Trade&Row Presents
Saturday Fantasy
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Rec Center Studio, Echo Park, CA
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What is Saturday Fantasy?
Saturday Fantasy (the short name for We, the People 2009: Saturday Fantasy Film Festival) is an all-day festival on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at the Rec Center Studio in Echo Park, CA, exploring hope and fear in light of the current economic situation.
The festival will showcase selected film shorts of all different genres and will be accompanied by workshops/discussions about the role imagination plays in examining economic/social issues, and the different forms of science-fiction and fantasy that people enjoy.
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What is the purpose of Saturday Fantasy?
Saturday Fantasy is designed to be a community-oriented film festival where we showcase films by filmmakers at varying points in their careers. As filmmakers are able to attend, we facilitate discussion about their work and record interviews with the goal of demonstrating how films are complementary to one another, bringing more value to the overall festival theme. Regardless of genre, we want to show how important film is to informing the dialogue about social issues.
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How did Saturday Fantasy come to be?
Saturday Fantasy is this year’s theme for We, the People Film Festival, which was established to showcase films that are entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Each year the festival works under a distinctive theme inspired by current events with the intent to create a space that is accessible for community members to talk about social issues. Our first year, we featured documentaries that spoke to the diversity of our national community in relation to the presidential campaign, to represent the complexity and challenges the successful candidate would have to face in pursuit of the vote
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Why is it named Saturday Fantasy?
This year’s festival name and theme was inspired by the Saturdays of our youth where programming we experienced focused on some element of fantasy or escapism: cartoons, professional wrestling, variety shows, comic books and suspense films. The atmosphere seemed more playful and sometimes simplistic, but there was always a lesson to be learned. With the new administration entering the White House with the mantra of “hope” when so many people were facing uncertainty, we translated our idea of fantasy to think about how people cope in times like these and the type of future we could imagine when things seem so uncertain.
In terms of film, we considered the popularity of science-fiction, animation and horror and the ways imagination, hope and fear are integrated themes that make these genres so popular. We expanded the genres of films this year to broaden the range of filmmakers we are exposed to and attract an audience that can make a connection between these films and social issues.
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Where will Saturday Fantasy be held?
This year’s festival will be held at Rec Center Studio at 116 Logan St Los Angeles, CA 90026. Rec Center has played host to numerous social and community events, and is situated in the heart of Echo Park, one of Los Angeles’ quintessential melting-pot neighborhoods, which is home to independent establishments like The Echo, Echoplex, Echocurio, Stories Bookstore, 826LA and more.
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Who is Trade&Row?
Trade&Row is a Los Angeles-based 501c3 nonprofit organization established to raise awareness of current issues. We support and develop community-based programs that engage current issues through the visual, performing and literary arts. Our programs are designed to be accessible, inclusive and conversational while also being enjoyable.