MIFF JOURNAL 2006
MIDFESTIVAL
REPORT: THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCUSSIONS
By
Laurie Meunier Graves
This
year’s film festival arrived with a heat wave so intense and the air so hot
and solid that it quite literally took my breath away. My husband Clif
observed that in all the years we’ve been coming to the festival, he has
seldom seen any rain. Thinking back, I have to conclude that he is right. My
memories of the film festival are of hot, sunny days and cool, dark
theaters. Readers from away who are planning a summer vacation in Maine
might want to take note of this weather pattern.
On
opening night, with families in tow, Joel Johnson, Wolf Moon’s film
critic, and I went to the excellent Bread Box Café in Waterville to fortify
ourselves for the big event. This has become a yearly event for us and
something we all look forward to. After bread, salad, steak, and a mojito, a
delicious rum and mint drink, I was indeed fortified, ready to take on the
big event, even ready to sit through four movies a day, if needed, which, as
it turned out, it was.
By
Monday night, the fourth evening of the festival, we had seen thirteen
movies. However, this year, extra time was added between films, and there
was less of harried feeling, more time to relax. Because of this, I found
myself up to the task of watching four movies each day on Saturday and
Sunday. (The margaritas and chip breaks didn’t hurt either.)
The
extra time between films also has given us time to chat with other
filmgoers, with friends as well as with complete strangers whose faces
become familiar over the ten days. This year, in particular, I have become
fascinated by the opposing views that people can have about the same movie.
For example, I was lukewarm about the Brazilian film The House of Sand,
but a woman I met was enthralled by it and couldn’t understand my response.
On the other hand, I chortled through the mean, slightly perverted but
highly enjoyable The Birdesmaid. And I wasn’t alone; most of the
audience was chortling along. However, a friend of mine was completely put
off by the movie. “Too intellectual. Not enough feeling,” he pronounced. Yet
that’s exactly what I liked about The Bridesmaid. It was a mind-game
of film, and although I wouldn’t want a steady diet of such movies, an
occasional pungent taste sharpens the palate.
Especially interesting was a discussion generated by the short film The
Common Sense Farm, a documentary about the Twelve Tribes, a Christian
cult in Cambridge, New York. Director Kathleen Russell came to the
viewing I saw, and she answered questions when the movie was over. The
audience was both fascinated and appalled by this group, which believes
women should be subservient to men, children should be disciplined harshly,
and that they should not be allowed to play alone together because of the
bad things they might do if left unsupervised. However, a man who had had
business dealings with the Twelve Tribes spoke in their defense, describing
how this group believed in organic farming and was opposed to our
capitalistic system. I couldn’t help but be reminded of how, as the story
goes, some people in Italy admired Mussolini because the trains ran on time.
This in turn led me to reflect on the nature of tyranny and repression.
While some good might come out of such systems, the price paid is ultimately
too high.
Such
discussions, with the multitude of divergent points of view, help make the
film festival more than just a movie marathon. Rich and stimulating, the
discussions bring depth to the MIFF experience as they force one to think
about one’s attitudes and philosophies.
