Wild Rivers Film Festival: Driftwood

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I went to the Brookings, Oregon beach to see driftwood. Kimberly, who I met at the Wild Rivers Film Festival talked about using driftwood in some of her art pieces, so I wanted to see the driftwood covered beach for myself.

I was surprised to see that some locals had arranged some of the driftwood into teepees and a make shift wall.I should think that when the tide comes in, that all these makeshift structures must wash away, needing to be rebuilt. In some ways the scene reminded me of Omaha Beach on D-Day. All that was missing was the machine gun nest.

I set up my art stool and leaned back against a large driftwood log. The “beach” was covered with smooth grey stones.

The fog had not burned off yet so the distant horizon was barely visible. There were only two colors visible. The yellow ocher driftwood and the cool grey stones.

You had to walk down a metal ramp to get to the beach level from a cement walkway. A young couple ventured out to the water’s edge to stick their toes in, and then walked back up the beach to sit on a log and stare out over the surf. A dog snuffled around sticking his nose into every crevice.

A woman scoured the beach, I believe because she was searching for the perfect smooth stone. It was a perfect day to be on a quest for the perfect stone or the perfect sketch.

Wild Rivers Film Festival: Redwood Theater

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After the Wild Rivers Film Festival was a wrap, I explored Brookings, Oregon with sketches. I went back to the Redwood Theater which was the theater with the biggest screen. The theater was built in 1909 and just recently was purchased by new owners.

I liked the Theater’s mission statement, which was a commitment to free speech. “It is the commitment of the Redwood Theater to encourage free expression of ideas. We respect all viewpoints and do our best to be the vehicle for free speech and expression in our community, and to not judge the various views of perspective presented. We believe censorship has no place in free society.” Considering the position of the present administration to control free speech and limit journalists from asking questions to get to the truth. The theater’s stance is brave.

It was early in the morning when I sketched the theater. I put a bunch of colored pencils in my art kit in part because of this sketch. It would have been nice to draw white letters over the dark red sign, rather than painting around each letter. If nothing ese the pencils will offer an excuse for more playful application of color and texture.

I had to cross the main street of Brookings to find this sketching spot. The cross sections have buttons that you can push which actually stop traffic. One car rushing through the town didn’t respect the flashing sign to stop. I am glad I didn’t trust that vehicle to abide by the signage.

One pickup parked near the theater and a guy got out and changed the plastic bags in the public trash can. The biggest distraction while sketching was the huge 16 wheeler’s that roared through the town regularly carrying large tree trunks that were about two feet thick and the length of the flatbed. I remember these menacing trucks from my cross-country bike trip way back in 1982. When biking in the shoulder of the road, the wind gusts from these giants would almost blow me over. Now I just lament all the trees being sacrificed. That feeling is rather hypocritical since I am sketching on paper, which was once a tree as well.

Wild Rivers Film Festival: Chetco Theater

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After the Wild Rivers Film Festival had wound down, I decided to go back and sketch the theater where COVID Dystopia had screened. Chetco Playhouse is a small community live theater. The last production had been Thumbalina according to the theater poster street side.

I had some very pleasant conversations with the Film Festival staff who had volunteered to work at this theater. When they found out I had animated COVID Dystopia, I was told that the film had sparked quite a bit of conversation. The daughter of one of the volunteers was working the projector and she loves to draw characters. I therefor shared my sketchbook to help encourage her to draw from life more often.

I entered this theater once while a feature film was being shown. The theater was so dark that I could not see enough to make my way down the aisle. I paused at the back f the theater waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. When a lighter scene was being projected, I made my was careful half way towards the front and felt for the seat backs to find an empty seat.

The film being shown was Ethan Bloom. An awkward teen boy was pushed into a pool by a spunky teen girl. I wasn’t in the mood for a teen romance, but this film found its way into my heart. Ethan Bloom had lost his mom when he was 10 years old which is how old I was when I lost my mom. Ethan was Jewish but he imagined that his mother looked like the Virgin Mary. Therefor he wanted to study Catholicism since he felt it might bring him closer to his mom. This premise ripped my heart wide open. Ethan would need his fathers permission to be baptized into the Catholic faith, so he decided he had to forge his fathers signature. Such a lie would not stand and his father found out. Ethan’s coming of age story featured forgiveness and people coming together regardless of their faith. It is a story very much needed in these divisive times.

Wild Rivers Film Festival: Avigail’s Flower

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There was a party for the filmmakers and vip patrons at Abigail’s Flower in Brookings, Oregon. The same woman was running the bar that was in charge of wines at the pizza party the day before. The shop has an amazing eclectic mix of antiques and floral arrangements. When you first enter the door there was a wall above a couch covered with tall grass with the Pom Pom seed pods and the women seated on the couch and gossiping, were dressed to the 9’s. I felt under dressed since I didn’t pack a suit. I also didn’t pack a sweatshirt, jacket or wool shirt. I was so glad I found a wool shirt that fit at a bait and tackle shop. I was starting to look like a local, or at least one of the hikers that pass through the town each day.

As I was searching for an angle to sketch from, I met a married couple in the back and shared my sketchbook with them. I got to tell them about my film, which they had not seen yet. Hopefully I talked them into checking it out.

There were finger bites, my favorite of which was tomatoes, basel and mozzarella on a stick. Rather than getting a drink so early in the day, I had lemonade which was delicious. Avigail, in a lovely white dress told me I had to check out a wedding venue right out side of town. It is a wooden structure with a very interesting series of exposed roof beams. I looked it up online and decided to sketch nature instead of a wedding chapel. She said the number of weddings she has hosted at the venue has risen exponentially.

Overall, this was a pleasant gathering. I wanted to get to a final screening of my film, so I skipped out a bit early. When I got to the theater, I realized I had the day and or time wrong. A film I had already seen was about to screen. I therefore jumped in my rental car and rushed to another theater.I probably watched 4 or 5 feature films at the festival and there were others I hoped to see.

Wild Rivers Film Festival: Post Production

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Since I enjoyed the first film production seminar at hit the Wild Rivers Film Festival, I decided to attend the second Post Production panel discussion. Dan Springen carried much of the discussions, but Scott Brock chipped in on occasion to discuss what it was like editing for Martin Scorsese. I was pleased that both med use Adobe Premiere pro for the bulk of their editing. There is another program called Da Vinci which is good at color correcting and similar tasks.  Eve Annemberg was also up front, but she had to leave early to catch a plane back home.

Besides the people on the panel it seemed that many in the audience were professional editors, which penned up some lively discussions about the evolution of film editing software. Final Cut Pro was a great program for a while but the. The software engineers dumbed down the interface to make it more like iMovie. Professional film editors dropped the program like a lead brick.

A local school teacher named Kimberly was attending. She had used Final Cut Pro for a school project and wanted clarification as to what was wrong with the program. I think you can get any program to work if you are persistent and stubborn. I got to chat with Kimberly at just about every filmmaker event and she made my stay in the Pacific North West such a pleasure. She had worked with Christo when he created a huge series of gates in New York’s’ Central Park that were wrapped in bright orange fabric. I remember seeing images at the time.

Wild Rivers film Festival: Augustino Filmmaker’s Lunch

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After attending the first filmmaker’s workshop at the Wild Rivers Film Festival, I was invited to go to Augustino’s down by the harbor. At first, I was told that there would be a drink on the house, but then I was told that I needed to buy a ticket to get a drink and a bite to eat. The person with the tickets was nowhere to be found, so I just mingled with the filmmakers. I got each of the filmmakers from the morning session to spell their names so I could write each on the sketch. It turns out this is a great ice breaker when meeting people.

There was an RV parked in Augustino’s parking lot and several tents set up behind the RV. A couple was making wood fire pizzas to order. I started sketching since I knew time was short. There were three adorable puppies hanging out in the rear RV window watching all the proceedings. Someone pointed out the ticket person, so I interrupted the sketch to get my tickets. I thought I would be paying by using the square device, but I was told, “ heavens, no, you don’t pay, we are celebrating you.” I picked up a sweet white wine at the bar and wrote my order for a pizza on a notepad. I picked up a triangular numbered wedge and wrote the same number on my order sheet.

The pizza was ready before my sketch was complete. I decided to leave the sketch as it was. I had a very pleasant conversation with Scott Brock. He has edited films for Scorsese and he has just finished a book which is a passion project full of his photography. Since I am close to finishing my book. “COVID Dystopia”, we had much to discuss. I feel that all things digital are not going to last for millennia. If you want art to last it has to be something physical that can be held, like a book. Most early silent films disappeared because the film stock degraded and in many cases burnt up. Thomas Edison preserved some of his early films because he printed each frame on paper.

The pizza was tasty, the wine divine and the conversations enlightening. The film festival was off to a great start.

Brookings Oregon

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I arrived at the Wild Rivers Film Festival several hours early, because I was ‘t sure what the drive time was like from Medford, Oregon. From the airport to the coast I drove over a mountain range and had a blast driving down winding switchbacks through magnificent scenery. I drive through the huge Redwood forest and down flowing rivers. I didn’t stop to sketch because I wanted to be sure to get to the festival on time. I had looked up the screening time on my film and suspected it would show with a shorts block early in the day.

with several hours to kill before the screening, I decided I should sketch the theater where COVID Dystopia would screen. The problem was that there was a fine misty rain. I picked up a poncho next door at a Dollar General. The poncho didn’t solve my dilemma however because the sketch9 pages still got wet. I went back to dollar general and picked up an umbrella. That worked better, but the mist was so fine that it found a way to still soak the sketch page. I gave up and sat in the car. I couldn’t just sit on my hands, so I drove a few yards in the parking lot and looked out over at gnarly tree roots from a fallen tree. The scene suited my mood. The fine mist created a foggy atmospheric effect that I liked.

Sketching in the car kept me warm and dry. As the sketch neared completion. I started to wonder why I wasn’t seeing anyone enter the theater. I looked through the inline program and found out there was a film production workshop at the Town library. Someone there would have to know what was going on. I still needed to pick up my filmmakers credentials and figured the some staff member at the library would know what direction to point me in.

The misty, mossy and lush landscapes of Oregon agree with me. I didn’t pack a jacket however and I was cold any time I hiked about. I now had too much rain gear and noticed that the locals just let themselves get soaked. I needed lo line more like the locals. I was taking precautions for the sake of my sketching.

COVID Dystopia is an official Selection at the Wild Rivers Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Wild Rivers Film Festival on August 15th to 18th, 2025. The festival runs in four theaters, one of which is the Redwood Theater, 621 Chetco Ave, Bookings, Oregon. There are two other venues as well, The Chetco Live Theater and the Chetco Public Library. It would be just my luck for COVID Dystopia to screen in a library to disturb patrons who just want some peace and quiet.

Wild Rivers Film Festival  is a competitive exhibition for domestic and international feature films, documentaries, shorts and screenplays. It is a film festival that had not crossed my radar, but I was asked to submit by the festival executive director, Daniel Springen. This is the second year that the festival has been running.

The Wild Rivers Film Festival is an immersive four-day experience that includes screenings in four venues, industry panels, and workshops that are all geared toward indie filmmakers and adventurous movie lovers.

The festival has nightly parties and a variety of professional activities which encourage important networking opportunities for all.

Brookings, Oregon is nestled right on the breathtaking Pacific coastline. The people are friendly, the seafood is fresh, and the film history is prolific. Bookings also was the only place in the contiguous United States to be bombed by air in WWII. Since I am deeply entrenched in researching WWII history right h=now, that fact fascinates me.

On September 9 and September 29, 1942, Imperial Japanese Navy pilot Nobuo Fujita, flying a float plane launched from the submarine I-25, and dropped incendiary bombs near Brookings with the goal of starting large forest fires. The forests were moist from a recent rain and the fires died out quickly on their own. The goal to create massive forest fires to draw U.S. military resources away from the Pacific Theater and demoralize the American public was a failure.

The festival culminates with an award ceremony featuring cash & prizes.