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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Organizers Plan Encore for Calabasas Film Festival

Calabasas got back in the film fest business earlier this month. The inaugural Calabasas Film Festival attracted between 850 and 1,000 people who turned out Sept. 12 to 14 for screenings at Edwards Calabasas Stadium 6 at The Commons, Viewpoint School and the Calabasas Civic Center. Co-organizer Natalie Khoury said she and partner Kelley Fries expect to return in 2015 with an expanded program. “We are looking forward to a bigger second year,” said Khoury, whose day job is as a film and television producer at Pelagius Entertainment Inc. in Calabasas. Calabasas previously hosted Method Fest, an independent film event that focused on acting technique. It lasted six years until 2010 when the recession killed it off. As businesses cut back in the face of a weak economy, Method Fest struggled to find sponsors to pay for the growing number of screenings, parties and associated events. By the time Method Fest ended, the festival had grown from local to regional, with events and screenings taking place in places other than Calabasas. The city had once provided up to $75,000 in funding, an amount that was later scaled back. The new festival kicked off with a premier of “The Equalizer,” starring Denzel Washington and was followed by a question-and-answer session with the film’s producers Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal. Getting a big studio film such as “The Equalizer” will be a trademark of the festival as it goes forward, Khoury said. “We understand there are other festivals but because of our studio relationships we are able to bring studio films and the best of independent films,” she added. Calabasas sponsored the new festival, along with car dealer Bob Smith BMW/Mini. There were also in-kind donations made by area restaurants and other companies. “The festival was a great opportunity to raise Calabasas’ profile, honor the creative community that calls our city home, bring an exciting cultural event to our residents and to draw attention to our outstanding businesses and services,” Calabasas Mayor David J. Shapiro said. While Khoury said the festival will inevitably grow, it won’t outpace its Calabasas roots. Sponsors and screening venues will remain local, and there will be an emphasis placed on getting the entertainment executives and talent who live in the city involved. For example, Calabasas resident David Glasser, chief operating officer at Weinstein Co., was vital to the festival screening “Tracks” about a woman played by Mia Wasikowska who makes a solo trek across the desert in Australia. Barry Pollack, another resident, directed “It’s Not a Date,” one of four films screened on the second day of the festival. Audience Acquisition Television audience research company ASI Entertainment has been acquired by Screen Engine, a feature film research firm. Terms of the deal between ASI, in North Hollywood, and Screen Engine, in Los Angeles were not disclosed. ASI will now be known as Screen Engine/ASI. The acquisition creates one of the largest entertainment research firms in the country with a client list that includes just about every major studio and many broadcast and cable networks. ASI, founded in 1964, is considered to be an innovator in television audience testing with its ViewTrac dial-testing system in which audience members turn dials to indicate if they are enjoying a TV show or not. The firm also does audience testing for the effectiveness of advertising and political campaigns. Test audiences view content at ASI’s focus group facilities in North Hollywood that will now become accessible to Screen Engine’s clients as well. “It is a great honor to be entrusted to uphold the brand legacy of a company I’ve so long admired,” Screen Engine Chief Executive Kevin Goetz said in a prepared statement. “This will be a game-changer for all of us and especially for our clients.” ASI Chief Executive Beverly Bolotin and President Elliot Rosenberg will remain with the company. Documenting ‘Metamorphsis’ Westlake Village resident Robin A. Borakove has produced and directed a short film advocating a type of therapy that has helped with her Aspberger’s Syndrome, a mild type of autism. Borakove worked with her son Joshua who did the principle filming on “Metamorphosis: Journey to Neurofield and pEMF.” She did the first edit of the film, and then went back over it with a professional director and editor to fine-tune it. The forward was done by Nicholas J. Dolgris, the doctor who treated Borakove with neuro-feedback therapy, a method of retraining the brain using computers and sensors to monitor brain activity. Borakove also operates the non-profit Little Edwin’s Triumph, which is also the title of one of two children’s books she has written. A portion of the proceeds from book sales goes to autism awareness. “My main goal is to create a resource network,” Borakove said. “Metamorphosis” is available for $10 through the streaming service at Amazon.com. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or [email protected]

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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