Largest Documentary Film Festival on West Coast

CREATED Mar. 30, 2012

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  • There is a new film festival in town to add to Palm Springs impressive list of festivals. The American Documentary Film Festival now offers a unique experience for film lovers. Video by kmir6.com

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There is a new film festival in town to add to Palm Springs impressive list of festivals.
The American Documentary Film Festival now offers a unique experience for film lovers.
It's the first year for the festival, and already its the largest on the west coast.
And the director has plans for it to grow bigger in coming years.
Filmmaker Teddy Grouya lives in Palm Springs, and decided the desert and documentaries were a match made in heaven.
"There's not too many docs only festivals in the US, and there weren't any on the West Coast that were near the Hollywood mecca, and since we're strategically located near LA and we're in this beautiful resort, we thought this was a great opportunity to bring a docs only festival here," said Grouya, the director of the American Documentary Film Festival.
And locals say Palm Springs is becoming a mecca of film festivals.
"This area gives to the locals and to the tourists a good opportunity to go through all the gambit of different type of film," said Palm Springs resident, Dr. Leslie Citron.
And it is also a mecca for documentary filmmakers.  Bill Siegel is part of a film fund pitch for the his work, "The Trials of Muhammad Ali."
"The fact that they are not only having here documentary film festival but an opportunity for works-in-progress to get funded at the same time and get exposure to an audience that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do until your film was done, is tremendously unique," said Siegel.
And some free workshops this weekend can help out both experienced and first-time filmmakers.
"There's many amateur filmmakers sitting at home and probably in their backyard here in Palm Springs, so our panel is going to talk about how you go about getting the word out about the film that you made, and how to get people interested in it," said digital strategist, Laura Beatty with Brave New Films.
There's plenty of interesting documentaries to see, and legendary director Oliver Stone will be at the screening of his film, "Persona Son Grata," at 4pm Saturday.
And meanwhile, Teddy Grouya says there are plenty of films to feast your eyes on.
"When they see any of the programs here, they're going to be inspired, that's been the reaction so far, people are like I wish I'd known about this yesterday, I'm going to come every day from now on," said Grouya.
The American Documentary Film Festival runs through Thursday, April 5th at Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs.