The 6th Annual Beach Shorts Film Fest will screen 16 short films Saturday, Aug. 18 at the Hermosa Beach Community Theatre.
Put on by El Segundo resident Barry Hatchett, the theme of Beach Shorts Film Fest is surfing and beach lifestyles, which include skateboarding, paddle boarding and beach volleyball.
After six years, Hatchett said he received his first international submission from the U.K. called Portrait of a Surfer, featuring Sam Bleakley, a British and European longboard champion who is also writer.
The G or PG-rated films vary in length this year from 3-11 minutes. Hatchett said the event will last about three hours.
“It’s just to show the fun of living at the beach and our active community,” Hatchett said. “We gear it toward teens, but it’s not exclusive for teens. It’s for everyone. It’s good to have a family night to take the kids out to. And it’s good for the surf community, for people who like to make movies or people who like to see movies. We do it for fun.”
This year’s feature filmmaker is Chris Aguilar, who will be screening a clip from his movie Destination 3, which was Stand Up Paddle Magazine’s Movie of the Year in 2011.
Aguilar, who grew up in the South Bay, will also show footage from last month’s Molokai paddleboard race from Molokai to Oahu.
The film fest will also include Joe Aaron, the 2010 and 2011 Orange County Longboarder of the Year. Aaron is also a fine artist, and he and his brother Jordan Thomas will showcase their paintings at the event.
The event’s featured artist is Ron Regalado, whose art depicts surfing and beach life, including photography and painting and some mixed media. Two other artists will also display their work: Brian McStott and Candace Stalder.
Art at the event will be for exhibit and for sale, and prizes will be awarded to the best amateur films. Adam Davenport of Davenport Longboards for the fifth year in a row has donated a surfboard for the raffle estimated in value at more than a thousand dollars. Other prizes include a skateboard, artwork, boogie board, T-shirts and other small items.
Hatchett said he is expecting 400 people to attend this year.
“It gets bigger every year, and I think it get better every year,” Hatchett said, adding that some films are surfing films, some are travel logs, and others are environmentally focused.
“I’m always excited to see different film ideas,” Hatchett said. “I’m always excited to see filmmakers return after a previous year because that means they had fun in order to make another movie. It means a lot to me when someone says, ‘I made a movie for your festival.’”
Hatchett said the community theater is a terrific first-time venue. “It’s not like gathering friends around your laptop. It is a gas to see a movie on the big screen,” Hatchett said.
Tickets are $10. The film fest starts at 7 p.m. The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. The Hermosa Beach Community Theatre is located at 710 Pier Avenue.
For more information on this event, visit beachshortsfilmfest.com.
