The Swerve festival brought an eclectic mix of film, art and music to the Burnsdall Art Park in Hollywood Sept. 28-30, for three days of free or at least relatively cheap thrills, all while raising environmental awareness.
"One of the trademarks of West Coast creative culture is the cross pollination of creative disciplines--art, music and film are interrelated and overlapping," said Fesitval Director, Jonathan Wells, "this is the first festival to celebrate that."
Though the entire event was created by Fuel TV, there precence mainly shined through in the film portion of the festival which kicked-off with the US premiere of the feature film Surfwise. The documentary directed by Doug Pray follows the story of legendary surfer Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz. Overall the film segment of the festival included five feature films, 20 divers shorts (more than half of which were international) and 20 music videos.
At the awards ceremony on Sunday night hosted by Jason Lee (My Name is Earl, former pro skater) and Chris Pastras (pro skater), Best Short went to director Gullherme Marcondes for Tyger, Web Award went to James Frost and Mary Fagot for Tons of Ballons and Joey Garfeild was selected as Emerging filmaker for RJD2 "Work it Out." A full-wrap of the awards show and the festival will be on FueL TV November 9 at 9:30p.m.
However, the majority of the action at Swerve could be found on the main lawn. The most popular attraction was afree t-shirt silkscreen station. People could get up to three designs by artist featured at Swerve placed however they wanted on the navy shirts provided. The line was 40-people long most of the time I was there.
Another station was sponsored by createaskate.org. Here people were sanding the edges, stenciling graphics and taking home free skateboard decks.
On the other hand, there was one booth so desolate I could have sworn I saw a tumbleweed roll by. In an effort to encourage people to go green, a group called Global Inheritance had stationary bikes hooked up to generators to charge electronic devices. I looked at the table packed with all sorts of chargers and was stoked.
"Can I charge my camera?" I asked.
"No but ten minutes on the bike will get you a couple bars on your cell phone," said the environmentally-friendly girl.
For some reason breaking a sweat in the Hollywood sun for a cell phone charge wasn't as desirable as free t-shirts or skate decks.
One of Global Inheritance efforts that was a hit, was thier recycling store. Festival goers could turn in bottles and cans for merchandise. One bottle would get you a sticker, for 30 you could get an hour of free bowling at Lucky Strike for 12 people and 50? Well, 50 bottles would get you an autographed P. Diddy CD (but most people were too indie for that anyways).
The biggest exhibition of art at the festival was a collection of painted recycling bins, which was also appropriate for the environmental push. Also many of the styles the artists used were "street" or graffiti influenced which went with Fuel's So-Cal- culture-celebration idea behind the event.
Another colllective area of art was found near the main stage. Ten 15-foot high pin-wheels with 6-foot wheel spans stood facing away from the stage (which sat atop a large hill at the art park) towards a pleasant view of the Hollywood Hills. With the light breeze Saturday afternoon, the windmills would start and stop turning so you could catch glimpses of the artists' mixed-media creations between spins. Most of them were bold and bright.
Finally judging from those I interviewed, the music is what really got people to go to Swerve. From indie rock bands like Snow Den to the hybrid Brazilian hip-hop/electronica group Bonda Do Role, a total of 14 bands played all for free except for the final show. Swerve closed with the Brooklyn-based trio We Are Scientists who are descibed in the program as "...a three-tusked mastodon. A triple mohawak." Enough said.
This was the inaugural year of the Swerve Festival but the PR guy seemed weary of the phrase "first annual." As far as reactions the reviews are mixed.
"It feels very corporate said Colin, who, when I asked for his last name told me to spell his name coL and gave me his myspace (as if this was a totally normal was to answer).
He explained that it didn't feel "organic" but rather that the creators were trying to make you experience everything a certain way and that's not what art is about.
"The art is pretty typical of what's going on in LA right now," said Dana Bean who was at Swerve to watch her friends' band Foreign Born.
It was easy to see that Swerve had to be a very expensive endeavor for thr sponsors. Like coL said, it may have been a little to corporate for the likes of the young, artistic, indie Los Angeles crowd. But I have to give Fuel credit underwhelming an audience that isn't even paying you is no small task. Then again, after every interview, I did ask each person if they felt like they got their money's worth... and they all said--yes.
For more info., photos and videos click here or visit www.swervefestival.com
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