All these wonderful things

HOT DOCS 2009: Those Pesky Recreations of BURMA VJ

There is no question that, if we are to judge by festival juries alone, Anders Østergaard’s BURMA VJ is the most acclaimed film of the last six months.  Beginning with its back-to-back jury wins at Copenhagen and IDFA, followed in January by the Editing Prize at Sundance and, finally, the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame.  HBO acquired the rights to the film just before Sundance and Oscilloscope will be releasing the film this month, with a kick off at NYC’s Film Forum.

I was both early and late to the BURMA VJ party.  The first night of my arrival in Copenhagen, I was sitting in the hotel lobby drinking wine with other attendees when Matt Dentler told me that there was a film that everyone was talking about, the film of the festival.  So I wasn’t surprised to hear BURMA VJ called out twice as a winner a couple of nights later at the awards ceremonies.

But I didn’t get a chance to see BURMA VJ at Copenhagen, nor at Sundance, nor at True/False, nor at SXSW (our colleague Nathan Truesdell wrote about the film last month), so when I finally grabbed my seat at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto the other night, I had high expectations.  Very high.  Maybe too high.

TRIBECA 2009: Kirby Dick's OUTRAGE Turns a Whisper to a Scream

The opening few moments of OUTRAGE, Kirby Dick's brand new take on closeted gay U.S. politicos, do not come with subtlety.  After listening to the voice of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) attempt to explain away his foot gymnastics in a Minnesota airport bathroom stall, sensational title cards are thrown at viewers featuring words like "conspiracy" and "tyranny".  Later, a Reagan administration official will be accused of "collusion with genocide".  The premise laid bare: keeping high-level political figures safe in the sexual closet requires a vast support structure of "don't tell-ers" that results in government policies or political campaigns aimed at keeping the gay man (and lesbian woman) down - and worse.

That's a lot to promise in the first five minutes of a film that already is carrying a substantial load on its shoulders.  Anne Schroeder Mullins at Politico says that the film is "promising to be a possible 'game-changer' for the civil rights of same sex couples".  ("Promise to be a possible"?)  And for weeks, there's been speculation about which high profile pols would be outed by Kirby Dick in the film.  (Marl Move anyone?)

So, getting that out of the way, yes, names are named.  However, if you've been reading political blogs like we have for the year or two leading up to the November elections, you may not be surprised to hear Florida Governor Charlie Crist's name bandied about, nor Congressman David Dreier of California.  Certainly not Larry Craig.  Perhaps the most surprising outing (for us at least) was not a politician but a newscaster - Fox News' Shepard Smith.

If the revelations are not particularly startling, the cumulative effect of their stories is very effective.  Kirby Dick successfully makes a prosecutor's case, starting with his loaded and provocative opening statement and then laying out his evidence - sometimes quietly, sometimes forcefully.  He details each politician's voting record on hate crimes legislation, gay marriage, AIDS funding (usually a series of repeating "no"s popping graphically onto the screen) as he begins to probe their personal lives.  And, most significantly, he moves the story from blog whispers and innuendo, to the big screen and its attendent publicity tour.  Dick alleges that the media has been complicit in perpetuating this tyrannical silence - clearly the hope is that reviews and press of his film will expose the subject to some mainstream sunlight.  Will CNN's Larry King Live - shown in the film to have edited out Bill Maher's outing of RNC head Ken Mehlman - invite Kirby Dick on as a guest?

The True/False Is Out There

Sunday night in Columbia, Missouri: After seeing a film about Ozark Mountain hillbilly music inside a sold out 1200-seat theater - and before hanging out at a party inside a historic soda bottling plant (and soon to be art house/bakery/videostore empire) - I sat at a table inside a small Mexican restaurant and talked with four excellent people about how we could change the world. Or at least our little corner.

What to do now that companies like Wellspring are being swallowed up? Should we do our own distribution? How do we harness the power of what is new and come up with what is possible?

All the conversations that we’ve been having here (as well as here and here and here) came to life. Self-distribution. Co-op distribution. DIY marketing and publicity. Tearing down the old and no longer relevant paradigms and asserting our own collective ability to get our films out there.

All of it seeming very very possible after a weekend at the True/False Film Festival.

The Mayor of Castro Street

Just a brief note tonight about the landmark 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, which I just saw for the first time yesterday.

I had been familiar with the film and had what I thought was a cursory knowledge of Harvey Milk's story. But it is truly a remarkable film, definitely in the classic documentary style of interviews and archival footage, and should be required viewing, especially as we as a nation continue to fight over gay rights.