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Sonoma Film Fest’s Cevin Cathell by Anton H. Gill
Cevin Cathell, the peripatetic programmer, came up from Santa Barbara to do Sonomo, also did the Jackson Hole Festival, and is now moving to New Jersey. photo: A. Gill
We sat down with Cevin Cathell, the Programming Director of the 2011 Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) immediately following its close on April 10. We wanted to get a look behind the scenes and at the woman who has been a driving force behind reviving this unique local film experience. She has been with the festival for the last five years, although she continued to live in Santa Barbara, where she had been programming the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF).
CineSource: So what brought you into the fold of the Sonoma film community?
Cevin Cathell: I was programming the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), and the sister of the , Kevin McNeely, the Executive Director of Sonoma, is on the Board of Directors of SBIFF. He had been coming down to the festival, had seen me introduce films and had liked my selections. He introduced himself and said, ‘if you ever want to come up to our little local film festival, it’s not much, but come on up.’ At that point, SBIFF, was moving away from supporting the films and filmmakers and focusing more on the celebrities, which is fine—they draw a lot of people that way—but for me, films are the most important thing. So I was kind of looking for a place to go. I talked to a few much larger film festivals who had been courting me. But I thought, “Wow, this is the best festival in the world. The location is incredible, the volunteers are totally professional, it‘s a lovely place and the filmmakers are treated well.” The one thing that was lacking was good films.
I went to dinner with Kevin and twenty-four other people at the Girl and the Fig [restaurant in Sonoma] and Kevin leans over and says, “You wouldn’t ever consider coming up and programming for us, would you?” And I said, “Where do I sign up?” And he was shocked. So I came up the next year and and I did that.
I loved it, but the people that were in charge then were not very nice to the staff and it concerned me. I just didn’t want to witness it any more. So I went off to Jackson Hole and did that festival. Then I got a call from the new Executive Director saying, 'We’ll do anything to get you back.' Apparently, the quality of films had gone down in the year that I had gone and they said you can work both at Jackson Hole and here. In the meantime, the economy folded and the main supporter of Jackson Hole decided he just couldn’t do it—but it was great while it lasted.
So then I was back here full-time three years ago. And then two years ago, Kevin McNeely took over as Executive Director and for the last couple years, it’s been a total love fest. Everyone wants this thing to succeed and even though times are really tough and its really hard to raise money. We have an impressive array of sponsors, though they’re mostly in-kind sponsors so they give us things rather than give us money. But I just think this festival is so precious, I want to see it go places. I bring up people from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara who’ve won all kinds of awards, to be jurors and panelists and they’ve been saying that this is an awesome experience. I feel it’s on the edge of raising itself to a whole new level.
At the heart of that new level are the films. What do you look for in a film?
The thing I look for in films is story, whether by watching it you’re changed in some way or it moves you. The second thing I look for is acting, because bad acting can kill a film. The third thing I look for is production value which is basically how the film looks but that’s pretty low on the list. I will put up with bad production value or an inexpensive film that was shot from somebody’s still camera if that is an amazing piece. That’s art.
What is the process by which films are selected?
A film must be seen twice by the screening committee consisting of locals. There are a lot of industry types that have ‘made it’ so they can live here. And then the films come to me. Now, this was a whole new batch of screeners this year and since I don’t live here and had not met them, I didn’t know their tastes so I actually watched every film myself. When it came down to making the final decisions on some films, I did look at the ratings just to see what it received so I knew what the locals were enjoying.
Apart from the improvement in the general programming, how do you feel that the Sonoma International Film Festival has benefited from your influence over the past few years.
When we have production meetings, because I am one of the few people [in the room] that has ever worked at another festival, I bring that knowledge with me. And also, since I was a film producer for fifteen years, I do have connections through that. Connections are a big part of it actually.
So will you continue to program Sonoma?
Well they want me to. It’s been a little difficult going between here and Santa Barbara. I drive and frankly, the finances of it...I don’t make very much money. in fact a lot of times, my expenses come out of my pocket, but they said that they would work it out. I feel that if this festival is ready step up to the next level, I think I am [ready to step up]. And if we could just raise the needed funds and put an advanced structure in place, I think that it could be the next big thing. Who knows though, I’ll be an hour away from New York and I might just get the urge to reinvent myself.
I do love this festival so much though and I feel like I’ve invested so much in it - time, money, soul - I really want it to succeed because it deserves to succeed. And of course, this town is so amazing.
So what else is needed to take this festival to the next level?
I think, infrastructure. It’s been running at a certain level for so long and it’s great and it functions, but because it’s growing in reputation and the quality of films and the number of people attending, things can’t be done the same way anymore. Basically, we all have to reinvent the wheel every year and the stuff that goes on behind the scenes that nobody sees is sometimes difficult to deal with because it really deserves better.
So more paid staff, more resources for you to tackle a lot of the granular issues so you can really focus on selecting the films and promoting filmmakers?
It’s funny, but a lot of people came up to me this year and said, “Wow, it just seems so much better organized this year.” And we’re basically running on half the staff we had last year and there are no assistants for anybody. For me, it was an extremely difficult year and leading up to the film festival, I was just thinking that I don’t ever want to do this again. It’s just too taxing.
But then the filmmakers roll into town. They are so appreciative. And it takes on a different meaning for me when they come because they’re here with their beautiful art that they have created and they’re putting it out there on that screen. They’re nervous, they don’t know what the reactions will be, a lot of them are world-premiering things so nobody’s ever seen it. But when they get there and see the response and they see how smart the Sonoma audiences are - they’re laughing, gasping and crying the right places - they’re blown away.
It just warms my heart to help facilitate this for those deserving filmmakers
You’ve been with the film festival for how long now?
This is my fourth out of the last five years.
And you actually live in Santa Barbara, correct?
I do live in Santa Barbara. I’m moving to Princeton, New Jersey in a week.
So what brought you into the fold of the Sonoma film community even though you’ve been living in Santa Barbara?
I was programming the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), and the Executive Director of Sonoma, Kevin McNeely’s sister is on the Board of Directors of SBIFF. He had been coming down to the festival, had seen me introduce films and had liked my selections. He came up to me after a couple of years, introduced himself and said, ‘if you ever want to come up to our little local film festival, it’s not much, but come on up.’
At that point, SBIFF, was moving away from supporting the films and filmmakers and focusing more on the celebrities, which is fine and they draw a lot of people that way, but for me, films are the most important thing. So I was kind of looking for a place to go.
I talked to a few much larger film festivals who had been courting me. But I came up here and I thought, “Wow, this is the best festival in the world. The location is incredible, the volunteers are totally professional, it‘s a lovely place and the filmmakers are treated well.” The one thing that was lacking was good films. I thought that it had all the elements, but I didn’t know what was going to happen.
I went to dinner with Kevin and twenty-four other people at Girl and the Fig and Kevin leans over and says, “You wouldn’t ever consider coming up and programming for us, would you?” And I said, “Where do I sign up?” And he was shocked. So I came up the next year and and I did that. I loved it, but the people that were in charge then were not very nice to the staff and it concerned me and I just didn’t want to witness it any more.
So I went off to Jackson Hole and did that festival. Then I got a call from the new Executive Director saying we’ll do anything to get you back. Apparently, the quality of films had gone down in the year that I had gone and they said you can work both at Jackson Hole and here. In the meantime, the economy folded and in Jackson Hole, its main supporter decided he just couldn’t do it, and we were so far down the line that we had to pull the plug. But it was great while it lasted.
At that point, I thought I was doing both festivals but then Jackson Hole went away so then I was back here full-time three years ago. And then two years ago, Kevin McNeely took over as Executive Director and for the last couple years, it’s been a total love fest. Everyone wants this thing to succeed and even though times are really tough and its really hard to raise money, we have an impressive array of sponsors though they’re mostly in-kind sponsors so they give us things rather than give us money.
I just think this festival is so precious, I want to see it go places. I bring up people from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara who’ve won all kinds of awards, to be jurors and panelists and they’ve been saying that this is an awesome experience. I feel it’s on the edge of raising itself to a whole new level.
Many times, film festivals prioritize feature films and their filmmakers but I think it’s amazing that the festival also caters to filmmakers of short films by offering them accommodations.
What I’ve said is that it’s like summer camp for filmmakers. And the jurors say, this is like summer camps for us. It’s just a wonderfully supportive environment and it’s very unique.
If you had to do anything differently this year, what would that be?
I think that more preparation would have helped. And more staff just so that my concentration wouldn’t be on whether a theatre decided to close early and didn’t tell us and also so that I could have had more time with the filmmakers. That said, there were a lot of really great things that happened. The Industry Mixer and and the Short Film Shindig that Julie Atwood threw was both so lovely. I guess I am just worn-out, but I have to say that the 2011 Sonoma International Film Festival was just awesome.
Indeed it was. Thank you for running a great festival.
You’re welcome. Thank you.
Anton H. Gill is a writer and filmmaker whose own short film, "Damage" enjoyed its premiere at SIFF.