Renown director of photography and Topangan, Amy Vincent, and festival co-founder Sara Baur-Harding connected this week to discuss the prospect of adding a childrens’ component to the 2010 Topanga Film Festival. Although nothing is laid in stone, the women envision creating a scaled-down version of the 48 Hour Film Project for children.

As with 48 Hour Film Project, young participants would write, shoot, edit and have their short screened during the festival.

Topanga Film Festival co-founder, Urs Baur, who turns 47 today, said among his goals for his new year is building an active and engaged Topanga Film Institute to best serve the local film community, to expand production in baurhouse and to a phenomenal festival in August.

According to the Los Angeles Times astrologer, “The best part of your life is yet to come. You move quickly toward a professional goal. A June trip is romantic. Lifestyle upgrades in August lead to personal developments in September. November brings a windfall. Sagittarius and Cancer people adore you. Your lucky numbers are 4, 5, 22, 10 and 41.”

Pondering the lifestyle upgrade promised by the Los Angeles Times astrologer, Urs said he is profoundly grateful to be able to live and work in Topanga and finds it difficult to imagine a lifestyle improvement, unless, of course, “it has something to do with that romantic trip in June — to the World Cup.”

Topanga Film Festival supporter Chandos Erwin has never sported facial hair, barring a little weekend scruff every now and then. He admits to having been a mad Magnum P.I. and Smokey and the Bandit fan while idolizing many other mustached men of the 70s and 80s, it has taken the Community Magnet “March Mustache Madness” Mustache-a-thon to arrest the razor at Chandros’ lip line.

With Community Magnet Charter School facing a serious shortage of funding, Chandos has put his money where his mouth is . . . well, right above it. All of the money pledged to watch Chandos grow handlebars goes directly to Community Magnet Charter School to help fund programs that are currently threatened by L.A.U.S.D.’s budget cuts.

With Topanga schools facing a similar fate, it may be time for Topangans to initiate a facial-hair-athon of their own. All interested should email: info@topangafilmfestival.com.

The Goals: Grow a sweet ’stache and raise money for the school.

The Prize: Not having to pink-slip teachers and librarians next year.

The Bonus Prize: The person who raises the most money wins a two-night hotel stay at the O Hotel.

How it works: Anyone who likes the idea of Chandos growing a mustache and isn’t already sick to death of contributing to school fundraisers, should click here.

Sue and Martin Schmitt, supporters of the Topanga Film Festival since its inception, are currently in Haiti with fellow Topangan Gala Calisto and a handful of others, eagerly awaiting the arrival of geodesic dome components — stuck in customs with an airline carrier in Florida — where they arrived 5 days ago to rebuild their orphanage, Kay Angel toppled by the the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010.

The new structures, donated by Pacific Domes, are intended to replace the previous orphanage that housed 13 orphans, ranging from 1-1/2 to 9-years old, who now reside in temporary shelters on or near the orphanage grounds. At the end of February, Andrew Bigosinski affiliated with Cine Institute, connected a crew of New York-based gaffers and grips distributing a container full of donated generators and other electrical equipment, from which a generator was donated to Kay Angel.

Gala said that a Los Angeles-based architect and a several carpenters are on hand awaiting arrival of the domes. Gala said the Schmitts and friends of the orphanage are standing by ready to build alternative housing if delivery of the domes is greatly delayed. “We need to have permanent housing for the children prior to the start of the 2011 hurricane season,” Gala said, “this is our top priority right now.”

An estimated three million people were affected by the quake with the Haitian Government reporting between 217,000 and 230,000 known deaths, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless, many of whom are children. Approximately 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were also reported collapsed or were severely damaged.

Gala, 26, went to work for the Schmitts shortly after their 2006 visit to Haiti. It was then then and there the Schmitts connected with activist friend Luke Montgomery that ultimately led to the founding of Kay Angel in the coastal community of Jacmel on the southern shore of Haiti. Gala came on board when the Schmitts sought a personal assistant, who among other administrative capacities, also spoke French. Gala said that working with the Schmitts has added a dimension to her life that she otherwise might not have had.

Well before the 2010 earthquake, an estimated 225,000 child slaves in Haiti, children as young as five years old who lost their parents and were forced to work just to survive. Today, that number is likely much higher, Gala said, echoing the opinion of orphanage director, Lia van de Donk, whose local staff cares for the Key Angel children on an around-the-clock basis. Whom, according to van de Donk, are of school age and visited either the local kindergarten, a school for the handicapped or were taught by a private teacher until the earthquake destroyed all three facilities.

Support for Kay Angel comes from private donations, Founder’s contributions and local support from MINUSTAH and the World Food Program. WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com received its grant of non-profit status from the IRS in March of 2007, and was recognized as tax-exempt by the State of California later that year.

Every year, Dreamago, an international non-profit organization founded in France and dedicated to assisting writers and writer/directors to bring their visions to fruition, selects 10 writers to participate at their annual writers’ workshop held at Chateau Mercier in the Swiss Alps. The organization promotes the vision that if a story is well told, it can transcend cultural context and become universal.

Today, Dreamago co-founder, Soula Saad, a director/producer and Topanga resident, confirmed her organization’s commitment to play an expanded role in the 2010 Topanga Film Festival. In addition to co-creating a day of international networking, cultural exchange, creative speed dating, music, screenings and panels. It will also participate in the selection and making of a screenwriting award during the festival.

Dreamago and Topanga Film Festival co-founder Urs Baur have committed to a weekly powwow starting this week, and throughout the next several months leading to the festival to meld resources and co-create the deepest reaching event possible.

In addition to supporting the Topanga Film Festival, Dreamago has also participated with the American Film Institute and has worked with writers Stephen Frears, Alain Corneau, Pete Lacaba, Jorge Perugorria and Guillermo Arriaga, among others.

Reynolds, who appeared in Garbage Warrior, an award-winning documentary on the New Mexico-based movement committed to the propagation of ecologically sound, self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities, led by architect Michael Reynolds and directed by Oliver Hodge — brings This Action, directed by Paul America, to the Suitable for All Screens competition.

Their short entitled This is Action currently leads all other entries with an overall 4.75 rating out of 5.0 possible points, in the Suitable for All Screenings competition. This module of programming is a sequel to the documentary and a promotional segment of a proposed web series.

Architect Reynolds’ and his followers have coined their art as Earthship Biotecture — the building of eco-friendly experimental structures, made of recycled materials.

Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.

Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.

Suniil, who spent a year as the India-based line producer of a project following the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist and Hindu spiritual leaders, came to Hollywood in July 2007 to pursue an acting career. He currently stars as Sunil (not Suniil) in a web series entitled From Bollywood to Hollywood, and is developing a slate of feature films and web series with producing partner, Saba Moor-Doucette, under the Hanuman Media shingle.

Suniil Sadarangani started his career in production with Sunil Lulla, former CEO at MTV Networks, India. Since then and over the past 7 years he has become one of India’s most respected producers for his work in effecting production between South Asia and the West in various production capacities. Most recently, Suniil produced three episodes of a 15-part documentary, World Religions, where he spearheaded production across ten different cities and secured rare permission to shoot at The Golden Temple and an exclusive one-hour interview with the Dalai Lama.

Suniil completed work as a producer for Binc, Vfx in India, supervising the visual effects coordination between Mumbai-based design artists and Hallmark Television in the USA and several other feature-length documentaries and often works as a consultant with Technicolor Creative Services, for subtitling, proofreading and dubbing of their Indian film and media content.

As an actor, Suniil made his debut in September Takes, with First Look/Universal that continues to air on Showtime Extreme as well as a lead in an AFI short film Indelible, a co-starring role in El Ghorba, and a featured role in a Fred Savage-directed commercial for Wii.

“I am extremely excited to work with the Topanga Film Festival because of the unique vibe of the location, the festival which attracts filmmakers from all over the world and affords me the opportunity to interact with new filmmakers, a new filmmaking community and become part of a global, eclectic mix of filmmakers, video artists, performers, musicians, writers and others who will greatly help me in my creative development and honing of my craft,” Suniil said.

“. . . and, I love the fabulous dog in the office,” he added, petting Lucky, the festival’s unofficial office mascot.

Remember to befriend the festival on Facebook and join the Suitable for All Screens Community.

Hso Hkam's Pico Boulevard leads pack

To learn more about the prizes for this competition, how to upload your entry and how to vote, click here.

Topanga filmmakers, educators and journalist select 2010 SEJS multimedia award

As the Topanga Film Festival prepares for a Monday, February 15, 2010 outreach to student multimedia creators with its Suitable for All Screens competition — five California media and education professionals participated in the 2010 Southeastern Journalism Conference, currently underway in Hammond, La. The 5-judge panel evaluated entries for the multimedia category remotely from the festival’s offices nestled in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains.