As Andy Friedenberg, founder of the Cinema Society of San Diego, reflects on the organization’s 40th anniversary, vivid memories come flooding back.
Like the time director Danny Boyle screened his film “Slumdog Millionaire” for of the Cinema Society in 2008. “It was truly our greatest hit,” said Friedenberg. “Danny turned out to be one class act. When I asked him to sign posters, he said, ‘I will sign as many as people want.’ He sat on the floor, g posters. That was a great moment in Cinema Society history.”
Another, two decades earlier, was a Cinema Society screening of “Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story,” which starred La Jollan Cliff Robertson as treasure hunter Fisher, who was searching for riches from a sunken Spanish galleon.
“My last question to Cliff Robertson,” said Friedenberg, who moderated, “was, ‘What’s with you and La Jolla?’ For 30 minutes he gave a valentine to the community of La Jolla. It was so special, so lovely. He oozed La Jolla. That made me feel very very proud.”
Then, over the course of 40 years, there are the just plain funny moments, as with actor Ned Beatty, in town to talk about the film “Rudy.”
“At the end of the discussion,” recalled Friedenberg, “he said, ‘I have a question for you. Can anybody get me into a golf game tomorrow"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd&cid=1ffe15d6-eb53-11e9-b4d2-06948452ae1a'; cnx.cmd.push( function() { cnx( { playerId: "8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd" } ).render( "11982501ceb44352bd1e95848c612274" ); } );
In a hip event on Oct. 17 at the Reading Square Cinema in Clairemont, the Cinema Society will honor “four of our most popular shorts,” said Friedenberg. “Two of them won the Oscar.”
One of them, 2012’s “Inocente,” is about a young homeless girl from San Diego who, Friedenberg recounts, was taken in by an art school in National City. Today she is a successful painter.
“When we first premiered the movie, she was there,” said Friedenberg. “Someone raised their hand and asked, ‘How can we see some of your art?’ ” She had arranged art to sell next door to AMC La Jolla 12 where the film was screened. “Every painting she brought sold,” he said.
Since 1984, the Cinema Society has been hosting film events from premiere screenings to salutes to its popular Cinema Under the Stars series and Cinema Travel excursions on both land and sea. The very first screening, that year, was of Carl Reiner’s fantasy comedy “All of Me” starring Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin.
Friedenberg has enjoyed every minute of these 40 years.
“It’s not work, it’s fun,” he said. “It’s part of my life. It’s very creative and I love presenting movies. It’s what I always wanted to do. That was my thing, and it still is.”
Neither the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic nor the huge popularity of streaming films from home has dampened Friedenberg’s optimism about the future of going to the movies.
“There are two reasons to go to cinema,” he said. “One is a complete escape; the other is to experience something and learn something. It’s a journey in the dark, and the magic that comes off that screen, especially with an audience, is special.”
Coddon is a freelance writer.
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