MY 10 FAVORITE FESTIVALS OF 2010

It was a grueling and exhilarating year. Last year from January to December I road-ripped in my van, the “Red Devil,” occasionally flew on airplanes, a few times rode on trains, sprinting across and around America, then over and around Europe, parachuting in on nearly 50 film festivals. It was a manic-depressive trip on the rollercoaster-roadway. One minute I was kissing the stars and the next I was eating asphalt. It was madness, but madness that made complete sense.

To understand America today, non-fiction books are giving fewer and fewer clues. Literature has become passé for making sense out of our national confusion. Nor will you find the soul of America in music. It was decades ago that the beat of our country was in its music. Nor will you find knowledge in the popular media — a mercenary beehive of stupendous shallowness. Nor will you find enlightenment in our mainline cultural institutions. Can anyone find the remote control?

OK, maybe some of that is too strong. Yet, for me, to penetrate the elusive meaning of America and grasp the country’s pulsating Zeitgeist — the spirit of our time — requires a convergence of mediums, the blending of disciplines, a synergism from media that produces something deeper than ink on paper and more insightful than a blabbering head at a podium. To grasp this multiple-headed monster called America, we need the layered complexity and simple depth that comes from the heavy reality of film.

Not any film, but powerful, independent film. Not from any filmmaker, but from those with the courage to swallow the bullet of sacrifice — commercialism is an engine for profit, not an avenue for truth — from those filmmakers with the audacity to tell the truth and flash the middle finger to compromise. When one foot is on each side of the line, there is no deeper understanding, only more confusion. And the one thing this country doesn’t need is more confusion.

Whereas the best and brightest in our history first went into politics, then the sciences, some claim then business, and finally the arts, today … Read the rest

SILVERDOCS WINNERS ANNOUNCED

AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival (held June 21 to 27) announced its distinguished winners. Best Feature directors receive $5,000.

Best US Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU, MOMMY) directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal, which documents eight-year-old Chinese Fang Sui Yong and her adoption by a Jewish couple from Long Island who name her “Faith.” The film follows Faith and her parents’ twist-and-turn journey over a year and a half.

Best World Feature: THE WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS directed by Vadim Jendreyko, which chronicles eighty-five-year-old Svetlana Geier who has dedicated her life to language. Considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German, Svetlana has just concluded her magnum opus, completing new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels-known as the five elephants.

Special Jury mention: STEAM OF LIFE directed by Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen, whose film allows the viewer to become a fly on the wall as it listens in on men-naked men-talking to other men in the sanctuary of Finland’s ubiquitous saunas.

The Sterling Award for Best Short Film: THIS CHAIR IS NOT ME directed by Andy Taylor Smith, which documents Alan Martin, whose cerebral palsy confines him to a wheelchair and inhibits his speech, but he refuses to limit himself. When he gains access to technology that enables him to find a voice, his life is transformed. Utilizing stunning visual vocabulary and subtle re-enactment, the film presents a cinematic experience as unique as the subject himself.

A Special Jury Mention: BETWEEN DREAMS directed by Iris Olsson which tells the story of a hundred souls lost in dreams in the dead of night as they cross a Siberian moonscape aboard a battered train.

A second Special Jury Mention: THE POODLE TRAINER directed by Vance Malone, which chronicles Irina Markova, a Russian poodle trainer who has dedicated her life to training her 20 colorfully costumed poodles.

The Cinematic Vision Award: MARWENCOL directed by Jeff Malmberg. The film captures Mark Hogancamp who suffers a savage beating with near-total amnesia and severe physical injuries. With no money for traditional therapy, … Read the rest

“THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS” TO HIT EDINBURGH, LA, SILVERDOCS AND MUNICH

After hit screenings at SXSW and HotDocs, Alexandre O. Philippe‘s The People vs. George Lucas will be shown at four film festivals this month: Edinburgh International, LA, AFI’s Silverdocs,  and Munich.  Philippe’s film examines the relationship between filmmaker George Lucas and his fans over the past thirty years.  PvG is one of six documentaries at SILVERDOCS nominated for the WGA Documentary Screenplay Award this year.

You can catch the film at any of the following screenings: