Alexander Valley Film Festival goes online

Traditionally held in October, the Alexander Valley Film Festival had barely wrapped up before catastrophic fires struck in 2017. The same thing happened last year.

“Last year, we finished three days before the fire,” said Kathryn Hecht, founder and executive director of Alexander Valley Film Society. “It felt like we had skirted disaster too many times.”

So organizers decided to move the event to a safer month: September.

Now September is here, and we’ve seen fires, smoke, power outages and more. It’s moot anyway, because the coronavirus pandemic prompted the festival to move online this year.

“The irony here is that having these dates in September was supposed to move us out of fire season,” Hecht said.

In 2021, the festival is scheduled for April 28 through May 2. Barring an asteroid strike, those dates might be safer.

Holding this year’s festival online, for the first time since it started in 2015, is not the major adjustment it might have been. The Alexander Valley Film Society has been presenting its “Shelter in Place” virtual film series since late March, when the pandemic forced venue closures and event cancellations.

In its first fully virtual film festival, running Sept. 23-27, the society will present a dozen feature films and nine short films, plus a series of panel discussions and question-and-answer sessions. The festival also will highlight 18 student films.

“Our theme this year is justice. Fifty percent of our films this year are directed by women. Our closing-night panel will focus on social justice storytelling,” Hecht said.

In a year of public protests against police use of force, festival organizers found themselves playing to their strength.

“We leaned into our social justice roots, which was baked into the (festival’s) DNA from the beginning,” Hecht said.

For example, the 2020 documentary “Represent” follows three women in the Midwest who are running for public office for the first time. One is Black, one is Korean American and the third is white.

One of the most interesting experiments this time around is the first-time presentation of a work in progress, “26.2 to Life: The San Quentin Marathon,” directed by Christine Yoo, who will participate in a panel discussion about the film.

It chronicles a year in the life of San Quentin’s 1,000 Mile Club, a prison running group whose incarcerated members train with volunteer coaches as they serve time for violent crimes. Their marathon consists of 105 laps around an uneven dirt-and-concrete path that loops the prison’s crowded Lower Yard.

“Christine Yoo is almost done with the film. She’ll be making a pitch for donors to complete it,” Hecht said. “The panel discussion will include the director, the marathon’s coaches and a parolee who participated in the program.”

Another highlight is a presentation of the digitally restored 1993 drama “Totally F***ed Up,” directed by Gregg Araki. It’s the first installment of Araki's Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy and is considered a pioneering piece in the New Queer Cinema genre.

The opening-night film is “Rififi,” also digitally restored. The 1955 French crime film is an adaptation of Auguste Le Breton’s novel of the same name and was directed by American filmmaker Jules Dassin, who was blacklisted in Hollywood during the 1950s for his ties to the Communist Party.

Jil Hales, a film enthusiast and co-owner of the Barndiva restaurant in Healdsburg, will join Hecht in a panel discussion about “Rififi.”

Tickets for the festival cost $15 per film, $75 for all the films and $125 for all the films and other programs. One ticket can be used by an entire household.

Hecht explained how the films will be accessed by viewers.

“We have a licensed CineSend portal, which is being used by some of the biggest festivals in the industry,” Hecht said. “It allows patrons to access the festival much like the way they use Netflix.”

For more information, visit avfilmsociety.org/alexander-valley-film-festival.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.