Good Stuff at the Good Pitch

Silverdocs officially begins today with a screening of the new Lebron James doc, More then a Game (after last night, shouldn’t this film be about Kobe?). Besides being the biggest and best programmed documentary film festival in the US, Silverdocs also boasts more panels, workshops and other industry events then just about any other other week long conference in the country. This year they’ll be teaming up with Ch. 4 Britdocs, The Sundance Institute, Working Films and The Fledgling Fund to present THE GOOD PITCH, a forum for selected emerging filmmakers to share and pitch their work in front of a slew of industry reps.

“From over 300 applications, eight filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and outreach campaigns to an invited audience, comprising leading national and international NGOs, foundations, broadcasters, campaigners and media in order to maximise the impact of their social-issue documentary projects”.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on several of these films and are extremely excited to hear how the inaugural event goes. A special congrats must go out to Robbie Gemmel and Daniel Coffin and their new project, Cape Wind: The Fight for Future Power in America. The film illuminates the divisive controversy surrounding the Cape Wind Project – a proposal to build 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod – translating the furor which exploded on the Cape Cod community into a story of transcendent national importance for the future of sustainability in America.

Gemmel will be in DC to pitch his film and we’ll hopefully be interviewing him on his experiences at the GOOD PITCH for this blog. Until then, take a moment to check out their films site at www.capewindmovie.com. I’m predicting this film to be one of the most anticipated nonfiction premieres of 2010, so much much more on this film in the coming months!

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), opened in NY this weekend at the IFC and is a film worth seeing if there are screenings near you.

The piece follows the life of Thavisouk Phrasavath as he grows up in Laos during the Vietnam war, escapes to Bangkok after his father is picked up in the night to go to “re-education camp”, reunites with his mother and siblings at a refugee camp when they escape the country, and then moves to the United States of America – the supposed promised land that turns out to be nothing more than hell on earth for Thavi and his family. With his father gone, and Thavi the eldest son, the film chronicles his journey of moving into this role while seeking to find an identity for himself in their new home.

The film’s plot is structured around Thavi’s first visit back to Laos as an adult to see his grandmother and two sisters who were left behind. The story uses the technique of memory to take the viewer through time and space seamlessly – following a plot that is far from linear without “losing the thread” creates an engaging and dynamic experience for the viewer. It is perhaps this element of time that gives the film such depth – over 20 years of filming with Thavi and cinematographer Ellen Kuras.

Though there is plenty of historical data about the Vietnam War presented in the film – Thavi says in a Q&A afterwards, “we don’t want this to be a historical film, based on this, so we dedicate just a very small part to it.” Truthfully this is done very well, and the most powerful elements of the film pull on timeless threads of the effect of war on people’s lives. He goes on to say of the film, “this is the new face of history, of American history – written by the people, not the government.”

Though this film on its face is a story of hurt and tragedy, it holds within it the light of the uncanny ability of the human spirit to overcome. Despite the destruction the United States has been responsible for in his life, Thavi exudes pride in the ideals that America stands for, and he gives no indication of desiring to abandon the place he has come to know as home – he just wishes to some day fully fit in. He realizes much must evolve before this is to happen and it seems that Nerakhoon is his way of helping to effect this change. He says, “We hope that this film will reach out to as many people’s heart and soul as possible, and help bridge the gap for future victim’s of war.”

Time for Change

Well here we are a week after Obama took California and then the country, and only time will tell whether he will be able to deliver on his promises – the bigger the ship the slower it turns. Immediately though there is strength and momentum in the knowledge that there will soon be someone as our Commander in Chief who is at least trying to right the path we are on as a country and a world.

Congratulations, we have made it to the starting line. Now the real work begins. Today a friend said to me, the power for the most significant change exists within each one of us.  If we hang onto this momentum – we may just have the makings for a perfect storm of change in these next 4 years.

Over a month after the festival has wrapped and I finally got around to looking up the short film Scott Hamilton-Kennedy recommended called The Story of Stuff. A totally depressing but great piece articulating the ridiculousness of everything we are chasing after – and the impact of that chase.

Edward Burtynsky  (Manufactured Landscapes) has traveled the world capturing the impact we are having on our physical environment in images that have the power to communicate the vastness of it all. They chronicle the life-cycle of the products we use every day – mining the land for oil and metals, driving slave-like conditions in manufacturing facilities, prepping new cars lined up as far as the eye can see to be shipped out for sale, constructing a web of highways and interstates in our major cities throughout theworld, and then eventually throwing everything away.

PHOTO CREDIT: EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Burtynsky has done a lot of work with mines and quarries – sites where we are essentially raping the land for our own purposes. Every mine has waste-product – tailings, or rivers, of melted unused metals that are in the rock but are not the desired end product.

 

Imagine tailings like this near Bristol Bay Alaska on the proposed site of the world’s 2^nd largest open pit copper mine as captured in the doc Red Gold.

PHOTO CREDIT: FELT SOUL MEDIA

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see that an environment this fragile will not survive the impact of a mine. Not to mention that the proposed site is at the headwaters of the two most prolific salmon producing rivers in the world.

You never know where the inspiration to make a change will come from; sometimes it just takes one last image or perspective to give you the courage to make a jump. For me it was realizing that my life was on the same type of ridiculous cycle – chasing the wrong dream and slowly knocking down all that really mattered to me in the process. Change does not come easy but it is in our hands here for the taking if we so chose – if there ever was a time it is now.

-Leah

GOBAMA

Danielle Bernstein (When Clouds Clear, CIFF 08) recently traveled to Alaska to capture Governor Palin’s real stance on some core political issues. Check out these two pieces on children’s health and foster care issues:

There is only one day left to go in this heated campaign, and Danielle adds an important voice to the discussion. Whether you lean left or right, take some time to research the candidates and get out and VOTE!

-Leah