SAN ANTONIO — Three decades ago this year, a 19-year-old Adam Rocha sat down and soaked in about a dozen movies at the east side's now-defunct Cameo Theater.
A San Antonio College student eager to learn more about filmmaking by seeing what students at bigger schools were making, he had recently returned from screening his own short film at a film festival in San Diego and figured he could organize one back home. With the help of some friends and relatives who had access to copy machines at work, he sent flyers to schools throughout the country.
Thirteen submissions came in, all on VHS. The San Antonio Film Festival was born.
“You paid like 5 bucks, you could drink all you want with our kegs,” recalled Rocha, speaking to KENS 5 in a recent phone interview. “There were bands that played probably a 45-minute set, and then we just played the movies at the end. It was probably like 5 a.m. by the time we finished.”
The festival will screen about 230 movies in its 30th edition, running from Tuesday through Sunday this week, including 42 features. Individual tickets start at $12.99, day passes are going for $59.99 and all-access VIP badges cost $149.99 for the most dedicated movie lovers. The number of submissions have grown, as have the venues and brand awareness of a moviegoing event that’s carved out a reputation as a destination for young filmmakers, rather than a SXSW-style stepping stone for studios releasing the next blockbuster or Academy Awards contender.
Rocha is still heavily involved in the festival all these years later. Though he doesn’t personally screen every submission that comes in anymore – a daunting task he now leaves to his programming team – he is still the event’s executive director while also teaching local high school film students.
For this lifelong film lover, it’s still all about that education. Only now, he’s motivated primarily by educating the next generation, whether it be in the classroom or with filmmakers wondering why they may not have been accepted. He did a bit more of the latter this year, it turns out: The festival team saw about a 20% jump in submissions, Rocha says, something he attributes to filmmakers wanting to be part of a milestone festival.
“It’s art, it’s passion,” he says. “Our job is to help them and invite them to come to this screening, watch more movies. If your name’s Tim Duncan and you’re in the 10th grade, you’re not going to be slamming dunks or doing a triple-double. You can’t be there yet. You have to learn.”
Stories of all stripes
Based on this year’s program, there will be plenty of learning to be had at what Rocha calls “the hidden jewel of the city.”
Among 2024’s offerings: the drama “Ballad of a Hustler,” about a recently incarcerated father searching for his fiancé in the “dangerous underworld of illegal immigration”; “How the West was One,” a reimagining of the West and its residents partially shot in San Antonio; and a documentary about renowned Alamo City artist Jesse Treviño.
As with previous years, there’s a mixture of international fare and South Texas stories for audiences at the Tobin and Radius Center to lose themselves in. Short films will again be grouped together in blocks around themes like romance, food and horror.
One of the opening-night movies, “Los Frikis,” will mark the return of co-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz to a festival where they previously held the Texas premiere of their laid-back Shia LaBeouf drama “The Peanut Butter Falcon," an indication of how much Rocha’s festival values growth by inviting previous filmmakers back. And Rocha is quick to shout out two “killer” music documentaries, one of which, “Bastards of Soul,” tells the story of a Texas band whose rise is thrown off the rails when their frontman dies.
“Everybody has a story,” Rocha emphasizes, while also acknowledging the medium’s evolution over the course of the SA Film Festival’s existence. “Filmmaking is in the hands, literally, the hands of kids. That’s what social media is, in a slight way—it’s still storytelling.”
And he’s still a purist about the artform all these years later, no matter if he’s screening 13 films or 230.
“To be part of this… watching cinema on the big screen in front of your eyes and sharing the experience with the audience, that’s still a special thing.”
Badges for the SA Film Festival can be purchased here. Those who buy VIP badges must pick them up at the Radius Center (106 Auditorium Circle).