Int’l Ocean Film festival Ana Blanco , Brian Baird

Hi, it's Pat Patterson with the Best of California, and I am here. I'm so excited. We're in the middle of the International Ocean Film Festival, and I have two of the key major domos of this festival with me today. Anna Blanco is the executive director, and she is formerly, I believe, Anna, bizworld.org is what I saw in your bio, and also the San Francisco Foundation, and currently a part of the Blue Water Foundation. That's correct. So you are literally up to your neck in the ocean. Exactly. And Brian Baird, who's on the board of directors of the festival, is the current president of the Coastal States Stewardship. He also has an amazing history helping conserve the ocean, is the former California Assistant Secretary for Ocean Policy for four governor's administrations, Wilson, Davis, Schwarzenegger, and most recently the second Brown administration. There we go. Everybody's worked for Governor Brown at some point. But anyway, I'm delighted to have both of you here. I bought my tickets for the festival. We want to promote getting more people to buy tickets. So Anna, as the director, just kind of give me a quick overview of what the festival does. So what we do is we bring ocean-related films from all over the world to our festival to encourage people and inspire people to become better ocean stewards, to learn about our ocean, and to understand how much the ocean impacts us and how it's up to us to protect it. It's a water planet. We're just visitors crawling around on terra firma, right? Exactly. It's 70% of the earth is the ocean, so we should know more about it. Yeah. And Brian, I know you have a background in conservation with the ocean. How did you get involved with the festival? Well, I got involved because my entire career has been involved with protecting and managing the ocean. And as you point out, I was Assistant Secretary for Ocean Policy for about 18 years under a bunch of governors. And so I got involved with all these really big issues with protecting the ocean. And it's hard, and it wears on you. And suddenly along came the Ocean Festival, which is suddenly taking all of this hard work that we all did to protect the ocean, and it's mixing art and science and passion about doing these things. So for me, it's just a lovely, wonderful organization. And when you see these films, they are really out of the box. I mean, they're really different and interesting. Yeah. And I've got to imagine, I know that film, My Octopus Teacher, is that the one that's such a big hit right now? It's going to be Oscars. I mean, do you notice any kind of newer interest in the genre? I mean, and I know I should back up and say, I know, obviously, like everything, this was an in-person film festival that now has gone virtual. So we're going to put the information here for people to buy tickets. But this kind of thing can ride trends and whatnot. We just recently celebrated Earth Day. What do you see in terms of people's awareness of what you're doing, Anna? I'm finding that a lot more people are aware of the oceans. There's a lot more conversation about climate change. You know, President Biden just announced yesterday his plan for climate change. And people are realizing that there is so much more, the ocean is so much more important than we realize. And films like The Octopus Garden, I mean, hallelujah for the octopus, right? It's getting so much attention as an animal, but also how humans engage with animals in the ocean. So we have a few of our own octopus films. And so, you know, the variety of subject matter within the films is what's so interesting. Yeah. And Brian, maybe you can speak to the fact, because I don't want to represent this as it's all about the environment and conservation and doom and gloom. There's some hot dog surfing films as well, right? And you can speak to that. There are some great surfing films. And one of them, Mar, which I just loved, I told Anna last night, it's all about this, I believe he's a Portuguese surfer who went all over, it shows him going all over the world. And, you know, it's just a really nice guy who's really in tune with nature and the ocean. But he's a real badass, too. I mean, he goes out in these things that are scary. And twice during the film, he's injured, one of them pretty seriously on a fall off Portugal, or I guess he was on the back of a jet ski and a huge wave hit him and he got smashed against it. But I mean, it's really, really exciting. So I think the thing about these films that are great is that, yes, you're going to see whales and you're going to see sharks and you're going to see all the natural things which are wonderful, but there's some very, very cool action movies. Kind of the endless summer meets the X Games, it sounds like. It was. Yeah, exactly. Right. And so for both of you, Anna, you know, just overall mission of the festival, you know, like Eddie, you know, I'm here in Hollywood, so I know like any festival, it's to help expose filmmakers and directors to a bigger world. Do actual deals come out of your festival like Sundance? I mean, are people getting distribution? Yeah, you'd be surprised. We've had a few films been picked up for distribution. You know, that's kind of what a festival really does. It promotes the film, it shows interest in the subject matter. We've had several films get picked up by Netflix, Animal Planet and a few others. So there's something for everybody. And the mission of the festival is to restore and balance ocean biodiversity for independent films. So there's more than 80 films online to watch. There's 22 feature films, 11 programs, so themed programs like shark conservation, coastal cultures and communities, surfing, obviously. We have a new category for female directors, which is really exciting. Whales is always a big popular program. And then we have free programs. We have our free student film competition. So that's the top 10 finalists of our high school and our middle school competition. And how do how do how do students get in touch with you for that just on your website or? Yeah, we have a global international student film competition. Films have to be five minutes or less and kids from all over the world submit their films. And it's really fun because the technology is there for them to produce something really good. And they're the voice of the next ocean leaders. So they have a lot to say. And it's just one of the best parts of the film festival. Yeah. How about you, Brian? What do you what do you see as the future for the festival and where it can make a difference? Well, well, one thing in my field that when you talk about you don't manage the ocean most of the time, most of the time you you manage people and you try and empower people and bring them into all of this. And what's so great about the festival is people are educated about things like climate change, which is complicated about about the life of whales, the life of sharks, the life of an octopus or whatever. But but they come away with a passion that they really want to see things happen. They really want to see these areas protected. So that's what I love about this. That's why after after I retired from all these other positions now, it's kind of working on the passion of this and the passion translates to people want to do something and it translates to their actions and hopefully makes a change in the ocean. So that's why this is just so spectacular and wonderful. I just love it. Yeah, well, I can tell you both passionate about this and just to be able to appreciate from a filmmaking standpoint, the aesthetics and the beauty of a natural place that is under attack. And so, you know, certainly to be able to to to bring that education to people that maybe don't live by the ocean, they're in Ohio, they're wherever, you know, and to make them aware of what a precious resource we have. Well, Anna, I keep saying Anna because it's one N. Anna Blanco and Brian Baird, I appreciate your time. We're going to give you all the information on the International Ocean Film Festival. I bought tickets. You need to buy tickets and stay involved. You can are there are there volunteer positions people can get involved in or anything that. Yeah, well, you know, in addition to buying tickets, we have volunteer opportunities. Everything's on our website. You know, World Ocean Day is right around the corner. So we're getting ready for that as well. World Ocean Day. What date is that? June 8th. June 8th. Well, there we go. There'll be another good reason to bring you guys back and talk some more. Pat Pattison with the Best of California. Thank you, Anna and Brian. And we'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Great.