs are minutes-long videos uploaded to YouTube by festival attendees and compiled into a breakout screening by reps from Google Ocean (who will also throw a party for those filmmakers). For the main body of the festivals winning films, a Blue Carpet awards ceremony will bestow on the filmmakers the rockstar treatment.
The central hub, the headquarters, is the Portola Hotel and Monterey Conference Center, Debbie says, for the networking lounge for filmmakers to pitch ideas to studio executives, photography, seminars, workshops.
Cannery Row IMAX and the Aquarium will serve as satellite anchors to the sprawling events.
Photography figures prominently in BLUEs mix. World-renowned pioneer ocean photographer David Doubilet, whos shot extensively for National Geographic and authored a dozen books, will have an art reception, at Portola, of his innovative and captivating underwater dual-focus photos that peer both above and below the waterline in one shot. Screens outside of Peter Bs will cycle through a series called 12-Shot 12 pictures submitted by emerging photographers that tell a story of the ocean, with the winner awarded 12 shots of tequila to share with their friends.
That hints at the streak of fun and entertainment Debbie says is a key ingredient of BLUE.
Funs been our theme from day one, she says. You can put out an important message and still entertain.
So in addition to the symposiums, workshops, and outreach that revolve around the technical and conservation aspects which has brought on board world-renowned underwater cinematographer Tom Campbell, deep ocean explorer Emory Christoff (whos worked with James Cameron), Dr. Greg Stone from Conservation International, members of the Cousteau family (who present a 100th birthday tribute to Jacques Cousteau), and others parties will illuminate the night. This heady mix of films, ocean conservation, parties, and connected and creative people can prove a powerful attraction to celebrities.
Details are tentative as of yet, and Debbie wants to keep it that way for now (I would rather under-promise and over-deliver, she puts it), but theres been buzz over potential attendees including Deadliest Catch Executive Poducer Paul Gaseck (who is confirmed) to Hollywood, New York and Chicago A-list names that could trigger paparazzi frenzies and fan-demonium. (Stay tuned to http://www.montereycountyweekly.com for imminent and shameless name-dropping.)
A sneak preview touches down June 27, when Outdoor Forest Theatre screens The Cove, with director Louie Psihoyos saying he will attend.
Another component reaches out to local kids. The Ocean Film Festival Contest (already underway, see Thursday Calendar) invites students in grades 4 through college in Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties to submit 1 to 2-minute original videos on the subject of the ocean, through June 30, for a shot at screening alongside the big fish of BLUE (647-4255, liz.love@noaa.gov for details). And Debbie is lining up partner Monterey Bay Aquarium to let kids go diving in their enclosed tide pool with underwater photographers and cinematographers. Which, in film symbolism 101, could represent the immersion into the ocean world that will arrive in BLUE.
BLUE OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL & CONSERVATION SUMMIT takes place Aug. 24-29. Go to www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org for details and festival passes.
