Charles Bronson's double? Lake County stuntman, anime, documentaries highlight film fest

Over the past two decades, the Central Florida Film Festival has been a filmmakers' film fest, a mecca for local movie aficionados.

The anticipated three-day event returns to the Epic Theatres at Mount Dora this weekend, Jan. 19-21.

Known as CenFlo, the annual wintertime fest screens the latest independent movies, shorts and documentaries from auteurs around the world, and apart from watching movies, attendees at CenFlo can attend panel discussions with filmmakers and actors after the films and see actors and other industry icons and dressy events too.

On Sunday, CenFlo is presenting an industry award to Lake County-based stuntman and coordinator Kim Kahana after they screen an official selection documentary about him, "Kim Kahana: The Man who changed Hollywood," at 1 p.m.

"He's a very interesting guy, and he's been in the industry for decades," CenFlo Executive Director Brendon Rogers said of Kahana. "He has a stunt school in Groveland and used to be Charles Bronson's stunt double in multiple films."

The evolution of CenFlo

Rogers took on the CenFlo leadership mantle of the festival in 2018. He collaborated with former director/co-founder Bob Cook a few years before that and even starred in one of Cook's films. Cook asked Rogers if he'd take over.

The former director, who founded the festival with Brandon Arrington, took Rogers by surprise.

"I was kind of blindsided by it because that's not what we were even meeting about," Rogers recalled.

Once in charge, Rogers and his team moved the festival from September to January, which he said "has historically been the month movies go to die."

CenFlo had historically been held every Labor Day. "We moved it because Bob (Cook)'s arrangement with the West Orange cinemas was coming to an end anyway, but we also wanted to have a larger venue," the current director explained.

The organizers also moved the festival from Ocoee to Mount Dora, establishing the Epic as its official venue. CenFlo started with fewer than 30 screenings and now has almost 200.

"At the Epic-Mount Dora, there's a huge lounge inside — a very, very big lobby. And so we can do everything there. The filmmakers don't have to leave and go to hotel spaces and things like that. We do it all in-house, people who come to the festival can walk out of a screening and be right at the party."

Appreciating the arts locally and internationally

Fun fact: Rogers is a thespian, too. "I've worked with Bay Street Players, at Icehouse Theater and Melon Patch Players in Leesburg and a couple theaters in Orlando, he explained. "There is definitely a growing interest in the arts locally."He also expressed feeling more encouraged by independent filmmaking than the movie industry at large. "With almost everything coming out of Hollywood being remakes, reboots, sequels, soft reboots, prequels, you know ... they have the misfortune of having a business model that contains an art form instead of vice versa," he said of the Hollywood establishment.

"But art is subjective," Rogers emphasized. "There's no consistency. If you want a business model with consistency, make pens or pencils or sneakers or baseball hats or something. Make widgets. Don't make art because the same audience will flock to a theater to see one show and will completely ignore another if they're not really interested in what it's about."

Fest highlights

Highlights of this year's festival include "Rojek," a 2022 Canadian documentary written, directed and produced by Zaynê Akyol. The film kicks off the fest Friday morning at 10:45 a.m. and follows the recovery of Kurdistan from the Rojava–Islamist conflict.  It was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Friday night's concluding feature films include the comedy mockumentary "Believers" at 7:30 p.m. and the anime feature "The Concierge" at 8:25 p.m.

Among the must-see docs, "Broken Dolls: Reparation from the Holocaust" screens at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday. The film goes back to 1939, when a 7-year-old girl flees Nazi Germany on a ship-bound for Shanghai. Eighty years later in America, her daughter fights to reinstate her mother's lost German citizenship and plans a trip to the country that tried to eliminate her. The journey reveals resilience and strength, and longtime-buried family secrets. (81 minutes, in English).

The shorts are no less intriguing: The animated short "Frostbyte" (Friday, 11 a.m.) is a sci-fi University of Central Florida student film that lurches backward and forward in time to the 2100s, when a young scavenger breaks into a lab on a snowy mountain and awakens one of the robots that teaches her the importance of companionship.

"Warriors: The Bernie Mac Disease" (Sunday, 3:10 p.m.) features Bernie Mac's widow, Rhonda, who takes viewers on a personal journey through the life and legacy of her beloved comedian husband and the impact that sarcoidosis had on his rise to fame. After the film, patients from the USA, Germany and Ghana describe their fight with the disease.

"Army Men" (Friday, 6:15 p.m.) is a comedic and dramatic short that centers on a Miami-based songwriter who returns to the tough battlefield of his childhood neighborhood in Queens only to be haunted by the memories of his late best friend.

The Saturday night CenFlo premiere "Lost Island" (7:30 p.m.) is not in competition but is a film directed by CenFlo founder Cook, and Rogers in the cast.

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An awards show brings CenFlo to a festive finale Sunday at 8 p.m. "We've got somewhere between 50 and 60 filmmakers who confirmed they're attending," Rogers said, adding that there may be some surprise appearances.

Rogers emphasized that the purpose was to celebrate the film and didn't want it to overshadow the masterful films receiving awards.

"I think that the great thing about being director is getting to watch the films," Rogers said. "I watch everything. I mean, we have a judging process. We have a selection committee, and we have an award show and stuff. But I watch everything that comes in anyway."

A variety of passes are available at FilmFreeway.com. Screenings take place at Epic Theatres, 2300 Spring Harbor Blvd., Mount Dora. Details: centralfloridafilmfestival.com.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Groveland's own Charles Bronson and more at Central Florida film fest