Lights, Camera...

Del Weston fulfilled a filmmaking dream seven years ago when one of his projects was accepted into a film festival. He spread the word far and wide to friends, family and throughout the industry and drew a crowd to watch its debut, but instead of feeling pride in the end, he and his partners experienced what can only be described as abject frustration and disappointment.

“We paid a lot to promote it, and when we got there we found our films were being shown on sheets on walls and we found it was horrible — the most low-grade thing you could find,” Weston recalled. “We decided right then that if we could [find a way] to not only showcase filmmakers’ work but their projects and dreams in a great venue, then we would do it.”

With that decision, the Action on Film Festival (AOF) was born. Originally launched in the Long Beach Convention Center four years ago, the fest has built a strong enough reputation to draw veteran action-film stars like David Carradine, John Saxon and Bill Duke, who have all received the fest’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

This year AOF is moving to Pasadena and the Laemmle One Colorado Cinema, a change that was made for two reasons: because it’s a lot closer to Weston and his partners at EFC Films in Sierra Madre, and because Weston wanted to increase the fest’s presentation quality by moving it from temporary screens set up in conference rooms into a full-fledged movie theater. 

“It’s so key to have a movie shown in the way it was meant to be seen. If someone spent all their money, you want to have them feel they had the best possible experience with it,” said Weston. “A lot of people think that because of our festival’s name that it’s meant to only spotlight action films, but in reality it stands for all the action that goes on in front of the camera and behind the camera to make your film happen — what’s the action of the filmmaker, and what’s the reaction of the audience to what you’ve done? So we have all types of films, but we also have discussions with the filmmakers at the screenings to teach people about what went into the work.”

To further highlight that AOF defies the genre expectations of its title, Weston points out that one of this year’s festival highlights is “That Stupid Rabbit,” an “absolutely amazing” black comedy from Russia following the misadventures of an actor who plays a bad rabbit in children’s plays but dreams of being Bruce Willis.

The AOF’s packed schedule of films and discussions begins at 1 p.m. and ends at midnight each day from July 25 to July 31. As a bonus for attendees, each film is packaged with five live-action shorts and an animated short to offer a more well-rounded entertainment experience.

In addition to internationally produced films, this year’s AOF also boasts several locally produced films. For instance, “The Red Canvas” stars veteran actor John Savage (this year’s AOF Lifetime Achievement Award winner) in a martial arts drama created by filmmakers from Monrovia and Pasadena.

Other Pasadena filmmakers represented in the festival include Dave Szamet, whose documentary “Beyond Borders: The Debate Over Human Migration” explores the psychology behind extremism on both sides of the illegal immigration issue. As such, the screening will feature a post-film discussion between the head of the Minutemen border watchdog group and an immigrant support group leader — an event Weston predicts could get fairly intense.

Other Pasadenans involved include Gail Anderson, whose documentary short “Swinging of the Fireballs” explores an ancient New Year’s fire tradition in Scotland. And “The Galloping Gamows” follows the life stories of Caltech physicist George Gamow and his son Igor, who became a ballet dancer before following his dad into science.

Weston himself produced “Taxi Man,” a tragic drama about a love affair between immigrants from disparate cultures that goes horribly awry.

“Our big thing is we don’t care about the budget or production size per se, but rather the story the film is trying to tell and if they can translate it from the page to the screen,” said Weston. “And we take pride that we’ve been able to really help some filmmakers — like Mark Mahon, who came to us four years ago with a film that won our best screenplay award that year, and two years later he was given a $30 million budget to make ‘Strength and Honor’ with Michael Madsen and Richard Chamberlain. He’ll be here for a screening with Madsen, too, this year.”

Perhaps the most intriguing festival film by a Pasadena resident might be the documentary “Ahmed, Say Something Funny” by Thelma Vickroy. Following the life of practicing Muslim and rising comedy star Ahmed Ahmed, the documentary mixes onstage comedy with offstage serious moments to present a well-rounded portrayal of a man uniquely able to express what life is like for Muslims in post-9/11 America.

“I met Ahmed through friends of mine who saw him perform at an Islamic center in a special show with a rabbi that was designed to present a Jewish-Muslim dialogue in a fun way,” said Vickroy, who is a television production professor at Cal State Northridge. “It was the beginning of 2002, and they took me to see him at the Comedy Store. His humor is very Egyptian, and his father has the same sense of humor, but to me his conflict was twofold: First, it was tough for his family to accept him as comedian and actor because he was the firstborn son. And second, he was trying to be a funny guy when most people wouldn’t assume he’d be that funny due to his culture.”

Vickroy immersed herself in the LA standup comedy scene to get a full sense of the world Ahmed was competing in and followed his life for most of a three-year period.

She came to realize that Ahmed’s story provided a great example of how film can impact the culture in a positive way — particularly in the post-9/11 era, one in which Muslims often don’t receive much support or understanding from strangers.

“There are two messages: that we all have that universal theme of trying to fit in. It doesn’t matter how, but we all try. I think that’s one of the things that they’ll see Ahmed struggle with: succeeding at comedy and trying to be successful,” says Vickroy. “He works really, really, really hard and I’m happy for him, because that’s a universal struggle anybody has, no matter where you come from.”
“Ahmed, Say Something Funny” plays at 8 p.m. Tuesday.  

The Action on Film Festival takes place from 1 p.m. to midnight from July 25 to July 31 at the Laemmle’s One Colorado Cinema, which is inside the One Colorado Courtyard, north of Colorado Boulevard between Fair Oaks and DeLacey avenues in Pasadena. For tickets or more information, visit www.aoffest.com.