Sophie Fiennes brings VSPRS to Lincoln Center

• by Thom Powers, January 11, 2009

Reported by Erik Guzinski

Dance on Camera, the venerable festival hosted by the Film Society at Lincoln Center, kicked off last week with an array of treats and discoveries.  Director Sophie Fiennes was on hand for the New York debut of VSPRS Show and Tell, participating in a Q&A moderated by programmer Joanna Ney. Fiennes will be sticking around New York for the opening of her collaboration with Slavoj Zizek The Perverts Guide to Cinema for a week-long run at the IFC Center starting on Jan 16.

Traditionalists might be hesitant to call choreographer Alain Platel’s namesake piece “dance.” Fiennes captures a chaotic and emotionally exhaustive and sexually frenetic exploration of movement. It physically embodies and emotionally derives from those struggling with schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

10 New Year’s Resolutions

• by Thom Powers, December 31, 2008

STF strives to help you lead a better life while enjoying the best in non-fiction film. Starting January 13, join us for 10 Tuesday nights to strive toward these very worthy goals…

RESOLUTION #1: FIGHT THE POWER!
Jan 13: UPSTREAM BATTLE (2008) Get a dose of inspiration for fighting corporate greed and environmental destruction in 2009. In UPSTREAM BATTLE, a Native American rock n’ roller-turned-activist battles to save the Klamath River’s salmon population going up against billionaire Warren Buffet.  Q&A with director Ben Kempas.

RESOLUTION #2: HAVE SEX AND MAKE IT SAFE!
Jan 20: THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX (2005)  A high school girl in Texas shocks her conservative community by campaigning for better sex education in a culture that teaches abstinence-only. Audience Award winner at SXSW. Q&A will include Shelby Knox, who’s graduated from college and continues to campaign for feminist causes. Q&A with directors Rose Rosenblatt & Marion Lipschutz + Shelby Knox.

RESOLUTION #3: TAKE A ROAD TRIP!
Jan 27: PARALLEL LINES (2003) - Nina Davenport (the director of “Operation Filmmaker” and “Always a Bridesmaid”) travels across America to uncover surprising and poignant reflections in the months after Sept 11, 2001.
Q&A with director Nina Davenport.

RESOLUTION #4: CONFRONT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY!
Feb 3: MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH (2008) - An exploration of an unconventional family told through an enormous archive of home movies and recordings.  Co-presented by Hamptons International Film Festival. Q&A with director Morgan Dews.

TOP TEN FAVORITE DOCUMENTARY EVENTS IN 2008

• by Thom Powers, December 19, 2008

In an effort to add some variety to the deluge of “best film” lists, I’ve approached the exercise a bit differently. In chronological order, here are my favorite personal documentary memories from the year…

1) January: FULL BATTLE RATTLE work-in-progress at STF - Before this film headed off to its premieres at Berlin and SXSW, directors Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss gave a special screening for their friends and STF Winter Season pass holders. Those enterprising viewers were the first to discover this surreal take on the war in Iraq. When the film later opened in the summer, David Edelstein wrote in New York Magazine, “The film is freaky, amusing, and sickening in equal measures – part fly-on-the-wall verite, part multiple-perspective Altmanesque tragicomedy.” Visit the film’s web site.

2) March: Cinema Eye Honors – Four months earlier, AJ Schnack called me with the idea of launching a documentary award. I thought he meant for the next year’s films. But he wanted to pull the trigger immediately. Indiepix Films jumped in as a sponsor and we benefited from the generous support of many others. From such modest beginnings, I think it’s fair to say the event at the IFC Center exceeded everyone’s expectations including my own. The presenters included documentary luminaries such as Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky and Alan Berliner. The night was topped off by an unforgettable speech by Jason Kohn, accepting the best documentary award for MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET). You can watch here. After the show, AJ and I indulged ourselves with two-fisted drinking, pictured above.

3) March: Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant – The filmmaker Garrett Scott died much too young in 2006 . But his spirit lives on in this grant that enables directors working on their first film to attend the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. This was the second year that I joined Ian Olds and Rachael Rakes in judging the applications. It was my pleasure to make the calls informing three aspirants of their success. I later got an email from one of the recipients Rebecca Richman Cohen, the director of WAR DON DON set in Sierra Leone. She wrote, “The call was a triumphant moment - it was the first time that someone (who hadn’t known me for years) validated the project.  It was a vote of confidence that assured me that I wasn’t alone in this wild endeavor.” The deadline for next year’s grant is Feb 6.

PRESSURE COOKER - a hot ticket!

• by Raphaela Neihausen, December 10, 2008

A completely sold out theater enthusiastically ate up PRESSURE COOKER, a film codirected by NY locals Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker. Powers introduced the film by saying “this is a film that pulls at your heart strings.  And if you don’t feel moved, you have no heart.”  A high bar to set, but luckily most audience members were relieved to discover that they did have a heart. 

On the way out of the theater, one of our STF members caught a really sweet exchange between the film’s director Mark Becker and D.A. Pennebaker where Becker was telling Pennebaker how much Pennebaker’s films inspired him to get into documentary when he was a kid and Pennebaker was telling Becker how much he really loved the film (see photo below - Chris Hegedus, Mark Becker, D.A. Pennebacker)

A magical night of storytelling chez Richard Leacock

• by Raphaela Neihausen, December 09, 2008

A full house greeted the 87 year-old Richard Leacock as he made a special visit to Stranger Than Fiction from Paris.  Among the luminaries in the audience were Albert Maysles and D.A. Pennebaker (see photo on left), Chris Hegedus, Robert Drew, George Stoney, Kevin Rafferty, and many others.  Titled THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD LEACOCK, the evening was a sampling of various films and clips from Leacock’s illustrious career.  The evening started out with a screening of Leacock’s very first film - CANARY BANANAS (1934) - shot when he was only 13 years old.  This 7 minute short was intended to convey the “bliss” of his life in the Canary Islands to his classmates in his boarding school in England.  “Instead”, he laughs, “it became a commercial for my father’s banana plantation”.  The next film THE CHILDREN WERE WATCHING (1961) tells the story of a white New Orleans school legally forced to integrate four black students, and the surrounding hatred and racism of the situation.  Leacock describes one scene, where he is in the house of a family supporting integration while outside the anti-integration people are banging on the windows and doors, as being “more frightening than being a combat photographer in WWII.”  The last clip was from his most recent film MUSICAL ADVENTURE IN SIBERIA which he shot with his daughter Victoria in 1996. 

In addition to his film career, Richard Leacock also discussed the book he has been writing for the last several years, describing the experience as “just as enjoyable as making films”.  The electronic book will feature 97 films that can be interactively accessed while reading.  We all impatiently await its release!

Robert Drew joined Leacock on stage as they discussed some of their earlier collaborations (which include PRIMARY, CRISIS, THE CHAIR and others). 

The IFC Center marquee announcing Leacock’s attendance

I couldn’t resist this photo opp. - Me and Mr. Richard Leacock!

Filmmakers Ian Olds and Andrew Berends at 99 Below for the post-film reception.

Editor and producer Christine Giorgio with fellow editor Brad Kimbrough at 99 Below.

Related Film/Screening:
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD LEACOCK by Richard Leacock

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