All these wonderful things

Full Frame 2009: UPDATED: BURMA VJ Takes Grand Jury, 2 other Prizes as Danes Rule Durham

Anders Østergaard's BURMA VJ, which began its festival life as a back-to-back jury prize winner at CPH:DOX and IDFA, this afternoon won three awards - including the Grand Jury Prize - at this Full Frame Film Festival.  It's success was just the tip of the iceberg Sunday as juries in Durham gave a great number of their prizes to a host of international films, with Danish films and filmmakers leading the way.  If one was needed, it was yet another sign that Denmark's governmental support of nonfiction assures that nation's place at the forefront of European documentary production.  (Two years ago, Pernille Rose Gronkjær's THE MONASTERY - MR. VIG AND THE NUN also won here.)

As we noted Thursday, the Grand Jury winner at Full Frame has gone on to be Oscar or Spirit Award nominated in each of the past four years.

BURMA VJ also received two other prizes - the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award as well as the Working Films Award, which will assist in BURMA VJ's outreach efforts.  The film will be distributed by Oscilloscope prior to an HBO broadcast later this year.

Nati Baratz' UNMISTAKEN CHILD - another film mentioned often at Sunday's awards BBQ - received a Special Jury mention.  CHILD was presented the Full Frame Inspiration Award and was named an Honorable Mention for the Guggenheim Emerging Artist Prize.  CHILD is from Isreal.

The winner of this year's Guggenheim Prize was Oded Adomi Leshem for VOICES FROM EL-SAYED (Isreal).  Sarah and Emily Kuntsler's film about their father, WILLIAM KUNSTLER: DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE (USA), was - with UNMISTAKEN CHILD - named an Honorable Mention in the category.

The new HBO Emerging Filmmaker Award went to Janus Metz, for his much admired Danish film LOVE ON DELIVERY.  Bill Ross and Turner Ross' 45365 (USA), grand jury winner at SXSW was, with Lee Anne Schmitt's CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN (USA), named Honorable Mentions.

Aron Gaudet's THE WAY WE GET BY (USA), a special jury prize winner at SXSW, picked up the Audience Award in Durham.  The Short Film winner was the Danish film 12 NOTES DOWN, directed by Andreas Koefoed.  Honorable Mentions amongst shorts included FLYING SHEPHERD (Romania), directed by Catalin Musat, and LA CHIROLA (Bolivia), directed by Diego Mondaca.

Finland's OIL BLUE, a short film directed by Elli Rintala, received the Full Frame President's Award, while the Kathleen Bryant Edwards Award for Human Rights went to Liz Garbus' SHOUTING FIRE: STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF FREE SPEECH (USA).

Full Frame 2009: BURMA, PUBLIC, AUNTIES Amongst Competition Titles, 2nd Emerging Filmmaker Award Intro'd

The 2009 edition of the venerable Full Frame Film Festival is underway in Durham, NC, with 15 films - including IDFA champ BURMA VJ and Sundance winners WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and ROUGH AUNTIES - competing for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's fest.

The festival also appears to have added a second award for new filmmakers.  While the Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award (won last year by Jeremiah Zagar's IN A DREAM) will continue to recognize first-time documentary filmmakers, this year marks the debut of the HBO Emerging Filmmaker Award, a $5K prize honoring a director and producer at work on their first or second film.  All but 3 of the films up for the new HBO prize are also in the running for the Guggenheim award.

The list of films in the Grand Jury competition - a mix festival favorites and a few stateside debuts - has traditionally been a closely guarded secret (at least until the festival gets underway) for reasons that we've never been able to fully comprehend here.  The festival tends to make the argument that it keeps the list on the downlow for fears that local audiences may not see films that are not in competition.

Grand Jury prize winners at Full Frame often have the inside track for year end awards consideration.  Three of the past four years (MURDERBALL, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS and TROUBLE THE WATER) the jury winner was nominated for an Oscar.  (THE MONASTERY - MR. VIG & THE NUN, which won in 2007, was DQ'd from the Oscars but was nominated for the Spirit Awards and won the inaugural Cinema Eye for International Filmmaking.)

Competition line-ups for Grand Jury, Emerging Artist and the new Emerging Filmmaker Awards are after the jump.

Full Frame 2009: 41 Features Announced for This Year's Festival in Durham

It's that time of year again when the big doc fests of the spring anounce their titles in quick succession (and word begins to bubble about what may be coming down the pike in early summer at Silverdocs and LAFF).  Yesterday, Tribeca announced its Competition and Discovery sections.  Last week, the Full Frame Film Festival unveiled it's roster of "New Docs" including 41 feature films:

45365
Directed by Bill Ross & Turner Ross

ADJUST YOU COLOR: THE TRUTH OF PETEY GREENE
Directed by Loren Mendell

ART & COPY
Directed by Doug Pray

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
Directed by Jessica Oreck

BOY INTERRUPTED
Directed and produced by Dana Perry

BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Østergaard

CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN
Directed and produced by Lee Anne Schmitt

HAIR INDIA
Directed by Raffaele Brunetti & Marco Leopardi

LADY KUL EL-ARAB
Directed by Ibtisam Mara'ana

LOVE ON DELIVERY (FRA THAILAND TIL THY)
Directed by Janus Metz

LUBER ALOFT (LUBER IN DER LUFT)
Directed by Anna-Lydia Florin

MECHANICAL LOVE
Directed by Phie Ambo

THE MEMORIES OF ANGELS (LA MEMOIRE DES ANGES)
Directed by Luc Bourdon

MILKING THE RHINO
Directed by David E. Simpson

O’ER THE LAND
Directed and produced by Deborah Stratman

OBJECTIFIED
Directed by Gary Hustwit

OBLIVION (EL OLVIDO)
Directed by Heddy Honigmann

OWNING THE WEATHER
Directed by Robert Greene

PINUCCIO LOVERO. A MIDSUMMER DEATH’S DREAM
Directed by Pippo Mezzapesa

THE RED RACE
Directed by Chao Gan

REPORTER
Directed by Eric Daniel Metzgar

ROUGH AUNTIES
Directed by Kim Longinotto

SAINT MISBEHAVIN’: THE LIFE & TIME OF WAVY GRAVY
Directed by Michelle Esrick

SALONICA
Directed by Paolo Poloni

SAY MY NAME
Directed by Nirit Peled

SHOUTING FIRE: STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF FREE SPEECH
Directed by Liz Garbus

SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY
Directed by Lee Storey

SONS OF CUBA (HIJOS DE CUBA)
Directed by Andrew Lang

SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON
Directed by Faiza Ahmad Khan

SWEET CRUDE
Directed by Sandy Cioffi

THE SWINDLER (BEDRAGAREN)
Directed by Åsa Blanck & Johan Palmgren

UNIT 25 (UNIDAD 25)
Directed by Alejo Hoijman

UNMISTAKEN CHILD
Directed by Nati Baratz

THE VISITORS
Directed by Melis Birder

VOICES FROM EL-SAYED (SHABLUL BAMIDBAR)
Directed by Oded Adomi Leshem

THE WAY WE GET BY
Directed by Aron Gaudet

WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
Directed by Ondi Timoner

WILLIAM KUNTSLER: DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE
Directed by Sarah Kuntsler & Emily Kunstler

YOUSSOU NDOUR: I BRING WHAT I LOVE
Directed by Chai Vasarhelyia

A Peek Behind the Festival Programming Curtain

Festival programming is often bewildering:  how and why a festival chooses to program one film as opposed another is a crazy mix of curation, personal relationships, local (and, in some cases, national) audience tastes, previous experience, publicity potential and, oh yeah, quality.

With all the changes going on at festivals this past year (the latest being Geoffrey Gilmore's exit from Sundance for Tribeca, which we will cover in more depth shortly), the goings-on in festival programming offices can sometimes seem even more confusing.

How, for example, would Janet Pierson combine her own tastes with the successful SXSW programming of past director Matt Dentler?  How will Sadie Tillery put her own fingerprint on Full Frame this year?  What will the shuttering of BritDoc mean for Sheffield?

Luckily, Pierson has done a few interviews with folks talking about her choices for this year (one was here, another was with Eugene at indieWIRE), giving us a sense of where she might take the fest.  We hope to be doing a couple more of these with programmers over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, my massive blog crush on seafar, Hot Docs' programmer Sean Farnel's blog, continues unabated.  He's been writing at length about his process in selecting titles for this year's festival, and it's a primer that any filmmaker should read.  Currently, there are a series of 6 posts, each a weekly update into one programmer's decision making.

In summary:

Week One:

"We, the Hot Docs programming team and I, are looking for about 175 films which are appropriate. Not for a six-year-old, but for our smart, generous, curious Hot Docs audience, which includes the international industry that attends our event looking for “product.” More than 2000 films will be viewed, the vast majority of them at least twice. We won’t watch ALL of ALL of the films. Sorry.

But, we will cull our submission shelves as thoroughly and thoughtfully as any film festival in the world. On this point, I’m obsessive. Filmmakers pay submission fees (which only cover a portion of properly administrating an unsolicited submissions process) with the expectation that the work they’ve just went broke making is going to be considered by capable people." 

Week Three:

"We are now deep into the sea of submissions at Hot Docs, and at last count there are 225 films on the Short List (also called, internally, “The Prog List”…as it is at TIFF, from where the term migrated). It will get longer before it gets shorter. We have two weeks of HEAVY screening, then Berlin, then we shape this big mound of documentary clay into a semi-coherent film festival."

2008 IN REVIEW: Emailing with THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)'s Ellen Kuras

Part the 8th in this series...

Acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras first started working on her debut feature documentary, THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON) in the mid-1980s.  Her collaboration with her subject, Thavisouk Phrasavath (who edited the film and gets a co-director credit), finally unspooled one year ago at the Sundance Film Festival.  Since then it has received the Spectrum Award at the Full Frame Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and nominated for the Film Independent Spirit Award in the same category.  It airs next year on P.O.V.

In this exchange, Kuras talks about her first Sundance experience as documentary director (rather than DP in the narrative world), how she met and began to collaborate with Phrasavath and whether or not a documentary needs to look like shit (oh, come on, you already know the answer to that one).

ATWT:  I must admit that whenever I hear about a filmmaker following a subject for 4 or 5 years, I feel a little inferior because I know that I probably don't have the patience level to wait that long or to commit to the same subject.  So when I saw THE BETRAYAL, I was completely floored because of the decades that you spent with Thavisouk and his family.  When you started the project, could you have imagined that it would have its premiere in 2008?

Ellen Kuras:  WOW, I never would've imagined that the years would slip by to 2008; to me, this project has always been a place where I could work out ideas so I didn't put a time limit on its completion.   As a Director of Photography, working on this film -- mostly in between shooting many features and commercials -- was a way of me getting back to hear my inner voice and thoughts. What THE BETRAYAL gave me was a way to express myself personally and to explore the idea of metaphor through imagery, words and story.  

With Thavi, working on the film became a on-going creative dialogue that included many aspects of the Lao culture past and present, specific and universal.  The making of the film was so much part of the experience; we really enjoyed working together and talking about the writing of the prophesies, how images could be visual metaphors and what we wanted to say on a universal level as well as about his family and their experience.  We were very much involved with trying to tell so many stories embedded in the subtext and images of the film -- that's why the film has many layers and why audiences discover more and more when they see the film for the second and third times. 

There were times, though, years actually, when we didn't work on the film; this was mostly due to my work as a Director of Photography in the feature film world. I've shot many films during the past 23 years, so there's a good reason why my friends and colleagues called me the busiest person they know. Yet during all of the years that I was shooting films with other directors, I always knew I would finish THE BETRAYAL. The real question was carving the uninterrrupted time out of a very active DP career-a year and a half- to concentrate on locking picture and overseeing the entire post process.

We were helped a great deal to finish by a number of people who believed in the film and believed in us. Cara Mertes, who is now the Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, is our Executive Producer.  While at P.O.V., she was instrumental in picking up the film for American broadcast and helped us again by inviting us to the Sundance Producers and Composers Labs when she moved over to the Sundance Institute.  We were also helped by Flora Fernandez-Marengo, who came on as a producer in 2006, Chiemi Karasawa and Wilder Knight, our co-producers and Neda Armian, who was key in organizing the latest interviews of Thavi's father and mother.  After we did Thavi's mother's interview, we then knew that we had captured the missing perspective of the story and could close the circle to finish the film.

2008 IN REVIEW: Emailing with IN A DREAM's Jeremiah Zagar

Part three in our series of conversations with some of the year's top nonfiction filmmakers.  Jeremiah Zagar's IN A DREAM premiered at SXSW this year and went on to win the Emerging Filmmaker award at Full Frame.  This fall, it took two honors - Best Documentary and Best Editing - at the Woodstock Film Festival, and was later named as one of 15 films on the Academy's Documentary Feature shortlist.

In this online conversation, I ask Jeremiah about his work with his collaborators, escaping the cliches of the "film about my folks" and he confesses to beating "the piss out of" a piñata.

ATWT: Of all the genres of nonfiction, the "film about my parents" always seems the most fraught with danger.  You run the risk of thinking that what's interesting or damaging to you may not be so compelling to audiences.  But your father chose to be extraordinarily open for your camera.  Was there a point during his confessionals to you that convinced you that you had a feature length film on your hands or - knowing your parents - did you have a sense from the start?

Jeremiah Zagar: I like to think of this film as a documentary love story that just so happens to be about my parents. In other words, the reason for making it was never personal. I started when I was 19 because my mother asked me to film my father — I think just because she felt we should spend more time together — and I did it because I trust her. I never expected it to amount to anything.

Then about three months into shooting, I took my father down to West Virginia where he would be isolated from his work and from my mother. Here, he began to speak to the camera in a way he never had before. It was extremely intimate and funny and sometimes a bit terrifying. We were supposed to stay for ten days but after five my father couldn't take it anymore and we drove home with thirteen hours of really good tape. I watched the footage over and over for the next three years, picking out my favorite moments and stories. What became clear from the footage to me and my producer Jeremy Yaches was that we could make some beautiful, surreal scenes using 35mm cutaways and that if we had a verité narrative arc maybe we could combine the surreal with the hyper real to create something exciting and hopefully new. So I went back to Philly often and shot my family, waiting for something to happen. And eventually something did.

I said to someone after I saw your film that it was "achingly beautiful".  Thinking about that, I think there's this sense of both personal and artistic longing, which is perhaps resonant to others who try to create art.  But I felt that the work you did with your cinematographers, animators and co-editor was kind of a perfect example of how to use artistic craft to compliment the art of your subject, without overwhelming it.  How did you approach the look and feel of the film in relation to your father's art?

We felt from the very beginning that in order for my father's art to inform the narrative, it had to be tangible. The audience had to feel like they were in it, like they could reach into the screen or that the screen could reach out to them. Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt and I felt strongly that in order to achieve maximum color and detail, the work had to be filmed on 35mm. At points, we also wanted to be moving on a steadi-cam with a 10mm lens so that the art was, in a sense, surrounding the viewer.

With recreations such as the fish gutting, we applied the same principal of tangibility but in a different way. By filming the fish in 90mm macro close-ups, the imagery could become separated from reality as it might in a dream; or in this case a nightmare.

Later in the process, along with animators Cassidy Gearhart & Yussef Cole, I used that same principal on the etchings. They were so dense and intricate to begin with that we felt for them to have real meaning, we needed to isolate key areas and show those parts drawling-on so that the audience felt like they were witness to the very act of creation.

Working with Keiko Deguchi was a whole other story. She gave the film a depth in a way that I never could have alone. She brought not only editorial doc and feature experience but also life experience that I just didn't have. We worked together wonderfully. She would come over and cut an amazing scene but it would have large black spaces in it and I would spend the nights filling them with slides and archival footage. It felt very organic to work with her and I miss it very much.

Keiko and my consulting editors Ross Kauffman and Sam Pollard taught me so much about editing. It's hard to even express it in words. We cut this film for three years straight, and in the process there was just an immense amout of incredible collaborations. With my parents, with Jeremy, with our composers Kelli Scarr and Nick from the The Books. With our exective producers, Ross, Pamela Tanner Boll and Geralyn White Dreyfous. With my sound designer & mixer Tom Paul. We all had the same goal—and that was to make as beautiful and powerful a film as possible.

2008 IN REVIEW: Emailing with MAN ON WIRE Director James Marsh

As 2008 comes to a close and we try to catch up on some titles that we missed earlier (all the better to formulate our list of favorite films of the year), we're connecting via email with some of the filmmakers behind the year's most noted nonfiction releases.

First up is James Marsh, the director of perhaps the year's most acclaimed film, MAN ON WIRE.  Shortlisted for the Oscars, nominated for the Indie Spirit Awards and in the midst of a nearly clean sweep of the year end critics awards, MAN ON WIRE stormed out of Sundance, was picked up by Magnolia and stands just shy of 3 million dollars at the box office.  It has been, no exaggeration, quite a year for Marsh.

I saw James in Copenhagen last month and he told me that he'd recently moved to Europe from New York, where he'd been based for over a decade.  In our email exchange this weekend, we talk, among other topics, about his move, his film's deft handling of 9/11 and the joys of having Sean Connery invite you and your subject for drinks.

ATWT: One of my favorite things about this time of year is looking over the Sundance line-up, because it's this blank slate/vision of the future.  These are films that will become a big part of the conversation in our community over the next year, but right now they are just these titles.  Going into Sundance last year, what were you feeling? 

James Marsh: Relief. Three previous films had been rejected by Sundance and I was pretty sure MAN ON WIRE would suffer the same fate. Also I was dying to see the film with an audience. It's really the only way you know whether a film actually works. This was the first film I made that I actually liked when I finished it - I guess because I was, and still am, thrilled by what Petit did. As you know, going into the festival the film was completely off the radar and it stayed that way during the festival. That was fine with me - I didn't want the burden of hype and I knew going in that most distributors would be too shortsighted to seek out a film that they weren't being told to see by each other and so it proved. I'm always amazed (aren't we all?) by the kind of films that distributors go after at Sundance and the money they spend. They never seem to learn from their mistakes. You watch, they'll do the same this year.

Heath Ledger died during our first screening so quite a few people left to find out more about that but those that stayed seemed really tuned into the film. At festivals, films are subject to quite withering word of mouth commentary and we did get this growing sense that audiences were enjoying the film and talking about it. I heard people talking about it on the bus - almost apologizing for the fact that it was a doc but that it was definitely worth seeing. That was a pretty nice experience. This year, who knows? I do like the sound of two titles in the World Doc section: BIG RIVER MAN and Kim Longinotto's ROUGH AUNTIES. I really admire her work and I wish her films were better known in the US.

After Sundance, the film played nearly every festival, it seems.  What was your year on the fest circuit like and did you have any favorite experiences?

Well, you're probably right. MAN ON WIRE was promiscuous at film festivals but for me, going to a festival should be a little treat that you allow yourself whilst getting on with the new work.  I've been working on a new documentary project and getting ready to shoot a feature so I did allow myself to go to quite a few festivals and I have lots of great memories. Getting a bit drunk and talking into the early hours with Ellen Kuras at Full Frame, the closing night at True/False and the humbling response from the huge audience there. At Edinburgh, Sean Connery was in the audience and got up and asked a question. He then invited us all out for a drink and I have this great image in my head of Philippe Petit showing James Bond magic tricks at the bar.

If there was one festival that I would recommend to anyone involved or interested in documentary filmmaking, it would be True/False. The whole town is alive with passionate debate about documentaries, the films they show are really well chosen and David (Wilson) and Paul (Sturtz) were brilliant hosts.

Here's what I learnt on my travels: documentaries are the most vibrant and subversive genre in American film culture and that has probably been true for the last 5 years.

Sadie Tillery Takes Over Programming at Full Frame

We announced last month that Phoebe Brush, longtime Director of Programming for the Full Frame Film Festival, would be departing her position with the fest.  Now, the festival has named her replacement, and not surprisingly, it is Sadie Tillery.

Tillery, who previously worked under Brush as Manager of Programming and Special Guests will become the new Director of Programming for the 2009 edition of Full Frame.  Stephanie Barnwell, who was the Programming Coordinator, moves up to the Manager role.

Full Frame will unspool in Durham, NC April 2-5, 2009.

Phoebe Brush Leaves Full Frame

Pheobe Brush announced today in an email that she was stepping down from her role as Director of Programming for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.  Today is her last official day with the festival.  This marks the 2nd high profile departure in 10 months for the venerable fest - Full Frame's founder, Nancy Buirski, departed last December.

Like Buirski, Brush says that she will remain associated with the festival in an as-yet-defined consultant role.  No word as of yet on Brush's replacement.

As I wrote for indieWIRE in April, Full Frame seemed to weather Buirski's departure, in part because veterans like Brush were still around to shepherd the festival into its second decade.  It's unclear what affect Brush's departure will have on the future on the fest, particularly as it's once-secure position as America's top doc fest has been seriously challenged by Silverdocs and, to a lesser extent, True/False.

More on this story as it develops...

Full Frame 2008: FLYING ON ONE ENGINE, LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. Highlight a Festival in Transition

A version of this article focusing on premieres appeared Monday at indieWIRE:

When the 11th edition of the Full Frame Film Festival unspooled in Durham, North Carolina last Thursday, many were watching to see if the festival would be fundamentally changed by the departure of founder and artistic director Nancy Buirski, long the festival's heart and soul.  Buirski, who stayed on as advisor and sidebar curator after a leadership swtich last December, was still a looming presence in Durham, but the venerable nonfiction film event that she began carried on without her leadership, much the same as it had in previous years.

Sporting a limited number of premieres - and generally eschewing the premiere frenzy that marks a number of top festivals - Full Frame concentrated on a line-up of some of the best nonfiction titles of the past year, including well-received Sundance titles such as TROUBLE THE WATER (which would win three awards at Sunday's annual awards BBQ, including the Grand Jury Prize - you can read my thoughts about the film here), MAN ON WIRE (which received a Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award), ORDER OF MYTHS, AMERICAN TEEN, UP THE YANGTZE, SXSW favorites FLYING ON ONE ENGINE and IN A DREAM (which won the Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award) and the True/False breakout hit FORBIDDEN LIES.

Of those films making their premieres in Durham, perhaps the best received was Eric Daniel Metzgar's LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC., a lyrical and emotional portrait of a family dealing with a devastating illness and subsequent recovery.  Metzgar, who previously directed the Spirit Award nominated THE CHANCES OF THE WORLD CHANGING, profiles the New York guitarist Jason Crigler, who, while performing onstage in the East Village, suffers a brain hemorrhage that puts him in a vegetative state.  Convinced that they see signs of the Jason that they knew, his family - including a pregnant wife and divorced parents - begin a daily regimen of care and stimulation in an attempt to bring him back.

While the family is amazing, it's Metzgar's work that transforms the film from mere medical drama.  Working nearly as a one-man band, Metzgar (who directs, produces, shoots, edits and narrates) uses interviews, footage shot by the family and by the rehabilitation team at a Boston hospital and his own material to artfully weave an inspiring and moving story of perseverance and familial love.  Skillfully edited with remarkable restraint, LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. transcends one's perceptions of medicine, music and even miracles.

At a Q&A following Saturday morning's premiere, Metzgar was joined onstage by the Crigler family, including subject Jason.  After a lengthy standing ovation from the audience, many viewers felt compelled to talk of their own experiences with close family and friends who've suffered catastrophic brain injuries. 

 
Director Eric Daniel Metzgar (far right) with the Crigler family and composer Eric Liebman (far left) following Saturday morning's premiere at the Civic Center.

There was a great deal of anticipation for the world premiere of Stefan Forbes' BOOGIE MAN, an entertaining profile of Lee Atwater,  the political operative-turned-GOP chair who may have given birth to much of today's politics of fear.  Unfortunately, the cut that screened Saturday night wasn't quite finished, displaying time-code over archival footage, flash frames, black cut-outs and an uneven sound mix.  It's too bad that the filmmakers didn't ask to screen as a work-in-progress or sneak preview considering BOOGIE MAN's rough cut state, because somewhere inside the film that screened Saturday is a leaner version that could draw interest from television and perhaps theatrical distributors. 

One of the film's chief attributes, particularly in the current documentary climate, is it's evenhanded view of Atwater.  Right and left alike could find their perspectives validated by the film's mix of commentators.  "He had a certain wisdom of what was going on," director Forbes said in a Q&A after the film.  "The Democrats were more skilled in knocking Lee down (personally) in the media than they were (battling) against his political tactics." 

If the filmmakers get a second chance to premiere their finished film, they could reach that diverse audience, but the fact that they screened an incomplete film should serve as a cautionary to other filmmakers rushing to complete their projects for a film festival - you only get one chance at a world premiere.

Filmmakers could also learn a lot of lessons from Joshua Z Weinstein's debut film, FLYING ON ONE ENGINE.  In a speedy 52 minutes, Weinstein introduces us to an amazing character - Dr. Dicksheet, a Brooklyn-based plastic surgeon who annually flies to India to perform reconstructive facial surgery on children born with cleft palates.  Sounds like just the kind of social justice based missionary filmmaking that I usually run from, but Weinstein probably wouldn't have been drawn to the film if that was the only thing going on here.  Dicksheet (even the name is unbelievable) has no larynx, he's suffering from a life-threatening aortic aneurysm and he likes to rant - hilariously - about how Mother Theresa didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.  Throw in the man who coordinates Dicksheet's surgery camps and calls everyone "sisterfucker" and a tough as nails nurse who looks to Dicksheet as a god and you have one of the best films I've seen this year.  Good deeds plus outrageous humor plus moving scenes of young children in need all in under an hour.  Yes kids, it can be done.

FLYING screened in a bizarre double feature with BE LIKE OTHERS, a feature length film that turned the night into sort of a surgery retrospective.  In this case the topic was (presumably gay) men in Iran who opt for a sex change operation, which is not only permissible but encouraged as homosexuality is an offense punishable by death.  A mix of observational footage (primarily of meetings between the pre-op men with doctors and psychiatrists) and interviews, the film makes no determination as to whether these men are gay or transexual or even just transvestites.  While that may have seemed to be an honorable approach, the lack of focus or conclusions made the film somewhat blurred and minor for me.  There are certainly interesting ideas here and a combative scene between a state journalist and two men about to have the operation is eye-opening.

Filmmakers Josh Weinstein (FLYING ON ONE ENGINE) and Tanaz Eashaghian (BE LIKE OTHERS) share a post-screening Q&A at the Durham School of the Arts.

In a line-up with a lot of serious fare, it probably comes as a relief to see Doug Pray's SURFWISE.  Doug Pray is one of my favorite filmmakers and his recent film BIG RIG was an honorable mention on my list of favorite films of 2007.  His new film, SURFWISE, is somewhat of a departure for him.  Rather than diving into a subculture, whether it be grunge rock or long haul truckers, Pray examines the surfing Paskowitz family, all 11 of them.  Focusing on so many characters, each with their own varying levels of interest or disfunction, is a huge filmmaking challenge.  The matriarch and patriarch of the clan are amazing documentary subjects, by turns counter-cultural, profane and definitively eccentric.  The regimen that they created for their kids - no rooted home life, no steady income to speak of, open (and ongoing) sex between the parents in their traveling motorhome - is by turns a Peter Pan-like adventure and occasionally seems borderline abusive.  The children have a variety of reactions to such an unconventional upbringing - but none of the kids is nearly as striking as their parents.  Pray employs a number of stylistic devices - both in terms of graphic design as well as manipulation of imagery - that feel at home with these subjects, if unusual when compared to Pray's previous work.  SURFWISE premiered at Toronto, where it was met with a great deal of praise, and will be in theaters later this year from Magnolia.

Festival coverage at All these wonderful things is sponsored by Indiepix.