Vallejo-based film festival seeks submissions for September Art Walk screening

VALLEJO — Bay Area Cinema is accepting submissions of family-friendly short films and videos for a screening at a pop-up microcinema during the Sept. 8 Art Walk. The show will be free to the public.

All different genres — including animation, experimental, documentary, narrative and music videos — are accepted.  Underground, human rights and environmental-themed submissions are encouraged. The submission deadline is July 1.

“We highly encourage BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), developmentally disabled people and marginalized folks to submit their films, because we'd like to show a diverse group of filmmakers,” Bay Area Cinema co-organizer Janet Martinez-Eliot said.

Martinez-Eliot, an experimental filmmaker with an undergraduate degree in film theory, conceived the event while volunteering for the Vallejo Art Walk committee. It launched last year and September will be its fourth show.

“I identified an opportunity to create a platform where independent filmmakers from diverse backgrounds could share their art, collaborate, and network with other artists to support their film art,” Martinez-Eliot said.

Filmmakers and some of the actors will be at the show. “The audience gets to interact and ask questions with the filmmakers, so that's the fun part,” Martinez-Eliot said. “The audience is made up of individuals that live in Vallejo and come to the Art Walk, and also family members and friends of the filmmakers, so it's definitely a community event.”

Vallejo filmmakers from past events included TJ Walkup of Omnific Pictures, Caroline “Mills” Miller of the Flaming Lotus Girls, actor and musician Chris Vardijan of Mendocino Experience, musician and videographer Tymn Urban, musician and digital artist Michael Guy Bowman, and Martinez-Eliot, herself.

Past contributors from nearby cities included San Francisco filmmaker Marian Wallace, Elaine Lai from Palo Alto and Lauren Black from Cotati.

Bay Area Cinema solicits family-friendly submissions, but Black’s “Horrific High” with mature content was shown at last April's screening.

“It was just such a good film we made an exception,” Martinez-Eliot said. The film was scheduled at the end of the show, clearly marked in the program, and an announcement about the adult content was made before it ran. Martinez-Eliot said that future exceptions will be handled the same way.

Martinez-Eliot’s husband, David Eliot, is the other Bay Area Cinema co-organizer. He helps curate the film submissions, runs the projector, and creates the project’s promotional graphics.

Martinez-Eliot is also busy volunteering to compile an environmental heroes-themed film collection for the “Visions of the Wild” festival to be shown at the Vallejo Museum in October.

The venue for September’s event is undecided. The first event was held at the Townhouse Cocktail Lounge. The next two were held at Morningstar Delights next door to accommodate viewers under 21. Martinez-Eliot is eyeing the larger RiverBank venue for September’s showing, but that has not been finalized.

Visit filmfreeway.com/VallejoArtWalkBayAreaCinema to learn more or submit your work or contact Martinez-Eliot directly at vallejoartwaIkBAC@gmail.com.