Film Festivals Big.

Every year Sundance gets bigger; each year the VIP sections of parties get larger and the access to such parties gets more restrictive. The number of festivals going on simultaneously in Park City grows - there were at least seven this year.(Slamdance, NoDance, Tromadance, etc) And, there may be more creative vitality coming from Asian cinema, Iran, and even Canada than there is in American independent filmmaking. Nevertheless, for those who are professionally interested in American independent film, Park City, Utah, is the place to be in the second half of January

The rewards of attending are ample. The narrative films were at least interesting; the documentaries were, as usual, uniformly excellent, and the House of Docs, a gathering place for documentary filmmakers, expanded. For those who know how Park City works, the opportunities for professional exchange are boundless. Finally, for New Englanders, we continue to partake in an increasing presence at the Festival.

Again, there were New England based films in competition, and there was reason to be proud. In the narrative competition was LIFT, an urban melodrama directed by Khari Streeter and the impassioned and articulate DeMane Davis. Shot in Boston, LIFT is about an urban shoplifter, and is an original examination of black materialism against the context of family values. One of the producers is Mark Hankey of Picture Park and Kevin Fennessy did most of the casting. The lead, Kerry Washington, has star quality, and the New York Times cited the ensemble acting. IndieWire praised the film's originality. The film does not yet have a distributor, but it's sure to have a life on cable and home video. It is a commendable achievement.

Audiences couldn't speak after viewing Northern Light's Bestor Cram's and Michael Majoras AN UNFINISHED SYMPHONY, a powerful and beautiful documentary about the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. For those of us who lived through the period, we thought we have been numbed beyond the point of being moved. Not this time. With an editing structure like that of the structure of a symphony, the film can rightly be called a masterpiece. Without being manipulative at all, the film builds so skillfully and so passionately that one viewer couldn't stop crying for 25 minutes; another very gregarious viewer just needed time to be alone with his thoughts. It needs to be seen. and it can be, for it will be shown as part of the New England Film and Video Festival later this month.

I'm glad I was not a judge, for I wouldn't have wanted to choose between AN UNFINISHED SYMPHONY and SOUTHERN COMFORT, the film by Kate Davis (see feature story in this issue) that did win the Best Documentary award. A love story about three pairs of transgendered couples in the South, the film has a narrative arc that is better than most of the Oscar-nominated films. Kate Davis was raised in Belmont and Falmouth, and her film training at Harvard shows in this incredible documentary that is opening at Film Forum in New York and has been bought by HBO

Casting Director Kevin Fennessy is becoming accustomed to celebrating his birthday at Sundance. MFO Executive Director Robin Dawson looks on. Photo by Judy Laster

Finally, there was Todd Field's IN THE BEDROOM a sharply observed and beautifully acted domestic melodrama with Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkenson and Marisa Tomei, Shot in Maine with a mostly New England crew, with Cambridge-based Mary Feuer as production manager, the film is this year's YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. Spacek and Wilkenson deservedly got recognized for their acting. Incidentally, Feuer had a good Park City experience, for not only was IN THE BEDROOM well received at Sundance, but BARSTOW 2008, a film she produced in California with Boston's own Christy Scott-Cashman in the cast won the jury prize at Nodance. It's a comedy about the hopes of a man trying to bring the Olympic games to Barstow, the film plays like THIS IS SPINAL TAP meets AMERICAN MOVIE.

A lot of the excitement of being a New Englander in Park City was realized at this year's Massachusetts Film Office party. Held at the Riverhorse Cafe on Main Street, it was the best social event I went to this year. Hosted by Robin Dawson and Tim Grafft, the event drew not only the Massachusetts filmmakers whose works the reception celebrated (as well as Kevin Fennessy's birthday), it also drew lots of people from outside the state. Seen at the party were LA based entertainment lawyer Mark Litwak, Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven, and film business plan writer Louise Levison (she wrote the business plan for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT), and others.

Also heartening was the fact that two New England film festival directors, myself and Judy Laster of Woods Hole, were invited to a dinner for 35 international film festival directors hosted by filmfestivals.com. It provided a social and professional forum for a meaningful exchange of information and concerns for all of us in this period of proliferating film festivals.

Film Festivals Small.

Just as Sundance provides a forum for personal and professional exchange, so do the smaller regional festivals. On February 5th, at BFVF, there was a meeting of regional film festival directors organized by Nina Adams of FilmFest New Haven and Judy Laster of Woods Hole. An outgrowth of a lunch held at the Northampton Film Festival in November last year, it was a meeting to explore ways of cooperating amidst the growth of regional film festivals and competition among them for films, audiences and sponsorship.

On the regional level, there was representation from festivals big and small, from Jill Goode and Jonathan Burkhart of the Nantucket Film Festival, to those who run the micro-budgeted Roxbury Film Festival. Devon Demonte of the New England Film and Video Festival and myself of the Boston Underground Film Festival, Woods Hole and board member of the Northampton Film Festival, were among the almost 20 directors in attendance.

While we discussed a range of commonly held concerns, from coordinating volunteers to getting sponsorships, to the need for exclusivity for PR purposes, there was a sense of cooperation. Among the notions presented were forming an umbrella organization to solicit sponsorships that could benefit all of the members, putting together a traveling package of New England films that could promote the region by having this package become a part of others outside of the New England regional film festivals. We talked about shared advertising in national independent film publications.

It was a positive meeting and the beginning of a dialogue that will continue. We also respected one another's individuality. While there is unnecessary competition among Newport, Nantucket and Provincetown, all of which happen in early June is resort communities, there is no conflict among New Haven, Boston Underground and Woods Hole in terms of time and demographics. And we enjoy one another's small triumphs. Nina Adams called me to share her excitement that two of her films received Academy Award nominations, the animated film REJECTED (which also showed at B.U.F.F.) and the narrative short SERAGLIO.

It is clear that festivals big and small need to survive and, indeed, thrive. There are important as professional gathering places, for regional exposure and for audience development. After all, most films that are shown are films that no one has heard of. My favorite film at Sundance was a difficult French Canadian film called MAELSTROM, about a woman's life in decline told from the point of view of an aging fish that is about to have its head cut off. Will it ever get a distributor? I don't know, but in a heartbeat, I would want to show it to any of the audiences of the festivals I am involved with, and I would want other film festivals whose directors I know to show it.

At the end of the day, film festivals are about sharing a passion for film, and, in spite of the business, networking and hucksterism that goes on at so many festivals, festivals big and small are still about passion.