San Diego Film Week kicks off Saturday at Digital Gym Cinema in East Village, running through Nov. 15 with four feature films and dozens of locally connected short films. The lineup's biggest name attached isn't a director or an actor but a soccer star: former San Diego Wave FC and U.S. Women's National Team standout Alex Morgan narrates and executive produced one of this year's headlining documentaries.
Starting Saturday and continuing through Nov. 15, the festival will screen its slate under the guidance of curator Jodi Cilley, who is also the founder and president of Film Consortium San Diego, according to Times of San Diego. The nonprofit consortium operates San Diego Film Week and works to promote and sustain local moviemaking, the outlet reports. This year marks the tenth time the event has unfolded in San Diego, having run annually since 2017 as, per the same account, the only festival of its kind dedicated exclusively to showcasing the city's film industry.
Morgan's Basketball Underdogs Take Center Stage
Among the short films is “Brick By Brick,” narrated and executive produced by Morgan, who built her name on the pitch rather than the court. The documentary follows Southwestern College's women's basketball team after too few players threatened to cancel the season entirely — until members of the school's soccer team volunteered to suit up, despite having never played basketball before, the festival's reporting notes.
Also screening is “Sunset Cliffs,” a short drama set in 2004 San Diego that centers on a handful of students at the fictional Ocean Beach High School. The two shorts are part of a slate that organizers describe as having a genuine local connection, whether through subject matter, filmmakers, or setting.
Shorts, Panels and an Award Ceremony Fill Out the Festival
Beyond the features, dozens of shorts ranging from two to 20 minutes will screen each day of the festival, the station's report notes. The full schedule also includes Q&As with filmmakers, panels, workshops and an award ceremony, rounding out a festival built as much around conversation with local creators as around the films themselves.
Other titles in the mix include “Better Call Babs,” a documentary portrait of Babs Fry's recovery from addiction and her work rescuing and rehabilitating lost pets and feral strays, according to Times of San Diego. The festival's nonfiction offerings also reach beyond the city limits of entertainment into community advocacy: “Critter Encounters: A Forever Home” follows the work of a wildlife sanctuary in Ramona, while “Rise Up Industries: Breaking the Cycle” spotlights a San Diego-based social enterprise that supports formerly incarcerated people rebuilding their lives through job training and mentorship.
A Drama About Foster Care's Moral Gray Areas
One of the more provocative entries is “Fair Trade,” a drama about adults raised in California's foster care system who form a covert network to rescue abused children — only to cross a moral line by selling those children into what they believe are better families, according to San Diego Film Week's film page. The film was scheduled to screen Nov. 14 at 11 a.m., per the festival listing.
Individual screening tickets are priced at $16, and the festival is being held at Digital Gym Cinema, an independent, nonprofit theater and lounge in East Village. The East Village venue has become the festival's home base for a celebration organizers say is unlike any other gathering in the city dedicated purely to homegrown filmmaking.
