Story Frame 62 – “Non-Fiction Nirvana”

I love going to film festivals. And whenever I can, I bring along the kids.

Ever the fun mum (at least in my own mind and intentions), when I heard the “Found Footage Festival” would be playing at The Grey Eagle, a live music venue in the heart of Asheville’s River Arts District, I got tickets for me and Leif.

Zoë, in university on the other side of the state, couldn’t join us which was a pity – I knew as a film studies major she’d enjoy it. A comedy film festival created by two dumpster diving dudes, who wouldn’t enjoy that?

“Found Footage” was the brainchild of Nick Prueher and Geoff Haas, two childhood friends who’d created a comedy routine around discarded videos and tapes they’d discovered at yard sales and thrift shops they’d collected. Initially put together just to entertain friends, it was so well received they’d actually quit their day jobs the year before to tour their comedy routine and focus on producing their first documentary, Dirty Country.

As expected, it was an evening of good fun, despite taking place in the dead of winter inside The Grey Eagle, which had not as yet installed heating.

Most of the film festivals I attended, however, were on a more professional level.

If I ever needed affirmation that working with storytellers in film was where I should be, the first day at the SILVERDOCS film festival – which I attended just before moving to Asheville – confirmed that for me.

Being in the midst and mindsets of hundreds of other film lovers, watching the telling of interesting and often unusual stories, I love every aspect of film festivals. Red carpets, celebrity sightings, and champagne are a pleasant distraction, but I go for the stories and to be in the company of like-minded fans.

Founded in 2003 and centered around the AFI Silver Theatre, a beautiful Art Nouveau art house cinema in Silver Spring, SILVERDOCS was a joint effort between the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel. With Nina Gilden Seavey – whose documentary, The Open Road, I’d recently done the PBS station wrangling for – as the Founding Director, the festival quickly became a major stop on the documentary film circuit.

In its heyday, SILVERDOCS attracted thousands of attendees annually from across the globe with a diverse range of films, filmmakers and film subjects representing as many as 60 countries. It was nicknamed “Non-Fiction Nirvana” by Variety and “a premiere showcase for documentary film," by Hollywood Reporter.

I was on crutches following foot surgery the first time I went, which was the second year of its existence, but even that did not stop me from being there.

That year, SILVERDOCS featured sessions that facilitated casual meetings between representatives from the World Bank, international distributors from all over Europe and Canada – kind of like speed dating for filmmakers looking for funding and distribution support.

That was also the year the documentary Born into Brothels was on the film festival circuit – a documentary about Zana Briski’s journey into Calcutta's underworld to photograph the city's prostitutes. In the process of making her film, Zana had the thought to buy a bunch of disposable cameras and teach the children of prostitutes the basics of photography so they could document their own lives on the streets of one of the world's poorest cities. The resulting photographs were exhibited around the world.

The title alone scared me – kids living in Indian’s worst slums and brothels? I felt I would surely be shattered by what I saw. But something nudged me to go ahead and see it. It was both shocking and heartwarming and I walked out of the darkened movie theater wanting to tell everyone about it. Such can be the power of documentary film.

I wasn’t the only one who left the screening feeling that way. Two days later, it won the audience award, and later went on to win an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2005.

I attended SILVERDOCS again in 2006, this time with Stephen, who was working behind the scenes as a Venue Captain, and Zoë, who had just completed her freshman year at UNC, Wilmington. Stephen was able to smuggle Zoë into a front row seat during a special session so she could see and hear filmmaker and director, Martin Scorsese talk.

After moving to North Carolina, I decided to check out FULL FRAME in Durham. One of the oldest film festivals in the US, this one was founded by Scorsese himself.

Between sessions, I found myself standing in line in the ladies’ room next to film director, Mira Nair, who’d been featured in a special panel discussion: "The Powers of Ten: Ten Filmmakers, Ten Films and Ten Years.”

Martin Scorsese, Cara Mertes, DA Pennebaker, Walter Mosley, Michael Moore, Mira Nair and others – selected a film that had special meaning for them and that marked changes in our culture and the documentary form. While I’m sure everything they said was interesting to me at the time, what really jumped out at me was Mira Nair’s advice to filmmakers, which I feel applies equally to writers:

1) Surround yourself with people who believe in you

2) Be fearless

3) Be foolishly optimistic

4) Have something to say

5) Be unique in your voice

Of these, I’m pretty sure I have at least #3 nailed – I am nothing if not foolishly optimistic. I also feel pretty good about #4 and #5 – but that may be just my own opinion.

Despite my winter mantra, however, #2 is still a work in progress.

Coming up next … Story Frame 63 – The Film That Nearly Landed Us in Jail

[photo taken by me @ SILVERDOCS, 2010]