9/28/2005 10:08:00 AM Art trumps ‘cool’ at film festival
For these young members of the audience, 3-D glasses brought the aliens to life at the Saturday evening outdoor movie “It Came from Outer Space.” – Photo by Elizabeth T. Becker
“The most important question I ask my students is, “What did you see?” said Peninsula College professor Daniel Yezbick in the Port Townsend Film Festival’s opening at The Upstage on Friday afternoon. Yezbick also discussed the importance of cinema sound, and this year’s festival kept not just our eyes peeled but our ears at attention too. With so many of this year’s films based on musicians, soundtracks grabbed your ears and held on.
My first film was “Life in a Box,” a documentary of a gay musical duo who hit the road in a 20-foot trailer with their act, Y’all. Its “jar of beans argument” was my favorite scene of the entire festival. The film principles, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and James Dean Jay Byrd, attended the festival and entertained at The Upstage both Friday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be in more than one place at once, a problem for me throughout the weekend, so I bought the movie soundtrack instead.
Next, I ended up at “The Gits.” The Gits was a popular punk/grunge Seattle group in the ’80s on the edge of the big time before tragedy struck. Black Cat Bijou owner Max Grover told me this was his favorite festival film, prompting him to purchase its soundtrack too.
Saturday morning began back at Pope Marine Park Theatre for Shorts 2: The Creative Process. This group of films was dedicated to my late artist friend John Craig, whom I miss dearly. Jim Ewing’s film about John and his work, “While I Can,” was reprised and shown with three other shorts. One of them, “Within and Without,” chronicled a found object jewelry maker. I took note of the artist’s website (www.lobue-art.com).
The house was filled for Debra Winger and Arliss Howard’s film “Big Bad Love,” and most reviews of this film were mixed. Everyone seemed to feel that Howard and Winger are extremely capable actors, but the film itself needed some editing. I’m not an elbow rubber by nature, but I really enjoyed the VIP party afterward, where intelligent conversation and delicious cream puffs kept me out later than usual.
I missed the awards breakfast honoring “The Devil’s Miner” as best feature-length documentary and “Hank Williams First Nation” as best feature-length narrative. Gale Wallis, Ron Dionne and John and Pam Clise cited “Peas at 5:30,” making it the favorite of my own unscientific street poll.
My first Sunday film was “Shakespeare Behind Bars” introduced by Karen Gates Hildt. She told us that Aaron Sorensen, director of “Hank Williams First Nation,” had said, “The Port Townsend Film Festival isn’t cool. It’s just really good!” Mark Saran told me other filmmakers said the same thing. I guess other festivals are a “see and be seen” experience. Here, it seems, we come for the movies (imagine!) and treat our guests like extended family members. As Gates Hildt told Debra Winger, “We didn’t invite you here because you are a celebrity; we invited you here because you’re an artist.”
My personal favorite film of the festival was “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” a documentary of medium-security inmates who produce “The Tempest.” As their process is developed, the viewers see how Shakespeare’s characters help the inmates learn truths about themselves. Their end result was every bit as good as anything I’ve ever seen at Shakespeare in the Park. Anyone who doesn’t believe in prison education and reform might gain a different perspective from watching this movie, which reduced some of us to tears at its end.
I have been following the Film 2880 contest for three of its four years of festival inclusion. Contestants must use a theme, prop and line of dialogue given to them at the beginning of a 48-hour period in which they have to complete their short film entry.
This year’s theme was “slick,” the prop required was a pair of eyeglasses, and the necessary dialogue was “She could have made the cut.” Twenty filmmakers turned in work judged on originality, production value, and use of the theme, prop and dialogue. Linda Yakush, Denise Westmoreland, Denise Kenney and Frank DePalma were judges.
For the past two years, Johnny Broderson of Seattle has won first place, and the question on everyone’s mind was whether he’d score a 2005 trifecta win. Of the top 10 films shown Sunday at the Rose Theatre to a packed house, three were created in Port Townsend. Charles Johnson’s film group has entered for the past three years. In 2003, the group came in seventh; last year it was fourth. How would these veterans do this year?
It turned out that the first Port Townsend-created film shown in the countdown to first place was “The Nearsighted Goddess” by Russell Hill, in ninth place. Then, dropped into seventh place, was Broderson’s production “Happy Birthday Boss.” Johnson’s group ended up fourth with its Pulp Fictionesque film “Everything’s Cordless,” which had my favorite movie line of the festival uttered by actor Charles Duncan: “Black men don’t deliver flowers.”
Taking the third place money spot were first-time Port Townsend filmmakers Ramon Dailey and Jeff Klock for “The Blind Date.” Many of the 2880 films based the “slick” theme on gangsters and violence, so “Blind Date,” complete with a dunking in Haller Fountain, was a refreshing interpretation. The audience agreed, voting it the Audience Choice Award.
"It was very gratifying to hear the audience's reaction," said Dailey after the show was over. "This has been one of my most rewarding experiences." More details about the contest can be found at www.film2880.com. In first place was “The Blind” by Dylan Pearce of Ontario, Canada.
I’d never done any festival outdoor movies before, so a friend and I, both baby boomers, sat for “A Hard Day’s Night,” happily singing along under the night sky. The Beatles’ final concert scene felt like the grand finale of a weekend-long fireworks show. The sights, the music, the popcorn and hay and, best of all, the staff and volunteers of PTFF have created a festival unlike the others where “cool” (whatever that is) isn’t the objective – it’s art.
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