All these wonderful things

2010 Film Fests (Part Two): Taking Another Look at Hot Docs, Sarasota and LAFF

Yesterday, we wrote about two of our top film festivals for documentaries that we traveled to for the first time in 2010.

Of course, traveling to fests isn’t just about the new discoveries.  Our visits this year to several other top festivals re-ignited our thinking on their top status.

At #4, Hot Docs is such an obvious and easy choice that it might be hard to be impressed (this year was our third trip in a row).  But something about returning to Toronto in the spring once again reminds one of just why the festival works so well.  One can’t help but be wowed by the programming - a truly thoughtful selection of international titles selected by Sean Farnel - and the way in which the festival is constantly trying to rethink the long-tired panel templates. 

This year, we were also struck by the ease of seeing both films and a global coterie of docu heavyweights.  This latter point might be our own process - for some reason Toronto is a city that took us a long while to find our legs in - and maybe this is the year that everything seemed to click.  But attending Hot Docs this year felt somehow cozy and, it goes without saying, Toronto's docu-loving crowds just cannot be beat.

Sarasota (our #20), on the other hand, might be easier to overlook – but overlooking Sarasota would be a huge mistake.  Sarasota is, in our minds at least, a kind of perfect festival: a terrific and nearly completest look at the best films of Sundance and SXSW (the latter selected by Sarasota prior to their potential breakouts in Austin) as well as a handful that either premiered earlier or had been neglected by the bigger “name” festivals that preceded it.

As is the case with many of our favorite festivals, there are travel issues (and hotels near the main festival venues are few and far between – most folks were lodged in airport hotels) and there’s going to be some considerable walking involved (unless you get smart and ride some of the free bikes the festival secured), but Sarasota remains one of the big American “experience” festivals, the kind of place you tell stories about months and years later: like when a group of (nameless) documentary filmmakers feared they might have left another (nameless) documentary filmmaker to drown in the Gulf of Mexico at 2 AM; or when the bar of the (nameless) resort hotel opened back up after closing at 1 AM when the owner realized that several (nameless) indie film stars were boozing in the lobby with hula hoopers and drag queens; or when Patti Smith belted out “Gloria” five feet in front of this (not nameless) filmmaker in a small restaurant bar.

The Monday Brief: Berlinger Supporters Number More Than 400, EXIT Hits $1M and Cannes In Progress

We're more than half-way through the fifth month of 2010.  Can summer be far behind?...

The Joe Berlinger/Chevron/CRUDE raw footage-subpeona situation continues to resonate throughout the nonfiction community.  An open letter of support for Berlinger, spearheaded by Patrick Creadon and Doug Blush - and supported by the IDA, was released on Wednesday and signed by nearly 200 folks in the documentary community.  Oscar winner Errol Morris signed onto the letter on Thursday, along with another 200 people (as of Monday) in the comments section here and 40 on the IDA's website.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, who both signed the letter, wrote in an opinion piece that while all eyes are on the oil spill in the gulf, "there's another important story involving Big Oil and pollution -- one that shatters not only the environment but the essential First Amendment right of journalists to tell truth and shame the devil":

"Some of the issues and nuances of Berlinger's case are admittedly complex, but they all boil down to this: Chevron is trying to avoid responsibility and hopes to find in the unused footage -- material the filmmaker did not utilize in the final version of his documentary -- evidence helpful to the company in fending off potential damages of $27.3 billion.

This is a serious matter for reporters, filmmakers and frankly, everyone else. Tough, investigative reporting without fear or favor -- already under siege by severe cutbacks and the shutdown of newspapers and other media outlets -- is vital to the public awareness and understanding essential to a democracy. As Michael Moore put it, "The chilling effect of this is, [to] someone like me, if something like this is upheld, the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they're working for.""

More coverage of the letter at The Wrap, firedoglake blog and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

At the theatrical box office, it was more of the same that we've seen the past couple weeks.  The Banksy/Shepard Fairey/Mr. Brainwash documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP continued its stellar DIY run - taking in another $230K for an estimated cume-to-date of $1,284,000.  That makes EXIT the third million-dollar-doc of 2010, following the success of Disneynature's OCEANS ($17.7M and counting, although now seemingly less likely to reach $20M) and Focus' BABIES, which declined a respectable 53% in its second weekend, still taking in just over $1M.  BABIES is now just shy of $4M.

The Brief: OCEANS and Bansky Reap Box Office Rewards, THE OATH Caps an Award-Winning April and Tribeca in Progress

We're dead in the middle of the spring festival onslaught, with Tribeca and San Francisco just hitting their mid-points, IFFBoston about to wrap its event and Hot Docs getting ready to kick-off tomorrow.  We went on our own mini-fest-tour earlier this month (Ashland and Sarasota - more on this later, but let's just say our assessment bore out) and we're trying to get our footing before we head up to Toronto next week.  So much is happening, and here's a brief sample in a mid-week brief...

It was a big weekend at the theatrical box office for OCEANS, the new film from Oscar nominated filmmaker Jacques Perrin (WINGED MIGRATION) and distributor Disneynature.  The film took in just over $6M for the weekend, after an Earth Day debut at the top of the charts on Thursday.  That takes the film to $8.4M so far, with expectations that the film will reach the $10M mark by today.  OCEANS took in nearly $5K per screen, which was the best average in the top 10.

Mystery seems to be paying off huge dividends for EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the curious documentary from the anonymous artist known as Banksy.  The film has taken in an $390,000 from a handful of screens (it expanded from 8 to 11 this weekend) for the best per screen average of any film in release, according to indieWIRE's weekly box office report, which also gives the back story of EXIT's unusual DIY release by sales rep John Sloss and a team that included Richard Abramowitz.

Also from Abramowith, Tom DiCillo's Doors documentary, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, took in another $24K in its third weekend, taking that film's total to just under $165,000.

As mentioned, Tribeca is heading for its closing weekend, with much of the doc talk surrounding the unstoppable force that is Alex Gibney.  With two completed films (and a segment of omnibus doc FREAKANOMICS) at this year's fest, Gibney made a huge splash with his not-yet-completed UNTITLED ELIOT SPITZER FILM (we summed up the press coverage here) over the weekend.

But Gibney wasn't the only news at Tribeca.  indieWIRE's Brian Brooks examines a potential controversy in the wake of Deborah Scranton's EARTH MADE OF GLASS.  Cinematical's Christopher Campbell has a review of FREETIME MACHOS (which is also headed to Hot Docs).  And at Movieline, S.T. Vanairsdale has a recap of the Q&A following Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's popular JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK.  POV's Tom Roston finds that the Rivers doc changes his mind about the subject.

As the other April fests start wrapping up, it's worth noting the exceptional run Laura Poitras' THE OATH is having.  It began the month with a Special Jury Prize at Full Frame, and followed that with two Grand Jury notations - at Sarasota and at IFFBoston.  The film is heading to Hot Docs and then to the IFC Center where Zeitgeist will kick off its theatrical run next Friday.  We'll be hosting the LA premiere at Cinefamily on May 18. 

We finally got a chance to see THE OATH In Sarasota and it's a knockout, subtle and brilliant with one of the best scores in a documentary in years.

Two more of our favorite docs of 2010 also scored at Sarasota and Boston.  Josh Fox' GASLAND, which has been getting deserved raves all year, received the Special Jury prize in Sarasota and Jeff Malmberg's terrific, complex MARWENCOL picked up the same award at IFFBoston.  All three films will rank among the best in nonfiction in 2010.

Stuff worth reading:  Yance Ford recaps her experience at Full Frame and considers the once and future festival.  Raphaela Niehausen writes about Steven Soderbergh's appearance at Stranger Than Fiction for his Spalding Gray doc AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE.  Anthony Kaufman considers the "documentary fictions" of the Soderbergh film and the Banksy doc.  Kaufman also writes about the STF screening of Doug Block's latest THE KID GROWS UP.  And completing his doc trifecta, Anthony writes about "art docs" for IFC.com.  And finally, a post over at the IDA's news blog on a recent Supreme Court decision sparks a debate on first ammendment freedoms and animal cruelty.

The Monday Brief: MARWENCOL Victorious, Hot Docs Lineups & What to Say About Elinor Burkett, Film Critics & The Conversation

Flying back to Los Angeles from Cleveland, where locals are putting the wraps on the latest edition of their staggeringly successful regional film festival.  With jammed corridors like I’d never seen before and uniformly packed screenings (a new record of 71,000 tickets sold), the Cleveland International Film Festival has developed an exceptionally loyal and curious fan base (one that reaches far outside the Cleveland metropolitan area), resulting in a festival that sets a high benchmark on the regional circuit and…

It was in Cleveland last night where two docs stood in the spotlight.  First and foremost, Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL continued its hot streak, picking up its second Jury Prize in less than two weeks – it took the title at SXSW last week (see our summary of the early reviews of the film here.  The film will next go to top fests Ashland in Oregon, IFFBoston and San Francisco International.

In addition, another documentary, LOUDER THAN A BOMB, a world premiere that follows participants in a poetry slam in Chicago, took two prize in Cleveland - the coveted Audience Award as well as the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Prize, given to the top social justice film.

As Cleveland was wrapping, another spring festival favorite, Don Hahn’s WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY (which screened at True/False and SXSW) kicked off its theatrical run, opening on five screens for a solid weekend estimate of $6,620 per screen.  The Disney distributed film on the fall and rise of the studio’s animation unit in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s is heading to Full Frame and Sarasota in the next few weeks.

While we've been on a bit of an extended hiatus (or at least slowdown), several top fests have posted their line-ups.  Hot Docs announced this past week that they will open with Thomas Balmès’ French doc BABIES - which was acquired by Focus Features at last year's Cannes Film Festival.  Said Focus topper James Schamus at the time:

“Seeing these little heroes during their formative moments makes Baby(ies) an extraordinarily entertaining experience, one that will appeal to any viewer of any age in any part of the world.  With this movie, Thomas is re-defining the nonfiction art form.”

Hot Docs has slated 25 films in its International Spectrum section of the festival, including festival favorites THE OATH, THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS, MARWENCOL, HIS & HERS and GASLAND.  Here's the full list:

HOT DOCS 2010
INTERNATIONAL SPECTRUM

AISHEEN (STILL ALIVE IN GAZA)
Directed by Nicolas Wadimoff (Qatar/Switzerland)

AUTUMN GOLD
Directed by Jan Tenhaven (Austria/Germany)

CHEMO
Directed by Pawel Lozinski (Poland)

DADDY'S GIRLS
Directed by Lily Sheffy (Isreal)

DAVID WANTS TO FLY
Directed by David Sieveking (Germany/Austria/Switzerland)

DISORDER
Directed by Huang Weikai (China)

FEATHERED COCAINE
Directed by Thorkell Hardarsson and Orn Marino Arnarson (Iceland)

A FILM UNFINISHED
Directed by Yael Hersonski (Isreal)

FLOWERS IN THE DESERT
Directed by José Alvarez (Mexico)

GASLAND
Directed by Josh Fox (USA)

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9
Directed by Robert Persons (USA)

HIS & HERS
Directed by Ken Wardrop (Ireland)

I SHOT MY LOVE
Directed by Tomer Heymann (Isreal/Germany)

INTO ETERNITY
Directed by Michael Madsen (Sweden/Finland)

THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS
Directed by Kasper Astrup Schröder (Denmark)

ITO - A DIARY OF AN URBAN PRIEST
Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland)

MARWENCOL
Directed by Jeff Malmberg (USA)

THE OATH
Directed by Laura Poitras (USA)

THE PLAYER
Directed by John Appel (Netherlands)

THE REGRETTERS
Directed by Marcus Lindeen (Sweden)

SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF
Directed by Yang Yonghi (Japan/South Korea)

STEAM OF LIFE
Directed by Joonas Berghall and Mika Hotakainen (Finland)

TANKOGRAD
Directed by Boris Bertram (Denmark)

THIEVES BY LAW
Directed by Alexander Gentelev (Isreal/Germany)

WISTFUL WILDERNESS
Directed by Digma Sinke (Netherlands)

In addition to Hot Docs, IFFBoston also announced their strong line-up, including nearly 40 nonfiction features.  THE OATH, MARWENCOL and HIS & HERS will screen here as well - along with a number of other notable titles, including BANANAS!*, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, COLONY, ERASING DAVID, FAMILY AFFAIR, HOW TO FOLD A FLAG, I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, SATURDAY NIGHT, WAR DON DON and our own CONVENTION.

In one more bit of spring festival news, Tribeca announced today that they will close their 2010 festival with the ensemble doc FREAKONOMICS, featuring new work from an all-star line-up of docmakers, including Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Seth Gordon and Eugene Jarecki.

And one more thing...  Part of the reason why I’ve been so slack over the past few weeks is that I’ve been editing my new film (and I’m desperately trying to keep my priorities in order).  But another reason why I haven’t been able to muster together Monday Briefs the past three weeks is that I’ve been at somewhat of a loss to add anything of substance to the various debates du jour.  

I mean, what really is there to say about Elinor Burkett that wasn’t said by the late night comedians?  And seriously, are any of us happy that the most famous documentarian on Oscar night is a loud-mouthed punchline?  Or that after months of THE COVE’s steady march to Oscar glory, that film’s director wasn’t allowed to speak about the reason that he made the film – unfurled banner or second speaker rules be damned.

And what to add to the latest rounds of film critic wars and woes?  Armond White vs. J. Hoberman?  Glenn Kenny vs. Eric Kohn?  The pink-slipping of sometime documentarian and longtime film critic Todd McCarthy by the imploding Variety?  The cancellation of “At the Movies”, just as the series seemed to have a rebirth (and more focus on documentaries) with the hiring of the NY Times’ A.O. Scott and the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips.  And the less said about Kevin Smith, the better.  All this in just three weeks. I mean, it was nearly four years ago when I wrote “Dog Days for Film Critics”, but who could imagine it would get so much worse so quickly.

Which is not to say that this stuff doesn’t matter.  It does.  It matters that the biggest platform that documentary filmmakers have all year was hijacked by a lucky-to-be-nominated producer (don’t run off at the mouth about how you don’t like the finished film and how your vision isn’t on the screen at the same time that you clutch your little gold man) and an overeager activist/show director.  Looking idiotic on television is not good for our brand, if that must be said aloud.

And the state of our film criticism union is not strong.  And that matters to us as well.  Check out Rotten Tomatoes year end lists of the best reviewed films of the year.  It’s consistently dominated by nonfiction features.  Now, as much as I love docs, I gotta admit I find it a little hard to believe that we are really that much better than narrative films, but I will take any bit of leverage I can to get our films out before an audience that needs to be convinced that we are entertaining, cinematic and theatrical.

And what to make of The Conversation, a much tweeted about gathering of the usual suspects in New York and the latest attempt to grasp hold of some sense of balance as the ground keeps shifting underneath our industry.  Maybe one day one of these events will come up with the big answers, but for now it seems like a constant cry for filmmakers to find more ways to be innovative (and spend more time marketing and promoting their films - for free, naturally) while the "industry" types pontificate.  How many of the folks speaking at The Conversation actually pay filmmakers and vendors what they say they will? And they charge filmmakers to watch this stuff?

So, alas and alack, I have thoughts but no answers.  And I'm probably as much of a usual suspect as those on the dais in New York.  But I'm quickly looking forward to some new things to have conversations about.

The Top 25 Film Festivals for Documentaries, 2nd Edition - #20. Sarasota

Previously: #19. Camden

#20. Sarasota Film Festival

Our take:  One of the top regional festivals in the US and the best documentary showcase in the Southeast.  This may be your one and only chance to screen in Florida - a state not exactly known for its embrace of art house cinema.  And in truth your screening might not exactly pack them in.  It's the top-notch programming, including a great array of international titles, great hospitality and the excellent (and often bizarre) parties that make this festival such a success.  Peopled with lots of folks (including industry) down from New York for the week or just off their premiere at SXSW, there's something about early spring on the gulf coast that makes this one of the most enjoyable fests around.  

Selection of US films screened at 2009 festival:  21 BELOW, BROCK ENRIGHT: GOOD TIMES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME, LOOT, THE HORSE BOY, WINNEBAGO MAN

Our coverage of Sarasota here.

SARASOTA 2009: WINNEBAGO MAN Wins Out on the Gulf Coast

If one needed further proof that late March/early April has become something of a hurricane's eye for film festivals, look no further than all the tweets my pals were posting on Twitter this weekend (yes, yes, we've fallen for that now too, you can follow us here). 

Over the course of three days, I was reading updates from Full Frame, Sarasota (one of our top 25 film festivals for documentary) and Ashland, which is quickly gaining a reputation for a strong doc line-up.  That swarm of activity was coming on the heels of Cleveland and AFI Dallas wrapping last weekend.

Sarasota has become something of a key stop for festival junkies, coming as it does in the wake of Austin's SXSW.  Sarasota takes a great mix of titles from Sundance and SXSW (as well as other key festivals and a handful of premieres), so it often makes for an excellent primer of the state of indie film, particularly on the narrative side - if you want to see pretty much every film that will be nominated for a Cassavetes or Someone to Watch Award at next year's Spirit Awards, you should book at flight for SRQ next year.

The documentary jury had a great line-up of films to sift through this year, including Darius Marder's LOOT, one of our favorite films of 2008.  They chose to award their Grand Jury prize to Ben Steinbauer's WINNEBAGO MAN, a film I missed at SXSW but about which I've heard great things.  I assume that I'll be seeing it soon "at a festival near you".

Doc juror Karina Longworth today posted her thoughts on six of the films she saw in competition, singling out LOOT and OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY for praise.

I'm also interested in what she has to say about Samantha Buck's 21 BELOW, scheduled to officially premiere at Tribeca later this month, and comparisons to Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri's forthcoming OCTOBER COUNTRY (which had a sneak preview at True/False and is set to premiere at a major film festival in the upcoming months):

"(T)here’s something fascinating about the fact that (21 BELOW) will be traveling the festival circuit at the same time as OCTOBER COUNTRY, a documentary...set in a similar milieu but with a very different philosophy and aesthetic results. Go back a couple of years to include BILLY THE KID (and surely other films that slip my immediate memory), and there’s a trend story in here somewhere about the American suburban family fighting against decomposition."

Festival winners at Ashland, Cleveland and AFI Dallas after the jump.

San Fran, Sarasota, Thessaloniki Announce 2009 Lineups

Festival season continues in high gear as three more high profile fests - San Franscisco, Sarasota and Thessaloniki (all amongst our list of top 25 fests for documentaries) announced their nonfiction rosters for 2009.  

San Francisco International (#17 on last year's list), the granddaddy of American film festivals that boasts three major documentary awards - each with sizable cash prizes - announced its 13-film documentary competition lineup last week.  Those films will vie for the Investigative Documentary Feature prize ($25,000), the Documentary Feature Prize ($20,000) and the Bay Area Documentary Feature prize ($15,000).  In the running:

THE AGE OF STUPID
Directed by Franny Armstrong

BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Ostergaard

CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN
Directed by Lee Anne Schmitt

CITY OF BORDERS
Directed by Yun Suh

CRUDE
Directed by Joe Berlinger

D TOUR
Directed by Jim Granato

KIMJONGILIA
Directed by N.C. Heikin

MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER
Directed by Anne Aghion

NEW MUSLIM COOL
Directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor

NOMAD'S LAND
Directed by Gael Metroz

THE RECKONING
Directed by Pamela Yates

SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Directed by Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider

Z32
Directed by Avi Mograbi

Hot Docs 2008: Battle Scarred - The Subjects of Three New Films Try to Come to Terms

Festival coverage sponsored by IndiePix.

Thoughts on three films screening at this week's Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.  Note - I screened each of these films as part of the documentary competition at the Sarasota Film Festival.

I've long been intrigued by the emotional capacity of the pre-60s generation, men scarred by world war, depression and an unforeseen boom of babies, money and technology.  AMC's acclaimed drama series Mad Men delves into this at some length, the idea that between the harsh disciplinarian (and often, frankly, abusive) fathers of the previous generation and the exploring, experimenting youths that would follow were men caught between worlds.  How does one grow up in an era where love is not expressed, emotion is contained, yet still relate to children who are conditioned that it's important to express love and perfectly fine to wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

This exploration may not be the entire centerpiece of Peter Gilbert and Steve James' superior new film AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR, but it's the element that resonated with me the most.  Focusing on Pastor Carroll Pickett, a man early in the film reveals himself to more married to his church and his parishoners than to his wife and children, Gilbert and James approach the subject of the death penalty with deft restraint. 

Pickett is by all appearances a conservative.  When called upon by the local Huntsville, Texas prison to be the death house counselor, the one who will guide a condemned man (or woman) during his or her last hours, he serves - not just because he is a proponent of the death penalty but also because he comes to believe that God has called upon him to guide those about to be executed.  No matter what he sees or experiences, he maintains a stoic and resolute face, revealing himself only to a tape recorder.  For at the heart of Gilbert and James' character study are a series of audio tapes made by Pickett, one following each execution for which he served as both shepherd and witness.  The recordings are eerie, haunting, as Pickett recalls, in the most matter of fact way, the last meal, last words and that final moment when the deadly drug concoction begins to enter the prisoner's arm.

Gilbert and James fill the frame with Pickett's weathered face, to the point where one senses the emotion that remains bottled up inside from the smallest glance.  It's heartbreaking when, later in the film, Pickett's wife wonders aloud whether that these audio records (which fill several boxes, such is the frequency of Pickett's task) are essentially his tears.

The filmmakers interweave Pickett's memories with a modern day whodunit - two Chicago newspaper reporters who believe that the state of Texas killed the wrong man, an execution witnessed more than a decade ago by Pickett.  While there are no big revelations in this storyline, the central facts (and our protagonist's reaction at the time - disturbingly captured on those audio cassettes) ask questions not merely about a societal desire for vengeance, but also about the perilous intersection of generations and of questions of justice and mercy.

If you can't cry for the innocent man after walking an innocent man to his death, can you ever cry for yourself?

Equally battlescarred are the subjects of Tamar Yarom's TO SEE IF I'M SMILING, a powerful look at women who have served their compulsory service in the Israeli army.  Using a series of straightforward interviews with veterans, Yarom combines the soldiers' home videos, photographs and newly shot footage to examine the lasting consequences of compelling young men and women to bear arms for their country.  With a deft touch (and in a scant 52 minute run time), Yarom effectively deals with some discouraging artifacts of the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the reaction of seemingly normal young women to everyday Palestinians.  Can these women, now trained to suspect and draw their guns on women and children, retain humanity in the face of terror? Therein lies a universal question rooted very much in our own universal here and now.

I won't give away where the title of the film comes from, but suffice to say that I thought the sequence in which a central character says the words "to see if I'm smiling" is perhaps the most powerful few minutes of nonfiction I've seen this year.  In that one, singular moment, Yarom trains her lens on a subject in the midst of personal conflict, transition, hell.  We've seen a similar character in America's recent bloodied and bowed military history (and, indeed, that woman will soon grace the big screens in the new film from an Oscar-winning documentarian), but TO SEE IF I'M SMILING asks the audience to question whether they would perform their tasks any differently.  Can you tell the difference between a woman on her way to the market and a man in a burqa with a bomb?  And does the very act of having to ask such questions steal a small piece of your humanity?

On the surface, SONG SUNG BLUE is less weighty.  It is, after all, the story of a cover band, albeit a compelling and locally (if your locality is Milwaukee) famed cover band - a duo known as Lightning & Thunder.  Together, they could help you get your retro groove on as Lightning delivers a mean Neil Diamond impression, while girlfriend-later-wife Thunder can karaoke to Patsy Cline with the best of them.  But underneath the Kiki and Herb, Marty and Elaine subject matter is a a more serious concern, not unlike that explored recently by ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL (which I wrote about here after its Sundance premiere and which opened Hot Docs last week) - how does one continue to practice art as one ages and the deck is more often stacked against you than not.

The first 30 minutes of SONG SUNG BLUE are insightful, funny and profound.  Lightning is an amazing documentary character, a talented man who has chosen a career (tribute artist) than has a seemingly obvious ceiling.  Yet for both Thunder and Lightning, acclaim is right around the corner, no matter the personal and professional tragedies that may befall them.

For me, the momentum shifted a bit once the film entered a more traditional "dysfunctional family" storyline, draining some of the energy that I felt in the film's first act.  But filmmaker Greg Kohs has tremendous access and a wealth of archival footage and shows the benefit of following a story for years.  A lesser filmmaker might have pulled the plug or finished prematurely, but Kohs is present and ready for the film's unexpectedly emotional denouement.

As the film progresses, we discover that Lightning has war scars of his own, although these tales of Vietnam are told by friends and acquaintances.  He is not, however, caught in the same predicament as AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR's Pickett.  Like Anvil lead singer Lips Ludlow, Lightning is more apt to lash out, ready to tell his tale of woe to whoever's listening, yet still optimistically believing that this time, everything will be different. 

But while ANVIL rewards its subjects with a happy ending, SONG SUNG BLUE is content to explore one man and woman and their struggling spirits.  If the most heroic character in BLUE is Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder (proving again that Kurt Cobain was wrong about him), that's OK.  Sometimes dreams don't come true in the ways that we expect.

A Note About Jury Duty

This weekend, I had the pleasure of serving on the Best Documentary Feature jury at the Sarasota Film Festival.  It was the fourth time that I've been on a jury and was a very enjoyable experience with my friends and colleagues Liesl Copland and Matt Dentler.  When we gathered on Saturday for our juror deliberation lunch, we had a wonderfully thoughtful conversation about the eight films in competition - a diverse and well-considered group of films programmed by Tom Hall and Holly Herrick - and after much back and forth, we mutually agreed to give the grand jury prize to STRANDED: I HAVE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED ON THE MOUNTAINS and a special jury prize to TO SEE IF I'M SMILING.

The latter film I will write about from Hot Docs next week, but wanted to make quick note about the former film, which I had written about when I saw it at True/False in late February.  In Columbia, I had a strong reaction to the film's running time (which is over two hours), but noted that I was still deeply impressed with elements of the film, particularly the interviews.  Since I was going to be judging it in Sarasota, I wanted to take another look at the film, so I watched a portion of it again when I arrived at the festival.  This time, I was less definitive about the film's deliberately slow pacing (although I still would argue for the film to cut down for its rumored theatrical release), sensing that perhaps the filmmaker was conveying something about the length of time that these men were, in fact, stranded.  I also recognized that my own feelings about the film's length may be part of my current mindset that almost every film could be shorter.  In any case, with some new perspective I went into our deliberations with STRANDED as one of the films that I'd support for the award.

I won't go into more detail about our discussions, but I wanted to write about this because I think it points to something about the jury process that I believe is important for other filmmakers to understand.

Last year, when ABOUT A SON was on the festival circuit, we were in competition at approximately 10 festivals.  We won three times.  In most cases when we received a prize, we were awarded over a film that had been recognized over us in a previous festival.  Different juries talking about different ideas came to different conclusions.

There are all kinds of reasons why filmmakers care about festival awards.  There's the branding that a jury award can give you, a set of laurels on your poster or a new talking point that you can use with a distributor.  There's often a cash prize (it was $5,000 in Sarasota), which can obviously be of great benefit to a documentary filmmaker.  In that context, it can be a bit maddening sometimes on the filmmaker end of this process, wondering why juries make the choices they do.  Even as someone who also writes about nonfiction films and covers the festival circuit (with and without my own film in the mix), I get a bit baffled at some jury choices.  I'm sure more than one juror has wanted to slug me when I look at them and ask, "How did that happen?"

The truth is, three other jurors in Sarasota (or elsewhere) might have come up with other films to award.  I say this not to undercut our own choices, but to recognize that the process is ephemeral and, dare I say, a bit mysterious even to the participants.  It's possible that if Liesl, Matt and I gathered a week from now we might have different choices, films having had a longer chance to sit with us.

But in each of the times I've been on this side of the jury process, I've been impressed by the care with which the jurors take in their deliberations.  Serving on the Truer Than Fiction nominating committee this past fall made me supremely honored that another committee had chosen to nominate ABOUT A SON the previous year.  For filmmakers who have never been on this side, I think it's an important thing to know and to understand.

So my thanks to Liesl, Matt, Tom and Holly and all the filmmakers whose work we got to watch, discuss, consider and debate over.  More soon about this year's festivities on the gulf coast...

STRANDED, TO SEE IF I'M SMILING Take Prizes in Sarasota

Gonzalo Arijon's STRANDED: I HAVE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED ON THE MOUNTAINS was the Grand Jury Prize winner Saturday at the 10th Sarasota Film Festival.  The film previous took the Grand Jury prize at IDFA and has screened at the Sundance, True/False and Full Frame Film Festivals.  Tamar Yarom's TO SEE IF I'M SMILING received a Special Prize from the jury, which included Liesl Copland of  Red Envelope, SXSW's Matt Dentler and yours truly.  TO SEE IF I'M SMILING will next be seen at Hot Docs.

More soon on this year's festivities in Sarasota, Florida.