Members of the Laguna Woods Video Club and their guests got to celebrate their Goldies Awards in person again this year, after the pandemic hiatus.
The celebration, which annually awards the top videos produced by Video Club members in the Short Videos Contest, is a tongue-in-cheek version of the Oscars, complete with festive attire and a red carpet. The name – Goldies – refers to all of us “golden oldies” in the Village and to the Golden Rain Foundation that sustains the community.
A nattily attired crowd of about 60 to 70 people enjoyed the awards dinner at the 19 Restaurant and watched 11 entries last month. Video Club members chose the three winners, determined by the number of votes each entry received, and club Vice President Tom Nash introduced them to an enthusiastic reception.
While every one of the entries was engaging, sometimes amusing and sometimes poignant, the three winning videos stood out both for content and quality of the filmmaking.
First place went to Sidney Kirkpatrick’s “The Apology,” which was striking for its visual quality and the timeliness and timelessness of its content. In the video, he tells a story over a backdrop of photos from the 1950s.
Kirkpatrick delved back into his childhood when he and his mischievous buddies roamed their Long Island hometown on their bicycles, looking to make trouble. One of their targets was a single man living in a restored turn-of-the-century house. He turned out to be the actor Hurd Hatfield, best known as the title character in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The boys peppered him with a homophobic slur while laying siege to his front porch.
When Hatfield finally caught one of the boys by the scruff of the neck, as Kirkpatrick recalled, he showed him kindness by bringing him into his home, offering tea and scones, and asking the boy what he thought the slur meant. The boy did not know and left chastened.
“The chat opened a window for me,” said Kirkpatrick, an author of 10 books who moved to Laguna Woods from Pasadena. He said he never used the slur again, nor did he allow his sons to.
Kirkpatrick once attended an elegant dinner party where, to his surprise, he sat across the table from Hatfield. Kirkpatrick took the opportunity to introduce himself and apologize for his behavior as a child, thanking him for his kindness and for providing what is now called “a teachable moment.”
Betsy Starkweather, who creates under the name Starkey, won second place in the contest for her powerful video “Championing Young Lives.”
In it, she focuses on the contributions the Assistance League Laguna Beach makes not only to the city but to Orange County as well. She takes viewers into the Assistance League’s thrift shop on Glenneyre Street, which helps fund the organization’s philanthropic projects, including work with the Laguna Beach Boys and Girls Club. In addition, close-up shots show volunteers cuddling special-needs babies as part of their physical therapy.
Submitting an entry for this contest was a first for Marsha Berman, the Video Club’s membership director, who took third place. She chronicles her family vacation to Alaska with skill and a sense of humor. With Berman narrating to upbeat background music, one gets the feeling of being along for the ride through what she calls “An Amazing Adventure.”
“We love Alaska. We were there three times,” said Berman, who traveled with her husband, stepdaughter, son-in-law and 7-year-old grandson, Max. “This was my first effort at making tapes. As (video) lab supervisor, I figured I’d better come up with something.”
Although the family has sold the RV they traveled in, she plans to return to Alaska in an SUV.
“What’s nice about traveling by car rather than cruising is that you are kind of independent,” she said.
Even if they were not prize winners this year, every other videographer created something memorable.
Among them is Robert Matoni’s “Biplane Adventure,” in which he captured his wife Diane Matoni’s wish to fly in a vintage biplane. Robert Matoni added a humorous touch by inserting movie clips of biplanes chasing King Kong, before cutting to Diane Matoni grooving on her ride in a sleek black staggered-wing plane.
“I’ll go back in a heartbeat,” she says in the video after landing.
Other gems among the videos were “Greenfields: A Paradoxical Music Video,” by Sheryl Martin; “In Loving Memory,” by Stephanie Brasher; “Sheri’s Christmas Gift, by Steve Carman; “No More Ties,” by Gila Zalon; “Air Show,” by Jim Rohrs; “Architectural Journey,” by Wolfgang Kutter; and “Lemming,” by Fred Harshbarger.
The videos will be available for viewing on Village TV this spring. After that, they will be posted on the Video Club’s website at videocluboflagunawoods.com. For more information, visit the website or call 949-470-0965.