Another busy week at the Crest Theatre A little over 100 years ago, in January 1913, what we now know as the Crest Theatre first opened its doors as the Empress, a vaudeville theater - soon to be renamed the Hippodrome. In 1946 it closed for extensive remodeling, re-opening in 1949 as the Crest with an interior much as you can still enjoy it today, thanks to extensive renovation and care from the current ownership team and staff. A couple of months ago, news leaked out that the Crest would no longer routinely schedule films on its two smaller screens, disappointing many who feared that Sacramento would lose its only truly independent movie theater (The Tower Theatre being part of a small

Taken 2 Directed by Olivier Megaton When “Taken” opened, it came as a surprise for assorted reasons. The basic plot about a man who fights to free his kidnapped daughter was extremely simple, as simple as, for example, the original “Die Hard” about a cop in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both movies featured a favorite theme of mine – the reluctant hero, the person who finds themself in an unexpected and undesirable situation that requires their action. But “Taken” was also quite different from many other films of that nature in that while the hero is an ex government operative with prodigious skills, he’s also a father worried only about his daughter’s safety. Most heroes in most fi

Laurie Pederson, known in Sacramento as a leader in the film community and the executive director of the Capital Film Arts Alliance, was honored with the 2012 Film Service Award on Wednesday, August 15, 2012, at the opening of the Sacramento Film and Music Festival at the Crest Theatre. "She is amazing," said Cécile Mouette Downs, Executive & Artistic Director and co-founder of the Sacramento French Film Festival who introduced the Sacramento Film and Music Festival's Film Service awardee. Downs specifically noted Pederson's work building the Capital Film Arts Alliance and helping local filmmakers. "Laurie is dedicated to local filmmaking," said Downs. Members and friends of the Capital

The Sacramento Film and Music Festival kicked-off on Wednesday night. As part of the opening night program at the Sacramento Film & Music Festival (SFMF) a Pop-Up event was held at the soon to be Sharif Fine Jewelers. Sharif will occupy the space next door to the Crest Theater on the corner of K and 10th Streets. Article Consignment Boutique, La Fem Sophistique and Stella & Dot Independent Stylist Sarah Clark had stations set up inside Sharif’s where they showed their fashion, jewelry and other accessories. The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar, Black Bird Kitchen and Bar and Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters were at the Sharif building as well, handing out delicious samples. Opening night for

Fear and fortune are the themes for this year’s Sacramento Film & Music Festival. The Sacramento Film & Music Festival opens at the Crest Theatre on Wednesday, Aug. 15 at 6:30 in the evening. 21 teams of local filmmakers gathered at the Crest Theatre on Aug. 2 to pick the phobia and fortune their original short film would be based on. They had 10 days to write, shoot and edit the films for the Sacramento Film & Music Festival’s 10 x 10 film competition. When asked how the 10 x 10 film competition provides a forum for local creativity, Nathan Schemel, co-organizer for the festival, explained that it will “elevate the level of everyone in town.” “If you tell people to make things, they

The 13th Annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival opens on Wednesday, August 15th and runs through Sunday, August 19th at the Crest Theatre. The film includes 87 projects of all lengths, programmed into 12 screenings, and representing 13 countries. While the Festival remains true to its submission-based, international, all-genre roots, this year’s program has been scheduled to provide a stronger showcase for locally produced content, with local programs on each of the five days. This includes the Festival’s own pair of nine year old programs that incubate local talent and facilitate the production of original content - “Sac Music Seen,” a music video program that pairs local filmmakers wit

Between Batman, Spiderman and the “Twilight” craze, ghouls and iconic heroes  are everywhere, but what Sacramento Bee reporter Ed Fletcher, 37, really wanted to see was zombies – dancing. He got what he wished for, and Sacramento is about to see the results. Fletcher wrote and produced a new movie called “Dance Steps of Death,”  which is scheduled to premiere on Aug. 18 at the Crest Theatre during the Sacramento Film and Music Festival. The action comedy is set in Sacramento and tells the tale of three renegade superheroes, the “Adventure Patrol,” and their fight against killer zombies. After a series of  reported  dog maulings, the superheroes decide to investigate, and in the process t

INTERVIEW: DIRECTOR JOE CARNAHAN AND ACTOR FRANK GRILLO [NOTE: THE INTERVIEW CONTAINS SOME MILD PLOT SPOILERS FOR “THE GREY”.]   Recently, in San Francisco, I had a chance to chat with co-writer and director Joe Carnahan and actor Frank Grillo about their new release “The Grey” which opens this week. The film, which is reviewed in a separate article, tells the story of a group of oil workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, where they find themselves stalked by a pack of almost mythically large wolves. Joe is a Sacramento native and we’ve known each other for several years through the local film community and the Sacramento Film and Music Festival. As we were setting up f

The Saturday lineup at the 12th annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival includes 28 films spread over 14 hours of programming, the Sacramento Bee Fashion Challenge results, and a live performance by alumni-musician Stephan Nance.  The films include a full length musical about a reluctant monster, 16 films from some of the best student filmmakers in the world, and several short films from Sacramento-based filmmakers.  And at 7pm, the Festival hosts "Hollywood to Dollywood" and filmmakers Gary and Larry Lane.  This is the fourth festival of 21 who currently have scheduled screenings of this highly sought after independent documentary and the brothers are in town for approximately 12 hours be

The third night of the 12 annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival brings a solid lineup of three narrative feature films to the Crest historic main screen.  The first of these, "Face to Face," is an Australian drama that can only be seen at film festivals and which isn't even scheduled to open theatrically in Australia until next month.  "Face to Face" is reminiscent of the classic film "12 Angry Men," with the action moved from a jury room to a mediation session.  Ten people and a mediator meet to discuss an employment dispute, but it soon becomes apparent that there is far more at stake and more shared history than one young man's rash actions.  The screenplay was adapted from a stage p

Just a week ago, the Sacramento Press reported on a local documentary about youth homelessness and on Thursday, "Beautiful Youth" screened for a packed house as part of the Sacramento Film & Music Festival SummerFEST.  The Festival contacted the filmmakers as a result of that article and, given only a week of lead time, the size of the audience was both noteworthy and a testament to the interest in the topic.  The film itself has a running time of 47 minutes and was followed by a Q&A session with filmmakers Jennifer Lystrup and Mackenzie Long which lasted equally long.  Even more remarkable, almost the entire audience stayed throughout the post-screening discussion and asked questions of b

The 12th annual Sacramento Film and Music Festival opens its SummerFEST program tonight by honoring another long time Festival director.  This year's Film Arts Service Award will be presented to Cecile Mouette Downs, director of the Sacramento French Film Festival.  Cecille has worked previously for the Film Department of the French Embassy in New York City, and as a Press Officer for the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel in Paris. She has a master’s degree in history, is a regular contributor to “France Today” magazine, and was the 2010 recipient of the Arts Executive of the Year Award from the Sacramento Arts & Business Council. This is the fifth Film Arts Service Award to be presented

Programming a film festival is an odd and varied process. Some events go out and pro-actively seek the best films that they can find, in an extensive search process – and we see this approach in such local great events as the Sacramento Jewish, French, Japanese, and Gay and Lesbian Film Fests. Other events are submission-based: A call for films is distributed, and filmmakers from a given area submit their works in the hopes of making it to the top of the pile. This latter approach, perhaps best exemplified on a grand scale by the Sundance Film Festival, is also used (on a more modest level) by the Sacramento Film & Music Festival and that given area is the entire world. This year, films

Not the daisy dukes kind, but the on-screen shorts.  Although, we do like the visuals of short shorts on shorts.  Ten Minutes of Film. Ten days. Twenty eight film makers.  This is Summerfest 2011 10X 10 Film Challenge at The Crest.  If you see people running around in a hurry around the city, they could be part of the 28 teams who have taken the dare .   The rules are easy.  Each team leader tore open an envelope containing a photograph and a list of paint colors.  The pictures range from old school wedding photographs to a snapshot of Crater Lake.  Their challenge is to incorporate the photo into their film.  They also must feature a paint color that was chosen by order of lottery.  Te

Richard Hatch is one of the featured interviewees in the locally produced documentary "Death or Taxes: The Sad Truth About Our American Taxation System" that will be screened as part of the Sacramento Film & Music Festival's WinterFEST this weekend.  Mr. Hatch will be attending the screening in support of the film and a question and answer session with the filmmakers will follow the screening. About the film - from the producers: With a run time of 78 minutes, Death or Taxes takes a hard look at the horrifying realities faced by the millions of taxpayers who owe back taxes, many of whom are forced to make life-changing decisions. Should they pay their rent or pay their back taxes? Put foo

The Sacramento Film and Music Festival’s Winterfest will bring 31 films to the Crest Theatre over three days. The festival, now in its 12th year, is returning to its roots as a small affair after growing to as long as 10 days in the past. The festival begins Jan. 15, “This is truly indie film,” said festival Co-Director Tony Sheppard. “Most of the indie films you can see in movie theaters aren’t truly indie. These ones are.” Winterfest is an all-genre, juried film festival with everything from a four-minute short film to feature-length works and documentaries. “Most of these are things people will never have the chance to see in Sacramento again,” said Co-Director and founder Nathan Sc

Sacramento Film & Music Festival New dates and “Pitch Sacramento” filmmaking competition for 2011 For the past 11 years, the Sacramento Film & Music Festival has screened the best indie films from around the country and the world. And for the past 7 years, it has established a reputation for local filmmaking competitions, with approx. 150 music videos made for the Sac Music Seen program and 100 short films made for the 10x10 Filmmaker Challenge. For 2011, the Festival is making two major changes: A split into two separate seasonal events and a new competition for local filmmakers. Rather than continue as a 10-day Summer Festival, the 12th year for the Sacramento Film & Music Festival wil

Film studio heads rarely make general public appearances, let alone teach. Larry Meistrich, head of Nehst Studios and producer of the Oscar winner Sling Blade, turns that concept on its head! Coming to Sacramento October 15,16 & 17, Meistrich presents the acclaimed, weekend-long Aspiring Filmmakers Boot Camp so those interested in film careers can get the rare opportunity of educatation and interaction with a film industry leader who is running a film financing, production and distribution company in today’s entertainment world. At the boot camp Meistrich shares a lifetime of insights, knowledge and powerful tips to help successfully navigate the film business – whether as a writer, direc

Immigration is obviously both a hot button topic and the hot potato of American politics.  It's also the focus of three short documentaries that play at the Crest Theatre on Tuesday evening on the fifth day (of ten) of the 11th Annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival.  Coincidentally, all three films were made by students at either Berkeley or Stanford and they complement each other to form a fascinating program. "Iraq in the US" has a unique Sacramento connection, focusing on the lives of Iraqi refugees who have been relocated here to build new lives.  "New American Soldier" tells the stories of several green card holders who joined the US military to become eligible for citizenship - co

There are few people in this town who have consistently done as much to promote film, music, arts and Downtown Sacramento as Sid Heberger, managing partner of the Crest Theatre.  Now, after years producing, hosting and promoting multiple film festivals, she is receiving the 4th Annual Film Arts Service Award during the opening ceremonies for the 11th Annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival.  From the Festival Program: Sid grew up in Sutter Creek developing an early love for film and historic architecture. She moved to Sacramento to attend college and in 1986 became involved in the re-opening of the historic Crest Theatre, leading to a management position two years later. Now CEO of the C