Congrats to our friends Nicole Barrett and James Stewart who attended the first two screenings of STF’s spring season in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Neither THE ENGLISH SURGEON nor NURSERY UNIVERSITY was able to shock Nicole into labor. But last Friday, she gave birth to infant Emily, the first known case of STF loyalty beginning in the womb. Wait a second, Nicole: I just realized your husband’s name is James Stewart. Now, that’s movie love.
BEFORE (at “Nursery University,” Monday, April 6).
I congratulate the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on its successful 12th edition held this past weekend in Durham, NC. This year marks the first for Sadie Tillery (pictured with me) as the new Director of Programming. Her team faced multiple challenges ranging from the dismal economy to college basketball distracting local audiences. Despite those hazards, the theaters were full – even for the Sunday morning show of the Slovak doc BLIND LOVES, paired with the magnificent Danish short 12 NOTES DOWN (winner of Full Frame’s short prize). Basil Tsiokos has a full report on IndieWire.
Twelve years ago, when Full Frame was founded by Nancy Buirski, the idea of championing documentaries was still novel in North America. Hot Docs was only a few years old. Since then, the field has grown a lot more crowded with the rise of True/False, SXSW, Tribeca, LAFF, and Silverdocs. Yet Full Frame still provides a unique experience. For filmmakers who tend to dwell in coastal cities, the fest gives them a rare chance to connect with southern audiences (and a taste of authentic pulled pork bbq). The pleasant spring weather and close proximity of theaters create ideal conditions for meeting fellow doc lovers. The democratic atmosphere allows students to mingle among legends like D.A. Pennebaker and Barbara Kopple.
On March 29, 2009, the Cinema Eye Honors were presented at the Times Center in the New York Times building. Early in the show, co-host AJ Schnack took the stage with POV’s Yance Ford wearing outfits from the nominated film about Mobile’s Mardi Gras, ORDER OF MYTHS. Read more coverage of the Cinema Eye ceremony in NY Press, IFC News and Shooting People.
Co-hosts Thom Powers and AJ Schnack helpfully pose on either end so that photo editors can crop them out to focus on MAN ON WIRE’s Philippe Petit; Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed.
STF’s spring season kicks off with THE ENGLISH SURGEON. Posing after the Q&A: Thom Powers in his best English tweed (by way of a Vietnamese tailor); director Geoffrey Smith; and Henry Marsh, the surgeon who describes himself as a narcissist but comes off as an altruist – proving they’re not incompatible.
Read a full report of the film on the Britical blog, excerpted here:
After the film, Marsh gets up on stage for a brief Q & A. I want to ask him why, of all people, we see him in the film riding his bike without a helmet – but I decide this is a bit cheeky. Later, I chat with him in the bar, and, discovering that he trained the surgeon who treated my Mother, forget to enquire. I head home on the subway and remember something: he had admitted, unprompted, that surgeons are by necessity risk-takers, and, he laughed, “narcissists”. Maybe that’s the clue to the helmet thing. More importantly, though, his honest acknowledgement indicates a duality possessed by very few: the professional All Powerful God-in-a-white-coat half we know all too well. But in Henry Marsh we witness also that which is rare: a thing comprised of humility, empathy, responsibility. He clearly feels it is his duty as both a doctor and a human being to look an absolutely horrifying situation right in the face and not turn away. And after that, to just “get on with it”, to do whatever you can, however small, and however imperfectly, to make it better.
What Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and Andy Warhol’s Factory were to the international jet-set of the 1960s, Larry Levinson’s infamous sex-club Plato’s Hideaway was to working class New York in the late seventies and early eighties. Jon Hart and Matthew Kauffman’s documentary AMERICAN SWING captures the rise and fall of this truly unique New York establishment and the equally compelling story of Larry Levinson, the self-proclaimed King of Swing who founded Plato’s Hideaway as a place where middle class husbands and wives could let their hair down and swing.
Photo L to R: STF guest host Hugo Perez, American Swing subjects Adam and Captain John and producer Matthew Kauffman
BEFORE (at “Nursery University,” Monday, April 6).
AFTER, Friday, April 10.
I congratulate the 
On March 29, 2009, the 
Co-hosts Thom Powers and AJ Schnack helpfully pose on either end so that photo editors can crop them out to focus on MAN ON WIRE’s Philippe Petit; Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed.
STF’s spring season kicks off with THE ENGLISH SURGEON. Posing after the Q&A: Thom Powers in his best English tweed (by way of a Vietnamese tailor); director Geoffrey Smith; and Henry Marsh, the surgeon who describes himself as a narcissist but comes off as an altruist – proving they’re not incompatible.
What Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and Andy Warhol’s Factory were to the international jet-set of the 1960s, Larry Levinson’s infamous sex-club Plato’s Hideaway was to working class New York in the late seventies and early eighties. Jon Hart and Matthew Kauffman’s documentary