John Steinbeck famously opened his 1945 novel Cannery Row with the observation, “California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” OK, so it actually starts “Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise…” but the street is a microcosm of a larger and even more complex and stirring composite. In May 2010, local filmmaker, blogger and director of the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts Kirby Scudder set out on a yearlong project with filmmaker Mark Halfmoon to ascertain whether, in spite of her current problems, the Golden State still has the ability to inspire her inhabitants.
Scudder and Halfmoon crisscrossed the state—from Los Angeles to Mendocino, Whiskeytown to Napa, Joshua Tree to Sacramento—asking Californians adopted and native what they love about the state. The resulting film will screen along with another local film, Big John on the Road, about hot rod culture in Santa Cruz, on the closing day of the Santa Cruz Film Festival.
INSPIRED BY CALIFORNIA screens Saturday, May 14 at 1pm at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. Tickets $8. SantaCruzFilmFestival.org.
