Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Accomando.
Hi Beth, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As far back as I can remember I always loved movies. My dad, a teacher, kept me home from school to watch On the Waterfront because he thought it was an important film and then he asked me what I thought of it, and then asked me to think about how the director’s role in the House Un-American Activities Committee might make me think about the film’s themes. He also took me to King Kong and The Creature From the Black Lagoon and bought me model kits to build the monsters. That not just laid the groundwork for my passion for film but also for how I see film in a bigger context and as something to share. I studied film at UC San Diego, worked on the Attack of the Killer Tomato sequels, won 11 Southwestern Area Emmys while working in the promotions department at XETV Fox Channel 6, and worked with multiple film festivals in San Diego. My passion for Hong Kong action films led me to freelance work at NPR and then to Public Radio International. Back in 2014, I began a beautiful partnership with the Media Arts Center San Diego and its then new Digital Gym Cinema. I helped create Film Geeks SD, a group of volunteer programmers dedicated to bringing unique film programs, series and events to San Diego. We work to create a community of film lovers, providing them with curated programming, guest speakers, themed food, and sometimes bonkers events. I love bringing people together to show movies and to feed them. Oh, and I also like to build home haunts, the sound of kids screaming as they flee your home haunt is priceless. We have built a Hellraiser haunt as well as a Godzilla one.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha! Is it ever a smooth road? It has been a fabulous journey and I have loved it but it is a struggle to keep an organization like Film Geeks going. We could not do it with out Ethan Van Thillo and Media Arts Center! They have been amazing partners, providing us with a cinema space, really a place of worship. We have also been fortunate to work with Cinema Under the Stars and Comic-Con Museum. But as with all passion projects, making it financially viable is always a challenge. Film Geeks is all volunteers but we have to pay for film rights, sometimes venue rentals, and costs of running events. Finding an audience, finding the right way to market what we do, putting butts in seats every month and sometimes more often, is tough! But we have been building a fabulous community of film lovers who have been incredibly generous and passionate in their support. I love that this community is diverse in terms of the people and in terms of their taste in film. The biggest struggle is just trying to figure out how to reach the audience that you know is out there and then how to convince them to leave their comfy couches to join us in a cinema.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I don’t think there is a name or category that actually fits what I do. I have joked that I am a film activist who just wants to advocate for film and for appreciating the role film and pop culture in general can have. I have long said that when I retire my dream would be to open a kind of film commune where there could be filmmakers in residence, edit suites, a small studio to shoot in, a mixing room, and most importantly a screening room and big kitchen to I could cook for all the residents each night as we all sat and watched each other’s work, provided feedback, and shared films we loved. I feel like I am an organizer — I design and execute events, I bring people together, I create spaces for art and food to be appreciated, I embrace all things on the fringe and celebrate the wild diversity of cinema. There are a lot of people who do events in San Diego and a lot of people who do excellent programming, but nobody quite does what we as Film Geeks do. We had a year of Godzilla films with a professor who not only had scholarly knowledge of the subject but who was also a geeky fan who provided unique insights into the franchise. Then we created monthly trading cards that highlighted each film’s kaiju creatures and shared background information. We have set up photo opps with Bigfoot, and zombies (obviously not on the SAME night). We partnered with an artist who designed exclusive posters for each films and I created themed food for each film. We also do a 12 hour horror marathon at Comic-Con Museum called Secret Morgue where we gave out vampire hunting kits to VIPs at the undead marathon, had a neuroscientist dissect a brain at a zombie marathon, and brought in a 1494 copy of the Malleus Maleficarum,’ called ‘The Hammer of Witches” along with a professor to discuss the history of witches for Walpurgisnacht (Witches’ Night). I think part of what makes me unique is that I want to create an event around our films. I don’t want someone to just walk into a cinema, see a movie and leave — I want them to enjoy some food, have a conversation, maybe even learn something, and then have something to take away from the event as a reminder. We want people to know that whatever weird films they might love, there are others out there that feel the same.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Not sure I have wisdom to share except to say follow your passions, and don’t be afraid to fail or to have someone say no. You learn from every failure and a lot of the time, people say yes! My passion for Hong Kong cinema led me to doing interviews with many key players well before they became popular here in the US (Jackie Chan, John Woo, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh) and gathering interviews and asking them about the impending changeover in 1997 of Hong Kong to Mainland China, gave me unique content that allowed me to get my foot in the door at NPR. Following my passions meant I have been attending every film festival in San Diego since their start and meeting incredible people, artists and other organizers. I am not good at monetizing, I am not good at knowing what will get clicks, or what’s the popular trend to tap into — but I love what I do, I am genuinely geeky and sometimes that puts me ahead of the curve, and I never create an event that I would not want to pay to attend myself. So even if I fail, at least I can feel proud of what I created and know that even if only 2 people attended, they had a damn fine time! Also you don’t always know where the things that will define you or that will give you skills will come from. My dad passed on his love of movies to me and that defined me. My mom was always creative and very DIY and that led me to be a mom who created fun giveaways for my son’s birthday parties as a little kid, and now I am making Godzilla trading cards, crafting production design for a Videodrome New Flesh Party, building a jungle gym out of PVC for a horror marathon display for Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Pricing:
- Our movies typically cost $10-14
- We run year long programs and other events with special VIP pricing and perks.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://digitalgym.org/film-series/film-geeks/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinebeth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFilmGeeks
- Twitter: https://x.com/cinebeth
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmGeeksSD
- Other: https://filmgeekssd.eventive.org/schedule
Image Credits
You can credit me. Some were taken by friends but none are professional photogs or would want photo credit.
