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| Film society goes far afield By Stacy Trevenon--[ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 4:32 PM PDT Three short films, and a documentary on a legendary aviatrix filmed with help from a Coastside resident, will make interesting Coastside Film Society viewing this week. It begins at 8 p.m. Friday, June 15, at the Community United Methodist Church at 777 Miramontes St. in Half Moon Bay. The three shorts were made by San Francisco State University film students. They include the seven-minute "Evolution of an Image" by Patrick Conrad, a portrait of an unusual section of the city as it changes from moment to moment, and the six-minute "Lost Found Present" by Angela Park, which follows an unopened present from a father to a daughter. Lost at a bus stop, the gift poses quandaries for the daughter when she is grown. Finally, there is the 12-minute "My Olympic Summer" by Daniel Rubin. In it, a man watches films of his past and present family life and tries to understand his mother and father, a rabbi who went to the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, and was with the athletes captured by Palestinian terrorists. His father escaped. The feature is 60-minute "World Without Walls: Beryl Markham's African Memoir" about pilot and equestrienne Beryl Markham (1902-1986.) Writers/producers Steve Talbot, Joan Saffa and Judy Flannery, in the mid-1980s, wove the film out of archival black-and-white newsreel footage, modern color footage shot in Kenya where Markham lived - and patched-in clips such as a segment filmed over Catalina Island from a single-engine Cessna piloted by Half Moon Bay resident and film society president Luanne Paul King. The film captures Markham's childhood in Kenya where she learned to hunt, track and ride. At 19, she became a professional race horse trainer and the first woman to receive a trainer's license in Kenya. She was only 24 when "Wise Child," the first of many of her champion horses, won a prestigious race. In her 30s she developed a passion for flying and became Kenya's first female licensed pilot and first successful woman bush pilot. In 1930 she flew solo, against the jet stream, from London to New York in a Percival Gull monoplane. The filmmakers also drew from Markham's bestselling memoir "West With the Night," given voice by "Brideshead Revisited" actress Diana Quick. According to the film society, it was hailed as "a bloody wonderful book" by Ernest Hemingway. Following her transatlantic flight, Markham worked in Hollywood. She died in Nairobi at 83. Admission to the film night is $6 at the door. For information, visit hmbfilm.org. • AT A GLANCE What: Coastside Film Society shorts and feature "World Without Walls" Where: Community United Methodist Church, 777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay When: 8 p.m. Friday, June 15 Cost: $6 Information: hmbfilm.org |