Wednesday evening, at a gala event at the W Hotel Westwood, the Los Angeles Film Festival handed out the jury prizes for Best Narrative and Best Documentary. The narrative prize, and its accompanying check for $50,000 - courtesy of Target went to Steve Collins' Gretchen.
This year, I was invited to serve on the documentary feature jury, and we (my fellow juror was Marie Therese Guirgis, formerly of the dear-departed Wellspring) chose Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil, a lacerating look at the crimes of one priest and the hierarchy of the church that sought to protect him. Amy also received a $50,000 check from Target.
In giving the award to Amy Berg and her film we wrote that we awarded the prize "for the filmmaker's ability to balance the exploration of indefensible evil - both in one man and in those who would seek to conceal the truth - and the battle to hold onto one's faith in the face of the worst possible betrayal".
Deliver Us From Evil filmmaker Amy Berg with her award for Best Documentary at the LA Film Fest Awards gala.
Serving on this year's jury, Marie Therese and I watched 11 films, and although we liked a number of the films we saw (and we were impressed by pieces of some of the other films), our decision came down to two films - Deliver Us From Evil and Rachel Libert's Beyond Conviction.
Beyond Conviction is a spare and haunting film - after watching it, we struggled to come up with a description - something like "a symphony of cathartic grief." A triad of stories involving crime victims who agree (or in fact who seek) to meet their perpetrators, the film had many in the audience in tears.
The structure is deceptively simple. In the late 1990s, the state of Pennsylvania introduced a program whereby victims or their family members could choose to confront those convicted and serving time for the crimes committed against them. The first story involves a rape (the relationship of the rapist and the victim is not revealed until long after the two have been introduced and the revelation is shattering and particularly skillful filmmaking), the second two involve murders. In each story, we are introduced to both prisoner and victim, and then watch as their gut-wrenching meetings unfold.
One of Beyond Conviction's greatest strengths is its ability to skate reality TV cliches in its presentation and in its ability to remind the viewer (particularly in this "lock 'em up and throw away the key" culture) that despite their crimes, there are still elements of humanity in these men. It's an important film and one that is sure to have a long life.
Beyond Conviction director Rachel Libert with narrative competition filmmaker Mike Akel, the director of Chalk, at Wednesday awards dinner.
If we could have, I think that Marie Therese and I might have awarded two prizes, or at least a special prize to Beyond Conviction. But we had specific instructions to choose one film and one film only, and after an hour and a half of talking about both films, we chose Deliver Us From Evil.
Amy Berg's film is a haunting and important film about the abuse scandals within the Catholic church, particularly focusing on Father Oliver O'Grady, who, during the course of the film, reveals himself as one of the most horrific monsters ever to appear on a movie screen. His crimes are so heinous, yet his disposition so treacly, and in total he's so repulsive that he threatens to overwhelm the last half hour of the film, when Berg moves on from his specific case to focusing on the actions of current Los Angeles-based Cardinal Roger Mahoney and even the new Pope Benedict XVI, both of whom appear to have known about abusers within the church and have covered up their actions.
Berg's film does two things quite well, in particular. She is able to tell this story without demonizing the church as a whole - in fact, the victims are shown to be wrestling with their desire to hold onto their Catholic faith, a point that we as jurors felt was important to recognize. But also, she shows how the abuse was able to spread within the Catholic tradition - the belief that priests are closer to God than parishoners and the belief that (since one sin is equal to another) there is no real difference between raping a child and having consensual sex with an adult woman.
If there was anything holding us back from awarding Deliver Us From Evil the prize, it was the aforementioned dominance of Father O'Grady. At a certain point in the movie he delivers a made-for-movies line that is so akin to Hannibal Lechter, that we really don't ever have to see him again. When after this he makes an occasional appearance, we are distracted from the points the film is wanting to make - that the abuse and the crimes are bigger than one man. If I were one of the distributors reportedly circling this film, I'd take a look at the last twenty minutes and see if it could focus more on making the subject larger (and less focused on O'Grady).
But the first hour and ten minutes of the film were so well-conceived and beautifully filmed, that we were convinced that it deserved the prize.
I also want to make special note of the fact that I learned, after making our decision on Tuesday, that Berg is a former journalist and TV news producer. In a way, I think that this further validates this prize as her film is the work of a true filmmaker - not a TV journalist transfering their skills to film. Hopefully the money that she will get from the festival and Target will help her as she travels the festival and distribution journey and as she begins her next film project.
On this point, let me talk a little about how I approached my role as juror. When I wrote about the films that were in competition, I had not yet been asked to be a juror. When I was contacted a week later, I sequestered myself and didn't read anything about the festival or about the films. I kept this up until Tuesday evening, after Marie Therese and I had made our decision. We watched each of the 11 films in a theater and with an audience (save one which did not have its first screening during our four days of film watching - that one we saw in a private screening) - and we left after the film ended, not staying for any of the Q & A's with the filmmakers.
It wasn't until after we made our decision that I read some of the other coverage, including Movie City News' coverage of the docs and its particular focus on Deliver Us From Evil. It was also the first time I read reviews from other sources, including those in the LA Weekly and the LA Times.
Kabul Transit co-director David Edwards, producer Maliha Zulfacar and co-director Gregory Whitmore at the Westwood Brewing Co. after the Austin Party on Monday
In addition to the two films mentioned above, I also enjoyed David Edwards and Gregory Whitmore's "non-narrative, non-linear" look at the postwar in Afghanistan in Kabul Transit, which did a great job of illuminating the difficulties (or even impossibilities) of "transforming" a place like Kabul, a point it hits home with found footage of the Soviet occupation.
Julie Anderson's Mr Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater is a wonderfully entertaining look at the truly maverick politician Barry Goldwater. Of particular interest to me was his Ansel Adams-like photography and ham radio obsession. It made you realize once again how packaged today's pols truly are.
Alison C, the director of a doc about Matthew Barney at Wednesday's awards dinner.
I also thought that Alison C's look at the controversial artist Matthew Barney was illuminating. I've never quite known what to make of Barney and have, on numerous occasions, asked others to explain his work and his appeal. No one has ever really been able to do it. But Alison calls upon some supporters of Barney, as well as other art world figures, and collectively they put the work in context in a simple, straightforward and completely un-pretentious way. I could have seen less behind-the-scenes footage of Barney and Bjork's recent film Drawing Restraint 9, but it was still an enjoyable look at the artist.
Finally, I want to make mention of Alan Berg's A Place to Dance, a profile of a New Orleans dance hall before and after Hurricane Katrina. It seems to me that Berg might have started this project thinking of making a film about Pat Barberot’s big band that plays every week at a place called the Jefferson Orleans. Along the way, he probably ran into a bunch of the patrons - senior citizens that are regulars to the place - and thought they might make an interesting B-story. Thing is, the band is not that interesting (and I say that as a guy who is interested in movies about musicians) but the patrons are superstars. One woman in particular, Shirley, nicknamed "the twins" for her ample endowments, is one of the most interesting and engaging characters I've seen in some time. There's a moment in the film where she goes to her late husband's grave, turns on a tape recorder with big band music and dances. It's a moment that I won't soon forget. If I were working with Alan or giving him notes, I'd say more more more of Shirley and the other women at the club and their akin-to-high-school mating rituals - and less of the band. As it was, Marie Therese and I talked of the alternate universe where that movie existed, and we thought that in that world, A Place to Dance might just have waltzed away with our votes.
Me and my fellow juror Marie Therese Guirgis after Wednesday's awards dinner.
All in all, it was a great four days of watching films, hanging out in the Target Red Room for a burst of Absolut vodka, and seeing and meeting other filmmakers. And as I noted this weekend, the move to Westwood has proven to be a great decision for the festival. I'm excited to see what happens next year when they are even more used to the new digs.
Congrats to all of the filmmakers, particularly in the documentary competition, and thanks for making these films. And thanks to Doug and Rachel and everyone at the LA Fest for inviting me to be part of the festival this year.
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