IFP/Los Angeles Film Festival 2001
By David Geffner
DGA member Paul Mazursky (center) and co-directors of Kaaterskill Falls, Peter Olsen and Josh Apter.
(Photo: Terry Lilly)
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Organizers of L.A.'s premier independent film festival, LAFF (held at the DGA April 20-28), certainly experienced growing pangs in 2001. This year, the festival changed its name and was absorbed by a larger organization, L.A.-based nonprofit IFP/West. For 2001 the revamped IFP/West Los Angeles Film Festival (dropping the word "independent" from its call letters) debuted with a different look and feel than in years past. One constant remained: challenging regional filmmaking that championed artistry over the crass commercialism of the studios that dominate LAFF's hometown.
The Directors Guild of America proved to be a comfortable hub once again for film lovers to network, swap war stories and see movies. From the brightly colored banners that ran the length of Sunset Boulevard to the paparazzi-laced opening-night gala of Ed Burns' newest indie feature, Sidewalks of New York, it became clear that IFP/West was intent on boosting LAFF up to a larger media stage.
A DGA--sponsored luncheon at Pinot Hollywood served as LAFF's unofficial kickoff for filmmakers. As in years past, the event was one of the most relaxed and good natured of the entire festival. Co-directors Josh Apter and Peter Olsen, who nine days later would accept the LAFF Critics Jury Prize for their haunting, improvisatory first feature, Kaaterskill Falls, swapped indie tales across the table with first-time director Eitan Gorlin. The former Yeshiva student was entered in LAFF with The Holy Land, a coming-of-age-story set in Jerusalem amongst the tensions of Arab-Israeli politics. DGA member director Jason Reitman, who captured the Best Short Film at the 2000 LAIFF, was back this year with Gulp, a frenetically funny short about one man's quest to save his pet goldfish.
In his keynote luncheon speech, DGA President Jack Shea talked about the DGA's ongoing role as a LAFF founding sponsor. Shea reemphasized the Guild's commitment to low-budget independent filmmakers, singling out the inroads made via the low-budget contracts and by the efforts of the Independent Directors Committee (IDC).
IDC members Mary Lambert and George Hickenlooper capped off the presentation. Lambert recalled an independent film of her own years ago where the producers refused to shoot DGA because of the perceived added costs. "I insisted they call Bryan Unger and work it out, and boy was I glad I did," Lambert laughed. "There were questions later on about my cut and my preview and, because we shot DGA, they had to honor my contract. After that experience I joined the Guild's Independent Directors Committee and I've been trying, in my own small way, to bring issues of concern to independent filmmakers up before the larger DGA membership."
Hickenlooper described the current distribution market as "very poor" for independents. "Most, if not all of you, will not come away from this festival with a deal," he said. "It's no reflection on your movies -- it's just the reality of the market compared to five or ten years ago. Having said that, I would urge you to turn this festival into a platform to help make your next movie. Without this festival, I might not have had a career -- I've had three films here and each one was a springboard to getting the next one made. Remember: it's always about making the next project."
DGA member Mary Lambert
speaks at LAFF Luncheon.
(Photo: Terry Lilly)
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The next project was just one of many creative items on the checklist for DGA member directors James Gray (Little Odessa, The Yards) and Ernest Dickerson (Juice). The pair was featured in a one-hour Saturday conversation for the Kodak Craft Series, co-sponsored by the DGA. Gray was surprised by how much harder it was to make a second film after his first had been so well-received.
"I had a certain degree of arrogance about it," Gray explained. "If I make a first film and it gets any notice at all and it gets released, I'll be home free. That's completely wrong. I found it much harder to assemble a cast for my second film. Many big stars wanted me to direct their films, with scripts that all lacked any investment for me. It took forever to make a film that was personal to me, with an ensemble cast who would work in my budget range, which was basically nothing."
Dickerson agreed noting that after his smashing debut film, Juice, every project he was offered was hip-hop oriented and aimed at repeating ground he had just covered. As a result, Dickerson said he decided to return to cinematography, shooting Malcolm X for Spike Lee.
"I had to wait three years to direct another film," Dickerson lamented. "Apparently you're only allowed to be known for one thing in this industry, and according to most people's perceptions, I was still a DP."
Gray and Dickerson went on to cover their varying approaches to working with actors. Gray cited a split in his working style between the more brilliant unpredictability of an untrained new generation versus the hands-off approach he used with seasoned Method pros like Ellen Burstyn and Vanessa Redgrave. Gray also derided the casting process, calling it bogus and unfair to actors. He explained that he has dumped the traditional casting game in favor of just "talking with the actors and searching for an emotional availability in their makeup."
Dickerson struck a chord with the many directors in the room, calling the 1970s a "high point" for personalized filmmaking that was very much in touch with people's lives. "Part of the subsequent decline is due to cultural changes within society," Dickerson noted. "There aren't any causes left for people to fight for. And studio executives have taken control to such an extent that they shut down directors from going to certain emotional areas in their films because they don't think audiences can handle it. They round off all the rough edges, and those are the places directors like myself want to explore."
Despite Dickerson's observations, the Kodak Craft Directing Series ended with several causes left for the audience to fight for. One was clearly Gray's reaction to new technology and the lack of fundamental story skills in a new generation of directors. "All this talk about technology bores the hell out of me," Gray railed. "Movies, at their best, are about life. An obsession with the internet or digital video is misplaced, in my opinion. The educational focus for new filmmakers should be on creating directors who are renaissance people. They should be well read and know all about painting, music, and storytelling that connects with people's lives."
Connecting with the inner lives of an audience was certainly what directors like Michael Radford, Joel Silverman, Gregory Mosher and Jesse Peretz had on their minds as each of their new features unspooled during the heart of LAFF's run. DGA member Radford, best known for directing the five-time Academy Award--nominee, Il Postino, explored the off-and-on-stage lives of five strippers in a San Fernando Valley club. Partly improvised, Dancing at the Blue Iguana featured some of the festival's most assured cinematography, and a standout performance from Sandra Oh.
Silverman, who has been writing scripts for Fox, MGM, Hollywood Pictures and Disney for the last decade, turned to his own personal experiences of life as a single father for his hard-hitting family drama, Nailed. "Every filmmaker hopes for this moment, and dreads it as it approaches," Silverman told the SRO main theater for his Sunday-night premiere. "You have to suddenly share your baby with the world. Even though you think your baby is cute, others may think it's a little funny-looking."
Although also a first-time feature director like Silverman, DGA member Gregory Mosher came into the premiere of his sleek film noir, The Prime Gig, with a formidable creative reputation. Mosher guided both the Chicago's Goodman Theater and Lincoln Center Theater in New York. At the post-screening Q&A, Mosher was asked why he chose cinemascope as the aspect ratio for his debut film. Mosher called the widescreen look the "cream of 1970s filmmaking." He described The Prime Gig's hero, a telemarketer played by Vince Vaughn, as a '70s kind of hero, like "Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces or even further back to Paul Newman in Hud. These guys get caught in a moral universe and mean to do well but always screw up. Today, many films are set in an immoral world -- let's go kill some people and then have a hamburger and talk about it. Cinemascope works quite well with intimate films, despite people assuming it's only for Romans and snakes. More than anything, it placed the film into the look of the time period I wanted."
The final day's afternoon screening of New York--based music video director, DGA member Jesse Peretz's deft take on Franco-American culture, The Chateau, left the audience laughing to the point of tears.
DGA members James Gray and Ernest Dickerson
at LAFF Kodak Craft Series discussion.
(Photo: Elizabeth Stanley)
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In the post-screening Q&A, Peretz talked about his directing process. "The entire movie was improvised," Peretz said. "We had an 11-page treatment but no dialogue was conceived before the cameras started rolling. We shot for 13 days with a consumer digital video camera. Within that 11-page treatment we devised 71 scenes. I would basically give the actors the freedom to convey a point or mood I wanted expressed in the scene, and they would take it from there. Framing could be tough because so much of the movie was handheld. But that was essential to giving the actors the room and space to breathe some real life into the story."
With challenging films like Michael Gilio's Kwik Stop, Calum Grant and Joshua Atesh Little's Ever Since the World Ended and Ara Corbett's Roof to Roof highlighting the week, none of the LAFF organizers, filmmakers, and media who assembled for the Sunday-afternoon awards ceremony were clear as to what would most impress the jury, and the nearly 30,000 festival goers. The awards venue, a Beverly Boulevard eatery named Atlantic, proved more intimate than venues in years past.
LAFF filmmakers couldn't get enough of the good vibes inside the restaurant. Host Don Cheadle noted that he had worked in two digital indie films -- Panic and Things Behind the Sun -- just this past year. "There may be a lot of cliches associated with making these kinds of movies," Cheadle said. "Against all odds, following your dreams, etc. But each one of them is true. It's the grass-roots philosophy I came from -- wrangling your own cable, doing your own makeup, and oh, do you have a blue jacket you can wear in the next scene? Go ahead and bring it."
DGA director and IFP/West Board member and The Caveman's Valentine director Kasi Lemmons gave out the Audience Award for Best Short Film to Eric Anderson's Horses on Mars. The Critics Jury gave an Honorable Mention to Stephanie Black's Life and Debt, as well as a Special Jury Prize to Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt, stars and co-writers of the crowd-pleasing New York comedy Kissing Jessica Stein which also took home the Audience Award for Best Feature for director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld as well.
Accepting the Critics Jury Award, Kaaterskill Falls directors Josh Apter and Peter Olsen summed up the spirit of the awards ceremony, if not the intent of festival programmers and its new umbrella organization, IFP/West. The two filmmakers wore the stunned looks of creative innocents. "I think the thing we're most proud of is that not one time during the making of this movie did we think about whether we could sell it, or worry if distributors would want to buy it," Josh Apter said. "We just set out to make a film that was important to us, that took a lot of risks, and was fun for everyone involved. And I guess that approach to filmmaking really pays off."
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