Rancho Cordova’s vision for a major documentary film festival gets off to a slow start

Rancho Cordova’s inaugural three-day California Capital International Documentary Festival sold only 350 tickets but the organizer and city officials say they are committed to making the festival a heavily-attended national event on the documentary film circuit in coming years.

The festival is part of a larger vision for this city of 74,000 residents in Sacramento County beyond film festivals. Rancho Cordova officials wants to attract film productions that will use the city for location shoots, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the city’s economy from crews who will stay at local hotels and eat in local restaurants.

So far, it hasn’t worked out as planned. Three film productions that were scheduled to shoot in Rancho Cordova before the COVID-19 pandemic, including one with a multi-million dollar budget, ended up canceling.

“Once the pandemic came, every film lost its budget,” said Charles Lago, a film industry veteran, who heads the California Capital Film Office at Rancho Cordova.

In contrast, the city of Sacramento, saw around $1.7 million in economic impact from film production from January 1 through June 10 of this year, said Sacramento Film Commissioner Jennifer West, though much of the activity was from television commercials.

Rancho Cordova , though, has struggled for any production.

No real economic impact -- yet

Lago , who is is not a city employee, convinced the city in 2019 to start up a film office. He said he received a $40,000 city grant for start-up cost. In addition, Lago’s non-profit California Capital Arts Commission is also entitled to earn $!0,000 anytime a film with a budget exceeding $750,000 is shot in Rancho Cordova and receive half of the city’s 12% hotel tax when film crews occupy hotel rooms, up to $50,000.

The city has paid out nothing since the contract was signed.

Lago said the office, which has two other employees, has survived in part by receiving outside work. That includes filming a commercial for a pizza chain and obtaining contracts from the city of Rancho Cordova for a documentary aimed to inspire young people to work in government and another film about then mayor David Sander’s 2020 state of the city address. The city paid him $29,000.

The documentary film festival was also the vision of Lago. He runs the film festival through the arts commission.

COVID-19 concerns resulted in the cancellation of the documentary film festival in October 2020 and October 2021, pushing back the new festival to this past weekend.

Attendance wasn’t the only problem at this year’s first festival.

One of the keynote events, a film viewing of Sacramento and the Transcontinental Railroad and a talk by filmmaker Bill George. was canceled just hours before showtime on Saturday.

Lago disclosed in an email that filmmaker George was visiting Germany and there were technical issues with the film festival’s print.

Two of the three other film talks were also canceled because one filmmaker had concerns about catching COVID-19 and another was sick with a non-COVID 19 respiratory disorder.

However, a preview of film maker George’s other film, the history of Rancho Cordova, went off without a hitch on Sunday. Mike Marando, who works for George’s NIMBUS Films & Books as a research and marketing consultant, gave a short talk about the film, promising it would include a full history of the community, which became its own city in 2003.

The city of Rancho Cordova contributed $57,000 to the film’s cost. The film is expected to premiere in the fall.

Festival screened a variety of films

In total, 48 documentary features and shorts were screened in a varied lineup from Friday through Sunday. They included a documentary on the life of performer Dean Martin, a film on the wine-making process and a documentary on zoological organizations that are racing against the clock to preserve one million species.

The films were screened at a variety of locations including City Hall, J.J. Pfister Distilling and Carver High School.

Lago said he’s not disappointed with the smaller turnout and noticed that some screenings attracted as many as 70 people. He said he looks forward to building the festival to a national event that attracts thousands of visitors from across the U.S as well as from the Sacramento region.

“I am not deterred,” Lago said.

His plan is to hold documentary screenings monthly in Rancho Cordova, creating momentum that attracts more publicity and attendees to the festival

Lago said the $15,000 provided by the city to promote this weekend’s festival was welcome, but a larger budget, say $100,000, would help promote the festival better.

Actor Tom Sizemore to headline June 23 event

Actor Tom Sizemore, whose happens to be represented by Lago, is scheduled to speak at the Capital Box Theater on Horn Road at 7:30 p.m. June 23 as the first speaker in Lago’ planned events.. Lago is producing a documentary on Sizemore’s life.

The theater is owned by by Lago, who convinced the city to give him a separate $30,000 grant for stage equipment.

Lago’s model for a successful documentary film festival is the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs, which has been running for 12 years. It has attracted as many as 15,000 attendees, many of them visitors from across the U.S.

But suburban Rancho Cordova is not Palm Springs, a resort known for its mid-century modern architecture, Hollywood stars with second houses and a vibrant downtown. The community is surrounded by four mountain ranges.

Other film festivals also hurt by Covid

Terry Grouya, founder and director of the Palm Springs film festival, was one of the attendees at the Rancho Cordova film festival. He came to offer support and congratulations.

He said a film festival can more than just fill hotel rooms and restaurants. Gouya noted the intangibles such as the filmmaker who was so impressed with Palm Springs that he invested in a $2 million home.

But even successful festivals such as Grouya’s are finding the comeback after the pandemic is challenging in the still present COVID-19 environment. Similar to the Rancho Cordova festival, the Palm Springs documentary festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021.

This year’s festival, held in April, attracted only several thousand persons.

Rancho Cordova Vice-Mayor Linda Budge said her city has plenty going for it and believes the film festival could be a tourist magnet.

The city certainly has hotel rooms to accommodate tourists. City statistics show Rancho Cordova has more than 2,000 hotel rooms.

“We have tons of restaurants. And we have a light rail just to help people move around the region,” she said. “We’re perfectly positioned to grow the festival.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 10:15 AM.