Napa Valley is ready for its close-up.
Say you’ve found yourself sitting out in the afternoon sun on a patio in the Napa Valley. You’ll have probably enjoyed a fabulous meal, maybe done some shopping, and perhaps nipped into a gallery or two. Or you may have worn yourself out on the bike trails or cooled off in a luxurious pool. Whatever your fancy, whether visitor or local, as evening falls, your thoughts might likely turn to film. If you’re in Napa Valley this November, you’re in for a pleasant surprise: Napa Valley is having a film festival!
After a successful series of launch events during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, in which Hollywood luminaries enjoyed the best of 16 Napa Valley wineries and tasty treats from Bottega Chef Michael Chiarello, Napa Valley Film Festival co-founders and directors Marc and Brenda Lhormer are delighted to announce their Napa festival will make its valley-wide debut November 9-13, with festival “villages” in Calistoga, St. Helena, Yountville and Napa. The Lhormers’ idea is to unite the culture of Napa Valley’s wine, food and arts with that of film—what many would call a natural pairing.
Chiarello, describing the concept of the festival in the context of Napa Valley, called to mind “a perfect alchemy when you blend the flavors of America’s best chefs and vintners with the brilliant storytellers of film and the backdrop of scenic vineyards.” From the reception he and the founders received at Sundance, success seems inevitable. “The new Napa Valley Film Festival is not to be missed by lovers of food, wine and film,” says Chiarello.
The Lhormers, producers of “Bottle Shock,” the film about the 1976 blind tasting in Paris, at which Napa Valley wines beat French wines and changed wine culture forever, say the festival will feature Napa Valley premieres of independent films; extensive question-and-answer sessions with directors, actors, producers and educators; pre-film wine tastings; after parties; and exclusive food-and-wine events with the filmmakers. “As planned, [this film festival] will complement the positioning that the Napa Valley Destination Council (NVDC) has been working to create for some time—that of the premier wine, food, arts and wellness destination in North America,” says NVDC President/CEO Clay Gregory.
NVDC adds another gem
Napa Valley, the iconic center for world-class wine and a desirable lifestyle, has been, in recent years, expanding its appeal. Aware that what makes the valley special can be sustained only with increased patronage by the right kind of tourist activity, Napa County’s leaders have been concentrating on cultivating the valley as a peerless destination for wine, food and the arts. The film festival, says Kristina Young, executive director of Arts Council Napa Valley (ACNV), “will be another gem in the crown of the arts and culture scene in Napa Valley.”
The idea came about, as most great ideas do, when opportunity met preparedness.
“Napa was looking for a big, signature event to bring the world’s attention back to Napa,” says Marc Lhormer, who got a call from the Napa Chamber of Commerce several years ago, inviting him to make a presentation. He says at that meeting, he shared a vision for what a film festival could look like, how it would benefit the local area and what it would take to make it happen. The chamber liked it. But Napa was in transition at the time, and the chamber decided it would be better to wait until the riverfront development was more complete.
The Lhormers had come to the attention of the Napa Chamber leadership because of their involvement in the Sonoma Valley Film Festival (SVFF), which the couple took over in 2001 and built into a notable and travel-worthy event. In 2007, during a transition process of handing the reins of SVFF over to a governing board of directors, the couple produced “Bottle Shock.” The film premiered at Sundance in January 2008.
Two years ago, they decided to get started in earnest on a Napa Valley Film Festival. They met with the Napa Valley Vintners and NVDC and talked to the Board of Supervisors and the Chambers of Commerce in Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga, trying to get a sense from the valley’s economic leaders of whether such a festival would be desirable. “The answer we got was, ‘Oh Yes! Please do it,’” says Marc.
They then began laying the groundwork and building relationships. One of the first things they did, says Lhormer, was create a founding patron program. “We still have a patron program, but the founders are first,” he says. “Patrons are paying for a first-class experience; they contribute a lot to help get us off the ground and help keep the prices reasonable for others.” These patrons tend to be film-lovers and arts people, not “the usual suspects,” he says, and certainly not “big corporate sponsors.”
“We have no big corporate sponsors,” he laughs. “It’s been a much more of a labor of love supported by individual patrons, though sponsors are jumping on board.” [Editor’s note: NorthBay biz is a sponsor of NVFF.]
Business needs the business
“There certainly hasn’t been any lack of support from the business community,” says Lisa Batto, CEO of the Napa Chamber of Commerce. “They’ve been extremely supportive. The Napa Tourism Improvement District, a nonprofit organization charged with promoting the city of Napa as a tourism destination and managed by the Napa Valley Destination Council, gave them a grant of $50,000 to support the effort, because ultimately, this festival will bring many millions of dollars into the community.” She estimates that when it hits its stride in the fifth year, the film festival could bring $4 to $5 million into the community, depending on the support it gets.
And why shouldn’t it succeed? “They have terrific value in Napa,” she says. “When looking at the competition—Santa Fe, Telluride—Napa Valley will quickly rise to the top because of its location and the organizers who are running it.”
The backing of the Destination Council helps. “We’ve worked pretty closely with [the Lhormers] since they got started,” says Gregory. “We helped them at their kick off event at Sundance this year. We’re very excited about being involved in it.” He quickly allows that the initial scale envisioned doesn’t match the scope of Sundance, but many of the same concepts do apply. “At Sundance,” he says, “the whole town of Park City has venues, hither and yon, with lots of things going on all at the same time—from lectures to interviews with stars and producers to the films. So I think it certainly can be done, and we have faith that the Lhormers can do it in a way that works.”
Two aspects that make the festival appealing to the locals are that, first, it will be a year-round presence. Lhormer says they’re planning occasional film nights throughout the year, either at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena, the Napa Valley Opera House in Napa and/or at private winery locations. Also, the festival is a 501C3 nonprofit organization. Lhormer says his intention is to funnel any leftover money to high schools to help kids learn about filmmaking. “Brenda created a model program at Sonoma Valley High School in 2002, which is still going strong,” says Marc, adding that one of their original students is now working with them in Napa.
Marc Lhormer understands that what works in Napa Valley is what supports the special flavor of the place: the agriculture, food, art and wine, and that the scope of the culture is expanding. “Wine tourism has sustained Napa,” he says. “Food is equally important. Now, over the last two to three years, we’re learning that Napa needs to be about more than just food and wine.” The arts is the natural lifestyle partner to world class scenery, wine and food. So to have a film festival in Napa Valley, for the enhancement of both tourism and local enjoyment, is a perfect fit.
Tourism sustains the local quality of life
“We’ve been working on bringing awareness about the arts to the visitors and locals for the last two years,” says ACNV’s Young, “specifically by marketing the arts and culture here.” She says they’ve learned, during a cultural planning process in 2008, that there isn’t a large enough resident population to support all the arts and culture in Napa Valley.
“Only one in 800 people need to attend an event every night to fill the venues that are available in San Francisco. Here in Napa, it’s one in 50.” Thus, our venues can’t be sustained by the resident population alone. “So we have to look to visitors to supplement our audiences. Luckily, we have millions of visitors every year.”
Now, to a local resident of, say, St. Helena, the phrase “millions of visitors” instantly brings to mind an image of a traffic nightmare. How have the Lhormers planned for the onslaught of film-hungry visitors? Their answer is to create four separate “Festival Villages” in Napa, St. Helena, Yountville and Calistoga. Each walkable village will have a significant portion of the complete festival program, with the films rotating around the valley so each feature-length film plays two or three times. Marc Lhormer’s idea is that, by doing this, traffic will be kept to a reasonable level and people can be encouraged to get out of their cars and walk. “We’re encouraging people to be drinking the wine, so not to be driving. We want them to be in conversation and in community with each other.”
Of course, people will have cars, so where will they put them while they do their walking about? Parking in St. Helena, for example, is always an issue, if you listen to locals. But Pam Simpson, president/CEO of the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce, feels confident that, with the additional parking behind the chamber’s new Welcome Center (due to open in October) on the southern end of Main Street, it should be adequate. “Also, along our streets, there’s plenty of parking,” she says. “So I think we have plenty of parking up here. Also we have [local bus system] the Vine to bring people up here from Napa.”
Simpson adds that she hopes to keep people’s cars in the south end of town and have them walk from there to the galleries, the Cameo Cinema and restaurants. The “village” aspect, as planned, will consist of a “wine experience tent, a VIP lounge and a welcome center. This is going to enhance every business in St Helena.
“I just went to Sundance this year,” she says, “to get a feel for the experience. We shopped in their shops; we ate in their restaurants; we stayed in their hotels. We did everything, because in between movies, you have nothing but time to kill. So it’s going to be a natural for business, especially with the Cameo right there on Main Street.”
Cathy Buck, the dynamo who single-handedly runs the Cameo Cinema and has turned it into a small-scale film mecca in St. Helena, can’t wait. “It seems to go hand-in-hand with what Napa Valley’s trying to do,” she says, “which is to be a destination area for the arts, along with food and wine. I think it’s a great idea.” The Cameo will be the only actual film theater venue used in the festival, and she’ll be busy. “They’re doing all the marketing. We create the venue. As soon as they know their schedule of events, we’ll start plugging the movies. So it’s something everybody’s looking forward to.”
A draw for locals, too
Lhormer specifically designed the festival as an inclusive event. “This is an attempt to unite the valley by giving everybody an opportunity to participate. We’re engaging all the food people. We have 95 wineries signed up. We’ll offer a series of dinners at private wine estates and price options for all budgets. We’ll have full festival passes, day passes, and people can come to the theaters for $10 ‘rush’ tickets to see just one program.
“It’s not just for the films,” continues Lhormer, “it’s also hearing the filmmakers we’re hosting talk about their films and interact with audiences. The compelling thing about a festival is ‘artist meets audience.’”
Lhormer is the artistic director as well as executive director of the festival, so one of his assignments is to curate the film program from new productions from the United States and around the world. He describes three components of the program: films submitted in response to an open call (these are films that may have played somewhere else); films Lhormer and his colleagues screened at other festivals, such as Sundance, which he them invited the filmmakers to submit; and films being held for end-of-year release by distributors and independent films that have been acquired (this includes major independent films, such as last year’s “The King’s Speech.”) This last category of films will typically be slated for opening or final night screenings—the “tent poles” that hold the event together.
Lhormer says the final program will probably have between 35 and 40 feature length films, 30 to 35 short films and will include juried and audience awards in a variety of categories.
Film and wine go hand in hand
“Napa Valley is about wine,” says Simpson, reflecting on the place a film festival has in the culture of wine and food. “But it’s more than that. It’s about the experience of the lifestyle. So it’s wine, arts, music—it’s everything—and this is sort of a missing piece.
“We’ve been blessed to have the Cameo here in St. Helena, which has always done a fantastic job in bringing in high-quality films, but it will be wonderful to have a festival that accentuates everything Napa Valley’s about. The Napa Valley Film Festival will be a full-on festival’s worth of experiences.
“We’re thrilled to have the film festival here and are supporting it 100 percent. We’re looking forward to entertaining guests as they come here, and can’t wait to extend our hospitality and have them here.”
The festival promises big names, big films and big excitement, says Lhormer, with 10 narrative features and 10 documentaries in the competitions, with eight or 10 “more daring, edgy” films in the “lounge” for the “more adventurous filmgoer.” There will be 10 or 12 additional screenings, both documentary and narrative, covering a broad range of topics, plus four to eight foreign films, 36 short films, and six “tent pole” films (the “Oscar buzz contenders”). In short, there’ll be something for everyone—and a great tradition for Napa Valley in the making.
