The third weekend of September marked the 14th Annual Port Townsend Film Festival – A Film Lover’s Block Party! I have previously participated in this festival as attendee, filmmaker, volunteer, and this year an amalgamation of all three. Here are a few select gems (of which there were MANY, but alas there is a word limit for this post…) from my time at the festival which I wanted to share with you, dear readers. Filmmakers and film lovers, please do check out PTFF on Facebook and their website!
First up…
Tiny Miny Magic
A love story gone postal.
When Sam Cabbage (Jennifer Lafleur – Do-Deca Pentathalon) decides to show her appreciation for her mailman (Ross Partridge – The Off Hours, Baghead) by leaving him a present in her mailbox, she is over joyed when he leaves her a present back. Through a gift giving exchange, an unexpected romance ensues. – dannielelurie.com
Not only was this short absolutely delightful, it was inspiring. I caught the post-show Q&A with Tiny’s Writer/Director Danielle Lurie. This little film was made with a crew of…well, Danielle Lurie. As I understood it, Lurie and her good friend Jen (the lead) just, you know, made this movie one weekend. If this movie was not a reminder to just get out and make something you care about with people you like, I don’t know what else could be. Sweet, quirky, curious and engaging. A total charmer. Check out Lurie’s website: http://daniellelurie.com
And, what fun! You can watch Tiny Miny Magic on Vimeo here!
The Forgotten Kingdom
A tender, South African-based coming-of-age story of young Atang’s journey from the hustle of Johannesburg to return to his ancestral land of Lesotho, where he must bury his estranged father in the remote, mountainous village where he was born.
Befriended by a precocious eleven year-old orphan boy, together they make an arduous journey across the breathtaking, rugged mountains in order to find Dineo, a childhood friend with whom he has fallen in love. The characters he meets along the way, from the orphan boy to an old woman afflicted by a witch doctor’s curse, are mirrors to Atang’s inner journey.
Epic in scale but intimate in scope, this is a hero’s journey in the classic sense, with powerful performances and absolutely beautiful cinematography. -Port Townsend Film Festival Program
When I was picking films to see over the weekend I circled Forgotten Kingdom not because of the story (though I enjoy a good coming-of-age tale), but because of three words in the breakdown: “Beautiful Cinematography. Lesotho.” I went to see Africa, a place I will likely never get to see in person. I was certainly not disappointed; the landscapes were luscious, beautiful, dramatic. I knew nothing about Lesotho, but through this film I feel captured, even humbled by this rustic, gorgeous little country. I’m not sure if the scenery enriched the story, of if the story enriched the scenery. In any case, The Forgotten Kingdom is indeed a beautiful film in its story, acting, locale. Watching producer T.R. Boyce light up like a child at Christmas as he talked about the film, it’s process, the country and people of Lesotho made me love it all the more. His enthusiasm is catching. Find and watch this film. It’s something you should experience for yourself. It’s quite special.
Did I mention this was made entirely on location with a crew of this many?
http://forgottenkingdomthemovie.com/
Special Guest Karen Allen
Karen Allen! KAREN ALLEN! I don’t know about you, but between Scrooged (a family holiday favorite) and Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark (a personal favorite because come on, it’s GREAT) I was very, VERY excited about Ms. Allen’s presence at the festival. I was always inspired by her tough, sexy, brave yet completely human Marion Ravenwood. Meeting her in person ten-odd years later, listening to her talk about her craft and experiences and passion has made me admire her even more. For a woman who has been in over 30 films with some of the best of the best: Animal House, The Glass Menagerie, Starman, The Sandlot, Manhattan, The Perfect Storm and of course Scrooged and Indiana Jones; who is, not to mention, a performer on Broadway, writer, director, guest teacher at Bard College, and one of the most beautiful women in the world (Harper’s Bazaar 1983, and she hasn’t changed a bit since then), she could easily be put in the category of the industry’s Elite. And she’s one of the good ones; she is so easily approachable, pleasant, humble, sweet, charming and gracious. Honestly, I could gush all day.
That’s not why I’m here, though. I attended the screening of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, in which she played the tragically shy Laura alongside John Malkovitch and Joanne Woodward, dir. by Paul Newman. An answer she gave to the last question of the Q&A, I just had to share with you all. I should preface it by saying that Karen, amongst her many other talents, is a knitwear designer (with a design degree from FIT) and owns her own fiber arts studio.
Audience Member: I just wondered what sort of connection you find between your fiber work and your drama work?
KA: Well for me it’s a fantastic connection because the work that I do in film and in the theatre and even as a director, these are projects – and very often they’re not projects that I can get off the ground on my own. So as an actor you’re waiting a lot of the time. You’re waiting for things to come together. You’re waiting for the phone to ring. You’re waiting for someone to say, “Ah here’s a project we wanna talk to you about.” And I don’t think I’ve ever felt like a particularly good…that’s the part of acting that has always driven me a little crazy. You know, you go and you do a project and you’re working, working, working and you get very engaged and you feel very inspired, and then all of a sudden it’s over. And then you go from like ninety miles an hour to zero. I’ve always found those transitions difficult, and I’ve always found those periods of waiting for a good project to come along difficult. So when I made this studio for myself and I went back and I began to really work in textiles and work in fiber arts again it became this incredible “Aha!” experience for me because really I don’t have to depend on anyone else for my own creativity. It gave me this sort of beautiful balancing point. So whenever I was between projects that were really dependent on collaborative work, I had work that I was doing in a singular way. I think, really, honestly it’s really been a godsend for me because, especially when I was raising my son, it really became important for me to take time off of my own choosing so that I could really be there and be very much a stable part of my son’s life when he was growing up. It was really important to have something that I could be involved in that was an autonomous, kind of ongoing project. So that’s how it’s really been an incredibly positive part of my life. Yeah!
I hope that fills you with some inspiration to do some of your own art, to help cope with the waiting too! I wish none of us had the waiting problem at all, actually. I find it comforting at least to know that even the very successful and talented actors have to play the waiting game too – another reminder that we’re all in this together.
If you’re interested, you can find Karen’s work online at www.karenallen-fiberarts.com – she showed me a scarf she wove herself, it is gorgeous!
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Almost out of space, but here are more films of note! Don’t think, just click the links!
ANIMATION HOTLINE – A series of micro-animations that use crowd sourced voice-mail messages for content. Weird and wonderful!
A PERSON KNOWN TO ME – Parcel No. 5, “A Thrilling Existence” – The fifth part of the eleven-part detective series, told through illustrated novels, short films, and culminating in a feature-length! Ambitious and exciting! (And those are just the filmmakers Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm…)
BROKEN – Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rory Kinnear. Hard to watch, but absolutely worth it. Superb film.
Big thanks to Michael Delagarza and Jane Champion of Champion Video Production for the audio file of Karen Allen’s Q&A, and to Karen, the filmmakers and the Port Townsend Film Festival. Here’s to 2014!