This month brings so many Top 10 film lists, it makes me nostalgic for the days of media monopolies. When only a few critics had a platform, I recall more passionate debate about neglected or over-rated films. Nowadays when venues like Indiewire are polling over 100 critics, there is scarcely a film that won’t end up on somebody’s list. Sure, the proliferation of list-making spreads around more recognition. But I wonder if it carries us further away from serious reflection. Rarely, do I see critics elaborate on how they arrived at their choices. In his book “Reverse Angle,” John Simon lamented the whole enterprise:
There is something antithetical to the very notion of criticism in the concept of a ten-best list: it is almost as deplorable as reviewing a movie by meting out to it one of four stars….
Criticism at best, of course, is only a set of subjective opinions. But it is opinions expounded at some length: explained, illustrated with examples and quotations, supported with comparisons and contrasts to other works, related to certain standards of aesthetics and even ethics, and viewed in a larger context of human life.
Having aired this misgiving, I’ll now proceed to flout it with my own list. For me, half of the experience of a film is to discuss it afterwards. So, continuing my tradition from last year, I’ve adapted the exercise of list-making to recall my favorite events in 2009 where those conversations took place.
1) SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL (January) – I was privileged to be a juror for the World Documentary Competition and wrote about that experience here. Over the course of the year, STF audiences got to enjoy a few stand out titles from that section: THE GLASS HOUSE, TIBET IN SONG, and BIG RIVER MAN.
2) WILLIAM GREAVES TRIBUTE AT STF (February) – No STF show ever caused as much of a ticket frenzy as the tribute to the pioneering filmmaker William Greaves. On the Monday before the show, when there were no more tickets to be had, I spent the day fielding desperate calls from luminaries trying various means to coax or bully an extra ticket. The most tactless was a downtown festival programmer who was an exemplar of entitlement and ingratitude. Much more gracious was Steve Buscemi who expected no special treatment and purchased a ticket in advance. At one point, I answered the phone to be greeted by the voice of Sidney Poitier. For him, I would have found a ticket. But he was in Los Angeles and merely wanted to send a note to be read in his absence. The lucky ticket holders were treated to clips from several of Greaves’ works including EMERGENCY WAR, THE FIGHT and SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE, followed by a conversation with Elvis Mitchell, Orlando Bagwell and Thomas Allen Harris.
When Allan King died at the age of 79 last May, I was struck by how difficult it was to find opportunities to screen his films. MoMA curator Laurence Kardish gave him an excellent retrospective in 2007, but other opportunities are hard to come by – at least in the United States. (In Canada, King’s native country, he has a more prominent reputation). After his death, I was contacted by the Canadian filmmaker Astra Taylor (EXAMINED LIFE) who graciously offered to help coordinate a King tribute for Stranger Than Fiction. We chose his breakthrough title A MARRIED COUPLE (1969) that looks at the lives of a middle class pair trying to muddle through the social upheavals of their times. The film is a significant precursor to other documentary observations of domestic life such as AN AMERICAN FAMILY; SECOND TIME AROUND and so much of reality television.
For the post-screening discussion, Taylor was joined by film critic Dennis Lim who contributes to the New York Times and edits the indispensable on-line magazine Moving Image Source. In his remarks, Lim placed A MARRIED COUPLE in the context of John Cassavetes’ FACES which came out the year before. As for the ever vexing documentary question of whether the camera causes subjects to “perform,” Lim felt it was irrelevant since people are always performing whether its for a camera or each other.
Prior to the screening, I was concerned whether such an old film could attract an audience in the midst of holiday party season. Those fears were allayed by an enthusiastic crowd that filled nearly all of the seats in the IFC Center’s Theater 2. Audience members included Nancy Gerstman (Zeitgeist Films), David Sampliner (director of DIRTY WORK), and Michel Negroponte (whose latest film I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE will screen at STF on Dec 15).
STF’s house photographer Joshua Weinstein (director of FLYING ON ONE ENGINE) pronounced A MARRIED COUPLE “one of the best films screened this year.”
Molly Lynch, the co-director and editor of BIG RIVER MAN, made an impromptu trip from her home in Berkeley, California last Wednesday to fill in at the STF Q&A for her collaborator John Maringouin, who had been called away for a film shoot with Mick Jagger (that old excuse). To say that BIG RIVER MAN impressed the STF crowd would be an understatement. The audience included filmmakers such as Jasmine Dellal (WHEN THE ROAD BENDS: TALES OF A GYPSY CARAVAN) and Laurie Gwen Shapiro (KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT), who lingered to discuss the film. Eventually the faithful moved to STF’s usual bar 99 Below where the night’s drink special was $5 caipirinhas in honor of the film’s Brazilian locale. The bar’s television screens played Werner Herzog’s thematically appropriate epic FITZCARRALDO late into the night.
The STF Fall Season came to a close with a sneak preview of the profound film about American veterans of the Iraq war HOW TO FOLD A FLAG. The filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein, who showed their previous film THE PRISONER OR: HOW I PLANNED TO KILL TONY BLAIR at STF in 2007, were joined for the Q&A by Jon Powers, one of the soldiers featured in FLAG, who ran for Congress in upstate New York last year. Today, Powers works for the Truman Project, a policy center on national security in Washington, DC. He noted the symbolism of the night’s STF show taking place at the same time President Obama was declaring his intention to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Powers said he hoped the film would make audiences better understand the consequences of what soldiers endure.
Director Amanda Micheli gave STF goers a special treat during the Q&A on Tuesday by phoning up the stunt woman-turned actress Zoe Bell. In Micheli’s film DOUBLE DARE, she follows the New Zealand native Bell in her early days as the stunt double for Lucy Lawless in XENA, then transitioning to a career in Hollywood under the mentorship of Jeannie Epper (best known for her stunts in WONDER WOMAN). Micheli reached Bell on the west coast and put her on speaker phone to participate in the Q&A. Recently, Bell has been transitioning to more acting roles, appearing in Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE, Drew Barrymore’s WHIP IT!, and a new film with Wesley Snipes that just finished production. As part of this new phase of her career, Bell has been put in the unexpected position of having to use a stunt double, as she explained, to satisfy the “insurance” concerns of producers.
This month brings so many Top 10 film lists, it makes me nostalgic for the days of media monopolies. When only a few critics had a platform, I recall more passionate debate about neglected or over-rated films. Nowadays when venues like Indiewire are polling over 100 critics, there is scarcely a film that won’t end up on somebody’s list. Sure, the proliferation of list-making spreads around more recognition. But I wonder if it carries us further away from serious reflection. Rarely, do I see critics elaborate on how they arrived at their choices. In his book “Reverse Angle,” John Simon lamented the whole enterprise:
When 
Molly Lynch, the co-director and editor of 
The STF Fall Season came to a close with a sneak preview of the profound film about American veterans of the Iraq war 
Director Amanda Micheli gave STF goers a special treat during the Q&A on Tuesday by phoning up the stunt woman-turned actress Zoe Bell. In Micheli’s film