FESTIVAL ROUNDUP



 

Florida Film Festival

For most filmmakers and film-goers, Florida and Florida-based film festivals have a particular appeal — tropical climate; proximity to beaches; resort-style hotels; Hispanic-inflected culture; and the promise of fun in the sun. The land-locked, Orlando-based Florida Film Festival — situated in the shadow of Universal Studios Escape, Disney World, and Disney’s infamous Celebration, USA — would therefore seem to be at a particular disadvantage. Or so one would think. Yet the Festival proved to be a welcome oasis, a thriving fountain of culture, amidst the region’s ubiquitous strip malls, "family-style" entertainment conglomerates, and gated "communities."

The Fest’s principal venue, the not-for-profit Enzian Theater, is the region’s — and perhaps the state’s — premiere arthouse, featuring American indies and foreign film fare year-round. Located on a residential street in the affluent Winter Park section of Orlando, the Enzian resembles a two-story clapboard house with a large wraparound porch surrounded by beautiful landscaping. The interior is fashioned after a dinner-theater — comfortably seating 250 around tables with amply cushioned chairs spread over four or five levels — offering a light menu of salads, sandwiches, pastas, burgers, soft drinks and wine served unobtrusively during screenings by a waitstaff dressed in black. The true measure of a film festival, however, is the attention paid to "small" details — like the films and filmmakers. Too many regional festivals try unsuccessfully to compete with the pomp and circumstance of Cannes, Toronto or Sundance and lose their focus entirely; others are merely overwhelmed by the demands of corporate sponsors required to compete on that level. Refreshingly, the Florida Film Festival — whose primary sponsor is Universal Studios, Florida — focused on the films: screenings started on time; filmmakers were introduced before and following each screening for substantive Q&A’s; the Fest was taken seriously by the local press; armies of volunteers were present to chauffeur filmmakers and guests between venues; and daily receptions were organized to facilitate networking. With approximately 50 features and 70 shorts shown over nine days at three venues — besides the Enzian, two screens at a General Cinemas multiplex were also used — the Fest was comfortably programmed. It was, after all, possible to check out most of the films in the Fest and still have time to lounge by the hotel pool — a feat no doubt reserved for guests of the Festival, vacationing families and retirees. This year’s Florida Film Festival (June 11-20) kicked off with The Blair Witch Project, a low-budget horror film by local filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez that created a sensation at the recent Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired for distribution by Artisan Entertainment. The filmmakers credit the Florida Film Fest as an important cog in the film’s development: it was here that they met John Pierson, whose TV program "Split Screen" subsequently provided production monies to jump-start the project. As a local cause célèbre, Blair Witch received extensive coverage in the press, no doubt contributing to the Fest’s overall success; Fest Director Peg O’Keefe reported that the 1999 edition broke attendance records for the eight-year-old event. Blair Witch has been trimmed slightly since it’s Sundance premiere, and some new shots were inserted to clarify situations found confusing by earlier audiences, but the changes are relatively minor — and if anything, this bone-chilling psychological thriller felt even scarier.

The Fest also featured a smart selection of films in Dramatic, Documentary and Short film competitions devoted to American indies, and more eclectic lineups of features in sections entitled "Spotlight Films," "International Showcase Films," and "Midnight Movies." Among the standout films presented were international Fest faves After Life by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Autumn Tale by Eric Rohmer, Following by Christopher Nolan, Lovers on the Bridge by Leos Carax, Lola and Billy the Kid by Kutlug Ataman, Jim Fall’s trick; and special archival screening’s of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night. Among the most popular films in the Fest, Francis Veber’s, The Dinner Game, due out from Lions Gate this summer, depicts a game in which wealthy French businessmen invite hapless "idiots" to a dinner party in order to secretly mock them. But the table is turned when one of the "idiots" inadvertently destroys the life of the businessman who invited him before they’ve even made it to the dinner. Also notable was Eddy Terstall’s Based on the Novel, in which a misogynistic Dutch director has narrowed the casting of his first feature to three women, each of whom he sets out to seduce. Although the egotistical director portrayed was alternately funny and grating, the film — which won Best Dutch film at this year’s Rotterdam Film Fest and was making it’s U.S. premiere in Orlando – is primarily a terrific showcase for the three actresses vying for the leading role. Canadian helmer Chris Grismer’s Clutch, a Hartley-esque rip-off featuring a surly mechanic, philosophic thief, and a mystical book that changes the fate of anyone who opens it, nevertheless had moments of originality, including several standout performances, that mark Grismer as a director of some promise.

The Fest concluded with a black-tie awards ceremony at a Universal Studios soundstage. Billed as a "Swingin Swamp Soiree," the big-ticket event — despite the agitated bobcat presiding over the entrance (and, I’m told, an alligator lolling near the restrooms) – was neither (sadly) "swingin" nor (thankfully) swamp-like. Instead, the soiree was dominated by a three-hour-long, Oscar-style awards presentation, replete with video-projected clips from each of the films vying for awards, and tributes to Ileana Douglas, Christopher Walken, and Gena Rowlands, for Excellence in Acting, and to actor Paul Winfield, who received the Fest’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Fest’s Dramatic Competition jurors, Sarah Lash (Manager of Publicity and Acquisitions, Lions Gate), Jonathan Sehring (President of IFC Films), and entertainment attorney Harris Tulchin, awarded both the Jury prize and the Fest’s Audience award to Catfish in Blackbean Sauce, a sometimes funny, but mostly clumsily constructed and cloying cross-cultural melodrama featuring writer/director Chi Muoi Lo as the adopted Chinese-Vietnamese son of an African-American couple (Paul Winfield and Mary Alice). I hadn’t seen all the films in Competition — which admittedly had its share of turkeys — but surely Julian Goldberger’s Trans, Eric Tretbar’s Snow, Greg Lombardo’s Macbeth in Manhattan or Jonathan Kahn’s terrific feature debut, Girl, were each more deserving. The jury did present their runner-up award for Best Narrative Filmmaker, to Kahn, whose Girl, featuring Dominique Swain and Sean Patrick Flannery, is easily the best "teen" film I’ve seen this year and has yet to secure domestic distribution.

The Documentary Jury was a bit more on track. Jury members Julie Goldman (V.P. of Original Production at WinStar TV & Video), indieWIRE Editor-in-Chief Eugene Hernandez, and filmmaker Robert Mugge, presented both Jury and Audience awards to Genghis Blues, about a blind San Francisco-based musician who teaches himself Tuvan throat singing. Hardly elegant filmmaking, but immensely moving, Genghis topped other Fest faves American Hollow, Regret to Inform, Return with Honor and Hitchcock, Selznick & the End of Hollywood, among others. Also worth noting is first-time director Katya Bankowsky’s Shadow Boxers, which received a special jury award. The film portrays the world of women boxers, gradually focusing on the meteoric rise of Lucia Rijker, the Dutch boxing sensation. While lacking the emotional one-two punch of Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen’s On the Ropes, another boxing doc opening theatrically this summer, Shadow Boxers is a solid first feature and is beautifully shot by d.p. Anthony Harwick (Frathouse). Cass Paley’s Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes also had tongues wagging in Winter Park. Stylistically unremarkable — talking heads and cropped porno footage — and overlong (at 2 hours and 14 inches) the film nevertheless is a fascinating portrait of the first superstar of the straight porn world and merits further public exposure.

Following dessert, short film awards were presented to Michael Burke for the dramatic film Fishbelly White and to Rolf Gibbs for his humorous doc, The Last Man To Let You Down, about a New York undertaker. After the soiree, Festival staff, volunteers, filmmakers, jurors and guests were invited to the sprawling lakeside home of Fest founders Philip and Sigrid Tiedke for an all-night party that was more than swingin and intermittedly swamp-like.

Enzian Executive Director Peg O’Keefe is leaving the organization following this year’s Fest, to return to the stage, her first love. But she has built a solid regional festival that is well worth the trip to Orlando, and presumably she’s left the Enzian in good hands.



 
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© 2005 Filmmaker Magazine