A Day in The Park from Spain to be shown

Ojai Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary introduces an award for Best Locally Produced Film, alongside 81 film contenders from around the world in competition for top prizes. This year’s World Premiere films include:

• (t)here
• After Parkland, Healing a Community and a Nation
• In The Campfire Light
• My Daughter Yoshiko
• The Vow From Hiroshima
• Truth in Recruiting
• Nowhere

Screeners selected contenders from record breaking submissions of nearly 500 films.

“According to several of our festival Judges, this year’s selections are the best we ever offered,” the 20 year running film festival’s Founder and Artistic Director Steve Grumette said. “Despite economic and trade sanctions against their country, Iranian filmmakers are flourishing. We have 13 Iranian films in this year’s festival, more than from any other country except the U.S..”

The eclectic batch of films includes narrative features and shorts, animations, and feature and short documentaries. Many indie films premiere at this year’s festival. Other selections received honors at other venues.

One award winning animated film A Day in The Park from Spain, directed by the up and coming Diego Porral Soldeville depicts a grandfather who reminisces about ‘the good old days’ while his grandson zones out with his holographic visor. As the grandfather revisits old classics like Facebook and Tinder or waxes nostalgic about relics like the iPhone, he provides some much-needed perspective on our hyperconnected digital society.

In celebration of twenty years in Ojai, the festival added a new category honoring local filmmakers in the Gold Coast Series. The 14 local films in this competition include Mamma Mia: From Auditions to Opening Night, a film by Ventura High graduate Ryan King, that follows Ventura High’s production of Mamma Mia; Camarillo director Miguel Orozco’s Oxnard-Set film Mixteco Boy; and God Send, a thoughtful feature by Ojai director Levi Holiman. The Gold Coast’s full day of screening runs on Monday, November 4, from 10 am to 10 pm.

Continuing a longstanding tradition of spotlighting environmental films, the festival’s series Focus: Earth presents two screenings each of eco-conscious shorts and features throughout the festival. A full day of ecological films, seminars and special events happens on Sunday, November 10. Among the highlights, director Sylvia Rokab screens scenes and answers questions about her film Love Thy Nature. The day tops off with Living in The Future’s Past, narrated and produced by Jeff Bridges, Q&A with director Susan Kucera follows

The 20th annual Ojai Film Festival also offers Lifetime Achievement Awards for Pat Boone and Eva Marie Saint, the new Sergio Aragones Animation Award presented by Sergio Aragones, Hawk Koch Memoir Debut, Women in Film Legacy Series, Screenwriting Competition & Live Table Read, seminars and speakers, industry insiders, parties, and much more.

For complete schedule of screenings go to ojaiifilmfestival.com.

Unlike other horse rescues, their work doesn’t just benefit horses. 

A Lotte Opportunity Foundation is a local nonprofit horse rescue, located in Santa Paula (it seems like Ventura), unlike other horse rescues, their work doesn’t just benefit horses.  Begun in 2016, with the belief that horses and children do better together, ALOF works to provide riding lessons to children who are from low income families; they have some of the cutest rescue horses, like Finn and Ole, a couple of Fjords, a small but very strong breed, who are lifelong friends, and that can’t be separated!

ALOF believes that the calming effect of horses is good for children, where they learn respect and responsibility, how to be firm while being kind, and how to take a tumble but get back up again. Horseback riding can be costly, and has been called “the rich man’s sport.” buying a horse is expensive enough, but then tack onto that all the equipment needed, maintaining an adequate living space, food and veterinarian bills, most parents can’t afford, no matter how much their kid begs for a pony.  ALOF seeks to remedy that situation by granting low income kids riding lessons.

ALOF is more than a horse rescue, it is a much needed chance for children as well as horses, taking in horses that are unwanted, and from all walks of life. Some are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, horses that made thousands of dollars in the racing industry and tossed aside due to injuries or underperformance. Some are last chance babies, that never got the chance to have a loving home before they found themselves in the lineup headed to a slaughterhouse, others are old ponies that once raced cross country courses for the owner’s children, only to be outgrown and passed onto retirement.  ALOF welcomes all ages, breeds, sizes and lifestyles as a safe place to land, if these horses can go into the riding program, they will, carefully walking their young charges, the children, around the foothills of Santa Paula. If they are not able to be ridden, they are still teachers. Ole can’t be ridden, but spends his days teaching the kids what to do when a horse lets himself out of his house and goes for a slow speed march on the quest for food, they learn, do you run after him begging him to come back or do you offer him a bucket of something even tastier than what he’s munching?

ALOF relies heavily on volunteer help to care for the horses and their living environment, and in addition, provides paid riding lessons to members of the public at large to supplement as well as putting on fund-raising events. If you, or someone you know, would like to volunteer at ALOF please contact Claudia Gilman at [email protected].  Please Visit ALOF’s website at www.alotteopportunity.org.  ALOF is seeking donations to improve the horse stalls for winter and has set up a GoFundMe account, contributions, great or small, would be greatly appreciated.

Sergio Aragones will present the newly christened Sergio Aragones Award.

Opening weekend features a throwback tribute to the days of big studios and contract players.

The Ojai Film Festival celebrates twenty years of bringing film to Ojai. This year the festival runs October 31 through November 10 and pays tribute to vintage Hollywood with Lifetime Achievement Awards honoring actors Pat Boone and Eva Marie Saint.

Opening weekend features a throwback tribute to the days of big studios and contract players. Pat Boone will attend the screening of his 1962 movie State Fair on Saturday November 2, at 7 pm, followed by a reception at 9 pm. On Sunday, November 3, at 4 pm, veteran director/producer Hawk Koch will screen his 1973 classic movie The Way We Were, starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, with a Q&A and signing for his new book following.

Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Eva Marie Saint will screen her Academy Award nominated 1959 film North by Northwest on Sunday, November 3, at 7 pm, followed by a reception in the Ojai Art Center Gallery.

Sunday morning’s Awards Brunch on November 3 at 10 am honors Lifetime Achievement recipients, and awards filmmakers of the top films screened at the festival, as well as best screenplay.

For the first time the festival added a Gold Coast Award for the winning local film to the program this year. Local Ojai artist and legendary Mad Magazine illustrator Sergio Aragones will present the newly christened Sergio Aragones Award for Best Animation.

After the brunch, professional actors perform a Live Table Read of the winning screenplay at 1 pm. This year’s winner is a quirky journey of discovery titled A Place Called Knock, written by Colleen Craig of Los Osos, CA. Actor-director Will Wallace will helm the live read.

“We added a screenplay competition to the festival in order to celebrate the very starting point of the creative process — the story,” said Bruce Novotny, Screenplay Competition chairman

The Gold Coast Film Series on November 4, 1 to 10 pm, features films and shorts from local filmmakers in the Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties.

Women in Film presents their Legacy Series on Saturday, November 9 at 4 pm, highlighting the career and legacy of women in film. This year they will present a retrospective on the career of the late, great, Penny Marshall.

The kickoff of the twentieth annual festival falls on Halloween this year, and will screen a sing-a- long version of Tim Burton’s cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.

A Halloween Fun Faire and Pre-Show dubbed “Carnivale!” precedes the movie.

Admission to the Faire is free and includes fun for all ages with face painting, pumpkin art, fortunetelling, and a wheel of fortune to win prizes and free tickets to the film festival.

A second free community screening offers The Red Turtle on Wednesday, November 6. https://ojaifilmfestival.com

Melina Seider is all smiles after competing in her heat.

by Amy Brown

Ventura is known for its beautiful beaches, its active lifestyle, and its sense of community. These attributes were wonderfully combined in the recent 34th Annual C Street Classic surf contest. The weather was perfect, the waves were good, and 146 competitors participated in 15 different divisions, for both bragging rights and prizes. It was all for a great cause, as approximately $5,000 was raised in the event, and will be donated to local surf, marine and environmental non-profit organizations.

The contest has become the longest running officially organized longboard contest in the country, according to the Ventura Surf Club, host of the event. Andy Sassen has been a member of the Ventura Surf Club for 11 years and has served as its President for nine. “The contest is a fun way to raise money for local ocean related charities. I’ve been doing it for a lot of years and never even surfed it. It‘s great just volunteering at a nice day at the beach, and watching really good surfers,” said Sassen, who shared that, of course, the contest can be greatly influenced by the quality of the surf conditions. “We’re at the mercy of Mother Nature, but we do the best we can. The contest was great success, the waves and weather cooperated, and the best part was all the smiles!”

The competition began at 6:30 am and went through the late afternoon, and included a wide range of ages, with divisions aligned with the standard gender and age groups of the Coalition of Surfing Clubs, according to Bruce Douglass, a founding member of the Ventura Surf Club, and the announcer for the event. Melina Seider, an 11-year-old, competed in the shortboard finals for girls ages 15 and under. The event was her first official surf contest, although she started participating in the sport at the tender age of three, riding on the front of her dad’s board. “I was pretty excited to paddle out today, although I was almost more nervous about the rocks than the competition,” she shared. Her parents and brother were in the audience, cheering her on. “I could hear my parents, telling me to go out further if there was a set coming in, and that helped, too.”

Ming Hui Brown has been surfing since she was 9 years old, and, like Seider, started competing at age 11. The C Street Classic was one of the events that started her competitive surfing career. She now competes in women’s longboard divisions (ages 18-35), and placed first in her division for the third year in a row at the C Street Classic. She also served as a judge for the other divisions at the event. The competition featured 15-minute heats, with each surfer allowed a total of six waves judged—on style, wave selection, length of ride and controlled functional maneuvers. To keep things safer, the event had “Predator Patrols” out on jet skis beyond the break, to be on the lookout for any aquatic animal friends that might interfere with the competition going as smoothly as possible.

“It is an honor to be able to judge my peers in the surfing community, and seeing them perform is extremely entertaining,” said Brown. “Having to judge multiple surfers on different waves and in different areas is another challenging part of judging a surf competition. Having fluidity and grace when transitioning through tricks on a wave is an important aspect I keep in mind when judging.”

Any relevant non-profits interested in being considered for a grant from the Ventura Surf Club’s funds raised by the event can contact the club at [email protected].

Pictured are Keith Barnard, VP of Sourcing at Mission Produce & Ventura College Foundation Board Member; Dr. Kim Hoffmans, President of Ventura College & Ventura College Foundation Board Member; Matt LaVere, Mayor of Ventura & Ventura College Foundation Board Member; Dorothy Farias, Faculty & Program Director, Ventura College Agriculture; Anne Paul King, Executive Director, Ventura College Foundation and Felicia Dueñas, Dean of Ventura College Career Education II. Photo by Bernie Goldstein

Mission Produce, the leading global supplier of high-quality retail and foodservice avocados, has installed a new one-acre commercial avocado orchard at Ventura College. The unveiling was held Wednesday, September 18. The company is providing a $15,000 in-kind donation to reinvigorate the orchard.

Because of the Mission’s generosity, Ventura College was able to enhance its agricultural programs and upgrade its orchard for a hands-on student experience. Students in the school’s new two-year agriculture business program will now be able to learn how a commercial orchard is maintained, avocados harvested, prepared for market and then sold. The Ag program will receive a portion of the avocado sales proceeds.

Students participating in the Agriculture program will apply knowledge of plants, animals, soils, and climates to environmental settings with understanding of basic principles of soil fertility and water quality. Students will predict plant growth outcomes by applying basic principles of botany, and be able to recommend management strategies in the use of Earth’s natural resources, including the ability to recognize, interpret, and recommend control strategies for common plant pests and diseases, and understand the implications of the use of herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and integrated pest management principles used in Agriculture, Landscape Management, and Natural Resources Management.

Because agriculture is one of the top employers in the County, bringing in over two billion dollars, the goal is to introduce additional programs at Ventura College that get young people excited about potential careers in the industry. Keith Barnard, vice president of sourcing at Mission Produce and a member of the board of directors of the Ventura College Foundation, was instrumental in creating the Ventura College-Mission Produce partnership and reinvigorating the Ag program at the college. “One of the reasons I became involved with the Ventura College Foundation is because I believe in its mission to support students. Reestablishing the orchard was one of my goals as a board member,” said Barnard.

These ladies will be running in the Haunted Housing Run/Walk.

Cocina Sin Fronteras, a nonprofit affiliate of the Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura (HACSB), will host its fourth annual Haunted Housing Run/Walk, Saturday, Oct. 26, at San Buenaventura State Beach, 901 San Pedro St. The Haunted Housing Run/Walk offers both a 5K and 10K with chip timing on a fast, flat oceanfront course along the Ventura Promenade. Races begin promptly at 8 a.m., followed by the free Kids Dash at 9 a.m. All proceeds from the event support the Housing Authority’s Scholarship Program that assists Housing Authority residents and Housing Choice Voucher program participants to pursue higher education.

Early registration is $35 for the 5K and $40 for the 10K. Kids dash is free. Prizes will be awarded for the top three overall male and female finishers in both the 5K and 10K. All 5K/10K race participants receive an event t-shirt, bib and specially designed participation medal; breakfast burritos and donut holes will be served after the race. The family-friendly event will have free face painting, a jolly jump and a photo booth for all to enjoy. Costumes are encouraged with prizes awarded for best adult and best children’s costume.

The HACSB Scholarship Program awards six scholarships a year: three at $2,000 for a four-year college/university and three at $1,000 for community college/technical school. Since its inception in 2015, a total of 20 scholarships have been awarded.

“We believe that education provides opportunity, access and choices and is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, “said HACSB CEO Denise Wise. “100 percent of the proceeds benefit the scholarship program.  Most of our previous scholarship recipients were the first in their family to attend college. It is our vision to provide a resource that will allow our youth the chance to maximize their potential and life contribution.”

Registration for the Haunted Housing Run/Walk is available online at https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Ventura/HauntedHousingRun. Early registration discount is in effect through Sept. 26. For more information, call HACSB at 805-648-5008 or email hauntedhousingrun@hacityventura.org.

Cocina Sin Fronteras is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliated with the Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura HACSB.

The Housing Authority of the City Of San Buenaventura (HACSB) is the largest residential landlord in the City of Ventura, currently managing 295 public housing units, 705 nonprofit affordable rental units, and more than 1,500 Section 8 vouchers. The agency is actively working to increase the supply of affordable housing and to improve the quality of life for hundreds more of the low-income residents of the City of Ventura. http://www.hacityventura.org/.

Public Safety Dispatcher Erin Burden, shares her story with the CAPS crew.

As part of the continuing expanded services for the City, CAPS Media produced a set of behind-the-scenes productions exploring the extensive and fascinating emergency response systems utilized by Ventura City Police and Ventura City Fire departments. The videos are added to CAPS’ ongoing video informational updates directed by the City Manager’s community service division. We have also been working with the Ventura Unified School District and Ventura County Health in reporting on important issues such as vaping.

The Perfect Firestorm, the documentary film chronicling the extraordinary personal stories of survival and healing during and following the devastating Thomas Fire, was featured at the Sight + Sound Film Festival in Oxnard and will be screened twice at the Ojai Film Festival on Sunday November 3rd at 1pm and on Friday November 8th at 1pm at the Sane Living Center at 316 E Matilija St in Ojai. The entire CAPS Media production and postproduction team is honored to have The Perfect Firestorm selected for the film festivals.

The documentary was produced by CAPS MEDIA in collaboration with the Museum of Ventura County, Ventura City Fire and Police, Ventura County Fire, Sheriff’s, Office of Emergency Services and other agencies. The year-long project is based on dozens of first-person interviews with fire fighters, first responders, residents and others impacted by the tragedy. In addition to sharing their heartfelt, inspiring and at times tragic stories, the citizens throughout Ventura County provided CAPS Media with hundreds of personal photos and videos to help tell the story.

The Perfect Firestorm is a companion production to CAPS Media’s half-hour series Thomas Fire Stories Project featuring first-person stories that air every Friday night on CAPS Media.

CAPS Media continues to record, broadcast and stream local community council meetings throughout the city. In the coming weeks CAPS will cover East Ventura, MidTown, College, Westside, and Montalvo community councils. All programs air on CAPS Media Channel 6 and stream on capsmedia.org. Go to the schedule tab on the CAPSMedia.org website for dates and times.

Join us! Become a CAPS Media Member/Producer. If you have an interest in community television or radio production, or are just curious, drop by the CAPS Media Center on the first Thursday of the month @ 6pm to discover how to join the CAPS community of enthusiastic and engaged Member/Producers. A CAPS Media staff member directs the tour of the television studio and radio station, demonstrates the video equipment, explains the resources that are available, and answers questions about the benefits of becoming a CAPS Media member.

Member training includes HD videography/camera classes held on the 2nd Thursday, Final Cut postproduction editing classes on the 3rd Thursday, and CAPS Radio (KPPQ, FM 104.1) two-part classes on the 4th week. All classes begin at 6pm at the CAPS Media Center, 65 Day Road. For more information, go to capsmedia.org or call 805-658-0500.

Ventura County’s Fillmore & Western Railway is running several exciting Holiday Train Adventures this year!  Beginning Oct 5th are weekend departures on the PumpkinLiner & Zombie Hunter Trains. Then on Oct 26th a one time “Fright Night” Murder Mystery Dinner Train.  During November & December the railroad will offer the Sugar Plum Express Holiday Village & Tree Train + the all new Polar Express™ train ride!

What is the Zombie Hunter Train?
A unique interactive experience. Ride on open-air flat cars through the battlegrounds of the Zombie Apocalypse.  Armed with a mounted paintball gun help take down the attacking zombie hordes and save humanity! Hunt zombies from the train. Zombies do not shoot back. Departs from Fillmore.
What is the PumkinLiner?

Enjoy a family train trip to the “The Patch”. Visit the haunted house ($3), ride the antique carousel ($3), buy a pumpkin, take a hayride ($3) and try a home-cooked BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich.   Vendors, a hay maze, face painting and more are also on-site.  Departs from Fillmore.
What is the Sugar Plum Express Holiday Village & Tree Train?

Departing from Santa Paula Depot on Nov 30th & during weekends in December, take a short train ride to a Holiday Village. Once there you can select a pre-cut Christmas Tree, take photos with Santa, purchase unique gifts & goodies, enjoy the Winter Wonderland walk-thru, Carousel rides ($3), hop on the Holiday Jolly Jumper, see Santa’s Workshop and create a Winter craft. Also view the Koi fish, goats & birds while exploring.

What is The Polar Express™ train ride?
Similar to The Polar Express™ movie, there will be a full cast of characters from the Conductor to the Chefs serving hot chocolate and cookies. And who can forget Santa! Experience this 1 hour live-action spectacular while riding in vintage passenger cars out of the historic City of Fillmore.
Call 805-524-2546 or visit FWRY.com for more information and to purchase tickets. Josh Carsman, Marketing Director has mentioned that tickets are already selling fast so don’t wait!

Ennis graduated from Ventura High and Sheridan Way.

by Amy Brown

Homegrown NBA superstar James Ennis III recently returned to his former elementary school, Sheridan Way Elementary in Ventura, to visit with students and inspire them to reach high—literally and figuratively. He brought school supplies, sports equipment, and gave the kids a pep talk for the coming school year and beyond. “It was great to see so many smiles on their faces. Back then I wish I’d had an NBA player come here!” said Ennis.

Ennis grew up in the avenues in the Westview Village housing project with his five siblings. He shared that he wanted to donate to Sheridan Way because he felt it was important to give back to the community. “I came from low poverty, it feels good to be home again. I wanted to give back once I made it to the NBA,” said Ennis. “I want to be a good role model—if you set the bar high, you can accomplish your goals.”

At 6’7”, the Philadelphia 76ers’ small forward is anything but small, but that didn’t stop him from enthusiastically diving in to play basketball with the elementary students during his visit to the school. He also posed for photos and signed autographs.

“It was really amazing having someone famous talk to us,” said Sofia Tadeo, a 4^th grader at Sheridan Way. “It’s pretty cool he went to school here; when he talked to us, he said we just have to work hard to achieve our goals.”

Ennis graduated from Ventura High and attended both Oxnard and Ventura colleges. He ultimately transferred to Cal State Long Beach, and was initially drafted into the NBA in 2013 by the Atlanta Hawks. He shared that education had been important to him, helping him to learn to work hard and have discipline. Asked who some of his early influencers were in Ventura, he responded that Felix Cortex at Ventura High had been one of his favorites, and that Coach Joey Ramirez at Ventura College had had a big influence on him, treating him like more than just a rising basketball star, but also like a person.

Asked if there was one message he wanted to leave with the students and kids growing up in the difficult area that he did, he replied, “I tell them anything is possible, and that there’s a lot of talent in the 805!”

Ventura County School Board Member Matt Almaraz attended the event as well, and stopped to shoot some hoops with the kids while Ennis spoke to visitors. “It’s pretty phenomenal that someone who came from this same area, this same school, is now a professional basketball player,” said Almaraz, who served years ago as a Youth Program Director at the Westpark Community Center where Ennis had played growing up. “I know the hardships these kids go through, and for someone to come back who’s made it, it’s really special to see.”