INT. THE VAN HERCK’S RESIDENCE – DAY
Afternoon in BRENDA BABCOCK’s six-bedroom Mediterranean home on Liquid Amber Court in Blackhawk. BRENDA wears a dark blue blazer covering a white blouse, a blue short skirt and black stockings. She is barefoot and her black shoes are on the white carpet.
Afternoon. BRENDA VAN HERCK sinks onto her sofa in her Mediterranean home that stands at the end of Liquid Amber Court in Blackhawk. Sitting forward, she drinks bottled water and chucks down 6 pills to kill a nagging stomach virus.
MELANIE VAN HERCK, her 11-year-old daughter, wears a Diablo Vista Middle School sweatshirt and runs hysterically toward her mother. She chugging down a gallon of lime Gatorade and stands at a tilt in front of her mom.
MELANIE (excitedly): “Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom! I want to see a movie at the Danville International Film Festival at 6!”
BRENDA: You have work to do. Have you finished doing 100 practice problems for the pre-SATs? Have you done the 200 exercises for pre-Algebra that I assigned to you? Have you finished reading Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness?”
Brenda catches her breath and sips from her water bottle.
BRENDA: And what about soccer practice tomorrow morning? You need your rest to do well in practice. And don’t forget you’re babysitting and you’re volunteering at the homeless shelter, dancing in Swan Lake the next day and taking that budget workshop for middle-schoolers afterward. Do you have enough time?
MELANIE (Jumps and flays her arms. Her eyes widen.): “C’mon, Mom! I can do all those things! I’ve got to go!”
BRENDA: “OK. You talked me into it. Let’s go!”
The founders of the Danville International Children’s Film Festival, which is in its third year, hope all local parents enjoy watching movies with their kids during the event May 19-21.
The annual festival will present more than 75 films made for and by children. It has brought more than 4,500 people to view independent films during the last two years as well as attend special events, autograph sessions, seminars for filmmakers and actors, and an awards ceremony.
Patrons can see films in three Danville venues: the Danville Community Center, the Village Theatre and Town Meeting Hall.
Among the films nominated for awards are “The Lost Princess” for Best Picture; “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dumpling” for Best Mini-Short; “Santa’s Camels” for Best Animation; and “The Reason for Living” for Best Documentary.
The awards will be presented at 5:30 p.m., Sunday, May 21, at the Village Theatre. Winners of the festival in Danville, as well as those of the California Independent Film Festival that takes place from October 25 to th 29th in Livermore, will showcase their work in Japan in September.
The festival is the only one of its kind in the Western United States and is presented by the California Independent Film Festival Association and the Town of Danville, said Tim Neeley, film festival director.
“It has now become a Danville tradition,” said Neeley. Danville is a children’s place, he added.
“I have three kids,” said Leonard Pirkle, the festival’s co-founder, who is a lawyer and a Danville resident. “We were thinking, ‘Gee, how do we expand our potential for viewer-ship? It just made sense.”
“We wanted to gear to something toward family and kids,” Pirkle added.
The festival allows young filmmakers to receive constructive criticism from a combination of peers and professionals, which will help them improve their skills while giving them valuable real-life experience, said Neeley. And there are films for grownups, such as “MaxiDoodles: Behind the Makeup.”
“We also hope that this festival will spark more of an interest in youth-produced film and to recognize excellence in children’s filmmaking,” he said.
The special guest for this year’s Children’s Film Festival will be Roseanne Barr. Best known for her performance as a hard-working mother on the Emmy Award winning television series Roseanne, Barr will be presented with the 2006 Danville International Children’s Film Festival Humanitarian Award for her work on the television series.
The former television mom will present her new project, “Rocking with Roseanne: Calling all Kids,” at the festival’s opening Gala at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 19. The 40-minute short blends live action and animation to create a genre-jumping sing-along that is expected to have kids dancing in their seats.
After her project’s opening night screening, she will take questions from the screening audience.
Additionally, Disney’s “Home on the Range,” which featured Barr as the voice Maggie in the animated feature, will be presented.
“She wants to see the kids,” said Neeley. “She’s really looking forward to the festival.”
“We are very fortunate with the town of Danville,” said Derek Zemrak, a founder of the California Independent Film Festival and co-founder of the Danville event. “It helped co-produce the event.”
The California Independent Film Festival has been going on for eight years, said Zemrak. He said the films are now shown in the city’s wineries.
“I started small,” he said. “I basically had some friends who went to the film school. In the East Bay, there was no place to show the films.” He said first his friends rented a hall in Pleasanton and showcased 35 films. They also tried the Pleasanton Hilton, a place in Berkeley and a couple of years at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek before having success with the venue of the Livermore wineries.
Soon, his friend Pirkle heard about requests to hold a film festival in Danville from Councilwoman Millie Greenberg, whom he knew from his attempts to get involved in the Town Planning Commission.
“We didn’t have a large family component,” said Pirkle, about the International Film Fest. “It wasn’t conducive to the family environment.”
So holding the Children’s Film Festival in Danville seemed like a natural.
“I’d like to see it continue to grow,” Pirkle said. “It’s kid friendly movies … it’s a nice walking environment.” He said people from around the country attend and members of the community get involved.
“It exposes kids to the media of film,” said Zemrak. “The festival is a family event.”
Plus the contents are relevant. “There are a lot of films about divorce and separation and getting along in school,” Zemrak added. “That’s what kids are dealing with today.”
Zemrak and Pirkle said there needed to be a festival geared toward families and children.
Zemrak, a filmmaker himself, decided long ago to do low budget moviemaking. He wrote, directed and produced a feature entitled “Ice Scream,” which the L.A. Times called the “best of the worst” movies made in November 1998. He followed that up with “Bikini Planet” in 2002. He has worked on a feature length children’s animated film entitled “Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm.”
Tickets for screenings and other events of the Danville International Film Festival range from $7.50 to $25. Purchase tickets at the Danville Community Center, 420 Front St., Danville, in person or by telephone by calling 314-3400. For a complete schedule, visit www.dicff.org.
Children’s Film Fest lineup
Comedy
My African Giraffe
Rusty Forkblade
Simon Manor
Swineman’s Farm: Mr. Dog Goes to Hollywood
The Kid Who Talked Too Much
The Legend of Razorback
The Lost Princess
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dumpling
Happy’s Last Wish
Fist Fight
I Am Lloyd Hamlin
MaxiDoodles: Behind the Makeup
Rusty Forkblade
Donut Friday
Dada Ji
Documentary
A Reason For Living
Jump
Lieve Monster
NWF Kids Pro Wrestling – The Untold Story
Penguins of Antarctica
Perilous Progress – Risking the Last Refuge of the Mono Titi
The Best Week of the Year
Why Shakespeare?
Be Smart, Be Safe, Be Reel Video Contest
Semper Eadem
Drama
Andrew the Pirate
Binta and the Great Idea
Celamy
Eternal High
Janie
November Guest
Tanzmause
Animation
Block Party
Crooked Mick of the Speewah
Fiddley Cat
Heart & Mole
Juxtaposer
Raising Earl
Red Planet Blues
Santa’s Camels
Silent Fox and the Hen House
Swinging
The Roach Approach the Mane Event
To the Old Olive Mill
Uncle Moondog ‘New Goldfish’
Zoom Suit
Action
Family Time With Santa
Kids Squad Episode One
The Matrix Re-Loaded Once More
Educational
The Magic Pool
Horror/Thriller
The Boarder
The Counterpart
Music Video
Jumpin’ Frog Jubilee
The Green Grasshopper
