There are always unusual characters at SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, from the eclectic staff and volunteers to diverse filmmakers and film subjects - the people watching is always outstanding. Primarily, the people-watching is in the movie theaters, although this year, Silverdocs was marked by the appearances of Spike Lee, recipient of the annual Guggenheim Award for lifetime excellence in social issue documentary; Music Award jurist, and pro-open source sampling documentarian/musician Paul D. Miller, (aka DJ Spooky); and on the other end of the spectrum, the theraputic robot seal, Paro, of Phie Ambo’s Mechanical Love, which looks at the brainstorming and experimenters leading the progress of android engineering.
Werner Herzog is especially apt to show a person’s most unusual side. His Encounters At The End Of The World, Shows not just the confusing and bizarre terrain of the Antarctic, but the scientists and other wandering thinkers of its McMurdo Station and outlying research camps. Herzog’s documentary techniques are elegantly revealed, showing his drama-eliciting questions and allowing the subjects ample space to answer how they ended up there. More than one interview notes that anyone who isn’t tied down falls to Antarctica, leading to philosophers driving fork lifts and linguists, in a continent with no native language, tending the hydroponic vegetables – this steamy greenhouse an oasis in a film dressed in blue-white landscape and oversized red parkas.
In Herzog’s recent interview with Filmmaker, he talks about falling in love with the world through filmmaking; this idea is behind many of the other films in the program. In Gini Reticker’s Pray The Devil Back To Hell, Leymah Gbowee’s love for her war-torn Liberia leads to a feminist peace movement. She dreams, literally, that the women of Liberia can pray for peace and make it happen. Praying alone isn’t enough, and this group of thousands of Christian and Muslim women take action with sit-ins and sing-ins, and, as in Lysistrada, a sex-strike; doing everything they’re able to stop the war. They persuade war-mongering president Charles Taylor and the rebel warlords to attend peace talks in Ghana. When the factions haven’t reached a decision after six weeks with hotel beds and catered meals, ‘General Leymah and her women’ block them in the deliberation hall without food or water, forcing the men to reach an agreement. As UN peacekeepers come to Liberia and calm is nervously settling upon Liberia, the women continue to monitor the situation, their work aiding in electing the first female head of state of any African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Pray the Devil… seems required viewing for feminists and peaceniks, a reminder that a committed group can make serious change with non-violent protest. Pray The Devil Back to Hell won the Witness Award, which also includes $5,000 cash.
If artists and collectors had required viewing at SILVERDOCS this year, it’s Herb and Dorothy, the tale of voracious art collectors of modest means, excellent taste and a graceful love. The Vogels - Dorothy, a librarian, and Herb, a postal clerk, began collecting minimal and conceptual works by now influential artists including Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Tuttle and dozens of others, amassing more than 4,700 works in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Now in their 70s, and faced with a full to bursting apartment, the Vogels donate their collection to the National Gallery of Art, and start a ‘50 Works for 50 States’ program which spreads it to major museums the US. First-time feature director Megumi Sasaki deftly explores their collection and their mindset, showing us Herb’s pointer dog stance when viewing work, and Dorothy’s organized temper to his compulsive buying, and introducing us to the artists they have supported as friends and collectors. Sasaki allows us to feel their passion and curatorial knowledge of conceptual art, along with the durability and love of their unique marriage. Herb and Dorothy, in person at the World Premiere, received a gracious standing ovation from the large audience, and the film Herb and Dorothy handily took SILVERDOCS’ Audience Award.
IFP alum had good showing at SILVERDOCS; Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s World Premiere screening of The Garden took the Sterling US Feature award – SILVERDOCS’ top American prize, which includes $10,000 cash and Kodak film stock. The Garden showed as a work-in-progress in 2005’s Independent Film Week “Spotlight on Documentaries” program. The Sterling US Jury, which included Sandi Dubowski, noted they gave the award for The Garden’s “tenacity in storytelling in the face of injustice, and the filmmaker's singular vision in bringing a gripping, dramatic, and important story to the public eye… It unravels a complex and layered tale of the destruction of America's largest urban farm that must not be forgotten.”
2007 Documentary Lab alum Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell screened in the Music Competition, and director Matt Wolf spoke on a panel on music documentaries. Under Our Skin, Andy Abrahams Wilson’s compelling examination of Lyme disease was an audience favorite as well, garnering one of the Festival’s coveted ‘Back By Popular Demand’ screenings. Under Our Skin screened in last year’s “Spotlight on Documentaries” program.
SILVERDOCS wraps today, finishing the week-long fest with screenings of all the award winners and the “Back by Popular Demand” films; this additional day of screenings a novel way of allowing audiences a compact place to see the festival favorites they’ve missed. To see the full list of award winners, visit www.silverdocs.com
# posted by Rose Vincelli @ 6/23/2008 05:56:00 PM
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