The La Jolla Fashion Film Festival was launched April 23 and 24, the first such event in the United States. The production of short fashion movies with both emerging and brand name designers is becoming a new art form and La Jolla was fortunate to have offered world premier screenings last weekend. Opening night began at the Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery with interviews with top industry professionals, including Fred Sweet, who is the executive director of the festival and Linda Comer, who is agency director of San Diego Model Management. The co-hosts for the two-day event were actors Rosie Tisch and Tim Herzog. They introduced the premier short films, which were shown on three screens simultaneously. Two of the directors, Robertino Fonseca (“The World Ends Without You”) and Carl Cortes (“Stay”), were on hand to talk with the guests about their movies. The opening-night party began right afterward with an art instillation, modeling, networking and a reception. The second day began at the La Jolla Cove Bridge Club, situated along the cove overlooking swimmers and surfers. The first seminar was titled “Fashion in Motion.” Presenters Felena Hanson and Bekah Christie talked to the audience about how to tell a story through film. Participants were then encouraged to watch a live photo shoot in the park. The models first started out modeling designs from Capricorn and shoes from Serenity amid a throng of paparazzi snapping pictures. The photo shoot moved on to the rocks with the spectacular view of the cove in the background. Models changed into designs from couture designer Malgorzata Slocomb for this segment of the event. This portion of the festival drew a huge crowd of looky-lews. The day progressed with the second seminar titled “Film Financing.” The presenters, Mark Smillie and Dennis R. Lorrig, spoke about this age of new media and putting indie films on iphone apps. The last seminar was “Fashion Meets New Media.” The panel for this presentation consisted of Rachel Richards, blogger and fashion community organizer; Janet Pytowski, owner of vidcat; Erna Adelson, San Diego Style Examiner; Danielle Gano, spokeswoman for Threads & Elle Communications; and moderator Crosby Noricks, founder and editor of PR Couture. These prominent fashion women discussed working with the new media. On Saturday evening, the final film was screened on a giant blow-up screen in the park. Two of the directors, George Manzanilla and Janet Pytowski, were there to talk to the audience. Manzanilla’s film was “Summer Fashion,” featuring Billabong fashions, filmed in Bali and Santa Monica. Pytowski is the owner of a video production company and has one of the largest fashion archives in the world. She screened “Style is Eternal,” the first film from the company’s archives, which date from 1950 to the present. The closing night party wrapped up at the Bull and Bear. Fashion Valley Shopping Center provided fashions from Karen Millen, Custo Barcelona, Max Studio and accessories from Henri Bendel for informal modeling on both evenings. The buzz from everyone was that they had so much fun that they couldn’t wait until the next Fashion Film Festival.