It is not everyday you get to meet the artists that have inspired you; it’s even more special to be able to receive their validation. Last month, in conjunction with my work as the Director of Programming at the Sarasota Film Festival, I was honored to host Werner Herzog and a retrospective of his non-fiction films. For those of you unfamiliar with Werner’s life, a brief biography is in order:

Werner Herzog (originally Werner H. Stipetic) was born in Munich on September 5, 1942. He grew up in a remote mountain village in Bavaria and never saw any films, television, or telephones as a child. He started traveling on foot from the age of 14. He made his first phone call at the age of 17. During high school he worked the nightshift as a welder in a steel factory to produce his first films and made his first film in 1961 at the age of 19. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than forty films, published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas. -- (www.wernerherzog.com)

I stumbled onto Werner’s work as a young man purely by judging books by their covers; stumbling through the foreign film section of the late, great Michigan Video in Flint, MI, I grabbed a copy of Herzog’s classic Aguirre: The Wrath of God based solely on the crazed expression on the face of Herzog’s star and muse, Klaus Kinski (I was 13 years old, sue me). I admit that the dark tale of a colonial Spaniard gone mad searching for the lost city of El Dorado in the mountains of Peru was clearly over my head in the mid-1980’s, but there is no question that the film has stayed with me over the decades. The image of the insane Aguirre, drifting down the river on a handmade raft, covered in monkeys is pretty much the final word on megalomania in my book. There is nothing quite like seeing one of Herzog’s dramas, from Aguirre to classics like Fitzcarraldo and his creepy remake of Murnau’s Nosferatu; the images in his films hover in the rarified area between unreal and absolutely true.

Herzog and Kinski on the set of Cobra Verde (photo courtesy of IFC Films)

After an initial report in Variety highlighting the filmmaker (and fellow Flint, MI escapee) Michael Moore's low profile of late, everyone from a curious Cinematical to a grumpy Anthony Kaufman wants to know where Michael Moore has gone. Even the bag of rocks known as moorewatch.com (oh, I will never link, my friends) has noticed his absence and, in a classic twist, faces closure as health care costs have escalated for the site's operator. Irony so delicious, one needs no garnish.

Anyway, I am happy to be able to report that Michael is alive and well, and continuing to support our home town. Last Thursday, April 20th, Moore was home in Flint, MI addressing the staff of Flint's alternative monthly newspaper, The Uncommon Sense (Full disclosure: I write the film column for the paper). As some of you may or may not know, Michael published his own alternative newspaper in Flint from 1976-1986, The Flint Voice, which soon became The Michigan Voice. In 1986, after a decade of work on The Voice, he was appointed to be the editor of Mother Jones magazine and left Flint for San Francisco. Flint was without an alternative paper for about 18 years, until my dear friend Matt Zacks picked up the mantle and began publishing his own alternative paper, The Uncommon Sense. Made up primarily of volunteer writers and editors (myself included), the paper has been a big hit in the community, giving voice to ideas and individuals that otherwise would have no outlet. It is a truly grassroots effort, and Matt deserves all the credit in the world for sustaining the paper. I would never want to put words in his mouth, but I think Michael Moore recognizes that the legacy that he created with The Michigan Voice has had a profund impact on The Uncommon Sense and he was truly generous to meet with the staff this past week and help the group strategize and stay motivated to continue on in the face of worsening conditions in the city. Unfortunately, I could not be there as I was wrapping up my work on the Sarasota Film Festival, but by all accounts it was a truly inspirational evening.

Thursday, April 20th, 2006: Matt Zacks and Michael Moore in the offices of The Uncommon Sense.

I have long been a defender of both Moore the man and his films, so it is no surprise to me that all of these criticisms of Moore are surfacing now. Anthony Kaufman's implication that Moore is lazy and unkempt ('his minions working overtime to finish his own doc' while he is 'attending movies...wearing his trademark sweats') is keeping in line with the long-standing tradition of confusing a man one doesn't even know with one's own opinions about his appearance. Fahrenheit 9/11 is less than two years old and Bowling For Columbine (which we all remember was not included in the New York Film Festival's lineup*) is still a great and unfortunately very relevant movie. Its only been two years; go bust Victor Erice's chops if you're looking for someone who clearly has no deadline. Look, if you don't know what good work someone is doing, maybe lay off the judgements until you know what's what. Michael Moore was there, supporting a grassroots effort in his home town; no film crews, no 'self-promotion'-- just helping out. Sorry, haters.

Thursday, April 20th, 2006: Michael Moore addresses the team from The Uncommon Sense.

*So much for missing his 'fall film festival deadline'. American festivals rarely show his films and let's be honest; showing Sicko to Canadian audiences who enjoy free state sponsored health care just won't carry the same impact were the film to play Toronto. More on the NYFF documentary film issues here.

At the 2005 Sarasota Film Festival, I had the privilege to host the World Premiere of Rebecca Dreyfus’ terrific documentary, Stolen. The film is an engaging mystery that examines the 1990 robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, focusing in particular on Vermeer’s The Concert, one of the most revered and valuable paintings ever taken. The movie played like gangbusters at the Sarasota Film Festival, winning the Audience Award and receiving an overwhelming response from our patrons. We were also able to host the film’s most engaging subject, art detective Harold Smith, who became a popular figure among our audiences and staff. Soon after the festival, Harold passed away, and so it was doubly special to me to be able to host him and have him see the film and bask in the glow of such warmly received screenings.

This is a movie that deserves an audience, and so I was so excited to see that it found a theatrical release... Stolen opened at the Cinema Village this past weekend, and while I was driving back to NY from Florida and was unable to attend the opening party, I am certain that things went well. If you are interested in reading more about the movie, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter offer something that a VERY disappointing New York Times review does not; actual textual support for the opinions and ideas presented. Nathan Lee, you have got to be kidding. When does Tony Scott get back from his hiatus? He is sorely missed. Regardless, the film is a true independent, tells an captivating story in an engaging, interesting way and I hope that audiences around the country will go out and see it. I will be buying a ticket asap.

After wrapping up in NYC, Stolen hits the road… catch it if you can.

Cinema Village
New York, NY
22 East 12th St / University Pl.
4/21 - 4/27

Landmark's Kendall Square
Cambridge, MA
5/12 - 5/18

Landmark's E Street
Washington, D.C.
June TBA

Jacob Burns Center
Pleasantville, NY
5/16

Real Art Ways
Hartford, CT
56 Arbor Street
5/19 - 5/25

High Museum of Art
Atlanta, GA
6/25

NW Film Forum
Seattle, WA
6/30

Bill Cosford Cinema
Miami, FL
6/30 - 7/4

Cleveland Museum of Arts
Cleveland, OH
7/5

Back home to Brooklyn this coming Friday... Already planning the post-festival return....

1. Organize the Big Day.
2. See Old (and disparate) Movies.
3. Repair the body.
4. Prepare for the Cup.
5. Read for the first time in far too long.
6. Fix the HQ.
7. Play Soccer in the Park.
8. Support my fellow programmers.

There is a tender moment near the end of Robert Altman’s terrific new film A Prairie Home Companion when Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) sits on a piano bench and tickles the ivories as moving men glide past, carrying away the remnants of the theater in which Noir has worked for years. It’s all over. There is no show tomorrow, no more work that can be done. It was at this precise moment that I realized that A Prairie Home Companion is the perfect Closing Night Film for a film festival. It is a rare thing to watch a film that is precisely illustrating the exact moment you are personally experiencing in your own life, but this was one of those moments, and amazingly, Robert Altman was here to share it with me.

Robert Altman, Long Boat Key in Sarasota (© Carlo Allegri/ Getty Images)

After eight months of extremely hard work and a tremendous amount of good luck and support from the film community, we wrapped up the Sarasota Film Festival on Sunday night with a sold-out screening of Prairie in two theaters and a really great Q&A with Altman. Ten days have never seemed so long and so full of work, exhilaration, frustration, surprise, and discovery. This was a banner year in Sarasota; we had some of the most amazing artists in the world attending the festival, and without hesitation, I think I can call the entire endeavor a significant success. Of course, there is still a lot of room to grow. Those of you who don’t know me personally may not know this, but I am a perfectionist in only one area of my life; my work. As with any collaborative endeavor, this causes a lot of challenges for me and this year was no exception, but in the end, I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish. I am especially proud of the surprises; things I had hoped would go well and went above and beyond my hopes.

I starting this blog entry, I found it impossible to summarize the festival and the work that went into making it happen. I have erased a hundred sentences in trying to figure out how to talk about things. I guess the most important thing to say is there were moments that validated all the months of work and most of them involved meeting, working and talking with some amazing people…

Mary Harron, Long Boat Key in Sarasota (© Carlo Allegri/ Getty Images)

Dinner with Werner Herzog, listening to our amazing jurors deliberating and weighing the merits of the films in their competitions, hearing Michael Tully describe his joy at having a responsive audience for Cocaine Angel at our festival (and how it inspired him to make more films), the smile on Erica Dunton’s face when she won the Independent Visions Competition with her amazing Find Love, hearing kind words from Lisa Schwarzbaum and Stephanie Zacharek about the film line-up (I love reading both of them, but now I cherish knowing them even more), talking politics with Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond before a screening of Old Joy, hosting a discussion with Robert Towne and Paula Wagner, talking casually with and getting to know Guinevere Turner (one of my favorite writers/supergrrrls)...

Guinivere Turner, Long Boat Key in Sarasota (© Carlo Allegri/ Getty Images)

...Hosting Mary Badham (look it up!), Allison Janney and Cameron Watson at our luncheon salute to their work on Our Very Own, Jason Ritter’s dedication to seeing movies and his hilarious public speaking, FOUR (!!) sold out screenings of Steve Pallackdharry’s World Premiere doc Journey To Justice (note to distributors: If any doc deserves distribution, it is this one!), the always excellent William H Macy’s ice-breaking Q&A after the very intense Edmond, the army of ‘Felicity Was Robbed’ t-shirts at her appearance at our screening of Transamerica, Kiki and Herb on fiiiiiire at our Independent Visions party, Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Ian Inaba’s firey Q&A after American Blackout and on and on and on. I can’t even begin to talk about it with any perspective. I was able to I cram a year’s worth of experience and great times into this festival, and I am so proud of my co-workers (yes, you Holly Herrick!) and the festival. We’re growing and I hope everyone reading feels welcome to check out next year’s fest when we do it all again.
April 13-22, 2007.

Book it.

In the meantime, as soon as I find some perspective, I'll try to write more... and more photos are on the way as well.

Werner Herzog and SFF Executive Director Jody Kielbasa at the World Cinema Celebration (© Carlo Allegri/ Getty Images)