There may be no place more likely than in Central California’s town of Paso Robles, for

the birth of a brand-new, world-class film festival, in this historic area with its roots in the

Old West, population 29,000, surrounded by hillsides covered with thousands of acres

of premium wine grapes.  Boasting a host of Hollywood VIP personalities, famous

musicians and guests from all over the world, the Paso Robles Digital Film Festival will

not only be webcast world wide, but filmed for a special DVD, showing an inside look at a

film festival, and the film business itself in the Digital Age.  The film submissions now

submitted to the festival number in the hundreds, and are from 15 foreign countries, now

PRDFF is a International Festival.  The website is PRDFF.com. 

 

Scheduled for November 20 through 25, 2008, seasoned event promoter Benford Standley,

a Paso staff, advisors, film makers, students, interns, and an extended network of friends

and associates from Nashville, to Austin and Hollywood, are going to show up here in

cowboy wine country, with what promises to be a first-class film festival debut. The kick-off

theme is ‘Music In Film’, which means that aside from dozens of digital screenings of films

and documentaries with the music front-and-center, there will also be a number of

outstanding Jazz, Rock and Country-Western performances by well-known personalities

and bands in and around Paso Saturday and Sunday concerts, screenings and an Arts

and Craft Show with food and wine will be at the beautiful MARTIN & WYRICH WINERY,

here just South and Sideways of Sundance in Cowboy Wine Country.

 

Headlining acts include The Bacon Brothers featuring actor Kevin Bacon and his brother

and musician Michael Bacon, recipient of the President’s National Medal of Arts and

Grammy-winning legend Ramblin' Jack Elliott, the ‘Kyle Eastwood Band’ (featuring the

son of film-star Clint Eastwood), as well as a special guest appearance by The Brubeck

Institute Jazz Quintet.  Also featured will be gigs with musician Jack Tempchin, (songwriter

singer and recorded by the The Eagles), legendary guitarist Norm Stephens (who played

with Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard), Harold Jackson, (the only surviving member to be

recruited by the original ‘Ink-Spots’), Grammy Winner Louie Ortega, and many other

award winning and notable music-makers. Other ‘big surprise’ musical guests To-Be-

Announced. Aside from cozy venues like Level Four, Hotel Cheval, Firefly Gallery, Matt’s

Music, Paso Robles Inn, Franklin’s Hot-Springs, and others To-Be-Announced, where

the music and  screenings will  take place.  The festival will feature a 1,000-seat circus-

tent with stage for musicians and bands, and the Wild West Film Fest and Awards

Concert, that will then be followed by two days of screenings at vineyards near Paso.

 

In addition to world-premieres of films by emerging filmmakers from all over the globe,

with films already submitted from over fifteen foreign countries, a number of classic

films and music documentaries will be viewed on a rotating schedule, during the festival.

A very special ‘Make My Saturday’ screening, paying tribute to the musical and

cinematic genius of Clint Eastwood, will screen Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends,

with director Bruce Ricker, and Academy-Award-winning Editor Joel Cox attending the

screening, the 1980 Clint Eastwood film, Bronco Billy, for kids and family, and

Honkytonk Man, directed by Eastwood and starring himself and son Kyle Eastwood

Plus, the Martin Scorsese Presents Clint Eastwood's Piano Blues, also produced by

Bruce Ricker, who is a film festival advisor, and will also moderate a very special panel

on The History of Malpaso, Mr. Eastwood's company at Warner Brothers.

 

Joel Cox will be the first recipient of the ‘Ignace Paderewski Lifetime Achievement

Award for Contribution to the World of Music and Movies’.  Joel  has worked with actor

and film-maker Clint Eastwood for more than 30 years, on films that include "Bird,"

"Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall," Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends,"

and co-edited Clint Eastwood's "Piano Blues." Joel has been editor on movies like

“Flags of Our Fathers,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Mystic River,” “Blood Work,” “Space

Cowboys,” “True Crime,” “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” “Absolute Power,”

“The Bridges of Madison County,” “A Perfect World,” and “Unforgiven,” for which he won

an Academy Award for Best Editor in 1992.

 

Cox has spent his entire career at Warner Bros. starting in 1961, most notably on

Eastwood’s films. The relationship began in 1975 when Cox worked as an assistant

editor on “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” Since then, he has cut 30 more films that have, in

some combination, either starred, been produced or directed by Clint Eastwood.  He just

finished the soon-to-be-released Eastwood film "Changeling," staring Angelie Jolie,

which will be released just prior to the festival, and presently is working on "Gran Torino",

staring and directed by Eastwood.

 

Adding to this special tribute to Joel Cox is the attendance of folks from Eastwood’s

company Malpaso .  The festival is honored to be joined by Eastwood's producer

Rob Lorenz, producer/director Bruce Ricker, producer Judie Hoyt, Joe Hyams, legendary

PR-man at Warner Brothers, who began doing Eastwood’s press in 1971, editors Gary

Roach and Blu Murray, Deana Lou, Jessica Meier, and others from Malpaso.

 

Other classic documentaries to be screened are Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film, The Last

Waltz, with some of rock-n-rolls’ most well-known talent, and his Bob Dylan doc No

Direction Home.  D.A. Pennebacker's, Dont' Look Back, another classic documentary on

Dylan,  Jonathan Demme’s film, Neil Young: Heart of Gold  will be viewed, with Youngs

long  time base player Rick Roas attending the screening.  The film, The Festival Express,

which chronicles a tour with Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and The Band, Les Blank's The

Blues Accordin' To Lightin' Hopkins, with Les attending the screening, Los Lonely Boys:

Cottonfields and Crossroads, with director Hector Galen attending. There will be a special

screening of Crazy, inspired by the life of Hank Garland, The Ballad of  Ramblin’ Jack with

Jack Elliott himself also on-hand, and Cecil Taylor : All The Notes by film maker and

photographer Christopher Felver, who will also attend the Festival.

 

‘Digital’ is a big part of the festival theme, as per the name. Most of the screenings will

use the latest home-theater and digital-projector technologies, or flat-panel HD screens

with high-quality sound.  Panel-discussions will also ‘go digital’, on topics such as Video-

On-Demand, Multi-Platform Digital Distribution, On-line Social Networks, Webcasting

and Podcasting, 3D, and other concepts related to the cutting-edge of the digital

revolution as it relates to film and music.  With some of the historic lineup great film

makers, composers and musicians on panels much will be learned.

 

Event-promoter Standley wants the atmosphere to be open and encouraging for young

or emerging film-makers, with plenty of opportunities to rub shoulders with very successful

award-winning film-artists, actors and entertainers, and to ‘talk-shop’ about films and

career-dreams, with the greats in the biz.  Standley produced one of the world’s

first Internet webcasts in 1995, from Hollywood’s Troubadour club, and in 1997 created a

historic Internet webcast with Country-Western artist Willie Nelson. He has worked with

music-world royalty such as Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Les Paul,

Waylon Jennings, Hoyt Axton, Emmylou Harris, and many others, over the course of a

40-year career.  He has four children and owns a home in Paso Robles.

 

“Our target audience is from Hollywood to the Silicon Valley,” Standley said. “That fits

in with the tank-of-gas vacation. This is a small-town, Norman Rockwell setting, but it’s

a very rich environment. On the local level, this festival can serve as a catalyst to help the

tourist-industry, and bring the movie business into town. It’s kind of an infusion, and the

second Paso Robles Digital Film Festival is already on the drawing board.”

 

Standley, with advice from local authorities on children and youth, is planning to donate

a percentage of  proceeds from the festival to benefit the High School Resource

Program in Paso Robles.  He is already setting up a link with Kevin Bacon's charity

organization, www.sixdegrees.com, paypal.com and ebay.com, to network with this

charitable element of the event, and direct other funds and donations to charity.  Area

youth from the High School will be involved with the actual production of the Festival,

and screening of youth films from Paso Robles High School and Middle School kids.

There will be an online auction through ebay.com to benefit the program.

 

Paso Robles, California, is located about 210-miles South of San Francisco, or 230-

miles North of Los Angeles, and is historic for its natural hot-springs, home to the

Salinan Indians, Old West history (such as the legend of Jesse James), and 26,000-

acres of California’s best wine grapes. The town is located directly on U.S.  101, with

numerous high-quality hotels, fine restaurants, wine-tasting venues and just South and

Sideways of Sundance.

 

Registration for members of the press who wish to attend the event is available on the

PRDFF.com website. Interviews and more information are available by contacting

Benford Standley at studioclubnews@yahoo.com or 323-850-8919. 

 

Media access, press passes to events, parking, celebrity interview and photo opps

during the festival, an on-site press-room with materials and refreshments, and more,

are all extended to qualified working journalists who wish to take part.

 

CONTACT US FOR HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURES

Press Assist at studioclubnews@yahoo.com or

323-850-8919 for more information.