Page 14 - the NOISE August 2012

August ushers in the wonderful Prescott Film Festival in the breezy mountain town and promises eight days of diverse films from
around the world. The festival’s new digs are lo- cated on Yavapai College campus and provide a state-of-the-art experience in a new theatre. Sedona continues its wonderful year-round se- ries of films, plays, musicals and speakers series at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. And the adven- ture of an Independent Filmmaker continues with the final chapter of the cross-country trip to America’s virtual reality.
First up, don’t miss the chance to beat the heat in August and steal away for a trip to Prescott for their newly re-upped film festival. A new time of year with a new location will provide an all encompassing film experience. The recently remodeled Yavapai College Per- forming Arts Center will be the centerpiece for many of the special events happening Au- gust 1-8. The festival will present an array of unique films from around the world, as well as from Arizona. Workshops, parties, question and answer sessions with filmmakers, and spe- cial guests will delight cinephiles of various tastes. Included with the popular wine tasting event on Saturday the 4th is a ticket to a special screening of Dances With Wolves. Scheduled to attend the screening is the Academy Award winning screenwriter Michael Blake!
We asked the Executive Director of the Prescott Film Festival Helen Stephenson a few questions about the upcoming festival.
Why did you switch the time of year of the fes- tival?
August is a better time of the year for the festival. People come up from Phoenix and Tucson to get out of the heat and are basically looking for an excuse to get to cooler climates. We hope Prescott Film Festival is their August excuse.
What is the process for film selection?
We basically curate most of our films. Mean- ing I look at websites for other film festivals and choose films I think our local audiences would like. So, I look at festivals all over the world and ask filmmakers to submit. We also get blind submissions. We are considering Withoutabox. com next year. When we receive a film, it is logged in and put into the “programming pro- cess” where programmers pick up rating sheets and DVDs of films and rate everything from
sound and picture quality, to story, acting and uniqueness. Those numbers are tallied up by our programming chair and the jury meets to discuss which films are official selections based on the numbers and programmer’s comments. After the films are selected the jury will have two weeks to view any official selections and then we all meet to decide the awards. It’s a fun meeting.
Do you plan question and answer sessions af- ter the films?
Yes, if the filmmaker is present. We have Screening Hosts who conduct the Q & As and it’s a lovely part of the festival. For some it’s their reason for going to the festival.
What are you looking forward to most as the Director of the Prescott Film Festival?
I’m really looking forward to seeing Dances With Wolves on the big screen. Every shot in that film is a beautiful postcard and with the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center’s new 10,000 Lumen Projector and fabulous sur- round sound, it will be an experience in itself! The book the film is based on was written in Bisbee, so this is our nod to the Arizona centen- nial. Michael Blake, who wrote the book and is the Academy Award winner for the screenplay, is scheduled to attend.
Check out Prescottfilmfestival.com for a complete list of films and a schedule for all the great events set to rocket the cinema scene in Northern Arizona in August.
Some awesome events coming to Sedona in August, as the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in as- sociation with the Sedona International Film Festival continue their ongoing scheduling of innovative films, musicals, plays and speakers. At the time this article was written, SIFF was getting ready for its August schedule, so please go to Sedonafilmfestival.com to find out more.
How to MAke An independent FilM part 2 continued from last month
In Dallas, the family approaches the grassy knoll with the certainty of each character’s per- spective. But as Oliver Wendell Holmes said:
“certainty is usually an illusion.” They find the Book Depository Museum, hidden on the sixth floor of an unmarked building that follows the official “magic bullet” narrative. Outside, on a
street corner, the Hart family meets Ken, a man with a card table peddling his “truth.” The fam- ily recognizes more nuggets of common sense from the little guy on the corner than from the big Hollywood production above. Only a small painted “X” in the middle of the street marks the spot of the assassination. Otherwise, there’s nothing to indicate the President of the United States was assassinated there.
In Waco, the Hart family debates the fire bombing and killing of members of the Branch Davidian Compound on April 19, 1993, which is the same date as the Oklahoma City bomb- ing. Flare technology, shown in the Academy Award-nominated documentary film Waco: Rules of Engagement, shows government snip- ers shooting women and children while fire bombing the building, all the time “denying” it in a Congressional whitewash. We watch “them” do it, while “they” deny doing it? Good editing is a startling argument against obvious lies. Perhaps the new litmus test for Americans: “do you believe your own eyes or do you believe what we tell you?” We live in Orwellian double speak and cognitive dissonance 24/7, where Big Brother knows best, or so the Hart family debates.
In Memphis, the Hart family stops at the Civil Rights Museum attached to the hotel where MLK was shot. Across the street is a “conspir- acy museum” you can enter for the same ticket admission to the Civil Rights Museum. Asking people arbitrarily on the street what happened on that fateful day, not one believed the offi- cial narrative: “that a lone gunman Bobby Ray Hall, a KKK racist, killed MLK alone.” A “govern- ment conspiracy” was the consensus of the man-on-the-street as MLK was galvanizing his million-man Civil Rights march against the war in Vietnam and poverty in America. The Hart family leaves confused. What to believe, when it’s all a lie?
The motor home’s transmission blows out in Memphis and poor Pokey goes into a garage for a week. (Don’t rent a motor home that looks like an elephant on an ant’s back.) We rent an SUV to make it to New York. At the Mall in DC we make a loop with the family around the iconic locations: Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran’s Me- morial, the new MLK memorial and the Korean War Memorial. At the end of the day, the fam- ily is silently overwhelmed with history and its tragic narrative. The next day at ground zero
the family realizes that infighting divides and conquers people. At the new Freedom Tower, ironically named, the Hart family has their cli- mactic realization about their father’s narrative on 9-11-01. They come to understand that all narratives are designed to be sung us lullabies, and that we are, in essence, “children wander- ing lost in the forest of symbols.” That freedom may be imprisonment, that war is peace and history is a lie from which we need to awake. Something Howard Zinn knew!
STAGED II is a coming of age road trip that uses scripted narrative, improvisation, and doc- umentary footage to enhance our understand- ing of the folly of human narratives. By having a valid premise that can sustain a 100-minute film, you can build lists that will help flesh out your idea. But when it comes to the day of the shoot, anything goes. Francis Ford Coppola said that “shooting a movie is like jumping off a cliff.” Ifyoucansurvive“thefall”withfootagein hand, post-production begins with editing, lay- ering music, making the sound track thick and smoothing color continuity issues to give the entire film “a look.”
If it looks like a film, and sounds like a film, maybe it’s a film? After you have a polished cut, film festivals become a viable way to get your work out. Enter ten festivals and see what hap- pens. Maybeputit“outthere”forfreeonline? Some websites like Vodo.net allow you to put up half your film for free and get money for the second half. Draw viewers in! Get an agent. Maybe it’s a calling card for your next film, a movie credit, a learning experience, or just a memory? Have a vision and don’t be afraid to go for it; you only live once, if you’re fortunate and deserving. In the end, regret the things you have done. Start your regretting today!
Check out KickStarter.com and type: STAGED II into the “search” if you want to see a free trailer for our film (and help us fundraise!) Fundraising platforms are extremely helpful to performing artists of every strain. Or bet- ter than money, just pass the site along to ten other people.
Thanks All.
Bob Reynolds is the writer, direc- tor, and producer of Staged II. bob699669@hotmail.com
A still from Dances With Wolves, the screenwriter of which, Michael Blake, will make an appearance at the Prescott Film Festival.
14 • AUGUST 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us