CLIMBING HIGHER.

Lake Placid Film Forum Lake Placid, New York 

June 6-10 2001

The second annual Lake Placid Film Forum was constructed around the auspicious theme of "Do Filmmakers Have Social Responsibility?" A radical proposition for the mainstream festival circuit, this year's Forum admirably tackled: this mission with several panels and feature films striving to address this complex subject. With its successful bids over the past year to increase its corporate financial support--with Ralph Lauren Fragrances and Esquire joining I "" NY, last year's official sponsor--and its location in a mountain resort town, the Forum might initially seem to be following in the footsteps of so many recently anointed festivals. While there are numerous parties, a professional PR team and a degree of Hollywood-style hobnobbing, the Forum is dedicated to celebrating the personal visions behind filmmaking, honoring the gamut of individuals involved in the process. The Forum's Artistic Director Kathleen Carroll, long a film critic for The New York Daily News, also revealed that in her search for films t o program she looked for "films that... really connect with the audience or move people in some profound way." [1]

New this year were midnight shows and an increased emphasis on the limited enrollment, master classes offered, on topics such as producing, documentary filmmaking, screenwriting and directing. The "forums" sought to address the conference theme in more directly interactive ways, with topics ranging, from women in film to the obligatory "Is Film Dead?" Notably, these panels-even the early morning ones--were often better attended than the film screenings with high levels of audience engagement and participation, including panelists referencing comments made by earlier presenters, providing proof that this event does indeed function as more than merely another film festival.

The forum "Where Are the Women? Or Climbing Out of the Girl Ghetto," moderated by Allison Anders, focused more on the plight of emerging filmmakers in general than on women specifically. Director Nancy Savoca did claim that none of the work that her female peers made in the 1990s would be supported today. Filmmaker' Yvonne Welbon went further to: say that the era when any individual could make a film alone is over. Now, she said, to be successful you need to find someone to market your film, to think of it as a business. Liz Manne of the Sundance Channel concurred, explaining that success as a filmmaker is about luck, perseverance :and 'hustling. "There are many ways to acquire knowledge," she said, "the question is how do you turn it into a business opportunity?" Anders replied that as in all artmaking, you have to be "insanely ballsy." A final statement from a female audience member was offered, ending the conversation on a more woman-centered note: "We have lost something through new technologies," she sa id, "but women:... filmmakers have retained.... [that] ... tenderness."

In the forum "Real to Reel: When Does Creativity Become a Lie?," filmmaker Barbara Hammer stated the obvious baseline for this line of inquiry that every editing decision is a "choice of fiction," in that "if we were doing [true] documentary it would be as long as our lives are." Norman Jewison posed the age-old trope, "What is truth?," personalizing the point by admitting, truth, I think, is a moving target... I [may have] misinterpreted what someone said, someone did." Raoul Peck, director of Lumumba (2000), amusingly observed that the debate about "truth" is a "typical American problem ... as if it's the only way to see the world or a story or a human being." "I am subjective in my truth," acknowledged the Haitian filmmaker, advocating for providing an audience with enough elements to build their own truth. Moderator Elvis Mitchell, film critic for The New York Times, asked whether audiences hold films based on fact to a higher standard. Victor Skolrnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntingt on, New York agreed, saying. that Americans live in a country based on the idea that "we hold these truths to be self-evident" and perhaps this is a conceit of western civilization. Mitchell later returned to the question of editing, quoting Jean-Luc Godard as saying "each cut you make is a political act" Hammer picked up on her earlier point, saying "multiplicities of truth are the excitement of film.... We need to raise the level of film education in this country." The conversation turned toward the democratizing effects of new technologies such as video cameras, enabling the truth to be told in far-flung communities previously unrepresented. Having power today means having access to the media, said Jewison, in a world where "multi-global corporations own or control everything." In response to an audience members query about filmmakers' responsibility, Kimberly Peirce, director of Boys Don't Cry (1999), claimed that she does not approach her work with an agenda, while Peck responded, perhaps more honestly, that he does.

The forum "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: Sex and Violence in the Movies" was not as inviting as its title might have suggested. Novelist John Irving dominated the conversation, beginning by saying that the media and politicians charging filmmakers and Hollywood with issues of social responsibility "is absurd." Screenwriter Shane Black paraphrased director Paul Verhoeven, saying that there is no image of human experience that is unsuitable for the camera. Novelist and Forum co-founder Russell Banks followed by pointing out that Americans seem to be in denial that sex is pleasure and death is awful."

In the forum "Can Movies Think?" moderator Philip Lopate suggested that documentary works are taking up the slack of contemporary narrative films that present mere archetypes, not complex characters. Documentarian Alan Berliner offered, "As a personal essay filmmaker I can take chances with the audience that narrative film- makers perhaps can't." Michael, Barker of Sony Pictures stated that European audiences are more interested in character-driven works, and are forgiving of films with less plot." Lopate quoted screenwriter and author Syd Field as saying "the days of amblguous endings are over" because U.S. audiences "don't take to' them." Barker countered that younger audiences are perhaps ready for something new. When asked directly if filmmakers have a social responsibility, director Whit Stillman claimed that "films do do bad things such as lead to copycat crimes. Barker disagreed, paraphrasing Irving who said in the forum "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" that reactions to films depend on viewer education. As a c losing statement, an audience member voiced what had been unspoken throughout the panel: "[any film] can make an audience think," but "deeper thinking is unsettling for many people."

The 20 feature films screened at the Forum included two world premieres and two features shot on' digital video. Highlights include the Colombian film Our Lady of the Assassins (2001, by Barbet Schroeder) and Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted. Disease (2000, by Krzystof Zanussi) from Poland. Jon Zeiderman's digital work Artfacts (2001) is a dialogue-heavy and character driven work that follows two 20-something men around New York City as they discuss the different paths their lives have taken, especially in regard to women. Zeiderman explains his choice of using the digital format, saying, "by shooting digitally, we were able to suggest a documentary film." [2] Ever Since the World Ended (2001) by Calum Grant and Joshua Atesh Litle is the fictionalized documentary video made by two young filmmakers several years after a plague wipes out the majority of the world's population. The Inter views with the survivors," young and old, are mesmerizing and the actions these individuals find necessary for survival are chilling.

The Forum, in its leaning toward narrative truth-telling. prefr s numerous documentary films, which this year ran the gamut from Girls and Dolls (2000, by Drena DeNilo), a disappointing comedic short abou t'adults who obsessively collect Barbie dolls to The Man on Lincoln's Nose (2001, by Daniel Raim), an entertaining reminiscence of prolific: Hollywood production designer Robert Boyle. For his latest film, The Sweetest Sound (2001), Berliner researched the origin of his surname, eventually inviting a dozen other Ala(i)n Berliners to dinner. As in his previous work, Berliner expands the personal to create a meaningful, skillfully edited narrative, this time leading viewers to reflect on family histories and traditions of naming to honor the living and the dead, as well as ownership of one's personal Identity.

The short film program, again curated by Doug LeClaire of New York City's. Asbury Film Festival, was a mixed bag ranging from extremely short regional comedies such as the hysterical under two-minute expose of a miniature horse breeder, Peekaboo Sunday (2000) by Laura Levine, to a slow-moving 15-minute drama starring Lee Majors and an over-stylized version of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Wife of Bath" featuring Sandy Duncan. Also included were several festival circuit favorites such as Zen & the Art of Landscaping (2000, by David Kartch) and a program of region ally-produced work (with two highly original works by Mitchell Rose), as well as a handful of shorts produced by local teens.

In keeping with its intent to honor the vision and efforts of filmmakers the Forum's organizers award a number of films through an audience vote. Best, Runner-up and Honorable Mention awards are given in Feature, Documentary, Short and Student categories. Audience Award for Best Feature went to Himalaya (2001, by Eric Valli). The runner up for Best Feature was awarded to Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) by John Cameron Mitchell, a comedic dramatic rock opera which was originally performed in New York City rock clubs and later off-Broadway. Mitchell, who wrote, directed and stars in the film, and collaborator Stephen Trask, who wrote the score, successfully engender the unlikely rise of a young boy from West Berlin to superstardom as a cross-dressing rock diva, in Kansas, George Butler's The Endurance Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2001) won the award for Best Documentary. Using archival black and white scenes captured by the ill-fated ship's photographer as well as contemporary color footage s hot in the Antarctic, Butler constructed a riveting, account of the voyage and loss of the exploratory ship The Endurance in an ice flow shortly before arriving at its Antarctic destination in 1914. In a question and answer session, Butler commented that the survival of all 28 members of the ship's crew over the ensuing 20 months before their rescue was nothing short of miraculous. The Best Short Film award was won by Wendy Tilbis and Amanda Forbis for their pig-centered. animation When the Day Breaks (2000), which was also an Academy Award nominee this year. The winner of that Oscar, Peter Reigert's By Courier (2000), also screened in Lake Placid, is a methodical, tedious rendition of a short story by O. Henry.

Several feature films addressed important social and political issues and two were awarded awards for Courage in Filmmaking by the Forum's Board of Directors. Peck's Lumumba investigates the rise and fatal fall of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first elected Prime Minister. Anders's Things Behind the Sun (2000) explores the emotional consequences of a gang rape. Jewison was honored with the Career Achievement Award, an appropriate choice for this year as several, of his films have explored social issues including racism, bigotry and injustice. Lake Placid has carved a niche for itself with its for matting choices and with the success of this second year, grabbed a strong and hopefully enduring foothold in the ever-widening field of film events.

NOTES

(1.) Kathleen Carroll as quoted in Short Takes: The Newsletter of the Adirondack Film Society and the Lake Placid Film Forum Volume 1, no. 2 (Spring 2001), p. 3.

(2.) Ned P. Rauch, "Filmmaking the digital way on display at LPFF" in Adirondack Daily Enterprise (May 26-27, 2001). pp. A1, A7.