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| LOCAL COLOR: The
Lhormers engage the community in the Sonoma film
fest.
Barbara Ries |
Brenda and Marc Lhormer
brought business experience and a strong community spirit
when they took over the Sonoma Valley Film Festival
in 2001—and transformed it into Cinema Epicuria,
an event that makes the most of its wine country surroundings.
Wine and gourmet goodies are served to audiences at
every screening during the four-day festival; local
residents open their homes to accommodate actors, filmmakers
and special guests.
Most of the action centers on the town square and its
crown jewel, the 1930s-era Sebastiani Theatre, but the
Lhormers have added venues for screenings, panel discussions
and parties. They’ve enlisted corporate sponsors,
Sonoma Valley wineries and other businesses. And they’ve
started a film program at the local high school.
The festival’s small staff includes Chris Sawyer,
probably the world’s only film festival sommelier.
When pairing wines with movies, “the first thing
I look for is themes,” he explains. For a profile
of Johnny Cash, known as the Man in Black, Sawyer chose
a zinfandel plus mixed blacks from vines planted in
the 1880s. For Kinky Boots, about a transvestite
who becomes a shoe designer, Sawyer thought the plot
pushed the standard rules a bit, so he served an excellent
rosé—not the most universally acclaimed
of wines.
The festival emphasizes grassroots independent films
and a few studio productions—little-known
works that deserve a chance on the big screen. “We’re
showing films that are very, very human,” Marc
says. “They’re character-driven and in general
uplifting.”
The couple has lived through their own share of drama.
Brenda, ’83, had been working in marketing and
communications; Marc, MBA ’86, in operations and
entrepreneurship when they met in 1987, working
at a Silicon Valley events company. By 1989 they were
planning a yearlong trip around the world, but at a
Fourth of July celebration, a shattered glass threw
a sliver into Marc’s left eye—his good one.
He was born with only light-sensing vision in his right
eye; the accident left him legally blind.
“They told Brenda that I probably wouldn’t
get my sight back,” Marc recalls. After 18 months
and four surgeries, including a cornea transplant,
Marc regained his sight. “It was amazing,”
he says quietly.
Brenda took a job with Microsoft and they moved to
Seattle. Marc managed start-up companies. They married
in 1991, and for more than four years worked the proverbial
long hours. When burnout hit, they quit their jobs and
followed their dream of seeing the world. In Switzerland
they discovered the Locarno International Film Festival.
“It was very much a community-oriented, love-of-life
festival,” Marc recalls.
Halfway through their 14-country trek, Marc’s
parents joined them on an African safari. On the parents’
journey onward, their airplane crashed, killing his
mother and leaving his father seriously injured. The
couple cared for Marc’s father in Pittsburgh for
five weeks, finished their planned year of travel, went
home to Seattle and deepened their community involvement.
Brenda attended film school and began making fund-raising
videos for nonprofit groups. Marc started City Year
Seattle, recruiting young people to work with inner-city
youth, then assisted in founding Social Venture Partnerships,
encouraging business people to invest time, talent and
money in the community.
They loved their jobs but not Seattle’s weather.
After the winter of 1998-99, marked by 90 days of rain,
Brenda’s pneumonia and Marc’s bronchitis,
they decided to move south. By autumn they were settling
into their new hometown, Sonoma.
In April 2001 they volunteered with the Sonoma festival
and by July, Brenda was its executive director. She
and Marc, co-director, work for the festival full time,
creating the sort of community-minded event they experienced
in Switzerland.
“It’s the notion of having your life and
your work woven into the fabric of your community,”
Marc explains. “It’s something Brenda and
I have in common—the idea of being very locally
connected but with a global perspective. Everyone here
is involved. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s
a small town but then you open it up and bring the whole
world in. That’s what’s exciting about a
film festival.”
“It’s really nice to see someone like [2004
honoree] Blythe Danner mingling with a shorts filmmaker
from Seattle who’s never been part of something
like that,” Brenda comments. “There’s
a lot of very natural and organic interaction between
the filmmakers, no matter who they are.”
“I think they’ve taken a sleepy little
film festival and turned it into one of the up-and-coming
film festivals in the country,” says producer
J. Todd Harris, ’81, MBA ’86.
This year is the festival’s 10th anniversary,
showcasing about 35 feature films (www.sonomafilmfest.org).
The April 11-15 lineup includes Ops, a comedy
starring Matthew Modine; Snow Cake with Sigourney
Weaver, ’72, and Alan Rickman; Black Irish,
a family drama; and After the Wedding, a Danish
film with Mads Mikkelsen (the arch-villain in Casino
Royale). A special presentation will feature more
than 25 short films by local middle school and high
school students.There also will be a special tribute
to Academy Award-winning director John Lasseter (Toy
Story, A Bug’s Life, Cars) of Pixar and Disney
animation studios. |
