Well, it has been one week since Breckenridge Festival of Film. I was very blessed to walk about with Best Short Documentary and Best LGBT themed Documentary this year. Patrick’s Story is finally making a mark, and I am hopeful to carry on to other festivals as well as use it as the vehicle to tell more of the story. Not just of Patrick, but of the others who continue to have doors shut on them with marriage.
Breckenridge was an amazing venue. I met some great contacts from all over the country. First off, I met two folks from Stone Ridge, New York. That kind of amazed me, as I have deep ties to that area. They know people that I know. How crazy is that? What’s great is that both Ingrid Price and Davis Hall were crowning jewels to my trip. We took the same shuttle from Breckenridge to Denver International, and I couldn’t have been happier to meet fantastic folks. I am dying to see them again and I hope I get to work with them. They did a film called Mother’s House with their production company Peak Road Productions. Unfortunately, with the schedule, I didn’t get to see their film at the festival, so I am hopeful to see it soon on DVD.
There was also Sayer Frey and Erin Rasmussen of Reframing Media. Sayer wrote and directed, with Erin producing, the most compelling and thought provoking film of the festival. Abandon ME takes place in 1940 Iowa. It’s about a desperate daughter attempting to abandon her aging mother in a cornfield but is haunted by three of her “selves,” who unsympathetically compel her to reclaim her life. The imagery in this film is powerful, and to say thought provoking is just the beginning. Sayer makes you work for the payoff, which is something that doesn’t happen in most of spoon feeding films of Hollywood. The reason it works is the payoff of coming to terms with a past and a present at nearly the same moment for our protagonist. The end result: a completely satisfying and in depth analysis of abuse victims done in 19 minutes. That is true film making art and science.
There were other great movies as well (who would expect less at a festival). Fanny, Anny, & Danny was a big winner at the festival. Chris Brown’s dive into the life of a mentally handicapped woman and her excruciatingly broken family was like forty miles of bad road. It is well crafted, and a fine movie, but hard to watch, if repeatedly. This is due to the fact that there is no redeeming quality to anyone or anything. When you reach the end, (the movie and your seat as I did) you realize you are standing on an abyss that everyone was more then willing to jump off of as they twisted and turned their lives in a pseudo-Christmas atmosphere of total chaos. I saw it, and it was great work, but I can’t watch it again. It still makes my stomach hurt.
So, with Breckenridge behind me, and some very nice success there, I turn to the next things (both current and future). A Deed without a Name is edited and is currently going through the next stage, which is sound clean up and design. I think I am at the half way mark on this, with Evan Phillips coming in to do the special effects. I have a couple more short shorts to do in the next few months.
The documentaries that I am currently working on are in swing. PDXYar and the great pirate ship build moves along at a marvelous clip, with interviews on the way. As well, BOILERPLATE is a go! I am really proud and excited by this. I have been thinking that I am at that place where I need to starting making hard decisions: am I a documentary film maker or a narrative film maker. The answer that I keep coming back to is that I am a story teller. I tell stories in visual mediums, and I am not sure that I want to limit myself by title. I don’t want my title to dictate my behavior, as Kevin Smith so nicely put it in CLERKS.
Here is my interview from Byron Beck on his show Have You Hear, which is part of the Earth2World network.
Have You Heard? Hosted By Byron Beck: Episode #18 from earth2world on Vimeo.
Byron chats with guest co-host, Mother’s Bistro’s Chef/Owner Lisa Schroeder, about celebrations including Burning Man, Rose Fest, Pride & Father’s Day. Chef Lisa also creates a wonderful salad with California avocado and Oregon shrimp. Mother’s bartender, Dane Scholey, whips an Absolut-ly delightful cocktail with Absolut Wild Tea and Lemonade. Martin Vavra, fresh from the Breckenridge Film Festival and his double-win for his documentary, “Patrick’s Story,” is joined by the subject of his film “Patrick” to discuss this important and timely film.
I am thinking it is time for some HALO this morning.