In its fifth year, The Provincetown International Film Festival found its groove. Packed with interesting and diverse content, a flurry of social activities, and a Todd Haynes retrospective, it was hard to find time to actually sit down and have a cocktail. And that’s exactly what made this year’s PTFF so special - there were simply too many interesting films to see to take a break.
I could give the standard overview of excellent films you’ll more than likely have an opportunity to see this year outside the festival circuit, but I have a tendency to avoid those films at festivals because of that very reason. Instead, I try to see films that sound exciting, or interesting, but that haven’t been beaten into my brain by the media.
That being said, opening night I ran to see a short film I had been hearing about since its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival - D.E.B.S by director Angela Robinson. The 11 minute film starring Tammy Lynn Michaels, Jill Ritchie (Kid Rock’s sis) and Claire Kramer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), is about four plaid-skirted high school girls who’s test scores show an aptitude for lying, cheating and killing, are who are subsequently drafted to be secret agents. Robinson has already inked a deal to make the smart, campy short into a feature. But the hype wasn’t just all that; there was so much laughing I could barely hear the next joke. D.E.B.S was unusually slick and stylized for a short film, and was a romping-good 11 minutes - a great way to blast off the week.
From there, I skipped the opening night selection of GHOSTLIGHT to see PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL starring Gina Gershon (come on! Gina Gershon in leather?!) playing a just-turned-40, lead singer of an all girl post-grunge rock band in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Backed by the way cool Drea De Matteo (The Sopranos) on bass, Lori Petty on lead guitar and Shelly Cole on drums. If this band were playing in your neighborhood, you’d go. “Prey” is a must for any music fan who’s seen their favorite band nearly make it a millions times, only to wake up the next day to a hangover and disappointment. (I could plug a film I made here, but that just wouldn’t be right.) And what made the film unique is that you actually felt like you somehow knew these girls. Former music supervisor and first time feature director Alex Steyermark said that by the end of the film, the actors played like a real band. “We did weeks of music rehearsals with the actors in LA. I wanted them to not only look like musicians, but also to walk like musicians - people who are used to dragging their instruments around. They started acting like a band and started talking really salacious, like band chicks.” Steyermark brought a wonderful sincerity to this film that begs the question: What happens when you can’t do the only thing you’ve ever wanted to do? Also, kudos for casting ex-Buffy cast member #2 Marc Blucas as a tattooed ex-con and Gershon’s love interest.
What I noticed this year more than any before is that the PTFF really IS trying to represent cutting edge filmmakers. There have been other festivals that have claimed this, and then drifted toward more commercial filmmakers to draw audiences in. As for me, I’m a believer. And there might be none so prominently “cutting edge” than Todd Haynes, this year’s “Filmmaker on the Edge” recipient. And Thursday began the Todd Haynes retrospective with VELVET GOLDMINE, FAR FROM HEAVEN, and POISON - and that’s just day one. Haynes also introduced Douglas Sirk’s 1955 ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS at the Wellfleet Drive In, which he says was a major influence on FAR FROM HEAVEN.
Thursday night’s personal pick was a toughie. I chose the dark CAPTURING THE FRIDMAN’S the pedophiliac family documentary which had been hyped into my “must see” psyche, over the probably wiser choice DON’T TEMPT ME starring Penelope Cruz and Gael Garcia Bernal (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN). The latter is about a young boxer who dies, and Heaven and Hell send their best operatives to Earth to compete for his soul. I admit, I gave in to the film (Friedman’s) that I knew I’d probably be able to see later, but it had been hyped so well and the reviews have been also very good, that I put it on my “to do” list. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just tired of seeing the average middle class family air it’s dirty laundry. Maybe reality TV, although I also avoid it, has numbed my otherwise keen ability to know a good film when I see one. Maybe it was the inconclusiveness of the film. Either way, I left that film wishing I’d spent those 90 minutes with Bernal and Cruz.
Friday rolled around and the unbelievable happened at Provincetown in June - the sun came out. And it stayed out all day. Until this point, the weather had been perfect - cloudy, with a chance of rain, drizzly, just misty enough to walk, but not wet enough to hang outside. It was perfect film festival weather. In past years, Mother Nature has not been so kind to PTFF, with it’s hurricane like gale-force winds and rains. But this year, she smiled on P-town with her drizzle.
Then the sun broke and, well, we all lived through last winter. I sat out side and drank Corona’s for about 6 hours until my nose was pink. Meanwhile, the Haynes retrospective continued with the amazing Julianne Moore driven SAFE. I managed to pull myself out of the sun and get to the “Filmmaker on the Edge” Award ceremony at Town Hall. And this is actually where I had my epiphany about PTFF really trying to remain “cutting edge.” The panel consisted of 4 of the most prominent independent filmmakers of the last several decades, as well as 4 out of the last 6 “Filmmaker on the Edge” recipients: John Waters, Christine Vachon (Killer Films), Ted Hope (Good Machine) and Todd Haynes. (Gus Van Sant and James Schamus were not in attendance) John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival, mediated. Haynes was eloquent when answering questions about what it meant to receive this award, but the most memorable statement came at the end when he said: “you can change people’s opinions if you don’t compromise your vision.” And that’s exactly what Haynes has managed to somehow do. His audiences have continually grown with each film, though he has managed to somehow still get his point across without compromise. A true inspiration.
Saturday came and, thank God, more drizzle. And with the drizzle came the end-all-be-all of the film festival. It happened way on the other side of P-town at a bar called Whaler’s Lounge and was dubbed, “Todd Haynes’ Early Works.” But in my heart of hearts, I knew it was going to be a screening of a film I had been trying to see for over a decade. As dark as night at 3:00 in the afternoon, I stumbled with my fingers crossed to a table across the room. From the bar, the bartender/projectionist was screening a 16mm print of Haynes’ DOTTIE GETS SPANKED, based on the Lucille Ball Show that Haynes attended as a child. Laced with symbolism that Haynes would later become known for in works like POISON, DOTTIE is the story of one boy’s obsession to meet his TV star idol.
When the lights came up, everyone got more drinks and then resettled. The film clicked through the gate, and there it was: SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY. The original 16mm print.
SUPERSTAR, which was completed in 1987, was unable to be distributed because of a legal battle over music rights with Karen’s brother Richard Carpenter. The film, which is part documentary, with war footage and shots of Nixon, part biopic with a factual story line, and part animated movie acted with Barbie dolls, flip-flops between sincerity and twisted humor. Yet the bizarre juxtaposition of camp and the seriousness of anorexia are strangely unsettling. Mix that with the even stranger wonderment of Karen Carpenter’s unearthly voice and it’s like a trip to Bizarro World. Even creepier, 10 minutes into the film, you forget you’re watching Barbie as Karen Carpenter and are sucked into the story of the film. I was blown away. Then Haynes snuck in to the 150 capacity (that’s a guess) room in his Carpenters T-Shirt, along with SUPERSTAR co-writer and co-producer Cynthia Shneider (Vachon also produced the film) and gave a 1/2-hour Q&A.
I don’t even think I have to explain why this event peaked at #1 on my “best film festival moments” scale. And it may be why everything after that paled in comparison. PARTY MONSTER, about the New York 80s rage scene, complete with recently resurfaced Macaulay Culken, and starring ex-Buffy cast member #3 Seth Green, didn’t come close. Even the closing night romp CAMP, which won the “Best Feature Film Award,” and was a very fine film in it’s own right, couldn’t top this truly “you had to be there” experience.
The 5th Annual PTFF had many other wonderful moments, but none that could top the closing of this article. I dare say this fest may be a hard one to beat, but I suppose that’s why one tries.