Cristiana DiPietro, co-founder of the Monarch International Film Festival, noticed a recurring theme among the films submitted for this year’s festival, revolving around family drama and dysfunction, alcoholism, poverty, mental disorders and abuse.
“I believe it’s an accurate reflection of the state of things around the world,” she writes by email.
The festival is back for its sixth year for a two-day stay at Lighthouse Cinemas in Pacific Grove, unloading feature-length narratives and documentaries, and student and local short films.
Feature film Fear, Love, and Agoraphobia (8:15pm Fri) by Alex D’Lerma seems to fit DiPietro’s perceived theme. It’s an indie-looking piece about an odd couple – he’s an agoraphobic underachiever, she’s a gruff Marine – who come to live together by necessity. D’Lerma used to live here, and will come to conduct a Q&A for his film (as will many of the filmmakers).
But variety hovers over this festival.
The Gift of the Magpie (noon Sat) is a 10-minute period piece cut from the same cloth as a Dashiell Hammett novel or The Thin Man movies. It opens with two con men sizing up their next marks: a blind middle-aged woman and her elderly mother spending Christmas Eve in a modest diner with a down-and-out Santa.
In addition to era-specific title credits, costumes and editing, its dialogue stays in character, with lines like, “I knew I smelled a rat.”
The Lure (5pm Fri), directed by Tomas Leach, is executive produced by Errol Morris, maker of The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War, which gives it pedigree and gravity. It’s about an eccentric millionaire who hides a treasure chest in the Rocky Mountains and invites people through a poem in his memoir to decipher clues to find it.
“We’re all charlatans to some degree,” he tells us. But the film is not really about him or his elusive treasure; it’s about the treasure hunters and their motivations.
There are four blocks of short films. Marine Before Me (noon Sat) is a doc by Haley Ryals, from the CSUMB Capstone students block. It’s about a Marine who undergoes gender transition. Cannery Row Revisited (2:50pm Sat) by Jeff Sax is about the new crop of old fellers who are continuing the legacy of Mack and the Boys from Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. That comes from the local’s corner block.
The festival may be international, but its power base is closer to home.
“The local filmmaking community is excited to be a part of the festival, and to meet other local artists,” DiPietro says.
Festival co-founders Cristiana DiPietro (pictured) and Matthew Kalamane will be assisted by a team from AMP public access TV station, including on emceeing and the awards ceremony.
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