Just four years ago, Adam Rocha was ready to give up on the San Antonio Film Festival, the film festival he founded. Only 100 people had bothered to show up. But Rocha kept it going, and his perseverance has paid off. But this year, 200 people attended the San Antonio Film Festival on its opening night alone.

The parallel to prospering in the film industry was not lost on Adrian Belic, an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who spoke to about 50 people Saturday in a free workshop at the Instituto Cultural de México, where the festival continues today.

“That’s just like ‘Beyond the Call,’” Belic said. “For three years, I could have quit that film. But I believed in it.” Belic wrote, produced and directed “Beyond The Call,” a documentary about three former soldiers who travel to war-stricken regions of the world to deliver humanitarian aid.

For three years, the Evanston, Ill., native was the only crewman tailing the trio on their treacherous quests. The obstacles were many.

“Bombs, land mines, terrorists,” Belic said. “We had to sneak out of Afghanistan in a 20-foot container to get into Tajikistan.”

Among Belic’s words of advice to aspiring filmmakers:

• Technical advice: “Always have headphones.”
• Financial advice: “DVDs is where the money is.”
• Words of inspiration: “If I can do it, and I never went to film school, anyone can do it.”

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story by Brian Chasnoff.

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