THE MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004 Diary

By Laurie Meunier Graves

DAY 4

I have a serious case of popcorn deprivation, and this is no small problem. Without popcorn, energies flag and the spirit becomes weary. Movies without popcorn are a hardship I hadn’t considered when I charted the movie-viewing course and scheduled the first three days in the Opera House, where the Ed Harris movies were being shown. Yes, Ed Harris is good, but so is popcorn. However, the days of total deprivation are coming to an end. Tomorrow, we’re moving on from Ed Harris to other movies that have been scheduled at Railroad Square Cinema, which has come to feel like the land of plenty. Now, along with popcorn, there are Peace Pops, cookies, and chocolate. We can bring our own sandwiches and fruit. Life will be good.

In the afternoon, we go to a panel discussion led by Pat Clark, Betty-Jane Meader, and Lynn Sawlivich, past winners of the MIFF audience attendance award. Some years, these tireless cinephiles see as many as forty movies in ten days. They truly are the Lance Armstrongs of the film festival, and they put me to shame as I listen to them reveal their strategies. Research, organization, and stamina seem to be the key. Needless to say, these are all weak areas for me. Still, as I listen to them reflect on why in the world they would even want to attempt to see so many of the festival movies in such a short time, I can't help but empathize. Lynn, I think, speaks for all three when he describes his quest for the movie that will totally enthrall him, hold him, and stay with him. That, of course, is what all art lovers seek, regardless of the medium. It is the spark that adds zest and illumination to life, and Pat, Betty-Jane, and Lynn are just more determined than most people in seeking that experience.

Later, Ed Harris receives his Mid-Life Achievement Award, presented by Richard Russo, the author of Empire Falls. Russo extravagantly praises Ed Harris and calls him one of the finest actors of our time. However, Russo also adds that considering Harris’s age, this is more like a two-thirds life achievement award. Harris takes this in stride, replying that if he lives to be 106, this is his midlife. Along with a framed certificate, Harris receives the obligatory moose that MIFF presents to all its award winners. This year, it is a moose reclining on a canvas, and Ken Eisen, one of the festival programmers, refers to it as “moose a la Pollock.” Harris accepts the award and the moose, thanks everyone, and reminds the audience how lucky they are to have the Film Festival and Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, Maine. He exhorts the audience to support Railroad Square, to go to the movies, to spread the word. Yes, yes, and yes.

A FLASH OF GREEN
USA, 1984; 131 minutes; 35mm; in English



Judging from the clothes, the hairstyles, the cars, and the prevalence of manual typewriters, I would guess that A Flash of Green is set sometime in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the pacing, the filming, and the acting feel as though they came from the 1960s as well, but from television rather than movies, and I was almost surprised to find that A Flash of Green had been filmed in the 1980s. This might have been the intent of Victor Nunez, the director, and if so it was a bad decision. The movie seems like a cross between film noir and a sexed-up television detective series, with the main character, Jimmy Wing (Ed Harris), being a reporter rather than a detective. The deliberate pacing combined with the remote characters make a disengaging film that seems to go on for far too long. It astonished me to find that A Flash of Green was released only one year earlier than Alamo Bay. The two movies are light years apart.

This is unfortunate because in the right hands, this could have been a good movie. Both Ed Harris and Blair Brown do a fine job with the material they have been given, but they could only go so far with the script and the direction. Also, the plot is compelling and completely relevant even today. It centers on the conflict between developers and the environment, as well as exploring love, loyalty, and ennui.

Set in Florida, A Flash of Green focuses on an ambitious developer, who wants to fill a bay and turn it into a housing development, and the local people who want to save the bay. Jimmy Wing is a reporter who is bored with writing about small town events and is lured by the developer into becoming a spy inside the Save the Bay group. The problem for Jimmy is that he is attracted to Kat Hubble, an attractive widow and friend who is the key organizer for Save the Bay. Will Jimmy choose love over excitement? Will Jimmy discover what he truly wants? Will Jimmy escape getting his face smashed in? All these questions and more are answered in what seems to be an eternally long fullness of time.

Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION
USA, 2004; 120 minutes; video; in English

Long, long ago, say in the early 1970s, there were no videos, no Blockbusters, no HBO. I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to call it a dark age for movie lovers, a time when studios controlled distribution and viewing, and most small films sank into oblivion. The independent film movement was but a gleam in directors’ eyes, and foreign movies to most people meant British.

However, salvation came to the United States, and it came from where such things usually come in this country. That is, California. Channel Z was born in the L.A. Valley at a time when cable television was just getting its start, and cable’s modest goal was simply to provide good reception. Channel Z, under cable’s protection, began with a modest schedule of commercial-free, uncut movies. L.A. residents took to Channel Z, which became very successful. In the 1980s, Channel Z hired Jerry Harvey, an unstable young man who nevertheless had a passion for movies as well as knowledge, good taste, and marketing savvy. Harvey turned Channel Z into an event that attracted not only a cult following but also some of the brightest talent in the film industry.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession is a documentary primarily about Harvey and his troubled life, which eventually ends in murder and suicide, as well as the energy and creativity that made Channel Z such a success. Friends, colleagues, directors, and actors give their take on Harvey and Channel Z. There are also some audio clips of Harvey being interviewed as well as video clips of some of the movies featured on Channel Z. What emerges is a portrait of a man from a troubled family (both of his siblings committed suicide), a sort of Robert Crumb of the film world. Unfortunately, unlike Crumb, Harvey was not able to come to terms with his past and with himself and find relief in his work.

It’s an interesting story, but the movie takes too long to tell it. The filmmakers could have shaved a good twenty minutes from the movie and still have had plenty of time to say everything they needed to say. As it was, there was quite a bit of repetition, which made the movie drag. Despite this flaw, I am not sorry I saw Z Channel. It was a subject I knew nothing about, and I was glad to learn this piece of film history.  

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