The magic behind Coast Film & Music Festival 112224

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The magic behind Coast Film & Music Festival’s escalating success (Hint: It’s the stories)

By MARRIE STONE

Nine days of unexpected surprises and delights. That’s our goal.

Two weeks ago, a sold-out crowd gathered inside the Rivian Theater for a screening of Porcelain War. The documentary follows three Ukrainian artists living under the brutality of persistent Russian bombings and the uncertain future they face. Using art to preserve their culture and their own humanity, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko and Andrey Stefanov – now civilian soldiers – captured footage of their daily lives on video. It processes the war through the eyes of artists trying to reconcile the peaceful countryside where they once lived against the wreckage they now inhabit. The film won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for a U.S. Documentary earlier this year. Following the screening, Leontyev and Stasenko joined by Zoom from their home in Ukraine for a poignant Q&A session with the audience.

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“Porcelain War’s” Anya Stasenko and Slava Leontyev joined the Rivian audience by Zoom on Saturday, Nov. 9. Greg MacGillivray interviewed Director Brendan Bellomo on stage.

This was Coast Film & Musical Festival’s (CFMF) opening night. It set the tone for what would unspool over the coming week – a series of more than 70 films that left audiences inspired and heartbroken, amazed by what humans achieve and troubled by what they destroy. Filmgoers traveled to Nepal in Between the Mountain and the Sky to watch Maggie Doyne, a typical New Jersey teen, become a surrogate mother to more than 50 Nepalese orphans and co-founder of the BlinkNow Foundation.

Audiences followed Navy SEAL Marcus Capone through In Waves and War. After several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left him with unrelenting PTSD and brain trauma, Capone embarked on an unconventional journey to heal himself and his fellow SEALs. Capone and his wife, Amber, attended the film’s screening and, afterward, answered hard and personal questions.

Attendees journeyed to the remote mountains of Afghanistan in Champions of the Golden Valley to watch the world’s most unlikely ski team teach themselves the sport and, when the Taliban took back control of the country in 2021, the devastating aftermath.

Duane Michaels and Dana Atkinson, two of the musical instrument repairmen in The Last Repair Shop (the 2024 Oscar-winning Documentary Short), surprised guests at the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center (LBCAC) on Sunday night. They even stuck around after the film for an impromptu performance in the lobby.

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Audiences gathered all week at the Rivian Theater, Festival of Arts’ (FOA) Forum Theater, the FOA grounds, LBCAC and the Promenade to watch more than 70 documentaries

Behind every headline are normal people leading extraordinary lives. CFMF finds those inspirational stories and brings them to Laguna year after year.

Ben Warner and Enich Harris, co-founders of CFMF, pulled off another flawless hat trick this year. They expanded their campus to include not only the FOA grounds, but the new Rivian Theater, LBCAC and the Forest Avenue Promenade. They broadened their reach, attracting more filmmakers, students, scientists, business leaders, musicians, changemakers and volunteers than ever before. And they deepened their programming, screening 15 feature-length films that included meaty topics and moving human interest stories. They developed their educational outreach, drawing from more than 70 schools across the nation to compete in this year’s student film competition. And they tackled ambitious topics in the Second Annual Coast Summit – from why seaweed is the new plastic to how athletes can use their platforms to effect environmental change. All this while remaining true to their core mission: come curious, leave inspired.

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(L-R) CFMF Co-Founders Ben Warner and Enich Harris

“The true beauty of the Film Festival is not only experiencing the movie, but hearing from the people in the films,” said Harris. “Pulling back the curtain gives the audience a richer and deeper experience. That’s the secret sauce.”

What began in 2019 as a fledgling weekend affair at the Forum Theater has blossomed into a nine-day event offering more than 70 documentaries, dozens of speakers and musicians, an educational outreach program, an environmental summit, a Do-Good Village, dance parties, after parties, hikes, yoga, mountain biking, paddleboarding and more. More than 150 volunteers helped coordinate this unique movable fest throughout our town.

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A crowd gathered on Forest Avenue’s Promenade on Thursday, Nov. 14 for live music, a feature film and two short films. The after-party continued at Rivian with musical guest Sea Wolf + Cayucas.

“In six years, Ben and Enich have achieved something that would take most film festivals 25 years to pull off,” said Hayley Nendall, who joined the team this year from the Telluride Film Festival to help select the films. “Between the educational programming, the Summit, the multiple venues and the rest of it…that takes a lot to build. They’re ambitious to have made all this work in such a short amount of time.”

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Telluride Film Festival’s Hayley Nendall joined the CFMF team this year to help curate the selections

Ambition is a critical component. But Warner and Harris also point to the self-sustaining synergies they’ve managed to create in past years that are now paying dividends. And the innate power of a good story.

“The fact that those films (mentioned above) are so successful, yet we have access to them as this little emerging festival and these directors want to come, means a lot to us,” Warner said. “As we’ve evolved, we’ve added key voices and other experts. Now our reputation precedes us.”

A common refrain from CFMF enthusiasts is: Oh my God! This is one of the coolest festivals out there.

“Our promise to filmmakers is that they’ll have opportunities that bud out of this experience,” Harris said. “Gathering all these creatives together, and watching other projects birthed out of this Festival, is the rewarding part for us. Multiple film projects have rolled out of here. CFMF creates this spark of creativity that goes out into the world, and now we’re seeing the ripple effects.”

Several of those sparks are being ignited in CFMF’s youth education programming. This year, more than 70 films were submitted from schools stretching from Compton to Connecticut. The Festival screened 14 of them last Saturday and awarded two winners – Disillusion from Davis Middle School in Compton and Hi, Dad from Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine.

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Winners from this year’s Youth Film Festival

“A lot of people think Compton is just gang and gun violence,” said 13-year-old student filmmaker Karla Juarez, who hopes to pursue film as a career. “It isn’t all that. We wanted to spread awareness that Compton is genuinely a good place to be.

“The biggest challenge was getting the courage to do it because I don’t have a lot of self-confidence.”

Fellow filmmaker Valentina Montes agreed. “I’m really quiet and shy around people I don’t know, so this club is a good opportunity for me to learn how to raise my voice and express how I feel,” she said.

Each team member received a GoPro camera as part of their prize. “I really wanted to be cameraman,” another student said. “I’ve always had an interest in cameras, but I’ve never been able to use them that much. Now I’ve got a GoPro so I can start learning.”

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The 12-person team from Davis Middle School in Compton, Calif. won this year’s middle school prize for their film “Disillusion”

“That honestly makes me emotional,” said Student Program Coordinator Wyatt Shipp, who selected this year’s winners. “One of my favorite parts about filmmaking is that it allows people to come out of their shells. Just because people aren’t saying something yet doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say. It takes courage and intention to submit to a film festival and open yourself up to that exposure. It’s a risk.”

CFMF also partners with the Laguna Beach Unified School District to deliver educational programs led by filmmakers throughout the week.

“One of the most fulfilling things is giving back to the next generation and trying to inspire the youth,” said Harris. “We want to encourage them to find their passion and expose them to some of the incredible things people are doing out in the world.”

Throughout the week, CFMF offers daily programming in every Laguna Beach school. Local hero Rich German, who founded Project O and Our Epic Ocean, spoke about his experience paddleboarding more than 25,000 miles with marine creatures. James Balog, a renowned environmental photographer for National Geographic who documented changes in glaciers, delivered a presentation. Obi Kaufmann – an American naturalist, writer and illustrator who authored The California Field Atlas – taught students about the different ecosystems in California. Last week, he took them on a camping trip and showed them how to journal.

“Those are just small examples of the dozens of things that come out of this Festival every year,” Harris said. “It all comes back to powerful storytelling and sharing those stories with our community.”

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CFMF provided countless opportunities for students of all ages to experience how artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists and changemakers are making a difference in our world and inspiring them to find their own passions

Both Harris and Warner hope to keep building on their well-earned success next year, but to continue doing it with intention. “We’re listening to the community and will continue to grow holistically with open ears,” Warner said. “We’ve been careful since the beginning to not get too far ahead of ourselves because the community is our priority. We’re doing programming that serves the community first. Then, of course, that attracts people outside the community who resonate with what’s important to us locals.”

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(L-R Ben Warner and Enich Harris founded CFMF in 2019. They’ve grown it thoughtfully and intentionally ever since.

Maybe it’s little surprise a place like Laguna – with men like Warner and Harris – would manage to pull off in six years what it’s taken other festivals decades to accomplish. The combination of infectious ambition, creativity, skill and talent married to a love of the outdoors and our unique natural environment is a recipe for success.

But don’t underestimate the power of a compelling story. CFMF tells a strong story about our own town. We are the artists and musicians, we are the athletes and environmentalists, we are the changemakers. And we’re stronger when we come together to make weeks like this one happen.