West Hollywood, California (Tuesday, August 25, 2009) - The second annual West Hollywood International Film Festival (WHIFF)’s calamitous opening night only portended more chaos for the week-long festival, with films being rescheduled and then falling by the wayside for lack of attendees during the rest of the week-long festival, and with more filmmakers stepping forward, distressed at what they call unprofessional treatment, even shakedowns, by the event’s organizer, Martin Deluca. 
West Hollywood Film Festival (WHIFF)’s organizer Martin Deluca with a filmmaker Pat Taylor. WeHo News. |
What no one could have discerned from the disorganization and disregard for filmmakers’ feelings, was what some filmmakers called a con game Mr. Deluca played to pressure them to fund his festival.
After publishing last week’s expose about the opening night event, WeHo News’ E mail queue flooded with complaints from filmmakers wishing to tell their story, all of them glad to share their tale of woe in dealing with WHIFF.
Two reports came from filmmakers who say they saw the writing on WHIFF’s wall before the festival even got organized.
Both of them WeHo residents, Waide Riddle and Richard Oshen, the pair said they saw something amiss in Mr, Deluca’s approach.
Waide Riddle, writer, producer & director of "Two Men Kissing" & "Washington Park," told WeHo News:
“Last year I submitted my short films to the WHIFF with my fee. Out of instinct and experience, I knew something was fishy,” he said.
West Hollywood Film Festival (WHIFF)’s organizer Martin Deluca. WeHo News. |
“Sure enough, my film was rejected but my fee was gladly taken. What originally caught my eye, though, was the fact that so few sponsors- if any- jumped on board to this event that looked to good to be true.”
Mr. Deluca made the same complaint to WeHo News, saying “No on stepped forward to sponsor my festival,” eventually leaving him to find a last minute angel to pony up needed funding to secure venues.
His scramble for cash, said several filmmakers and former associates, led him to try to extract money from the filmmakers themselves, if not for the venue, for food, beverages and other reception-related happenings.
The producer for the ill-fated opening night’s film, “Annul Victory,” Bill Manuel, told WeHo News that Mr. Deluca tried to “extort” money from him after accepting and scheduling his film.
He shared a note he wrote to Mr. Deluca clearing the air and disabusing Mr. Deluca of misconceptions.
Mr. Manuel wrote: “Your claims that you were led to believe the cost of opening night would be covered by sponsors are nonsense. At no time did we represent we would "cover" the costs of opening night.
Lambda Legal’s Jon Davidson and Robin Tyler at WHIFF 2009. Photos by Gil Kaan and Zaki Muniz .WeHo News. |
“What we did do is structure a package, including a potential red carpet, feature film, world class panel, and a network ready and waiting to sell the 388 tickets, all of which allowed you to boost the ticket price to $30 for the evening.
Finishing his note, he explained to Mr. Deluca how other film festivals operate, notably, the festival raises the money to throw all the functions – the filmmakers simply pay a fee to show their film.
“We have a film in YOUR festival; and we've gone above and beyond any obligations other than offering our film for your festival.”
This happened against the backdrop of the beginnings of a bribery case involving film festival promoters Gerald and Patricia Green who have been charged with bribing Thai officials to run the Bangkok film festival.
Their trial starts today in U.S. District Court with prosecutors alleging the couple pocketed $14 million over a four-year period in extorted fees and as a result of the bribes.
If convicted, they each could receive up to life in prison. They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are free on bond.
Folks waiting to get into a film festival screening. WeHo News. |
No person has stepped forward to publicly charge Mr. Deluca with illegal conduct, although one associate who gave a hand in attempting to secure sponsors related a patently illegal sales pitch Mr. Deluca was allegedly wont to use.
The source asked to speak on the condition of anonymity because he said Mr. Deluca made oft-repeated threats to litigate against anyone who angered him as a first line of offense (WeHo News received just such a threat after publishing last week’s article).
He told of how he accompanied Mr. Deluca on visits to merchants, in this case, along 3rd Street in Los Angeles.
“He told these guys that the festival was a benefit,” he recalled in his statement to WeHo News. “He said the proceeds would go to support the troops – he was giving the money to the local USO.”
WeHo News could not confirm those charges, and Mr. Deluca did not respond to repeated requests for an interview in which he could refute or explain them.
Another Wehoan filmmaker who saw trouble writ large told WeHo News about his distress surrounding dealing with Mr. Deluca.
“Sins Of Commission” was accepted into WHIFF, but the producer saw something amiss and pulled it in July before the festival. Photo courtesy the filmmaker. WeHo News. |
Richard Oshen entered his film, “Sins Of Commission,” and received an invitation to show it, but backed out early after witnessing what he called “disturbing, if not criminal, business practices.”
“A film festival in West Hollywood conjures this very very hip image, since so many in the industry live here – I was very excited about showing my controversial film in a city that honors provocative messages,” he said.
His film sheds light on the practices of the California Coastal Commission, a source of great controversy over the years.
“Right off the bat we didn’t receive any welcome or any technical specifications…” he said. “But we figured, it’s a new festival, let’s cut him a break because we were so pleased to have the chance to show it… because no other festival would touch it.”
He began getting word from friends who wished to travel to WeHo from places such as Sacramento and points between.
Mr. Oshen could not get answers from Mr. Deluca, sought satisfaction from his web site but found it disorganized and incomplete (WeHo News found that the phone number listed on the site five days before the festival was invalid and Mr. Deluca’s cell phone’s memory full).
The glamorous Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater makes a natural setting for any WeHo Film Festival, but despite a year’s preparation, promoters were unable to secure the venue. Photo by WeHo News. |
“I tried to get a firm date for my film’s showing so I could inform my friends who were traveling,” he said, “so I finally called the Pacific Design Center (PDC - the originally planned venue).”
Then, according to Mr. Oshen, he received an irate call from Mr. Deluca, who took umbrage at his call to the PDC, saying” you shouldn’t be calling my venues to check up on me.”
That determined the matter for him, he said. He published a press release that said the film was being pulled, no more.
“I didn’t want to cast aspersions on the guy,” he said, “but maybe I could have saved some people some trouble if I’d made more of it then.”
He said his films were made about issues such as honor and integrity, “How could I show my film at a festival so lacking in integrity, where the promoter lies with abandon and treats people so shoddily.”
Other filmmakers too numerous to list here came forward with complaints about the scheduling problems – apparently only a few films scheduled actually appeared at the times scheduled - and with complaints about maltreatment by Mr. Deluca.
Hircine Airlines from Seagoat, Benjamin Hendricks’ entry in WHIFF. WeHo News. |
Benjamin Hendricks provided the most detailed description on his run-in with the festival promoter.
Actually, the festival was an absolute disaster. When I showed up, they acted a little fishy, but said nothing and let us in to the screening. There were about 12 people in the entire room, and after the first film ended about half of those people left. The screening was plagued by technical difficulties: films being started over, incorrect aspect ratios, missing subtitles.
After sitting there for an hour (and 30 minutes past when my film was scheduled to show on their website), I went outside and had this conversation with Martin Deluca:
Did you guys shuffle the schedule around?
Martin: Why do you ask?
Because my film was supposed to show a half hour ago, and the film that's showing now isn't even on the schedule.Martin: What's the name of your film?
Hircine Airlines.
Martin: (briefly looks at his laptop, mumbles something)
Withoutabox is the film festival’s central clearinng house and the place most filmmakers see as an antidote to WHIFF. WeHo News. |
Huh?
Martin: Look, I'm completely exhausted and I'm not going to take any more shit from anyone.
After that I went into the hallway, pulled my confirmation email up on my phone and brought it over to show to him. He didn't have anything to say.
I had my mom come in from out of town for the screening. He's lucky she was there, because I was really… mad.
Keep in mind, this is the second night of the festival, a full day after the debacle that's already been reported on.
He finished with a statement: “Mr. Deluca, if you can't handle organizing a festival, I recommend you skip out on WHIFF 2010 and go back to the other amazing organizational success stories your email hints at.”
Mr. Hendricks joined a half dozen other filmmakers in calling for peers who suffered indignities at WHIFF to make their complaints official to the watchdog web site overseeing film festival nationwide, WithoutaBox.com .
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The Abbey bar and nightclub. Photo by WeHo News. |
One filmmaker who traveled from Europe to show her film compared her experience in West Hollywood most unfavorably with her other festival experiences.
Nadine Keil wrote us from Germany, “I flew in from Germany because of the early request that you have to attend the festival if you want your film screened.
“I don’t have to mention how much money this had cost me. We were confused by the mail one day before the festival that the location had changed.
Our screening was at the second day in the Abbey! Well, for all who don’t know, this is a bar. They didn’t had a screen; they just showed the movies on normal TVs, and it wasn’t in a separate room. There was only a curtain which separated the "screening room" from the rest of the [noisy] bar.
“So we had talking people and bar-music added to our soundtrack. Great! They didn’t even put proper chairs up. The room was set up with sofas as it always was.
“They really embarrassed the filmmakers. This wasn’t a film festival. I do have a bigger screen at home then they had.
From the “Puppeteers” WeHo News. |
She said that all of the above irked her, however, “what makes me angry the most is that Martin is not apologizing and keeps lying. That is the most unprofessional of it.”
Yet another filmmaker came forward; Italian Lura Calder’s 'The Puppeteers' was to have shown, but she could not get a date for her screening so she could make travel plans.
She wrote: "We asked in many emails to give us a date for our screening and they never replied. Not normal, and we know because we have shown our documentary in festivals around the world, received awards for it, and even had our trip and hotel paid for by the festivals.
“I think there is a standard for film festivals that Deluca clearly does not follow or have a clue about."
Belonging to WHIFF’s facebook page, she noted that it seemed devoid of support for Mr. Deluca.
“I have not seen any emails as of yet from participants that are positive… No one is saying they are happy and proud to have been a part of this festival. Scandalous, yes, especially coming from West Hollywood, a place where the entire world expects much more and not to be scammed.”
WeHo News. |
As those plaints came in and WeHo News reached out to Mr. Deluca to confirm or deny them, Mr. Deluca attacked our policies and procedures.
Mr. Deluca, failing to encourage any of his “supporters” on his facebook page to write WeHo News a public letter of support, forwarded several such letters to WeHo News.
When we requested that the writers of the notes pass along their phone numbers so we could independently confirm their identities, he responded in an E mail, “Based on you emails and tabloid-esque antics insinuating that our supporters correspondence are "possibly fake," we've been advised by our publicist, NOT to carry any interviews with you ever.”
When asked for his publicist’s name and contact information, however, Mr. Deluca avoided answering and continued to correspond with WeHo News himself rather than through his publicist.
One of Mr. Deluca’s supporters did step forward to comment publicly, then stepped backward and pulled their comments - and then tried to have it both ways.
Marco Piana, from New York, wrote WeHo News a letter to the editor using our link on the article page.
Mr. Piana’s company has only two pages on its web site, a title page (shown) and a contact page. WeHo News. |
In response to the auto-reply E mail which asks for a phone number (not for publication) to confirm the writer’s ID, he responded by saying that his note was a private correspondence, and although he did send it through the “Send A Letter To The Editor" link, he did not want his letter published at all.
He followed that exchange by telling Mr. Deluca on his facebook page (a note Mr. Deluca passed along to us unasked for as an example of how much support he had received) how he had tried to publish a supportive letter but that he objected to having his E mail and phone number published.
Here is his facebook post: “I did send a letter to the mag giving my point of view but they told me that if I wanted published I had to give my personal verified info to be published as well: hell no that I'm gonna put on an online mag my personal cell and my address...”
In his “official statement” on the first WeHo News story, still posted on his site, WHIFF2008.com) Martin Deluca claimed no one from WeHo News contacted him prior to publishing the original, even though we informed him during the interview he was being tape recorded.
The last official word we received from Mr. Deluca was in the form of a defiant letter.
“Let me assure you,” it went, “we are in full force preparing WHIFF 2010 which will be on its 3rd year, and by that time, your story will well have fizzled-out of the spotlight as it usually appends (sic) with one-sided journalists.
“We are hiring top PR personal to promote new films and filmmakers world wide. You may do as you wish, but at the end, the truth always prevails.
Photo by WeHo News. |
“However, for every negative article you post on your web-page, we receive ten letters or posts of support denouncing your claims.
“You see, your web-page is no match to the power and strength of our community we have developed through the years on global media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
“By continuing requesting interviews or our attention to you [sic] web-page, you are moving into the arena of harassment.
“Sooner rather than later, you will have to move to the next "flavor of the month story", and all this waist [sic] of energy will seem silly then."
WeHo News did receive two messages on the answering machine this past weekend from Mr. Deluca (after receiving those notes). In one, left at 5:50 pm on Saturday, he apologized to WeHo News and offered an opportunity to interview him.
The next day, at 11:50 am, he repeated his request to interview, saying “the damage has been done.”
Messages left for Mr. Deluca, on Sunday and again on Tuesday, were not returned by publication time.
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