The Topanga Film Festival: A festival rooted in heart, love and respect with the soundtrack of coyote howls and vocal community support. The vision of this festival started in our founder’s backyard twenty years ago—painting our Canyon with films of conversation, storytelling and the importance of being understood and intently heard. Here’s to an abundance of gratitude to our guru and mentor Urs Baur.
Over Labor Day weekend this year I had the honor of being part of this team again, as events producer and creator of the Charlie Chaplin Showcase. This year, as a team, we presented a new chapter of the festival, under the fresh leadership and brilliance of our co-directors Scott Bremner and Adam Nobel Roberts. Their drive and compassion excite us and will bring this festival all the recognition it deserves.
As the lights dim and the crackling sound of film fills our souls, we are brought together in a moment of solidarity to learn more, care more deeply and remember that one voice can make a difference. The films chosen under the theme this year of Reframing Cinema of Uncertain Times opened up a dialogue of future film projects that can reshape our society as a whole. And it must be mentioned that none of what we are seeing and hearing would be possible without the wizard behind the screen and soundboard, our beloved technical director William Preston Bowling, with the festival since day one.
Our team is a coyote family working together for a positive outcome of the greater good. We delegate to each other working as one big brain to create an experience of mental expansion and uplifting our purpose to create change. Films are chosen by our programmers, headed by Maya Oloe along with the opinions of our new directors. The fabulous Phoebe Sarason was our head juror this year. She contributed greatly by spearheading the jury and helping to award the films that we selected for competition. The entire film weekend edited with an artistic eye syncing film, sizzle reel images and attention to detail in the Chaplin Showcase is none other than our team coyote editor Darius Fisher, we thank you. Narrowing down films to fill a weekend is no easy task and this year the films chosen created conversations that left minds questioning worth, environments appearing more green and international commonality that bonds us as equal community partners that want the same thing : hope, happiness and a chance to take a deep breath.
At the start of the year we got together to strategize how we wanted to address and tailor a conversation of film and how it becomes a part of us, changing who we are. Before any films are chosen, a theme sets the tone and graphics set the scene. Each deliberate line and color of a graphic that represents us will determine the branding of our emotional, physical and tangible act that is our festival life. Our graphics and website were created by TFF co-director Scott Bremner.
Our themes and dialogue presented on our website and posted on our social media develop a more in-depth film journey of how to present the conversation. Deanna Read, our social media manager, has helped us with a strong online presence and guidance this past year, as a valuable part of the team. Intentional choices and distinct looks from computer to screen continue to inspire us and help us make a mark of art framed and reframed throughout the Canyon.
The festival starts with the team and our team does support each other. We are a nonprofit organization, running off the love of bringing a message through film to the community and the World. Each member supports the collective vision. The coordination it takes from all of us makes days and times blurry, however, when organized, so successful.
Helping to organize us and have us strive for ultimate success is our “coach”, Bruce Royer. Especially in our kickoff events or fundraising soirées, as a live auctioneer and friend of the festival, he is there always making something happen. Running the whole Volunteer squad is Teresa Rosati. Her drive to make things better each time while fitting strengths to volunteer positions is highly appreciated. Every festival weekend we prove to each other that we are one big family doing this because we love to do it.
As the resident Charlie Chaplin within this festival, it is a deep honor to be among people who inspire me to make my own dreams come true. This year, presenting a film of Chaplin’s that premiered 90 years ago, Modern Times, I created another moment of reflection on the arc of cinema and the stories that continue to be told because we need to hear them. We need to see them. We need to be them.
Chaplin‘s work on film reminds us to be a better person in the present moment. To look at humanity and kindness, and want to help one another. As a perfectionist, Chaplin wanted to learn every side of the camera, each year adding another accomplishment to his list within the industry. Starring, producing, composing, writing and directing, helped him understand every part of the industry. He seamlessly portrayed empathy, sympathy and compassion, enriching the conversation and becoming more relatable. Taking a simple conversation without sound and making it the loudest thing we’ve ever heard, his gift.
This was my fifteenth Charlie Chaplin showcase and it was on a different level for me. It became more than a showcase : It became a Chaplin Experience. A photograph captured of a room full of Charlies. “A day without laughter is a day wasted”—Charles Spencer Chaplin.
Thank you to a community that continues to inspire, create, communicate and share our love of film and tell stories and for us to tell the story together. A new chapter indeed has begun for the Topanga film festival. You will be seeing a lot more from us in 2027. Let the Coyotes howl!
By Miranda Robin
