Blogstock: Live from the Woodstock Film Festival

I don’t like conducting celebrity interviews — they’re usually strictly regulated, 10-minute affairs choreographed by a publicist around the celebrity’s upcoming visit to YourTown USA. Everyone - reporter included - approaches the event with his or her own agenda. Nothing is ever revealed.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached filmmaker John Sayles following a panel discussion on Movies that Matter” at the festival on Sunday. I knew full well Sayles wasn’t a celebrity in the usual, People Magazine sense of the word. But he’s a mighty figure — a hero, really — for anyone who’s watched him do battle with Hollywood over the past three decades, creating memorable films despite fearsome odds. (If I have to list any of his film ahievements, you’ve probably arrived at this blogsite by mistake.)

So there he was on Sunday, standing on the edge of the Utopia Studios parking lot, commiserating with a young actress from Albany named Rose Thomas about the vagaries of her profession, which he shares. I butted on the conversation, eager despite my misgivings to make contact with one of the industry’s true — dare I say it? — mavericks.

Sayles finances his films by moonlighting as a Hollywood screenwriter or script doctor, a process he finds distastful but lucrative.
Indeed, I had to tell him some of his mainstream scripts for b-movies classics like “Pirhana” and “Alligator,” were among my favorite movies from the ’80s.
“I can’t really complain, it’s better than working for a living,” he said.
Though passionate about what he believes, Sayles never seems to get worked up about those passions. He’s not a table thumper, nor a sentimentalist. He seems unflappable, keeping a skeptic’s eye on everything that passes before it.
During the panel discussion, for example, he perfectly described the mainstream media’s idea of “fair and balanced” reporting:
“Their idea is that if you have someone speak the truth for 15 minutes, you have to then find someone who’ll speak lies for another 15 minutes.”
The offender he cited wasn’t the usual suspect, Fox News, but the sainted NPR.
He said he’s working on a novel, something he said he does whenever there’s a Hollywood writer’s strike. The novel is set in the late 1890s and early 1900s, years during which the US started the Spanish-America War and interceded in the Phillipines. These were wars that were advocated not by the usual war-mongering elite, he said, but by young men who were eager for a war of their own — “They’d gotten tired of hearing granndad talk about his days in the Civil War.”
He smiled at a startling bit of history he’d come across:
“There was a group called ‘The Anti-Imperialist League,’ whose best-known members were Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie.” He smiled at the bizarre incongruity. “They were opposed for very different reasons, of course.”
The last I saw him, Sayles was wandering the studio’s parking lot, waiting for a friend. I told I’d decided to skip a festival viewing of his “Secret of Roan Inish,” in favor of having talked to him. I told him I’d enjoyed the movie and that the place where it was set, Ireland’s County Donegal, was among the most beautiful places I’d ever visited.
“Sort of like being at the edge of the world,” he said, smiling fondly at the memory
I agreed awkwardly said goodbye, feeling frustrated at the imbalance that’s inherent in such encounters, knowing I’d be walking away with more stories to tell, more warm memories than I’d been able to provide for him.
I figured the least I could do was share some of those stories and my impression of a good man who makes good movies.
jhorrigan@th-record.com

The votes have been tabulated and the Woodstock Film Festival has announced its winners for the Audience Awards at this year’s festival.

Before each film, each audience member is given a ballot with a 1-5 scale and over the course of the weekend, votes are tabulated to give these awards.

The Audience Award winner for Best Narrative Feature is: “Let the Right One In” directed by Tomas Alfredson

Honorable mention goes to:

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” directed by Kevin Smith

“Pride and Glory” directed by Gavin O’Connor

The Audience Award winner for Best Documentary Feature is: “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music” directed by Jonathan Walls and Mark Johnson

Honorable mention goes to:

“Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight” directed by Wendy Keys

“At the Edge of the World” directed by Dan Stone and Patrick Gambuti Jr. (co-director)

We ran a story in the Sunday print edition of The Record about my adventures within the confines of a sandwich board that asked the simple question “What movie changed your life?” 

It was a terrific and revealing experience that I’d like to expand on here in the blogosphere, to report in more detail the results of Sunday’s experiment.

It seemed a perfect question for a movie-mad crowd, and two days of strolling around looking a perfect idiot paid off in delightful ways.

Once folks understood that I wasn’t asking about their favorite movie but about the one movie that somehow made a difference in their lives, almost everyone said “Good question,” and in very short order, gave me great answers. Answering the question was an exercise in emotional recollection, and people seemed at times stunned by the answers that came up for them.

Ilene Marder, who as always conducted a crackerjack press operation at the festival, needed no time at all to respond.

“Dumbo!” she said, prompting a raised eyebrow or two from her companions.

“I was just a kid, but this was the first movie where I cared about the characters. It was so vivid, it was the irst time that I saw this realm of human emotion — it dealt with rejection and separation. I identified with it – it just opened up my heart.”

And no, she added, she didn’t have big ears.

Some of the life changes triggered by movies were enormous. Filmmaker Brian Strini saw Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” and enrolled in film school as a result. His friend Michael Russotti saw “Harold and Maude,” dropped out of the University of Rochester and enrolled in film school as well. He’s still pursuing a career in the industry while making a living as a sales trader in New York, a job he says you can still make money doing.

Andrea Wozny was attending Smith College in 2002 when she saw ”Dreamworlds,” a documentary about the effects of MTV videos in the 1990s on how we view violence toward women. She’s now a documentary filmmaker.

One of the festival’s best-known speakers was Morgan Spurlock, whose “Super Size Me” is rivaled only by Michael Moore’s films for its impact on society. He’s also a great storyteller who regaled the audience at a panel discussion of “Movies that Matter” with hilarious anecdotes about his adventures among the suits of Hollywood.

His response to the question was doubly surprising: he named John Sayles’s film “Matewan,” not because it’s a great film, but because he grew up in a West Virginia town 35 minutes from where Sayles (and cinematographer Haskell Wexler) were shooting the film.

“I was 12 years old, and this was the first time I realized that making movies was a real job, something I could do. I turned the corner then.”

He didn’t have to say how cool it was, years after his epiphany, to be discussing movies that matter with Sayles and Wexler. That was perfectly obvious.

Sayles only took a moment to come up with Vittorio De Sica’s “Two Women,” for which Sophia Loren won an Oscar in 1960 as a woman in wartorn Italy trying to protect her daughter. As it was for a number of people recollecting the experience, Sayles seemed momentarily transported by the memory of the experience — he saw it as a kid growing up in Schenectady, on late-night TV, in a dubbed version.

“She was so strong in that film — there was a real understanding of people that I could recognize. It was the first time I realized that war not about people shooting at each other.”

Anyone who’s ever seen a Sayles film will recognize the roots of his cinematic perspective in that statement – his movies always view events from the perspective of ordinary people.

And since several people wanted to know my answer to the question, I told them Robert Altman’s sublime “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” was the what came up for me. I saw it as a second feature at a drive-in on a foggy summer night in 1971. I didn’t even get to see the climax - the drive-in closed at the dot of 2 a.m., and left me stranded in the deepening snows of Oregon (which blending beautifully with the night’s fog). I fell in love with ”McCabe” then and seeing it complete only deepen my feelings for it, for its lyrical evocation of pioneer life, for its outraged political insight, for Vilmos Zsigmond’s photography and for a dream cast headed by Warren Beatty, who gave the best performance of his career as the doomed romantic gambler McCabe. It was a movie that made me feel like movies — Hollywood movies, no less –could be bold and engaging and, as we used to say, relevant. But down deep, John McCabe was was not only a perfect hero for the times, he was the perfect hero for a 21-year-old on the cusp of a life he had yet to discover ane explore.

Overall, it may come as no surprise that many of the films that came up for people (and I mean that literally — the experience is like waiting for a bubble to surface in a pond) were films from their childhoods. It’s of course a time when we’re most impressionable. If someone wants to make a case for it’s also being a time when parents should be vigilant about what movies & images their children should see, I won’t disagree. But to me the reports I received all seemed positive, as if there were some ineffable force out there that somehow finds a person and provides them with exactly the movie they need to make their way in life. 

What I heard time and again during this experiment was that movies are magic. And I could only conclude that I believe in that magic. 

After four days what better way to finish up the Woodstock Film Festival than some sex with your friends? “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” the latest film from writer/director/geek god/Maverick award winner Kevin Smith was the closing night film in Woodstock and its good, and oh so bad, humor was a great way to ease the tension of working for four straight days.

I had already seen “Zack and Miri” a few weeks ago in Pleasantville so I didn’t have to worry if the movie stunk or not. I knew it was good. So I watched it a second time just as pure enjoyment. For the first time all festival I kept my notebook between my legs, instead of in my hands, and just laughed and laughed. It really is a sweet little romantic comedy that deals with the difference between having sex and making love. There’s a ton of coarse language, full front male and female nudity and even some bodily fluids, but like Smith has been known to say – anyone who would be offended by those things won’t be coming to a film with the word “Porno” in the title.

Once you know to expect the big laughs, the character interactions and narrative beats, you can watch the film and laugh at the secondary funny. The other Zack, for example, is just hilarious. His “Highlander” reference had me – and no one else – howling in laughter. And never before has Smith handled sweet moments better than in “Zack and Miri.” The moment in the middle of the film where the movie switches from bad quality porn video to 35mm beauty and the music kicks in gave me goosebumps.

After the film, a sickly Kevin took the stage and spoke for a few minutes. The culprit? A bad egg salad sandwich from the Paramus Park mall. He was still totally engaging, though, and despite a few people who didn’t find the film funny, it seemed as if Kevin Smith’s first trip to Woodstock was a great final film to show.

Check the THR tomorrow for an article on Kevin. And now, I can finally rest.

Thanks so much to Meira, Laurent, Ilene, Gabe and EVERYONE ELSE at the Woodstock Film Festival. It was, yet again, a fantastic year.

Actually, “The Great Buck Howard” is just one of five or six films slated to screen this evening, the last night of the Woodstock Film Festival. There’s also a showing of “Wendy and Lucy” at 7:30, “Hi, My Name Is Ryan” at 8, and the second showing of the day of “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” at 9. I can’t wait to read what Germain thought of that movie. He is such a Kevin “Pottymouth” Smith fan. 

I felt a little sad pulling into the parking lot of the Rosendale Theatre, knowing this was my last moviegoing experience for WFF 2008. But what a good film on which to end! With a cast of stars including John Malkovich, Steve Zahn, Colin Hanks (have you seen him as the priest in “Mad Men”?) and Emily Blunt (another English actor who can talk “American”), not to mention supporting roles such as that played by Tom Hanks (Colin’s dad in the movie as well as real life). You might recognize yet another actor from “Mad Men,” Patrick Fischler, who plays a Las Vegas producer in “Buck” but the obnoxious comedian Jimmy Barret in “MM.”

The basic plot line is that Buck Howard, once a sensational mentalist who made 61 - count ‘em, 61! - appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, is now a has-been and is doing shows to small audiences in civic centers in small towns across America. He advertises for a road manager/assistant (Lou Albini plays his manager), and law-school dropout Troy Gable (Hanks fils) takes the job. Through a wacky set of circumstances involving Cincinatti, a Jerry Springer car crash and Buck’s collapse at the site of a mentalism demonstration, Buck is indeed BACK. Yowzah. But then things come apart again. And Colin learns some huge life lessons, including that he doesn’t wanna go back to law school; he wants to become a write (a word often preceded by the adjective “starving.” says his dad). And that’s show biz.

TGBH is very professional, which makes for pleasant viewing. And Malkovich is the consummate American actor. He is really convincing in this role, that of an oddball character — NOT something I’d have pictured him doing. And as a triumphant Buck Howard, he smiles with a genuine joy I’d never seen before. Quel actor. The closing credits tell us that the movie is based on the career of The Amazing Kreskin, whose up-and-down career mirrors Buck’s. And the credits go on to say that Kreskin’s feats of mentalism and other paranormal powers were never fully explained away and were always “100 percent truly amazing.”    

Mary Stewart Masterson and Melissa Leo at the WFF Actors Panel 

Writer Martha Frankel moderated the Actor’s Panel Sunday afternoon with Melissa Leo and Mary Stewart Masterson…gifted performers with much to say about the importance of strong new roles for older women actors.

What were the most interesting things they had to learn for a part?

Melissa Leo learned how to drive a semi.

Mary Stewart Masterson learned how to play the drums, drive a Model T and steal honey comb from bees over several takes without getting stung. Unfortunately the cameraman was allergic and did get stung and had a bad afternoon of it.

Though there was lots to be said about the hazards of body type and breast size in casting selection of younger women actors, there are also hazards in the perception of the slightly used bodies of older women who’ve had babies and nursed them, have a wealth of wrinkes, neck wattles and jiggly triceps.

Leo had dyed her hair ash blonde for a role she’s currently rehearsing and shooting in New Orleans. Reactions to her physical appearance both at Saturday night’s awards ceremony and at the actor’s panel proved to be useful in helping her see how her character would be treated in the world. “I’m Melissa, looking out of Lois’ eyes.” The environments she’s being housed in in New Orleans also help her delve into the role of an agoraphobic woman who hadn’t left her house in eight years. “I’m very comfortable and I have a driver, which is also good for Lois’ character,” Leo said. A previous shoot had her at a “micro-tel” in Plattesburg, that hardened her up for the tighter, ascetic  character she was being asked to play then.

Masterson talked about her shift from acting to being the director of “Cakeeaters” and bringing out the best performances out of her actors. She recommended new directors be organized, have a vision, and have private conversations with the actors so their performances can be fresh with the other actors, drawing out honest responses. She urged directors not to try to control too much, but to allow the actors to bring their talents to the table.

Masterson encouraged directors to allow trusted writers in to help with idea development instead of trying to multitask as writer/director. They’re two very different processes and it can be distracting to try to do both.

She encouraged writers to create roles for older women and began to joke about a time several years ago someone had written about her, but used the name of another three-named-Mary actress in the area, Mary Louise Wilson. A woman quite a bit older than herself.

So, I suppose, as the offending writer she was referring to, I’ve already helped the cause of writing roles for older female actors.

As “Visioneers” begins, it’s hard not to think of “Napoleon Dynamite.” Both are films written and produced with a wild, out there idea and just go for it, 100%. The first time I saw “Napoleon Dynamite,” I didn’t think much of it. Later I grew to be quite fond of it. Well, my first impression of “Visioneers” is pretty much the same as that - a funny, weird, quirky movie that I’m sure could grow on me - but at the moment, it’s just sort of sitting there.

However, what “Visioneers” does that “Napoleon” really didn’t do was hammer us with a big time message. It stars popular comedian Zach Galifianakis as George, an employee at the biggest company in the world in a weird alternative reality. The world promotes a complete lack of human emotion or thought. Dreams are considered a symptom of illness and the worse fate one can have is to explode because of emotional build up. It’s a fine idea that is sort of alluded to but never explicitly stated as George tries to balance being human and being one of the pack.

The laughs are sporadic, the performances strong and the world presented is always very tense. I feel like “Visioneers” will develop some kind of following, maybe not “Napoleon Dynamite’s size, but a following none the less and it deserves it. There’s nothing overtly special about it, but it’s completely original and well done.

I’ll try and blog more about this later cause I have to run but here is a quick list of the awesome SUPERHERO SHORTS.

1. “The Adventures of Chin-Chin the Chillin’ Chinchilla” - awesome little animation about a chinchilla who knows Kung Fu and slays a dragon. Fun

2. “Return to Labradoria” - 24 minute french film about a wood salesman who travels to an all dog planet. A little out there but amazingly professional looking and sweet in the end.

3. “The Heist” - Hilarious 4 minute film about a guy who has the ability to become invisible. Really clever

4. “Uber Alice” - A lol funny short about two people who meet on J Date. Just very evil and extremely funny.

5. “Superman #1″ - Friends argue about a missing comic. Kinda funny but a little too simple

6. “The Aviatrix” - A girl with cancer finds solace in her superhero obsessed imagination. Extremely professional looking and well acted.

An awesome program. More later.

The awards have been handed out. Kevin Smith has cursed up a storm. I’ve hated a movie and we still have one more day here at the Woodstock Film Festival.

Today I’ll hopefully be seeing some “Superhero Shorts,” “Visioneers” and finally “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” for the second time. So check back throughout the day as we wind down this great event.

next year - is the excellent chance you’ll be moved or entertained by a film you know nothing about.

Take “The New Year Parade.”

It’s a little gem of a movie about a family that seems to be coming apart - and the bonds that hold it,  and so many families,  together.

It revolves around the annual Mummer’s Parade in Philadelphia - where marching bands dress up in the wildest costumes and compete for top prizes.

Dad and son are in the same working class band, the South Philadelphia String Band, a real band, a 13th place band. But dad’s marriage is falling apart because his wife cheated on him. Son wants to leave the band - and, maybe, dad. Teen daughter is caught in the middle - and trying to find herself as she discovers boys.

How strong are the bonds between a father and son? Between a mother and daughter? And how do you know what to do when you’re a kid who feels so alone?

They’re all big questions raised  by this wonderfully compact movie.

“The New Year Parade” also will be shown Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck.

Steve Israel