Palo Alto International Film Festival Opens with a Bang

Hundreds of people swarmed Ramona Street Thursday night for the opening of the first Palo Alto International Film Festival.

The evening began with a free live performance by Wobbly World and ended with an overflow-crowd outdoor screening of Life in a Day, Kevin Macdonald’s new crowd-sourced documentary showcasing mini-stories from over 80,000 submissions produced around the world in a single day.

Rich Poliak, who works at SLAC, said he’d never heard of PAIFF and had just been wandering by when he saw the street vendors, band and large outdoor screen on Ramona Street between University and Hamilton.

“It’s really something to see the number of people out here,” he said. “It’s a beautiful evening, some great music, a nice crowd, and actually some pretty compelling films.”

PAIFF Executive Director Devyani Kamdar was ecstatic at the turnout and success.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” she said.

Kamdar described the process of putting the festival together as like “rolling a snowball up a hill” at first, but after reaching the top, she said, “the snowball really just took off, and it’s the support from the community that made that happen.”

The City of Palo Alto was supportive from day one, according to Kamdar.

“They were 100 percent behind the effort, and they did everything that we could have hoped they would do, especially for a festival that had never happened before.”

City Manager Jim Keene said the decision to support PAIFF was an easy one.

“It was really clear that they’re another one of those fantastic Palo Alto assets that lots of folks might not be aware of but who are just committed to doing creative and innovative things in our city,” said Keene.

Rather than require festival organizers to sit through an arduous process of red tape and bureaucracy, the city predominantly tried to get out of the way.

“Finding your way through the maze of a city government can be really challenging for a lot of folks,” he said. “Our job is to really not have them worry or think about that stuff.”

That approach—getting out of the way and supporting event organizers however possible—is one that Keene has pioneered and strengthened over the last three years, according to former Mayor Pat Burt.

“The city under Jim’s leadership has created a culture where we’re going to collaborate more than we have in the past with a whole bunch of community entities,” said Burt.

The early success and value offered by the new film festival, however, was really the work of the Palo Alto Institute, he said.

“This is a nonprofit institute that had ideas on supporting the farmer’s market and open mic nights and other creative things, and then they came up with this grand vision to have a technology film festival centered in Palo Alto,” he said. “What better place than Palo Alto for technology and film?”

Looking around at the packed crowd around him, Burt was visibly impressed.

“We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people here having a great time—this is a great event. Palo Alto Institute deserves a lot of credit.”

The festival begins in earnest Friday with full-day schedules of events, including films, speakers and workshops, all curated under the theme of film technology and innovation.

“The Bay Area is the epicenter of film technology and is the apex for the paradigm shifts that are happening right now,” said Kamdar.

From the festival’s films screenings to a world-class speaker series to a meticulously crafted and wildly imaginative children’s program, Kamdar insists nobody will be disappointed.

“There is something here from everyone,” she said.

Palo Alto International Film Festival

Website | Tickets | Guide 

Runs Friday, September 30 - Sunday, October 2, 2011