Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Up In the Clouds
We're up in the clouds in more ways than one.
Yesterday's travels were easy but overwhelming once we got into Park City. Swimming through the sea of people, navigating around mountains and acclimating to the thin air up here among the clouds (7,500 feet above sea level). Everyone is friendly and helpful including this lovely woman from Liverpool who spent all day the bus stop getting people on the right buses. I had a lovely conversation on a bus with a man named Ari who wants to become a producer. He helped me get on the right bus and transferred to the right bus. Right now as I write this, I am watching a New York Times journalist interview a sales agent from an unknown sales agency company about whether Sundance has become too commercial. He thinks it's the parties are what's getting in the way of doing film business rather than the commercial interests.
But that isn't the story I'm here to write about. Fasten your seatbelts.
Last night we went into Salt Lake City and saw CSA: Confederate States of America, a Ken Burns style "mockumentary" about the US as if the south had won the civil war by director Kevin Willmott. I have a new film rating system. This one was not only worth the $10.75 I paid for the ticket, it was also worth airfare and hotel.
Mr. Willmott started the film with the George Bernard Shaw quote, "If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you."
The filmmaker was not kidding. The premise of the movie is that a documentary was made by the BBC and aired for the first time in the CSA about the formation of the country, using Ken Burns' style documentaries. The "showing" of this in the CSA included commercials for things like the Slave Trading Network and The Shackle, an electronic slave tracking system.
The filmmaker succeeded in making me laugh as well as look at our culture that still has so many slave images. In addition, he humorously and subtly ties slavery to the way corporations work in our world today. After the film there was a lively Q&A (I wish I had taken my camera) with Mr. Willmott and he said it better than I could ever. He wanted to make a film that would "break the logjam of race relations in this country". It's time. In addition, look for other films from Mr. Willmott addressing racism and history in the US.
The good news for you is that CSA has been picked up by IFC. See it when you can. Dump your anniversary plans, wait to visit your dying great aunt. See it.
This morning I woke up before the dawn and among the clouds, literally. We got to Evergreen by filmmaker Enid Zentelis. This film too had an amazing post film Q&A with the film maker and this time with the actors (I had my camera this time).
Evergreen is about a teenager living in working poor conditions with her mother and grandmother. She is new in town and finds a boyfriend with money and she's embarassed. But really, that isn't what this movie is about and Ms. Zentelis confirmed this during the Q&A. It's about a girl's relationship with her mother, it's about class differences and assumptions in our culture, and in the end it's about how hard it is to get by in the wealthiest country in the world. As the filmmaker says, "It shouldn't be this hard". Definitely worth a full price ticket and then some.
Two down, too many more to go.
Needless to say but I'm saying it anyway, I feel like I am in the clouds. I watch and listen to amazing conversations about film making, producing and selling. I didn't expect to love the post-film Q&As but I love hearing the filmmaker's take on the movie. More stories to come!
Yesterday's travels were easy but overwhelming once we got into Park City. Swimming through the sea of people, navigating around mountains and acclimating to the thin air up here among the clouds (7,500 feet above sea level). Everyone is friendly and helpful including this lovely woman from Liverpool who spent all day the bus stop getting people on the right buses. I had a lovely conversation on a bus with a man named Ari who wants to become a producer. He helped me get on the right bus and transferred to the right bus. Right now as I write this, I am watching a New York Times journalist interview a sales agent from an unknown sales agency company about whether Sundance has become too commercial. He thinks it's the parties are what's getting in the way of doing film business rather than the commercial interests.
But that isn't the story I'm here to write about. Fasten your seatbelts.
Last night we went into Salt Lake City and saw CSA: Confederate States of America, a Ken Burns style "mockumentary" about the US as if the south had won the civil war by director Kevin Willmott. I have a new film rating system. This one was not only worth the $10.75 I paid for the ticket, it was also worth airfare and hotel.
Mr. Willmott started the film with the George Bernard Shaw quote, "If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you."
The filmmaker was not kidding. The premise of the movie is that a documentary was made by the BBC and aired for the first time in the CSA about the formation of the country, using Ken Burns' style documentaries. The "showing" of this in the CSA included commercials for things like the Slave Trading Network and The Shackle, an electronic slave tracking system.
The filmmaker succeeded in making me laugh as well as look at our culture that still has so many slave images. In addition, he humorously and subtly ties slavery to the way corporations work in our world today. After the film there was a lively Q&A (I wish I had taken my camera) with Mr. Willmott and he said it better than I could ever. He wanted to make a film that would "break the logjam of race relations in this country". It's time. In addition, look for other films from Mr. Willmott addressing racism and history in the US.
The good news for you is that CSA has been picked up by IFC. See it when you can. Dump your anniversary plans, wait to visit your dying great aunt. See it.
This morning I woke up before the dawn and among the clouds, literally. We got to Evergreen by filmmaker Enid Zentelis. This film too had an amazing post film Q&A with the film maker and this time with the actors (I had my camera this time).
Evergreen is about a teenager living in working poor conditions with her mother and grandmother. She is new in town and finds a boyfriend with money and she's embarassed. But really, that isn't what this movie is about and Ms. Zentelis confirmed this during the Q&A. It's about a girl's relationship with her mother, it's about class differences and assumptions in our culture, and in the end it's about how hard it is to get by in the wealthiest country in the world. As the filmmaker says, "It shouldn't be this hard". Definitely worth a full price ticket and then some.
Two down, too many more to go.
Needless to say but I'm saying it anyway, I feel like I am in the clouds. I watch and listen to amazing conversations about film making, producing and selling. I didn't expect to love the post-film Q&As but I love hearing the filmmaker's take on the movie. More stories to come!
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