All these wonderful things

Jeff Malmberg on His Artistic Process & Inspirations for MARWENCOL and Bypassing the Oscars

Note: This is the fifth in a series of interviews with the makers of some of my favorite documentaries of 2010.

It's almost becoming traditional that there is a documentary each year that is the SXSW breakthrough, a portrait film that comes from nowhere to take the Grand Jury Prize in Austin and then comes to define the new wave of intimate, personal documentary filmmaking.  First Jennifer Venditti's BILLY THE KID, then Bill and Turner Ross' 45365, and now Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL, the latter a humanistic portrait of a man who, following a massive brain injury, finds himself creating new worlds out of G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls and World War II fantasia.

Malmberg, an editor by trade, came to his debut film the way many novice filmmakers do - a few weekends at a time, shooting a bit and then going back to make enough money to return to shoot some more.  Whatever the process, his final product - an intimate and layered portrait of his subject, Mark Hogancamp - would remind of the films and filmmakers that inspired many of us to make nonfiction (from the Maysles to Errol Morris).

We emailed with Jeff about his process, his relationship with Hogancamp and his decision to bypass the Academy Awards.

All these wonderful things:  One of the things I love about focusing on documentary each year are the discoveries, the folks who just a year ago were still hard at work tying up the edit on their first film - and then, it seems instantaneous, they are an ingrained part of the community.  This is to say that this past year must have felt like a whirlwind to you.

It seems like a natural thing that these discoveries are coming out of SXSW.  What do you think it is about that festival, and about Janet, that a.) finds these films and b.) gives them such a good launch?

Jeff Malmberg: I think Janet is really adventurous in her film taste and really brave in what she programs. It’s easy in retrospect to say that MARWENCOL was a good fit for SXSW, but at the time, it was just this strange little movie that no one had stood up for yet. No one knew how it was going to be received, but she brought the audience to it and shined a light on it. I’ll never forget what she said to the audience when it first premiered – “this is why I do what I do.” She walks the walk, man. Same thing with 45365 the year before – this beautiful film that’s not quite like anything else. Plus Janet’s taste seems like the perfect match for that audience which is really hungry for something fresh and new – and doc seems to be flowering that way these days. My wife [MARWENCOL producer Chris Shellen] is doing a panel at SXSW this year so I get to tag along and watch a bunch of films at the Alamo – I kind of can’t wait to experience that festival as an audience member this time around. When I was in it with a film, I didn’t have enough time or headspace to see all the films I should have.

ATWT: I asked you this question when I dragged you up onstage for the A to Z Chat Show in Sheffield, but can you talk some about your festival experiences this year.  What was your best experience?

CAMDEN 2009: A Documentary Film Festival Comes of Age in Maine

There remains for me, as someone who has been on this circuit in one form or fashion for the past 7+ years (as filmmaker, as blogger, as observer, as fan), true joy in discovering that a film festival, previously unknown or unheralded (at least to the community at large), has come into its own.  That a festival has found a way, in spite of the bad economy and numerous examples of how to fuck it up, to create the festival that we all long for – the gracious and generous host, the creative and intelligent programmer, the sublime mix of location, audience and community.

Welcome to the Camden International Film Festival, all grown up at 5 years old and ready to take its place amongst the premiere documentary showcases in the US.

A boost in budget and a healthy amount of big dreaming has catapulted this small festival (in an even smaller town) from an under-the-radar sleeper into what could well become the premiere US fall festival stop for docs, drawing folks from around the northeast as well as anyone interested in catching nonfiction features intermixed with the changing fall colors of coastal Maine. 

The Monday Brief (a Day Later): Much Ado About Zenovich & POLANSKI, Big Weekends for CAPITALISM & MORE THAN A GAME

We were out on the road last week at film festivals in Maine and New York (more on that in a later post) during what seemed like a pretty momentous week on the indie film landscape.  And on Sunday night we were without wireless in the New York countryside, so apologies for delivering The Monday Brief a day late.

We start, naturally, with Michael Moore and his latest, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, which expanded from its successful limited engagement in New York and Los Angeles to nearly 1000 theaters, and true to his reputation as the world’s foremost documentarian, Moore scored pretty big in wide release, taking in over $4.4 million for the weekend.  In doing so, CAPITALISM becomes the third biggest nonfiction of the year (surpassing FOOD, INC. and SEPTEMBER ISSUE and lagging only Disney’s EARTH and JONAS BROTHERS 3D).

But with a per screen average of just under $5K (compared to SICKO's opening weekend average of $10K+, on half the screens), CAPITALISM will need strong word-of-mouth and a solid second weekend hold to match the $20M+ total box office take of his three most successful docs.

Still, while CAPITALISM's numbers may be modest for Moore, they still rank as highly successful for your average nonfiction film.

CAPITALISM was not the weekend’s only success story.  Kristopher Belman’s MORE THAN A GAME, retelling the historic high school basketball season of a team that would include future NBA all-star LeBron James, had one of the top doc debuts of the year.  It took in an average of $13K on 14 screens for an opening weekend cume of $182K, putting it just shy of the top 20 docs of the year.

And RJ Cutler’s THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE had another fine weekend in wide release, grossing $220K on 104 screens to bring its total to just shy of $3M. 

But while those three films were drawing folks to theaters this weekend, another film – just as was the case last week – was perhaps the week’s most talked about documentary: Marina Zenovich’s ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED continued to be in the news in the wake of Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland on 30-year old rape charges in the U.S.

The Monday Brief: Indie Film in Hell - The Bloodbath, CineVegas & Polanski, But Signs of Hope With Ondi Timoner's Innovations, CAPITALISM, SEPTEMBER & IT MIGHT GET LOUD

Is the entire indie film world going to hell?  That's been the question vibrating through our community for the past several weeks, particularly after a Toronto International Film Festival that was light on sales and a summary paper issued by Anne Thompson, in which she labeled this year's TIFF an "indie bloodbath":

"The old independent market is over. A new one will take its place. But we are smack in the middle between the end of one paradigm and the start of another, and it’s a scary place indeed...

If nobody knew anything before, they know even less now. The one sure thing is that moviemakers will now PAY to get their films released. The few remaining distributors can sit back and wait for movies to drop in their laps, often with P & A funds attached. All hopes of a hot sale at a festivals were dashed this year."

And if you think filmmakers going to festivals have it bad, what about the festivals themselves?  This year has seen an unprecedented upheaval, as five of the top 10 festivals for documentaries saw a change in leadership (Sundance, Silverdocs, Los Angeles, Tribeca and Full Frame) and a number of film festivals found themselves making news - Toronto over its choice of Tel Aviv for its City to City Spotlight, Los Angeles in its battle with the BANANAS!* filmmakers and lawyers from Dole, SF Jewish Film over its screening of RACHEL, Tokyo due to its rejection-then-capitulation/acceptance of THE COVE, not to mention the coup at the Denver Film Society.  And what does it say about the New York Film Festival if most of NYC's indie film cognoscenti took the first flights out of town to be in Austin for Fantastic Fest, just as NYFF was opening?

Now we learn that CineVegas, one of the best regional festivals in the US, will not be back for its 2010 edition (although they state publicly that they will try to return sometime after that) and yesterday  the news that filmmaker Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland as he was en route to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Zurich Film Festival.

Add to all this what any filmmaker on the festival circuit (including this one) can tell you with certainty - for many festivals, the days of largesse have passed.  No travel, no accommodations, no screening fees.  Oh yeah, and if you want more than a couple tickets to your film, you're going to have to pay for them.

Let that sink in for a moment.

IN A DREAM Tops at Woodstock

Jeremiah Zagar's first person family drama IN A DREAM took top honors at the just concluded Woodstock Film Festival, winning the jury prize for Best Feature Documentary as well as the prize for Editing (awarded to editors Zagar and Keiko Deguchi).  IN A DREAM previously received the Emerging Artist Award at Full Frame.

Film Panel Notetaker has more, including a brief clip of Ang Lee presenting the Trailblazer Award to James Schamus.  Matt Dentler, who served on the narrative jury (and who reminds us that IN A DREAM premiered at his 2008 SXSW swansong) recaps:

"(T)he atmosphere of the Woodstock Film Festival is wonderfully communal. Filmmakers wouldn't just come to the festival, they would bring their families. You don't stay in hotels, but rather, you stay in people's homes or in a Bed & Breakfast. Of course, getting around is hard when you don't have a car, but you can generally find a ride from one of the friendly locals or festival staff. I had never been to this part of New York state, and it was remarkable to me how similar to feels to certain sections of Austin. Just like Austin, Woodstock has a sturdy population of hippies and former hippies, and it makes sense that a film festival could flourish with this sort of local audience."

Ann Marie Woolsey checked out the documentary filmmaker panel and came away needing a good stiff drink:

"Don't get me wrong, the elements of doc film production from concept to completion were discussed and good advice was given, but the general tone of the panel was pretty grim.  The disheartened group talked about how difficult it is to market a film due to the skyrocketing costs of newspaper advertising, specifically. Brett Morgan made his feelings for print advertising abundantly clear when he said, tugging at his hair, "how can we compete with these companies who are taking out a full page ad in the New York Times?""

Catching Up!: Fall Festival Edition - AFI Announces Doc Lineup, Woodstock & Chicago Give Awards

In this brand new edition of Catching Up!™ we dive into a bit of the recent festival news that has escaped us in the midst of our theatrical release/Oscar rule changes mind-spin.

• AFI Fest in Los Angeles has announced both its Documentary Competition and Non-Competition Lineups (as well as the narrative titles).  Eugene at indieWIRE has the full list of titles.    Here are the docs in competition:
  • 1000 JOURNALS (USA/Germany), Directed by Andrea Kreuzhage
  • AFGHAN MUSCLES (Denmark), Directed by Andreas Mol Dalsgaard
  • ATENCO, A CRIME OF STATE (Mexico), Directed by Klamve Colectivo
  • CHRIS & DON. A LOVE STORY (USA), Directed by Guido Santi and Tina Macara
  • HECKLER (USA), Directed by Michael Addis
  • OPERATION FILMMAKER (USA), Directed by Nina Davenport
  • ORANGE REVOLUTION (USA), Directed by Steve York
  • PLEASE VOTE FOR ME (China), Directed by Weijun Chen
  • PUBLIC ENEMY: WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME (USA), Directed by Robert Patton-Spruill
  • THE QUEST FOR THE MISSING PIECE (Isreal), Directed by Oded Lotan
  • SIGUR ROS - HEIMA (Iceland), Directed by Dean de Blois
  • THE UNFORSEEN (USA), Directed by Laura Dunn
• The Chicago International Film Festival recently wrapped its 43rd edition, handing out Hugos (not the Yugoslavian minicars from the 80s - although wouldn't that be fantastic - but the festivals' preciously-named awards) to a number of nonfiction films playing the fest.  And you're forgiven in advance if you can't tell the difference between Hugos and Plaques of varying elemental metals:
  • Gold Hugo for Documentary: TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, Directed by Alex Gibney
  • Silver Hugo for Documentary: CHICAGO 10, Directed by Brett Morgan
  • Gold Plaque for Direction: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, Directed by Darryl Roberts
  • Gold Plaque for Photography: 4 ELEMENTS, Martin von Broekhulzen, Cinematographer
  • Silver Plaque Jury Prizes: OPERATION FILMMAKER and A WALK INTO THE SEA
• The Woodstock Fest held its 8th edition this weekend and, as is its wont, it handed out a bevy of awards, including, God bless 'em, craft awards for documentary.  Ryan Harrington has a recap of the fest over at indieWIRE - wait, isn't he our pool reporter?  Among the winners:
  • Best Feature Documentary - THE COOL SCHOOL, Directed by Morgan Neville
  • Honorable Mention for Documentary - CONSTANTINE'S SWORD and RUN GRANNY RUN
  • Best Short Documentary - SALIM BABA, Directed by Tim Sternberg
  • Best Editing of a Documentary - CONSTANTINE'S SWORD, Edited by Kate Hirson
• And in non-festival news, our friends at The Documentary Blog have joined the chorus of documentary list-makers (why should the IDA and IDFA and Chlotrudis have all the fun) and have name-checked their top 25 docs of all time.  Leading their list?  Errol Morris' GATES OF HEAVEN.  Number of films from the past 7 years?  Just eight.  Watch your backs, group list-makers.