Independent Effort By Alfred Lee DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF Robert Bucksbaum loves movies – perhaps too much for his own good. It's a Wednesday afternoon, and Bucksbaum is in over his head between screenings at the Majestic Crest, the venerable Westwood theater he currently owns and runs. He's quickly discovered how overwhelming it is to put together a film festival almost single-handedly. "Imagine being surrounded by a burning fire, and you have no clothes on and no sign of water in sight. That's basically what it's like every day. Maybe you've got a water gun in your hand to hopefully put out some of the fires – what I'm doing all day is taking the gun and doing a little 360," he described half-jokingly. "Four years as an airborne ranger in the military, and I thought that was difficult, and owning my own movie theater when everyone thought I was insane for buying the Crest – whatever else I've done in my life, nothing compares to this. Other than that, it's been great." Bucksbaum has solicited, reviewed and selected from some 400 submissions for the inaugural Westwood International Film Festival, set to kick off at the Crest on Friday, Sept. 30. On this particular day, the issue of the moment is the still-incomplete festival book, which Bucksbaum needs in order to generate publicity and support in the area. "I'm going to take the festival book and hand-deliver it to local businesses," he said. "People tell me, 'You can get anyone to do that.' But that's the point. If anyone just gave it to them, the books would be in the garbage can in five minutes. I want to convey to them, 'Hey, this is the owner and he's helping both Westwood and his theater.'" The festival is being billed as one that celebrates truly independent film, and that's not just lip service. It's something Bucksbaum would know a thing or two about, as the Crest has been one of the very few independently owned and operated theaters in Los Angeles since he bought it out in 2002. When he talks about the do-it-yourself, independent route in the industry, he speaks from experience; as an owner, he's been known to roll up his sleeves and take care of business himself – everything from taking tickets and sweeping up to working the popcorn machine. "Oh yeah, you can see me on any given night. I'll be there for the 4:30 and 7 today, doing whatever it takes, running the projector. I love being there and doing anything at all. It's my passion and it makes everything worthwhile," he said. The festival will screen films all day long for two weeks straight, offering cash prizes in five categories and – perhaps more enticing to fledgling filmmakers – guaranteed distribution deals. The deals include a two-week run at the Crest itself, and possibly other theaters around the country; Bucksbaum has connections through another company he runs called ReelSource, which advises other theaters on what films to show. As an independent festival showcasing independent films at an independent theater, the festival lacks studio support and A-list stars, but is perfectly suited to spotlight fringe talent – something larger festivals have outgrown. "It's great – that's what's so appealing about it, in comparison to Sundance, which has become something of a studio festival. The truth is there are no real independent filmmakers anymore," said filmmaker Sheri Sussman, who will have a night dedicated to her work on Oct. 1. Sussman experienced Sundance firsthand in 2001, when the feature-length "MacArthur Park," a film she co-wrote, screened in competition. "The only true independent way is to go raise the money yourself and shoot it yourself and try and sell it. And there aren't any true independent companies anymore. The smaller companies that pretend to be are run by studios. A lot of those are what you see in festivals, even something like the Hollywood Film Festival. They're all A-list films and studio films ... so many festivals now put in these bigger films." Sussman will have three very different works screened, highlighted by "Life in a Basket," a half-hour documentary about what homeless people have in their shopping carts. The film has screened at a number of other festivals, including Full Frame, one of the premier documentary film festivals in the country, and the Beverly Hills Film Festival, where it took home the award for best documentary. "These people use their carts to pick things up and sell them. They're up at 7, and they work all day. It's this subculture in the homeless community, the shopping cart workers," she explained. "We went down to the Salvation Army and just shot in a warehouse in the middle of skid row. ... They were happy to talk to us, because we weren't asking about their mistakes or how they had gotten there. It showed their strength and how their whole demeanor had changed." Like almost all the films at the Westwood festival, "Basket" is a film with a specific and non-mainstream niche in the industry. The festival is taking these kinds of films and putting them front and center. There are two days dedicated to women filmmakers, a documentary day, a family day, a Middle Eastern day and a gay pride day, among others. There are also a number of student films, including at least 10 from UCLA students and alumni. "We wanted to give them preference, but we didn't need to. Their films were superior to the other student films we received," Bucksbaum said. Among them is Rachel Pearl, who graduated in 2004 and whose thesis film "The Shabbos Goy" is about an Orthodox couple that hires a non-Jew to help them conceive children. "The subject matter is not something that makes studios salivate. ... The mainstream is so narrow; there's not a lot of room," she said. "At the same time, this is not a Jewish film, but just about Jewish people – it's universal, a love story." The exclusive nature of the industry is a reality Bucksbaum understands all too well. "I feel such an affinity with these filmmakers because they're going through exactly what I've been going through as an owner of this theater. It's on different levels, but it's the same stuff," Bucksbaum said. "I'm talking to studios and asking for support, and I'm getting turned down left and right. Without the support, I've been playing second fiddle to all the major chain theaters for so long, and it's the same thing the filmmakers are going through – submitting to high-end festivals or distributors and getting turned down left and right. "I know exactly what they're going through, and that's why we started the festival – to make it their day, to make it their night." For lesser-known filmmakers, having a night at the historic Crest is a major draw. "It'd be wonderful to show it there," Pearl said of her film, which has screened in about 15 festivals internationally. "It's the most lavish theater the film has shown at, and it just showed at the (Directors Guild of America) for the Los Angeles Film Festival. I'm surprised it took this long to get a Westwood film festival." And Pearl is not alone in expressing her surprise that there has not been a festival in Westwood before now. "I love the theaters here, and there's a history to it," Sussman said. "That was one of the reasons I entered – a festival in Westwood, it's about time." In the end, the festival is very much about Westwood. Both Cannes-nominated Robert Young and Tami Hoffs – mother of Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and wife of a professor at the UCLA medical school – will each be featured, and both live a short distance from the theater. Many local filmmakers have also taken ownership of the event by treating the screenings as a premiere, sending out advertisements and spreading the word. "It's not just about my theater; it's also to restore Westwood. It was a mecca for moviegoers just 20 years ago. People have forgotten the single screen, but the magic is still there," Bucksbaum said. But Bucksbaum and the participants in the Westwood festival aren't the only people who recognize the great potential the area's single-screen theaters have to offer. The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced that it will move the location of its summer 2006 festival to Westwood. But of course it wouldn't be a true Village event without parking problems. And for the Westwood festival, Bucksbaum has helped alleviate the problem by making a deal with the Ampco parking lot behind the theater, which will offer all-day parking for $2. And, characteristic of Bucksbaum's hands-on approach to organizing a film festival, he plans on taking care of the problem himself. "I'll constantly be putting quarters in the meter," he said. "I'll walk six blocks to fill them myself."

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