After a sold-out premiere at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, Eat Surf Love, an ultra-low-budget romantic comedy, returns home. Starring Tyler Ritter (Painkiller), Molly Wood (Everybody in the Pool), and Laura Yumi Snell (Soho Shakespeare Co), the film depicts a writer and a surfer navigating the murky waters of a first date, while a podcaster tracks their “meet awkward.”
The film, coming to the San Francisco Short Film Festival October 23, sparked conversations about contemporary city life, filmmaking, and romance. After the Oregon premiere, an audience member said the film made her “nostalgic” about her days in the Bay. Others were surprised to learn the film was shot on phones due to the quality of the cinematography. Preview audience and Oakland resident Beccah Rothschild said, “I related to the film. I loved the vulnerability. This film’s for anyone who has ever gone on a date, lived in San Francisco, or had hopes for love.”
The project received strong local support. The San Francisco Film Commission, Manny’s Cafe in the Mission, Nook Cafe in Russian Hill, and Live Oak Studio in Berkeley provided locations. Over 40 Bay Area donors helped fund post-production for this Filmmakers Collaborative project. The majority woman crew included a Foothill-De Anza College film instructor and her students. San Francisco-based producer Mayra Padilla wore many hats, including second camera, photographer, and location scout. Filmmaker Nada Djordjevich, producer Vera Djordjevich, and associate producer Michele Rabin, who all attended the same Peninsula high school, previously collaborated as editors of the Bay Area based magazine, On the Page.
The director has strong roots in the Bay Area arts community. Djordjevich raised $2 million to expand arts in local schools; participated many times in San Francisco’s Litquake Literary Festival; and taught writing at San Francisco’s City College. Her first film, the award-winning animated short California Pie, premiered at the 2023 Sonoma International Film Festival. Her inspirations include filmmaker Lynn Shelton (Inside Out) who began directing at 39, and the new wave of Bay Area storytellers, such as Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal (Blindspotting) and H.P. Mendoza (Colma: The Musical), who have created place-based and personal films.
Producer Mayra Padilla reflected, “The film is about connections. The ones we have with ourselves; with each other; and with the worlds we inhabit. Making this film helped me rediscover what I love about San Francisco.”
The 2024 San Francisco Short Film Festival plays at the 4-Star and Balboa Theaters (Oct. 17-24) and online (Oct. 17-27). Eat Surf Love screens Wed, Oct. 23, at 8:15 pm. Tickets are available at the websites of SF IndieFest website and at Eat Surf Love website at eatsurfloveproductions.com.
Eat Surf Love Productions LLC, of Santa Monica, produced the film.
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