Well. The Sarasota Film Festival is locked and loaded. It's been a long, very fun four month process to get the film program of over 160 films in shape, but we are finally done and now just trying to make sure everything is in place and ready for the festival itself, which starts next Friday, January 28th. Yeah, I know. The rest of you are off to Sundance to wade through their always excellent program. But we've got some great films and it looks to be a very fun 10 days. This is what independent, non-profit film festivals are all about.

For me the highlight is going to be the new series I put together called INDEPENDENT VISIONS. Its a three film series that features a screening and a party with a great band playing. The series looks like this:

Sunday January 30, 2005
7:00pm
In The Realms of The Unreal
Director: Jessica Yu

9:00pm Independent Visions Celebration I
Band: DeVotchKa
Venue: Khrome

Monday, January 31, 2005
Ong Bak: Thai Warrior
Director: Prachya Pinkaew

9:00pm Independent Visions Celebration II
Band: Bob Mould
Venue: Sarasota Municipal Auditorium

Tuesday, February 1, 2005
7:00pm
Chain
Director: Jem Cohen

9:00pm Independent Visions Celebration III
Band: Ted Leo and The Pharmacists
Venue: Sarasota Municipal Auditorium

I think this is a great line-up and am excited to be able to host these artists for the festival. I think it will really add to the festval and make it an amazing event.

A complete look at the Film Program

In a recent article, Anthony Kaufman, one of my favorite indieWIRE bloggers and writers, presented an optimistic assessment of the state of foreign film in America. The article focused almost exclusively on the distribution business, citing box office numbers as the ultimate gauge of success or failure in the broader culture. Of course, if any domestic film studio were to utilize the standard of 'breaking the million dollar mark' as a cause for celebration, there would be some executive's head sent rolling down Sunset Blvd. Clearly, foreign film is being judged by a, shall we say, special set of standards. The article also presents a key quote from Ryan Werner of Wellspring, one that I find pretty chilling:

"We didn't expect these films to make huge amounts of money," says Ryan Werner, head of distribution for Wellspring, which released both "Goodbye Dragon Inn" and "Notre Musique." "But I think we're going to have to be more careful about doing smaller films, like 'Goodbye Dragon Inn' in the future. It's not like we can't make them work, but I had to do everything in-house. Was it worth it at the end of the day? I guess it is."

Clearly a cause for celebration when a wonderful film like Goodbye Dragon Inn is a used as a cautionary tale. But the numbers are encouraging, and the domestic box office has, in fact, increased. Let's say cautious optimism, shall we?

Taking a similarly celebratory approach to the state of the world is A.O. Scott's recent N.Y. Times Magazine piece featuring Jia Zhangke's The World as a central metaphor for the state of foreign film's relationship to isolationism and personal alienation. I would recommend that everyone read this article (it is one of my favorite pieces of film writing this year) but to save time, I'll quote the following, which pretty much sums up Scott's argument:

After a great deal of thinking, a long, cold shower (singing the Garden State soundtrack), and a long stare in the mirror, tugging at the edges of my face, I realized that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the best year for films. A quick glance at the annual release calendar pretty much confirmed my suspicions; despite a strong slate of independent films and some incredible foreign titles, the movies that populated the general consciousness and the multiplexes of America were the same ol' same ol'. So much so, that after numerous attempts to write this article, I, much like Virgil and Dante approaching the gates of Hell, was tempted to abandon all hope before entering here. So, instead of the annual list of gripes and complaints (I know, I know), here are some thoughts on some of the trends that dominated 2004.

The Year of The Political Documentary
No trend-- not the superhero film, not the overblown Greek epic--nothing had more of an impact on the film community this year than the emergence of political documentary. From the blockbuster business done by Fahrenheit 911 to the overwhelming slate of powerful political biography and critiques (The Control Room, OutFoxed, A Solider's Pay, Chisholm '72, Orwell Rolls In His Grave, Weapons of Mass Deception, etc etc.), political activism dominated documentary film. But without broad-based distribution and a broad cultural embrace, did this films merely preach to the converted, or can films actively change opinions and minds? Time will tell.