<--DAILY MIFF 2005 COVERAGE   SCOUTING REPORT (PART2) -->

THE 2005 MIFF SCOUTING REPORT (PART 1)

By Joel Johnson

The opening night film for the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is Murderball. This film will be the first of twenty-four documentary films. However, it is probably worth doing a little breaking of the mind-set about documentary films. Documentary films have tended to be the cinematic equivalent of “eat your vegetables” and “take your vitamins.” They were the low-fat, flavorless diet that was “good for you.” Over the past several years, spearheaded by Michael Moore (whether you agree with him or not), the “documentary film” has branched out into subjects beyond the scope of traditional educational films, has deliberately sought to entertain its audience, and has been much less fussy about trying to be evenhanded. While this doesn’t mean that traditional documentaries are dead, it does mean changing the attitude behind this question to a documentary filmmaker at an early MIFF: “When are you going to make a real film?” Clearly, documentary filmmakers are and always have been making real films. Their subject matter is, however, no longer devoid of entertainment for its audience and may better be described as “nonfiction films.” Everyplace that you see a film described as “documentary,” substitute the word “nonfiction.” Despite the ability of film to vividly create an alternate fictional reality, the basic tenet that “truth is stranger than fiction” again makes these nonfiction films powerful viewing experiences for their audiences. The movies tell the type of stories that would appear too pat, too simplistic, too manipulative as fiction.

Murderball is the story of triumph over adversity. This adversity is the kind that most of us can hardly imagine because it is so devastating. It is the same loss of function that made Million Dollar Baby such a powerful film experience this past winter as its characters decided to act in a much different way. Spinal cord-injured patients discover wheelchair rugby—the more polite name for “murderball”—and find a dramatic sense of empowerment in a viciously competitive sport. So far, no MIFF opening night film has triumphed as the audience favorite, but Murderball has won audience awards already at Sundance and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. It has won a total of five prizes—including the award for best documentary film at the Seattle International Film Festival—during its run on the festival circuit. This film promises to be a rousing opening for the festival as we follow the progress of the wheelchair gladiators through the Paralympic Games in Athens.

It is, however, worth noting that one of the most distinguished documentary filmmakers is expected to be present with her film Bearing Witness (codirected with Bob Eisenhardt and Marijana Wotton). Barbara Kopple is a two-time Oscar-winner for the documentary films Harlan County, USA (1976) and for the American Dream (1991). Both films showed how coal miners and meatpacking workers were being exploited by their employers, leading to highly contentious labor-management strikes. Bearing Witness, an apt description of Ms. Kopple’s work, refers to the dangerous, but crucial work being done by five women journalists covering the war in Iraq. Although this film has already been shown earlier this year on television, the big screen presentation and access to the filmmaker should make this a very powerful and thought-provoking experience. Yes, this film comes from the “good-for-you” school of documentary filmmaking, but a balanced diet is always important.

A couple of other films that seem to be from that same school are Occupation: Dreamland and Seeds. Occupation: Dreamland follows 82nd Airborne troops stationed in Fallujah in 2004. What is it really like for the men and women who are serving our country in the war in Iraq? Ian Olds and Garrett Scott will try to help you share that experience with this war’s typical soldiers. Joseph Boyle and Marjan Safinia’s Seeds shows the important work that is done at the Maine summer camp experience known as The Seeds of Peace, which brings together youths from opposing sides of some of our best-known international hot spots. The youths in Seeds are from Israel and Palestine. Conflict between Israeli and Palestinian Arab has raged from the very founding of Israel in 1948. Films that highlight the outcomes of war and peace starkly remind us of how precious life is, how it can be squandered so easily, and that we play a role in what happens.

Another challenging film is Twist of Faith by director Kirby Dick. Dick previously brought his film Chain Camera (2001) to MIFF in which a diverse group of Los Angeles high school students filmed themselves. The Oscar-nominated Twist of Faith tells the story of a young man dealing with his victimization by a pedophilic Catholic priest. The fact that family, friends, and communities of faith become divided by this allegation of sexual violation clearly compounds and magnifies the tragedy that befell the innocent young boy.

A film that may be both thought provoking and uplifting is The Beauty Academy of Kabul. Liz Mermin’s film is about beauticians from America going to Afghanistan to set up a beauty school. We normally wouldn’t think that such a thing would be revolutionary nor particularly interesting, but the strict form of Islam advocated by the Taliban clearly demanded that women be fully covered by a head-to-toe shroudlike garment called a burka. A woman expressing her individuality and cultivating her own beauty (sexual allure) made her a significant threat to the Taliban’s social order. How did the women cope? How do they feel about their appearance? The role of women is a major point of contention in the ongoing battle over the future of Islam. It may also be interesting to see Afghani women approaching beauty from a different perspective than our own beauty-obsessed, makeover mad society.

People who attended last winter’s MIFF in the Morning film series will note that two excellent nonfiction films will be reprised at this year’s MIFF. Touch the Sound is a film by Thomas Riedelsheimer, the director of Rivers and Tides. Though this film is about a unique musical artist, the Scottish deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, instead of a visual artist like Andy Goldsworthy, Riedelsheimer fills the screen with bold visual images as well as a richly textured soundtrack. The second film takes the counterculture mix of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll that was the hallmark of the 1960s and gives it a uniquely personal treatment in Ralph Arlyck’s Following Sean. Sean, as a four-year-old boy, was Arlyck’s subject in a 1969 short documentary titled Sean, about being a child in the notoriously hip Haight-Asbury section of San Francisco. Arlyck decides to take another look at Sean more than thirty years later. The film tracks not only Sean’s life as an adult on the cusp of middle age but also many of the key family members that were or became a part of Sean’s life. However, the film is also the story of the influence of that era on the filmmaker as it often refers back to his family and to his life experiences that parallel what is going on with Sean. The result is a unique and heart-felt film about relationships and the social forces that affect them. Having seen them during MIFF in the Morning, I can without hesitation recommend both of these films.

Jonathan Berman’s The Commune also promises to revisit the heady days of the 60s when many alternative paths to enlightenment and ways to live were sought. Founded on the slogan of a “free land for a free people” and basing its social contract on the Marxist credo of “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need,” Black Bear Ranch in northern California was a grand attempt, as actor and original commune resident Peter Coyote states, “to create an alternative culture.” Interestingly, The Black Bear Ranch commune is a social experiment, unlike many others, that still exists to this day. Though not all of the original seekers or the children raised there have continued with the commune. Where are they now and how do they feel about the paths they chose to try?

Among the more intriguing nonfiction films would be Shakespeare Behind Bars and Reel Paradise. John Pierson, a man whose role in the creative process of several of the most noted independent films were catalogued in his book Spike Mike Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, decides to get away from the rat race of making films by going to Fiji to run a movie theater. Alas, the unique demands of bringing films to audiences on Fiji become the subject of a film by Steve James. James has received director credits for both nonfiction and fiction films, but would be best known for the Oscar-nominated Hoop Dreams (1994). Hank Rogerson’s film Shakespeare Behind Bars shows not only how a group of society’s least valued members can become an effective theater troupe, but how Shakespeare’s work, particularly The Tempest, can elicit heart-rending insights from this same group.

There are three nonfiction films with Maine ties and nothing is quite as alluring as films about and/or by people like us. Former Penobscot Indian tribal leader Barry Dana’s battle with the State of Maine and the paper industry to clean up the Penobscot River is one of four Native American stories highlighted in Roberta Grossman’s Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action. The other stories feature the Cheyenne, the Alaskan Gwich'in, and the Navajo tribes. Jim and Tom Isler’s Festival is the story of a high school drama team competing in the Maine State Drama Festival. This type of competition has been the basis of recent documentary success stories Mad Hot Ballroom and the opening night film Murderball. It will be interesting to see how this unique competitive atmosphere is captured on film. Since the subjects are from Maine, it is likely that the audience will include drama team members from the film as well as other dramatic performers and teachers familiar with the competition. The other nonfiction film with a Maine connection is Winterwalk 2003. While the film has a title vaguely reminiscent of the inaugural MIFF in the Morning film Sea to Sea 2003, the only other similarity is that they both cross something. In Sea to Sea 2003, it is the continental United States in a three-wheeled, fuel-efficient British Reliant. Winterwalk 2003 is a midwinter trip across Labrador. Exactly why Maine guides Garrett and Alexandra Conover have decided to embark on this trip during the most forbiddingly cold time of the year is not clear, but if the film does not answer that question it is very likely that they will be present to provide an answer to that question and any others that audience members will have.

There are several films that focus on unique individuals and their very personal missions. The most laudable mission and the most lauded film is Peace One Day. Jeremy Gilley’s quest to have one full day where all the world’s combatants engage in a ceasefire is something we all should support though it has the seemingly unrealistic quality of there being one day when death takes a holiday and no one dies. This film received a nomination as Best Documentary from the British Independent Film Awards as well as a nomination for an award from the Directors Guild of Great Britain. Also coming to MIFF with a nomination as Best Documentary from the British Independent Film Awards is Madelaine Farley’s Trollywood. This film focuses on the growing problem of homelessness in America. The “trolly” of Trollywood refers to the shopping cart as the essential vehicle for the homeless. Madeleine Farley was working as a publicist for the rock band Duran Duran when she became intrigued by all the people using shopping carts in their daily lives and decided to tell their stories. There are films about a unique renaissance woman Elizabeth Yegsa Tashijan (In a Nutshell), stone sculptor Dan Snow (Camilla Rockwell’s Stone Rising: The Work of Dan Snow), eccentric Midwestern organic farmer John Peterson (Taggart Siegel’s The Real Dirt on Farmer John), octogenarian amateur astronomer and inventor John Dobson (Jeffrey Jacob’s A Sidewalk Astronomer), and Paul Gilman’s communication with ocean mammals (Paul Gilman’s Ocean Odyssey). These stories of individuals who lead very special lives and do some amazing things are not film subjects for which there is a built-in audience as there are for celebrities from entertainment, sports, and politics, but frequently their legacy is far greater than anyone would think. Most of these films are relatively new to the festival circuit and don’t have lots of awards and press clippings, however The Real Dirt on Farmer John and A Sidewalk Astronomer both have received glowing praise.

There are, of course, some films that slip into MIFF as virtual unknowns. There’s just nothing on Internet Movie Database or any of my other sources for early information about some films. The MIFF capsule descriptions don’t reveal much either. The MIFF broadsheet describes Running in High Heels as follows: “Do the math: 52% of the population is female; 14% of Congressional seats are held by women; 95% of all foot surgery is done on women to correct damage done by wearing high heel shoes. How far can we go running in high heels?” Is the film about women’s powerlessness? Or is this a cautionary tale of a health crisis foisted on women by the fashion of wearing high heeled shoes? Perhaps as the Nike ads once tongue-in-cheek suggested, it really is all about the shoes.

Last but not least, there are the films that continue MIFF’s ongoing love affair with music. There’s a film about southern folk troubadour and songwriter Townes Van Zandt (Margaret Brown’s Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt). While the name Townes Van Zandt may or may not mean anything to you (it doesn’t resonate with me), you will likely be familiar with several of the other people featured in the film: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, and Steve Earle. The New Orleans sound will be the subject of Make it Funky, featuring performances by Irma Thomas, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, The Neville Brothers, The Dirty Dozen Band, Professor Longhair, and Fats Domino. If you were intrigued by the 60s revisitation films Following Sean and Commune, you will not want to miss Cream’s Farewell Concert, the 1969 film by Sandy Oliveri and Tony Palmer. Great music by one of the big name bands of that era 

2005 MIFF SCOUTING REPORT (PART 2) -->

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