Life is Sweet at the Echo Park Film Center

It’s another after school session at the co-op, which offers free filmmaking classes for youth under 18 and to seniors over 65. For those unfortunate enough to land between these ages, the media center offers classes for a nominal fee. This season, the kids are working on a project called Edendale Follies, a nod to the silent era Keystone Cops films and Tom Mix Westerns that were once made in the Echo Park/Silver Lake area. To be shot on black-and-white Super 8mm film, this is the 17th youth course Davanzo has taught since opening the collective.

“A lot of the Center is about celebrating film for film, having dialogue with people in the same room and being nurturing. I sound like a hippie when I say that, but a 12-year-old kid or 80-year-old man or hipster – everyone -- should be treated equally and encouraged to create and make art,” says the co-founder and Executive Director.

Since the EPFC’s inception the space has tripled in size, more than 200 students have made movies for free and over 1000 nights of independent and experimental film programming have graced the welcoming microcinema.

“There’s nothing else like it,” says Troy Perry, teaching assistant for Edendale Follies. He recently completed the short film Corpus Serenade, a selection of the Cannes
Film Festival Short Film Corner. “In Los Angeles, there are plenty of film programs. A lot of them are geared into getting high school kids into the industry, which is great. Whether they become filmmakers in Hollywood or not isn’t relevant to me, it’s what they get out of the process that matters. Are they wiser, more confident people? Have they grown from this experience? That’s really the point for me.”

But shooting on Super 8 in the age of YouTube?

“I do love it,” Davanzo says, smiling. “And for a 12-year-old who has never touched film, they can hold it up to the light and see images for the first time. That’s a magical occurrence.”

Besides the nostalgia and tangibility associated with celluloid, the efforts at EPFC also keep practicality in mind. “We have G5s in the back, we edit digitally and 80 percent of what we screen is on our video projector,” Davanzo points out. “But you can have an old Super 8 camera from a thrift store for 20 bucks, buy a roll of film for $10, you can shoot it, snip it, project it and have a movie. Five years ago when we started, Apple computers were two to three thousand dollars, digital cameras were a thousand dollars – it was still cost prohibitive. Now it’s more accessible, but still, most kids in the neighborhood can’t afford a computer and digital camera.”

Says Perry, “For the teenagers working with Super 8mm, it’s like painting or sculpture. It’s easy to get disconnected watching footage at a computer, but with film it’s something physical that you’re actually molding with your hands.”

Before becoming a volunteer, Perry frequented the many screenings at the microcinema. The activities and inclusive atmosphere of EPFC harken back to Perry’s days as a teenager in Hawaii. “It brings me back full circle to when I started making animated films in a weekend workshop that got me through a rough time in life. To me, this is a new opportunity to expand my creative mind and connect with the community and the kids.”

For Davanzo, inspiring these bonds between people comes from a legacy handed down to him from his parents. It’s what also instigated his idea for the collective. “Both of my parents were activists and worked for the poor and disenfranchised. They died in my early 20s, and I felt like I needed to continue that legacy of activism in their spirit.”

With a background as a teacher and filmmaker, Davanzo decided to open a clubhouse of sorts as a venue for filmmaking, activism and education. “And it happened,” he modestly says. “When it happened, the center was a third of the space. I had friends living in the back, I hung a sheet and said, ‘We have a cinema!’ And it grew and grew. It’s growing in the sense that we’re reaching more kids, we’re teaching more classes, we’re having a stronger pull in the community.”

Amid this progress, the center still evokes the same atmosphere of its humble beginnings even as the neighborhood succumbs to gentrification. The fun, supportive vibe in the brick building near the corner of Sunset and Alvarado hasn’t changed. “Do we want to grow? Sure. But sometimes if you get too big, you lose your mission,” he admits. “We’d like to have salaries, maybe a consolidated cinema as opposed to moving all the chairs back and forth, but if that means moving to a different neighborhood, then no. We like being here. I like that the kids walk here. I know the priest on the corner, the old ladies down the street. We have a vested interest in this neighborhood.”

The five-year milestone is significant in many ways. “We’ve made it five years, but in many ways we are still fledging. At the same time, I get phone calls from places like Des Moines, Iowa from people who want to start a cinema and look to us for guidance. If anything, it’s empowering people throughout the city and the world to make films, show films that you aren’t going to find in a multiplex and have an exchange of ideas.”

The kids in the class are excited about the upcoming anniversary party and fundraiser on Sunday, as are their families and the staff of the EPFC. The all ages event open to the public will include films, mounds of cake, a raffle and music by Magic Gas, Telematique, The Blank Tapes and Listing Ship.

“It’s a celebration!” exclaims Davanzo, throwing his hands into the air. “We’ve made it five years and we’re very proud of it. It’s a day to give thanks to the community and a day to give thanks to our volunteers, but most of all it’s a day to just celebrate.”

Looking back at what he first imagined with co-founder Ken Fountain, Davanzo steals a quote from the end of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

WONKA: Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted…

CHARLIE: What happened?

WONKA: He lived happily ever after.

We want the Echo Park Film Center to be around as long as the Everlasting Gobstopper.