Michael Rabehl

“Everybody always thinks that you watch a bunch of films and you pick what you would like – but it’s not like that.”

Michael Rabehl is Cinequest’s Director of Programming/Associate Director. He’s held the position of Director of Programming since 1996, which makes Cinequest 2015 the twentieth festival program that bears his mark.

So how does he select the 190 (short and feature) films in the festival?  He’s looking primarily for quality, production values, strong writing and strong acting.  “I like it when people think about the movie.”  It’s “not all for me”, but “what an audience may like”.  Rabehl is looking for movies of interest to Silicon Valley’s population, so he sifts especially carefully through the Asian, Spanish language and tech-oriented films.  If a film will be released theatrically, the release must be after Cinequest’s run in late winter. (Last year, about ten Cinequest selections ultimately got a theatrical release).

About 80% of the films programmed at Cinequest are submitted by the filmmakers. Rabehl recruits the other 20%, after discovering them in other film festivals himself or with the help of his European and New York movie scouts.

Each year Cinequest receives about 2400 submissions.  Rabehl leads screening teams (one team for narrative features, one for docs, one for shorts, etc.) who watch and evaluate every film. They winnow the total down by 92% – down to the 190 movies that actually make the festival program.  One of those submissions, Miss India America, will receive its world premiere at the California Theater as a spotlight film.

There are more than enough submissions to fill the festival program.  Rabehl says that this year there were “at least 71 titles that would have been great for us, but there’s just not enough space”.   Keeping the filmmaker in mind, he says “We don’t want to be somebody’s world premiere at 9 AM”.

Rabehl laughed when I told him that people think that I see an unusually high number of movies (150-200) each year. He annually sees about 800, with 650 of them entered in his festival spreadsheet. Rabehl has personally seen all but two of the movies in this year’s Cinequest (all except for two high buzz choices that would be no-brainers for any film fest).

Each year Rabehl goes on scouting trips to identify possible Cinequest entries at other festivals – always to the Toronto International Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival and then to a different third fest each year.  How does Rabehl navigate a film festival himself?  He looks for films that “will work at Cinequest” and is always on the hunt for potential spotlight films.

At the industry-oriented Toronto fest in mid-September, he has the discipline to eschew the big Oscar-bait movies that will open soon as prestige Holiday movies (too early for Cinequest).  Toronto has a professional audience, he notes, and Montreal (late August-early September) has more normal film fest audience.

Rabehl is able to be more of a “film fan” at Montreal.  He values his enduring relationship with the strong national film programs of Norway and Belgium, which results in some wonderful nuggets for Cinequest. (Think of the hilarious King Curling in 2012.)  At Montreal in 2013, he latched on to Ida, the jewel of the 2014 Cinequest – and since universally acclaimed, the winner of the 2015 Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar and #2 on my list of the Best Movies of 2014.

Throughout the year, Rabehl’s ascerbic observations make @cqMike the funniest guy on Twitter. But, in person, he is engaging, not particularly edgy; and deeply passionate about cinema.

Rabehl started helping Cinequest in 1994, and became its Director of Programming in 1996: “I kind of fell into it.”  Rabehl had been making short films himself, and his producer had been programming Cinequest as a volunteer and was ready to move on. Rabehl met with Cinequest co-founder and CEO Halfdan Hussey over Thai food, discovered their common vision and the rest, as they say, is Silicon Valley cinema history.  Rabehl “wasn’t thinking long-term, but it became long-term.”  “I don’t like isolated work”, preferring the collaboration with others that putting together a film fest brings.

In Rabehl’s first Cinequest, the fest expanded to seven days (it’s now thirteen days) and attracted appearances by Kevin Spacey and Jackie Chan.  That gave everyone a future glimpse into what Silicon Valley’s film festival has become today.

“When I see audience members excited about being here and talking to each other about the movies, that’s why I do this.”

TOMORROW: Mike Rabehl looks at the 2015 Cinequest.