Roll out the red carpet

Nine months after Hurricane Sandy, Long Beach resident and filmmaker George Ennis is in the midst of his seventh move, as his house gets completely rebuilt.

For Ennis, it was the second blow from a major storm to his California Street home in the last two years. Not only was his house damaged, but it forced him to cancel his popular film festival held every year in his name, the George Ennis Film Festival, an event known for its colorful characters, celebrity impersonators and creative short films.

Flooding from both Sandy last October and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 prevented Ennis from putting together the fifth annual George Ennis Film Festival, which has become a staple in the West End since 2008.

Now, Ennis wants to bring his festival back and make it better than ever.

“There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into the film festival,” Ennis said. “With all the things that are involved post-storm with moving, dealing with insurance companies and construction companies — it was just too much of a task honestly to give it the attention that it deserves.”

Ennis said that he hopes to begin work for next year’s festival sometime in the next three or four months, when his new house is expected to be finished. He said he wants it to take place sometime when it’s warm out, preferably next spring or summer.

“Right now my head has been spinning with everything that has been going on with getting back home,” Ennis said. “Once I get back … I can get my concentration back into it.”

The festival first started at the urging of his friends as “sort of a joke” and it only featured films about Ennis. While it still retains that “spoof of a real film festival” feel, it now includes entries from other filmmakers and raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a cause close to Ennis ever since his son, P.J., now 20, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

“It means a lot to me because it’s kind of a pet project and it’s a fundraiser I’m fairly close to,” Ennis said.

Ennis said he’s heard from people who have told him during the hiatus that they want to see the festival return in the near future.