The 35th Annual Telluride Film Festival
By Nancy Granese, DC Film Society Member
Last year, Telluride Film Festival founders Bill and Stella Pence turned over their responsibilities to co-director Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer, the Berkeley-based co-founder of the Landmark theater chain. Stella Pence was replaced as managing Director by Julie Huntsinger, another West Coaster. The newcomers chose as Guest Director Edith Kramer, a longtime director of the Pacific Film Archive. The Pences took an Alaskan cruise during TFF to let the new directors run “Film” in their own way. Judging by gripes from long-time TFF attendees, the new programming – which I found less troublesome than did others – was too heavily skewed toward “subtitled movies,” as one disgruntled line sitter observed, with fewer highly anticipated (read “hyped”) films on the agenda.
Admittedly, there were a lot of Asian films, and one of this year’s honorees, Shyam Benegal, is an Indian filmmaker whose films have never been commercially released in the United States, which strikes me as nicely obscure. On the other hand, there’s been no shortage of “subtitled movies”at TFF in past years, either, and some of them have been nearly perfect films, last year’s The Lives of Others being a case in point.
I think the real basis behind the griping this year was around the festival’s continuing difficulty in guaranteeing the low-dollar passholders the ability to see films they’re supposed to be able to see. This year’s festival sold a much greater number of “Patron” passes – $3500 and up – and that meant that some who paid only $625 or $340 could be found waiting in line for an hour and still be frozen out of a showing to which they had been promised entry. Not a pretty picture. The solution seems to be to eliminate the low-dollar passes, but that might not go over very well for a festival that sells itself as a place for true film aficionados since even media has to pay to attend – but media is more likely to be able to afford the high dollar tickets.
It remains to be seen whether the problem can be resolved by next year, if ever. On to the films…
In the last few years, TFF has showcased not just Oscar contenders, but Oscar winners – Brokeback Mountain, The Lives of Others, Walk the Line, etc. But while there were several outstanding performances likely to be remembered at Oscar time, none of the films themselves struck me as surefire Oscar nominees. No single film blew me away – or anyone else for that matter – but there were several very good films and no dogs that should be avoided at all costs. Or at least, none that I saw.
The movie that will get the widest attention, I’d guess, and likely several Oscar nods, would be Into the Wild, which is just opening in DC and around the country. It was a big hit at TFF and for good reason. Directed by Sean Penn, it’s a wonderful film of the problematic book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. I found the book, which I read when it was published about ten years ago, depressing and grim. Others apparently saw the story Penn has filmed, about a young man’s search for himself, which inadvertently ends in tragedy. Whatever one may have thought of the book, the film is very good and well worth seeing.
As one would expect about a film in which yearning for Alaska is a driving trope plays an important role, the photography is first rate, and the scenery gorgeous, but the core travelogue in this film is about a young man’s inner journey. Chris McCandless is clearly a troubled, narcissistic, dishonest, and exasperating young man, yet as portrayed by Emile Hirsch, he’s charming, engaging, loveable and appealing. You enjoy the film because Hirsch makes McCandless’ journey worth sharing. He’s at the center of the film at every moment, and yet his performance dominates the film. He underplays, rather than the opposite, and it’s very effective.
Equally pitch-perfect performances are given by everyone else in the film. Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook and a novice actor named Brian Dierker have wonderful small roles in McCandless’ life. My favorite, though, is the always fabulous Vince Vaughn as a Dakota farmer who takes Chris in and tries to help him settle down. You can’t believe how hilarious and yet warm Vaughn is. He doesn’t really play a character all that different from the wild and crazy guys he’s done before, but this time there’s a depth and a presence that hasn’t been there previously. He certainly deserves whatever accolades come his way this time around.
On the other end of the mixed-up-youth spectrum, there is a very funny, almost screwball, comedy--Juno, another crowd pleaser at the Festival. Directed by Jason Reitman, who, as the son of Ivan Reitman, visited his first film set when he was 11 days old, this is one of those movies that still has an independent feel even though it’s a Fox Searchlight film. Reitman gave Fox Searchlight high praise, describing the studio as “my creative partner” in the film, although Reitman had two other creative partners of an importance at least equal to that of Fox.
The first, a seemingly young woman named Diablo Cody, wrote the very funny – laugh-out-loud-I-missed-a-lot-of-the-dialogue – script. (Or maybe not so young: read her bizarre biography at IMDB.com. It involves past careers as a stripper and phone sex operator – which doesn’t quite track with her youthful appearance and leads one to wonder how legit the bio truly is. You make the call.) Cody worked on the script for two years. It sold immediately and Reitman jumped at the opportunity to direct.
The second indispensable creative partner is truly a youngster, the now 20-year-old Ellen Page, who gives a terrific and endearing performance in the title role. She is the teenager you want to strangle, but simply cannot because life would be unbearable without her – she’s a lunatic, way too smart for her own good, and yet, in most situations she’s probably the smartest, the most aware, person in the room.
From the outset, with partially animated credits (à la A Scanner Darkly) to the touching final shot (held a bit too long in the print we saw, but they may not have yet had time to add the closing credits), Juno is filled with hilarious dialogue delivered at a breathtaking pace by a pitch-perfect cast including Jason Batemen, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons. Cody’s script turns a trite subject – teenage pregnancy – into a funny, touching vehicle. Female bonding, intergenerational friendship, the unreliability of some men and the rock-solid dependability of others, and the unpredictability of humans in general are all examined with a trenchant humor that makes an otherwise small film one of great joy. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and all those good things, and you’ll definitely enjoy it.
To many people, Bob Dylan today looks like a re-heated version of Vincent Price, a 50’s film actor who built a career playing vampires and other ghouls. In the 60’s Dylan was one of several Pied Pipers for flower children and political activists alike. Todd Haynes’ often incomprehensible I’m Not There will give you a sense of the absolute drivel that sometimes passed for art at that time (ever see any Andy Warhol flick?). On the other hand, it does have some very strong moments and performances.
Haynes’ film was described in the TFF brochure as “a Finnegan’s Wake-like meditation” and from what I remember of that book, it seems an apt reference. The script is occasionally very clever (“You know Brian Jones, he’s with that great cover band.”) but more often obscure – was that scene in the garden an homage to 8½ or Shakespeare?
The film surveys segments of Dylan’s life and career with six actors playing Dylan or Dylan surrogates. The film opens with an interview with nineteenth century French poet Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Wishaw) for reasons that escaped me then and escape me now. Then there’s Richard Gere as a 60-something Billy-the-Kid in hiding perhaps meant to parallel the period when Dylan went underground after a severe motorcycle accident; then again, maybe not. A very talented young (not more than 15) African-American actor named Marcus Carl Franklin plays a youngster who calls himself Woody Guthrie and rides freight trains in the mid-50s. And his connection to Dylan would be…? Did Dylan ride the rails? Did he think he was Woody Guthrie? It’s all a surrealistic muddle, but I have to admit, I kind of liked the film. A lot. I want to see it again. Maybe it’ll make sense next time.
The primary reason to see the film is the extraordinary Cate Blanchett as, you guessed it, Bob Dylan, aka Jude. She’s got to get an Oscar nomination out of this; she’s the best thing in the film and she is Dylan at his peak. She has his mannerisms, his voice, his hunched walk, his confusion about his success, down. She’s amazing.
The whole thing is much easier to follow if one has some idea of the course of Bob Dylan’s career, so try to see the 2005 Martin Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan before you take in I’m Not There. Clearly Haynes and Blanchett did.
Werner Herzog has filmed a lot of interesting movies in a lot of interesting places – in fact on every continent – and now he’s made a documentary about the people who move to Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World, and he’s found a lot of interesting people there. Several seem completely nuts, and others seem to be genetic wanderers, but most are scientists, literally looking for life’s secrets. The film is still a work in progress, and a lot of the under-the-ice shots are things you’ve seen before, perhaps in the wonderful HDTV program Planet Earth or in any of several Shackelton documentaries. But you’ve never seen the plumber who’s directly descended from the ancient Aztec royal family, or the linguist doing research on a continent with no language, or the woman who entertains her colleagues by being zipped into a carry-on bag. Maybe you don’t want to, but you might enjoy visiting them for 98 minutes, though perhaps not for endless dark days and nights.
It’s always interesting that the Holocaust still inspires filmmakers; you’d think nothing more could be said about it and those who ran it, suffered from it, defended it or destroyed it. But a trio of very fine Holocaust-related films were shown at TFF this year and I recommend every one of them.
The fictionalized Austrian/German film, The Counterfeiters, is about something called Project Bernhard, the brainchild of Bernhard Kruger, an SS officer who decided that one way to bring down the Allied Powers was to flood their economies with bogus currency. And, ever efficient, the Nazis decided to use the free labor of imprisoned Jews – experienced counterfeiters, artists, printers, and the like – to man the project. They were rounded up, given the cast-off clothing of gassed victims, a fully-equipped workshop, and set to work. They had ping-pong tables, and good food, and nice music so they could whistle while they worked. In truth, their lives were just as precarious as the poor souls tortured just beyond their barrack walls in Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp primarily for political prisoners, just outside Berlin.
The lead counterfeiter, a Russian Jew named Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), tries to keep his band alive and functioning while his efforts are simultaneously being undermined by Adolph Burger (August Diehl), a Communist who doesn’t want anything to do with helping the German war effort. That’s the major arc of the story, but the many small details are just as painful to watch as in any other film.
In addition to forging money, for example, the counterfeiters forge papers and passports. The passports are not very good and Sorowitsch insists on better quality materials, ideally the real thing that would only need to be altered, not constructed from scratch. Next day, a trunk full of passports is delivered, passports taken from those headed to the gas chambers. And sure enough, one man finds the passports of his children among the hundreds in that trunk. In production notes, the film’s director writes that the passport story is true – Burger was still alive at the time the film was made and served as an advisor – as were other personal anecdotes, including that of the SS commander who had Sorowitsch provide him and his family with papers proving that they were Jews, so that they would be safe once the Allies arrived. It’s an appalling story, well told.
Equally appalling is My Enemy’s Enemy, a documentary about Klaus Barbie, “the Butcher of Lyon” and the role played by the rest of the world in allowing him to escape and later to thrive in Bolivia after World War II. Barbie, as a case in point, used the name of his hometown’s rabbi in escaping after the war. When the Americans captured him, they got all the information they could about Communist activity in Europe, because after all, the Nazis knew more about the Communists than anyone else, and then Barbie managed to “escape” US custody. He was recaptured by the British, but he escaped again, this time through Italy, settling in South America.
There he lived more or less openly until the 1980’s when a new government expelled him and the French finally took him back for trial. In that time period, he headed Bolivia’s merchant marine – a lucrative enterprise for a landlocked nation – which was financed in part by Bernhard Kruger, he of counterfeiting fame, by then a Swiss citizen. The film covers everyone’s equivocal behavior – French politicians who collaborated with the wartime Vichy government, unrepentant CIA handlers, complicit Bolivians – and it’s not a pretty picture. But it is compelling filmmaking, particularly the contrast between a now middle-aged survivor of Barbie’s wartime reign over Lyon who is haunted by the thought of playmates who disappeared, and Barbie’s daughter, as creepy an apologist as I’ve ever seen.
The climax of My Enemy’s Enemy is Barbie’s trial in Lyon. The city built a special courtroom – a stage set, actually – and it was packed day after day as people heard tearful recountings of his many cruelties. Onlookers also heard the mellifluous – there’s just no other word to describe them – tones of Barbie’s lawyer, a brilliant half-French, half-Vietnamese man who specializes in political representations.
Terror’s Advocate is the story of Jacques Vergès, and it’s as frightening a film as anything you’ve ever seen. It starts out innocuously enough with Vergès supporting the Algerian independence movement, even though they plant bombs in bars and restaurant in the city of Algiers in the mid-50s to drive out the French colonial masters. (If you haven’t seen Gillo Pontecorvo’s astonishing 1966 film, The Battle of Algiers, you must do so. It had a brief theatrical re-release last year and is now on DVD. Don’t miss it.) Ultimately the strategy worked and the French left, but several the perpetrators were tried while the French were still in charge. Vergès became a hero for defending a woman who was later released due to relentless public pressure. Vergès points out that the Algerian terrorists were supported by the indigenous population, and he therefore thinks they’re not terrorists. Fair enough, but Vergès proceeds to defend Pol Pot, accused of mass murders in Cambodia in the 70’s, Carlos the Jackal, a notorious kidnapper-assassin, who figured out that he could make a lot of money by hijacking planes and did so with abandon throughout the 70s, and in fact, a American friend of mine was murdered in an El Al hijacking masterminded by Carlos.
Vergès provided director Barbet Schroeder with extensive interviews. Like all egomaniacs, he expected the film to so extol his skills that viewers would be swept away by his virtuosity and brilliance. Instead, the film is a savage depiction of a man with no moral center, no real commitment to justice. He lives extremely well, in a study filled with elaborate chess sets. He’s plump and smug. He gives the adversarial legal system a very bad name, and as one moviegoer commented on the way out of the theater, “that guy’s not a lawyer, he’s a bagman for terrorists.” Indeed.
Two affecting films based on books widely known in Europe, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and And When Did You Last See Your Father?, were Festival highlights. Both are stories of difficult family relationships, but neither is depressing or sentimentally goopy.
Diving Bell is based on the unusual very short book/memoir written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the onetime editor of French Elle, one of the powerhouse magazines in the fashion universe. (I recommend the book – the length of an article in any New Yorker – which is readily available at Amazon.com.) In his early 40s, Bauby suffered a stroke which resulted in “locked-in syndrome.” He could see, hear and think, but could not move or speak. The film won the Cannes’ Director’s prize for American painter and sometime filmmaker, Julian Schnabel, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing in my mind, the French often falling in love with talent that is far less obvious to this American. But this time, one can heartily agree with the choice.
Perhaps only a painter could make a successful film – a moving picture, after all – with an immobilized protagonist. At least the man’s mind remained active and engaged throughout a difficult illness where treatment is largely a matter of “let’s see if this works.” It’s a mesmerizing film. The story is engaging – one cannot help identifying with Bauby and his frustration – largely because it’s so unexpected and because Mathieu Amalric’s voiceover performance is excellent. Except for brief, occasional flashbacks to his prior life, the entire film is shown from Bauby’s view – inside the diving bell of the title – and it works very very well.
One final note: the process of watching Dauby “dictate” his book to an exceedingly patient assistant is difficult to watch because it is such a tedious process: she recites the French alphabet, with the letters reordered to reflect frequency of use, and waits for him to blink. What alleviates the tedium is watching his friends and family try to communicate with him using the same technique in incidents that are often amusing, and occasionally painfully sad. A very worthwhile film.
And When Did You Last See Your Father? is completely different from Diving Bell. In many ways a traditional father-son relationship film, it transcends the genre because of stellar performances from Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth. Based on the awkwardly titled reminiscence by English poet Blake Morrison, the book, like Diving Bell, is deeply loved in its native country, but far less well known elsewhere. (It, too, can be found on Amazon.) It came out the same year as Nick Hornby’s very fine Fever Pitch, another reminiscence of a difficult father-son relationship. Hornby’s book got the greater attention – it was immediately made into a very good small film starring… Colin Firth. (Much better than the transplanted Jimmy Fallon-Boston Red Sox version.) So the Morrison book languished. All too frequently, a film is made – or not made – on the whim of a single individual. In this case, Broadbent’s commitment got this film off the ground for a shockingly low budget – of £4 million, but the film’s director, Anand Tucker, has still made a film that cuts no corners.
Tucker, who also directed the wonderful Hilary and Jackie and the not-so-wonderful Shop Girl, does a largely workmanlike job of translating the book to film. Except for a few too many mirror shots, which the director described as (1) “pseudo-pretentions-doesn’t-really-know-who-he-is-film-school-level-frames”; (2) inspired by Wong Kar Wai; and (3) a way to get extra shots in a six-week shoot without having to set up the camera again, it’s a visually straightforward film.
Nonetheless it is tremendously moving, even touching, as one would expect with actors like Broadbent and Firth in the leading roles. We’ve all been embarrassed by our parents and behaved badly when we should have been on our best behavior. Morrison’s father was a beloved physician – perhaps too beloved and be-loving – whose son both idolized and abhorred him. Broadbent, who is always memorable, creates another complex and unforgettable character. Apparently Broadbent’s own father was a philandering doctor, a fact that came out during pre-filming discussions led by the director, who said he “hates rehearsing” (One hopes those discussions were filmed for the DVD release.) so he may have been exorcising some personal demons in making the film.
Firth, who once commented that he could become an astronaut and headlines would read, “Darcy Walks on the Moon”, turns in another of his subtle creations that resonates in every scene. The women are also excellent: Juliet Stevenson as Broadbent’s loving wife and Gina McKee as the modern version of the same woman. Essential to making the film work, however, is a young man named Matthew Beard, relatively new to acting, who is terrific as the young, slightly awed Blake who struggles with his father and himself at every moment. Often sullen or despairing, he is still charming. A very fine film.
The least of the films I saw was Rails and Ties, directed by Alison Eastwood, the slight daughter of Clint. The story is a bit far-fetched (okay, one friend called it “preposterous” and that’s probably fair), and it’s maudlin. But the performances are uniformly excellent from the always reliable Marcia Gay Harden (who also plays the mom in Into the Wild) and the always underappreciated Kevin Bacon to 13-year-old Miles Heizer who plays the central character in the film. Rails and Ties is a chick flick and it will definitely make you cry. It’s adequately directed and Bacon is terrific, but there really isn’t much there.
We also saw one very funny short film, Yours Truly, which is an animated, cut-and-paste, film clip goofy film noir take-off with outstanding performances by several dead people, including Humphrey Bogart, Gene Tierney, and Dana Andrews as well as several nifty little plastic cars. The absolute worst thing we saw – perhaps the worst thing I’ve seen ever seen – was one of a series of short films by Mexican directors selected by Tom Luddy, longtime TFF co-director. Several of the films were very good, including an ironic take on mother love (Distinguishing Features by Kenya Márquez) and Ver Llover by Elisa Miller, which won the Cannes’ Palme d’Or for short films. The hateful If I Die Far from You by Roberto Canales (who graciously introduced his film with heartfelt thanks to TFF for the showing as he noted that the film is having a lot of trouble getting shown in Mexico.) is about the ongoing disappearances/murders of women in Ciudad Juarez. He contrasted this horror with the image of the “new” Mexico that is portrayed to the world. While I take the Canales’ point about his government’s hypocrisy in not doing more to stop these outrages, he could have presented his view in a far less egregiously offensive way. Half the audience left the theater during his film and for those of us who sat through its excruciating nine minutes, I can only say, Tom Luddy, what were you thinking?
If You Go
Storekeepers always tell me that there are a lot people from the DC area at in Telluride for the film festival, but I rarely run into them. However, if you want to increase the DC presence at TFF 35, here’s how to do it. The town is not easy to get to, but you’ll love it once you get there.
If you’ve got the time, you can fly to Denver and drive 8 hours to Telluride. It’s a fitfully scenic ride, and some of those two lane roads are a challenge. Another alternative is to change planes in Denver and fly to Montrose where you can take the Telluride Shuttle, which costs a minimum of $270 roundtrip unless you can find some folks to share the ride in which case each additional passenger costs $45. Or you could rent a car and drive 90 minutes from Montrose on two-lane roads often under reconstruction to repair damage from the previous year’s snows. A third option is to fly directly to Telluride, after changing in Denver or Salt Lake City, but be warned – the runway’s about as long as your grandmother’s dining table.
There are several residential renting services; the best known are Resort Quest and Alpine Lodging. You can also troll various online rentals like Craig’s List for places to stay. There are a few small hotels in Telluride, though they book up early. Lodging is more available and more affordable in Mountain Village, the town at the top of one of the mountains overlooking Telluride proper which sits in a narrow box canyon. Check out the Telluride website for more suggestions.
Seeing Movies: You can buy individual tickets to individual films (this year’s ticket price was $20, about where it’s been the past few years), but you won’t get into the theaters until after all pass holders are admitted. There are several levels of passes: Acme $340, Yellow $625, Sponsor, Patron – gold, silver, platinum – which range from $3,500 to, well, the sky’s the limit. Even though all pass holders have precedence over non-pass holders in getting into a theater, Acme and Yellow pass holders are trumped by Sponsors and Patrons. In the six years I’ve been attending, prices for all the passes have increased and the number of high end participants has increased even more. What this means is that even Acme and Yellow pass holders who have been waiting in line to see a film can be shut out if too many Patrons and Sponsors arrive.
Acme and Yellow pass holders get a separate “Wabbit Weservation” – a little piece of colored paper which is collected at the door – for each film shown at the Chuck Jones Theater in Mountain Village. The theater holds 500 people – it’s really a converted convention hall – and is filled for most shows.
Other pass holders can get into any theater if there’s space. By Monday, even Acme pass holders can get into some of the smaller theaters, but Saturday and especially Sunday can be tough. That said, in six years of attending, I’ve never once missed getting into a movie I wanted to see.
Calendar of Events
FILMS
American Film Institute Silver Theater
The AFI's 16th Annual Latin American Film Festival, which began last month, continues through the first week of October. See the latest films from all Latin American countries plus Spain and Portugal.
Film historian Foster Hirsch, author of 16 books on film and theater, will introduce a selection of four films directed by Otto Preminger. Hirsch's latest book Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King will be available this October. The films are Advise and Consent, Bunny Lake is Missing, Fallen Angel, and Angel Face.
The 2007 DC Labor Filmfest takes place October 11-17. See below.
For Halloween the AFI shows the original version of The Wicker Man (1973), the 1974 original of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the original version of Nosferatu. Check the website for dates and times.
Other film events at the AFI include the Fifth Annual Mahalia Jackson Birthday Celebration on October 8, and Summercamp (2006) presented by Silverdocs.
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer takes part in the 2007 DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival with View from a Grain of Sand (Meena Nanji, 2006) from Afghanistan on October 6 at 1:00pm and New Year Baby (Socheata Poeuv, 2006) from Cambodia on October 6 at 3:00pm.
The film series "With Love: New Films from Southeast Asia" concludes in October. Remaining films are Love Conquers All (Tan Chui-Mui, 2006) from Malaysia on October 12 at 7:00pm, Before We Fall in Love Again (James Lee, 2006) from Malaysia on October 14 at 2:00pm, Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad, 2007) from Malaysia on October 26 at 7:00pm, and Singapore Dreaming (Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh, 2006) from Singapore on October 28 at 2:00pm. Both directors will attend.
National Gallery of Art
"Scenes from a Life: Ingmar Bergman" is a series of three recent films focusing on director Ingmar Bergman who died this year. Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 2003) is on October 6 at 2:00pm, Bergman Island (Marie Nyrerod, 2006) is on October 6 at 4:30pm, and Sunday's Children (Daniel Bergman, 1992) is on October 7 at 4:00pm.
"Aaron Copland: Music for American Movies" takes place on October 13. At 2:00pm is Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, 1939) shown with The Summington Story (1945) introduced by Copland scholar Neil Lerner. At 4:30pm is The North Star (Lewis Milestone, 1943).
"Edward Hopper and American Movie Culture" is a presentation of three programs of discussions and screenings exploring a range of intersections between Edward Hopper and American cinema. On October 20 at 2:00pm is "Robert Altman, Edward Hopper, and the Spaces of Time," a discussion by film historian Robert Kolker, followed by Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993). On October 27 at 12:30pm is "New York-Hollywood: Art, Culture and Commerce in the 1930s," a lecture by David Gariff, followed by Deadline at Dawn (Harold Clurman, 1946). More in November.
Other art film and events in October include Other People's Pictures (Lorca Shepperd and Cabot Philbrick, 2004), a documentary on the collectors of amateur snapshots on October 11, 12, 18, and 19 at 1:00pm. On October 14 at 4:30pm is Wisconsin Death Trip: How a Town in Wisconsin Went Mad (James March, 1999) shown in conjunction with the exhibition "The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978." On October 21 at 4:00pm is the "French Short Film Festival," a selection of French shorts from the Cannes Film Festival and the annual Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. On October 27 at 3:00pm is In the Beginning Was the Image: Conversations with Peter Whitehead.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
On October 4 at 11:00am and 1:00pm is a selection of short films by Mircea Cantor including The Landscape is Changing (2003), Double Heads Matches (2002) and Zooooooom (2006). On October 11 at 8:00pm is A Walk in the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory (Esther Robinson, 2007) about the filmmaker's uncle Danny Williams and his work with Andy Warhol. On October 18 at 8:00pm is Operation Filmmaker (Nina Davenport, 2007) with the filmmaker present to introduce the film. On October 25 at 8:00pm is 8-Bit (Justin Strawhand, 2005) about the impact of the 8-bit microprocessor, introduced by the filmmaker.
National Museum of African Art
On October 20 at 2:00pm is Desert Odyssey (2001), a documentary about the Tuareg's trans-Saharan camel treks.
National Museum of the American Indian
On October 5 at 7:00pm is The Men of Hula (Lisette Marie Flanary, 2006) a documentary about legendary hula teacher Robert Cazimero.
National Portrait Gallery
On October 16 at 7:00pm is Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005), a thriller inspired by the experiences of former CIA case officer Robert Baer, who will be present for discussion. Tickets must be ordered in advance.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
On October 11 at 5:30pm is The Drama of St. George Street, a documentary on the life of American artist Earl Cunningham. On October 13 at 3:00pm is Vito Acconci: The Red Tapes, (Vito Acconci, 1976) a three-part autobiographical reflection. On October 18 at 6:00pm is "Gary Hill: Word and Image," a program of short videos by Gary Hill including Incidence of Catastrophe (1987) and Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (1984).
National Museum of Women in the Arts
On October 2 at 12:00noon is Yvon Rainer's Lives of Performers (1972) which follows the lives of dancers preparing to perform a work choreographed by Rainer. On October 4 at 12:00noon is Nightcleaners (1970), a documentary about the campaign to unionize women working as cleaners in British office buildings. On October 8 at 12:00noon and October 23 at 6:30pm is Ulrike Ottinger's Madame X (1977), a pirate tale with an all-female cast. On October 11 at 12:00noon is Chantal Akerman's Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974). On October 15 at 12:00noon is Yvonne Rainer's About a Woman Who... (1974). On October 30 at 6:30pm is Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman, 1975). For the "Sisters in Cinema" series, Beverly Lindsay-Johnson's Dance Party: The Teenarama Story, an Emmy-winning documentary about the popularity of 1950s and 60s teen dance television shows, including interviews with James Brown, Jerry Butler, and other dancers and participants. Several "teenarama" regulars will join the director for discussion.
Films on the Hill
On October 17 at 7:00pm is one of the great romantic silent fantasies The Enchanted Cottage (John S. Robertson, 1924) starring May McAvoy and Richard Barthelmess. On October 24 at 7:00pm is a program of "Laurel and Hardy Go to Prison" including the boys' first feature film Pardon Us (James Parrott, 1931) and the two-reeler The Hoose Gow (1929) plus a "surprise" short. For Halloween is a "mad doctors" double feature on October 27 at 7:00pm: Behind the Mask (John Francis Dillon, 1932) and The Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1933). On October 31 at 7:00pm is Bela Lugosi in The Human Monster (Walter Summers, 1940).
Washington Jewish Community Center
A two-part series of David Mamet movies begins on October 22 at 7:30pm with Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997). On October 29 at 7:30pm is State and Main (David Mamet, 2000).
Goethe Institute
In conjunction with "Life and Nothing Else: An Exhibition of Young Afghan Photographers," is a two-part series of films. On October 18 at 6:30pm is a program of short films including The New Afghanistan: Development of a Civil Society (Paul Schwarz), one of three films produced by Schwarz after three weeks of living in Afghanistan, and A Bright Journey (Ghulam Murtaza Tauwkali). A discussion with Ali A. Jalal, J. Alexander Thier and Almut Wieland-Karimi will follow the screenings. On October 22 at 6:30pm is a second evening of short films about Afghanistan; no titles available yet.
"Stories of the Past" is a three-part series beginning with a biography of Martin Luther, the 16th century theologian, Luther (Eric Till, 2003) on October 15 at 6:30pm. On October 29 at 6:30pm is Mother Courage and Her Children (Peter Palizsch and Manfred Wekwerth, 1959), based on the play by Bertold Brecht. The series ends in November.
National Air and Space Museum
On October 13 at 8:00pm is The Wonder of It All, (2007) an award-winning documentary with interviews of seven moonwalkers who talk about their lives and how walking on the moon affected them. Introduced by the film director, Jeffrey Roth. Reservations are required.
National Geographic Society
See below for the "All Roads" Film Festival.
French Embassy
The French Embassy is taking part in "C'est Chic"; check website for titles and dates.
National Archives
In a "Salute to William Wyler" is a new 35mm print of The Big Country (1958). Catherine Wyler will introduce and discuss her father's film on October 18 at 6:00pm. On October 12 at noon is The Zoot Suit Riots (Joseph Tovares, 2001), a documentary about Los Angeles riots in 1942. As part of the "Presidential Film Favorites" series is Quiz Show (Robert Redford, 1994), a favorite of George H.W. Bush.
The Avalon
As part of the "Czech Lions" series is Faithless Games (Michaela Pavlátová, 2003). The Avalon also takes part in "C'est Chic" titles not listed yet.
Smithsonian Associates
On October 28 at 1:00pm is Viva Cuba (Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, 2007), Cuba's choice for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Smithsonian Associates takes part in "C'est Chic!" a festival of recent French films. See below.
FILM FESTIVALS
