10
Loading video...
By H. Alan Scott
Senior Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
In a tiny community a little more than an hour north of Los Angeles, a sold-out crowd showed up to watch a four-hour documentary about Elon Musk. That should demonstrate the popularity of documentaries right now thanks to films like Alex Gibney’s Musk and You Can See Everything from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheimer.
"Docs do really well in Ojai," David Berger, owner of the Ojai Playhouse, told Newsweek. "There is just a lot of interest in real topics.”
...
Read More on Entertainment
Musk was the opening night selection of the Ojai Documentary Film Festival. The week-long festival, presented by Berger’s Ojai Playhouse and Hotel El Roblar, showed weighty films like the previously mentioned Musk and You Can See Everything, but also films like Nuisance Bear, Jean-Michel Basquiat and a special event with The Queen of Versailles’ director Lauren Greenfield.
"The theater opened in 1914 as a movie theater," Berger said. "It has been a movie theater for 112 years, and it has always reflected the movies and the town. It always provided culture."
The diversity of the programming really speaks to the moment documentary films are having in culture, and that was by design. Starting things off with Musk is intentionally thought-provoking, the exact point of a documentary.
"It is a movie of its time in a topic that is really happening," Berger said of Musk. "There are a lot of people that are really awake here, and they love the movies."
And it’s these conversations in the shadow of Hollywood that are perhaps the biggest takeaway. You’d be forgiven to think you’re far away from the industry in this tiny community, but in fact, this is where many within the industry come to escape Los Angeles and have these thoughtful conversations about film that are sometimes hard to get authentically in L.A.
"I always say the playhouse is the retreat within the retreat," Berger said. "People connect and they talk and there is connection and there is empathy."
Immediately following the documentary festival, the Ojai Playhouse will be holding its Ojai Playhouse Film Festival, showcasing some of the biggest award contenders this year.
"When you have a theater and you use creativity, you can create these little festivals," Berger said. "It is 23 movies over a week of all the precursor award-contending movies."
With so much talent hiding in plain sight, you shouldn't overlook Ojai's festivals.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines