{"id":237934,"date":"2015-09-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/horror-as-therapy\/"},"modified":"2015-09-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T07:00:00","slug":"horror-as-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/horror-as-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror as therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local film festival moves to Balboa Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

por Alex Owens<\/p>\n

San Diego horror buffs will get a head start on Halloween thanks to a man who\u2019s not afraid to hold a scary film fest.<\/p>\n

Miguel Rodriguez is the man behind the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival<\/a>, which will have its sixth annual event Sept. 11 \u2013 13 at the Museum of Photographic Arts at Balboa Park.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, a teacher trainer for the San Diego Unified School Festival, started the freaky festival in 2009 as a way to celebrate what he believes is the most primal film genre of all.<\/p>\n

\u201cFear in storytelling is as old as cave painting, but it\u2019s stigmatized in film as lurid,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThe festival explores what can be done in the horror genre and elevate its potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The \u201cHorrible Imaginings Film Festival\u201d had 917 submissions from 37 countries this year. (Photos courtesy Horrible Imaginings)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Good horror is something that hits home with Rodriguez, a Baltimore native who now lives in South Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cHorror is a therapy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s my source of catharsis and it\u2019s the most sincere of genres. Filmmakers who are good at horror can communicate what scares them \u2014 and that directness yields a more sincere form of storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year marks the first time the festival has been held at the MOPA and it\u2019s a sign that Rodriguez isn\u2019t having trouble scaring up interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 917 submissions from 37 different countries this year,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe have films from as far away as Myanmar and Iran. I have to say those films are definitely metaphors for the struggles the people in those countries face.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a more local level is a horror film made in Tijuana that will be showcased in a section called \u201cHorror For Humanity,\u201d which demonstrates how horror can show truth in a way that is deeper than a documentary.<\/p>\n

David Raines is one local filmmaker who is hoping to scare up interest in his work at the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. He\u2019s an aspiring actor based in Hillcrest whose first directing gig, a short film called \u201cNever to Heaven,\u201d will debut at the festival. It is based on King Claudius\u2019 soliloquy from \u201cHamlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bluebeard<\/a>\u201cI wanted a monologue for an acting reel, but I didn\u2019t just want to speak to the camera \u2014 that would be boring,\u201d Raines said. \u201cSo I split Claudius\u2019s soliloquy into two characters, one of whom is his conscious, but in spectral form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raines didn\u2019t plan to be a director, but he was so happy with the results that he would consider doing more films.<\/p>\n

Although San Diego was the setting for the first \u201cParanormal Activity\u201d film, Rodriguez admits the city is not a horror film hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s growing, but while it\u2019s my self-given duty to destigmatize the genre, a festival like this is more difficult [to put on here] than, say, Baltimore or LA,\u201d he said. \u201cYou say horror and people think of a scantily-clad woman being chased by a guy with a knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the Horrible Imaginings festival has become more successful than Rodriguez has expected, so he\u2019s happy to imagine an even better future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to be able to add a component where we could fund new content or supply scholarships to filmmakers,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d also like to see the festival become a week long.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that is horrible for him to imagine: moving the festival to October.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, October is the worst month for a festival like this,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cThere\u2019s too much competition. I like to think that we usher in the Halloween season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the festival range in price from $10 for one film to $80 for a three-day pass.<\/p>\n

For more information, check out hifilmfest.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Alex Owens es un escritor independiente con sede en San Diego. \u00c9l puede ser contactado en alexowenssd@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local film festival moves to Balboa Park By Alex Owens San Diego horror buffs will get a head start on Halloween thanks to a man who\u2019s not afraid to hold a scary film fest.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Horror as therapy","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}