Experience

SFFS Screen at Sundance Kabuki

When executive director Graham Leggat announced last April that the San Francisco Film Society would open its year-round screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on June 13—a Friday by this year’s calendar—he added that for SFFS, at least, it would be an auspicious date. Even before the first film has spooled, you don’t need to be draped in garlic or packing rabbits’ feet to believe him. The Film Society (publisher of SF360.org) has reason to be optimistic about its new undertaking, which hopes to significantly contribute to the spectrum of art and specialty films now available at Bay Area theaters.

topics: art film, documentary, exhibitions, features, film festivals, independent film, san francisco film society, sundance film festival, sundance kabuki, telluride film festival

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George Kuchar, neither boil nor blister

George Kuchar celebrated his 65th birthday earlier this month at the Telluride Film Festival, where he was saluted with a tribute and a Pepperidge Farm cake. That last detail makes perfect sense; all the others require a bit of effort to digest. Kuchar started out making no-budget movies with his twin brother Mike in the Bronx; half a century after “A Tub Named Desire” he continues to shoot offbeat video diaries wherever he goes and campy melodramas with his students at the S.F. Art Institute. He is the perennially innocent child, the enthusiastically ageless artist, especially when he has a camera in his hand. How could he be hitting a Social Security milestone? As for the Telluride honor, there’s something incongruous about the Mission District icon being feted the same year as Daniel Day-Lewis. Kuchar recognized that the air was thinner up there; sitting on a panel about music and the movies with legendary composer Michel Legrand, he said to himself, ‘What am I doing here?’ He figured it out pretty quickly, though. On the phone this weekend he confided, in typical Kucharese, “It’s nice to be accepted, not as a boil or a blister, but as a member of the community.”

We live in an age where camp masquerades as high culture — consider the revival of the musical on Broadway, or the staging of the Best Song nominees at the Academy Awards — so it’s impossible to imagine the effect of George and Mike Kuchar’s films back in the day. They were a unique, hilarious blend of underground grotesquerie and Hollywood knockoff, which paid homage to studio glamour and transgressive desire in the same frame. John Waters was an early admirer, although he learned from somebody other than the Kuchars how to parlay a quirky, vaguely subversive persona into lucrative cult stardom. The brothers are not exactly household names outside the film world, and George’s Telluride tribute sure isn’t going to change that. That’s just fine with him. “I’m always in the shadows,” he says. “I work better that way. It’s freer.”

Telluride guest programmer Edith Kramer presented a batch of George’s recent videos as well as a program of older films, but the vintage celluloid drew most of the attention. The Pacific Film Archive, which Kramer brilliantly led as director and senior curator for many years before her retirement in 2005, reprises the show of short films next Tues., Sept. 18 with “It’s a Funny, Mad, Sad World: The Movies of George Kuchar.” The lineup includes “Night of the Bomb” (made with Mike, 1962), “Hold Me While I’m Naked” (1966), “Knocturne” (1968), “A Reason to Live” (1976) and “I An Actress” (1977).

Although it’s a wonderful thing that George’s earlier work has achieved a kind of acceptance, stature and even immortality, it has the unintended side effect of overshadowing his recent and considerable output. Kuchar embraced video several years ago, and he hardly goes anywhere without his mini-DV camera. Several of his weather pieces, shot in various locales around the U.S., have been shown by S.F. Cinematheque and the Other Cinema. Kuchar was the unbilled star of a Manhattan gallery show this summer that included three of his fabulous paintings and featured “Ascension of the Demonoids” projected on a wall. That night, he met a character named Larry “Ratso” Sloman, ghostwriter of Howard Stern’s best-sellers and co-author of “The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero,” and ending up making a portrait film of him.

Kuchar plainly loves digital video, which enables him to edit at home or in a hotel room and complete films the way most people knock out a couple of journal entries. As we speak, he’s finishing up a 14-minute, 16×9 widescreen doc he shot at Telluride. (It might end up on the bill at PFA, but more likely you’ll have to catch it another time and venue. That’s one of the perks of being a SFAI student of George’s — he screens his latest work in class. You can also seek out “The World of George Kuchar,” a five-DVD box set released by Video Data Bank that spans the years 1987-2005.) With a nod to the fandom that belatedly developed for his early films, Kuchar says with a laugh, “Maybe wait 20 years and these will catch on.”

George Kuchar has never lost his New York accent or edge, but he’s unmistakably a San Francisco character. As such, he’s an endangered species. Thankfully, Jennifer Kroot, a former student and director of the garish and marvelous indie feature “Sirens of the 23rd Century,” is making a documentary entitled “It Came From Kuchar” that captures his irrepressible spirit. (Check out the trailer at www.kucharfilm.com, especially if you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting its subject firsthand.) Kroot accompanied Kuchar to Telluride, so one day we’ll have the pleasure (as a DVD extra, hopefully) of seeing his bizarre onstage conversation with surprise interviewer Buck Henry. (“He was a fan of ‘Thundercrack,’ Kuchar explains. “That’s where I met him.’)

The PFA show, and even the Telluride tribute, are not even slight indications that Kuchar is nearing the end of his career, or even slowing down. “You don’t have to close shop when you’re a certain age,” Kuchar declares. Amen to that, brother.

“It’s a Funny, Mad, Sad World: The Movies of George Kuchar” screens Tuesday, Sept. 18 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

topics: filmmakers, san francisco art institute, telluride film festival

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Lucy Gray's Telluride

SF360.org editor’s note: Storied photographer Lucy Gray, the creator of many works, including the "Big Tildas" who graced City Hall’s exterior during the 49th San Francisco International, has branched out into vodcasting with "Lucy Talks Movies" at Podtech.net, where an interview with Ken Burns is currently featured. (Burns’ latest, "The War," plays the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio Sept. 14-17.) She interviewed Burns on the street at the Telluride Film Festival, and has offered a few more thoughts and photos from that festival for the readers of SF360.org.

Lucy Gray’s report from the 35th Telluride Film Festival

The big news this year was that Gary Meyer did a fabulous job taking over as Tom Luddy’s partner in running the festival. The experience of being there was peppered with people like Mark Stock who painted this year’s noirish poster and could be seen at various parties over the weekend doing magic tricks at which he also excels.

It was a shame to only see a 20-minute teaser of Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, "There Will be Blood," starring Daniel Day-Lewis, but this was almost made up for by the fact of the two huge talents in person and the hope of their collaboration the fruition of which will appear this fall nationwide.

The triumph of the festival was the inclusion of films by and about women. There were back-to-back screenings of a couple of girls filmed in real life Berlin of 1929 in "People on Sunday," whose silence was delightfully pierced by a live orchestra, and "Juno," which is every bit 2007 about a wise cracking 16-year-old who deals with a pregnancy in an admirably level head. Nicole Kidman is sublime as the insidiously dark talented sister to the saner, wiser Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Margot at the Wedding" — Leigh and her husband, Noah Baumbach, who directed this one after "The Squid and the Whale," were sweetly low key around town.

I really hope "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" rises above its enigmatic title. The writer-director, Cristian Mungiu told a full theater at the Sheridan Opera House that he wanted to depict life in Romania under the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The story is about a young woman whose friend has an abortion. The suspense in this film pushes new boundaries that comes in part from our own ideas about movie conventions, none of which it stoops to. A knife taken from a suitcase early on could be a cue that there will be a killing, but there never is one. The key to this experience is to know that what we don’t see is at least as suspenseful and painful as what we do. Two more back-to-backers were tales of one woman’s life from childhood to middle age — there was the journey from Bangladesh to London’s "Brick Lane" (2007), and in "Bhumika" of 1977, the journey remains in India. Both films are affecting, realistic, and fresh.

Finally, the way talent circulates at Telluride, Englishman Mark Kidel showed his documentary about American Peter Sellers, who interviewed the Indian director Shyam Benegal, who received a well deserved tribute. There were a little more than 35 films to see in three days, and I can only look forward to many films I missed that I heard were fantastic — Julian Schnabel’s "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," and Sean Penn’s "Into the Wild" for two.

topics: filmmakers, telluride film festival

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TELLURIDE '07: Haynes' Dylan Stories Stir Telluride; "Band's Visit" Makes Politics Personal

While the Telluride Film Festival didn’t officially begin until after the annual outdoor feed on the town’s main street Friday evening, moviegoing kicked off even as some of the 3,000 or so festival attendees were still arriving in town. On Thursday night, festival-goers gathered at the outdoor Abel Gance cinema to see a screening of Norman Jewison’s "Thomas Crowne Affair" from 1968. The film features music by Telluride honoree Michel Legrand. Meanwhile across town, festival staffers attended an orientation and were given a special screening of Todd Haynes’ "I’m Not There," one of the buzz films of the festival so far. And yesterday afternoon, festival patrons and press got an early look at fest title "The Band’s Visit" from Israel."

[SF360.org editor’s note: This article appeared originally in indieWIRE on Sept. 1, 2007. Additional coverage from Telluride is being published on indieWIRE.com, with more dispatches on indieWIRE editor Eugene Hernandez’s personal blog.]

Haynes and Dylan, Freedom and Identity

Introducing the first pubic screening of Todd Haynes’ "I’m Not There" on Friday night here at the Telluride Film Festival, rock critic and Bob Dylan expert Greil Marcus prepared the audience saying, "Even if everyone in this room loves it, you will be arguing about this film for a long time." Indeed, not even 24 hours after the first showing ended, festival-goers have been buzzing about, and debating, Haynes’ innovative, exhilarating look at the life of an American icon. As has been well-documented, Haynes explores Dylan’s life through seven distinct characters performed by six different actors. And the film essentially offers a deep examination of music, cinema and popular culture rooted in the 1960s.

In "I’m Not There" — with access to anything that Dylan said, sang or wrote — Haynes has actually created multiple movies, each distinctly designed and shot, and then woven them into a two-hour and 15 minute film that is even greater than the sum of its parts. If you get up to go to the bathroom during this movie, Haynes quipped on Friday, you could miss 15 chapters of the story. Notably, other than an on screen statement at the start of the film that reads, "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan," the musician’s name is never spoken in the film. The different personas of Dylan each have different names.

Cate Blanchett portrays a version of Bob Dylan at his most familiar, in the mid-‘60s during his infamous transition from folk to rock music, while Richard Gere plays Dylan as a ‘Billy The Kid’ type who lives in a Fellini-esque Western town, and Christian Bale is Dylan as a seemingly reborn Christian preacher man. It continues from there, with roles for Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, and Marcus Carl Franklin.

"Great actors want to do unconventional things," explained Haynes, in a conversation with Greil Marcus on Saturday morning, saying that despite a notoriously dense script for this film, "All I was really focused on was trying to find a narrative and cinematic parallel, on some level, to what Dylan did to popular music in his era, not that it’s ended and not that it’s a singular turn." Continuing he said, "I think I knew from the outset that I would fail ultimately because the ’60s were such an extraordinary time of audience openness to new ideas — expressing ideas and political ideas — and the hunger for newness and a suspicion of things that make money. That’s not true today."

Today, Haynes emphasized, artists and performers cannot be as elastic as Dylan was with popular songs and achieve both artistic and popular success. "It would be a miracle," Haynes said, "If the popularity that marked Dylan’s life would be something that we could experience today."

"I am drawing from film tradition for each of the stories," Haynes noted this morning a few hours before leaving Telluride for his movie’s Venice Film Festival debut. And those looking for links from his own filmography won’t have to go far, finding clear connections to both "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" and "Velvet Goldmine," which each also explore popular culture.

Noting that the idea of freedom, a key concept in "I’m Not There," is the ability to escape a fixed self, Haynes also reflected on similar themes in his own work. He said that his films explore the "dilemma of identity" that for becomes a "straightjacket." Concluding the thought he said that characters in his movies, "demonstrate different kinds of rebellions against those constraints."

Personal and Political: "The Band’s Visit"

First-time Israeli feature director Eran Kolirin briefly welcomed guests to a private patron and press screening of "The Band’s Visit" on Friday afternoon at the Telluride Film Festival, his Cannes award-winning film unveiled as a surprise showing for the fest’s special guests. Saying that introducing a movie is a bit like meeting a man or woman for the first time, Kolirin admitted that sometimes there is a connection, but other times there isn’t. This crowd-pleaser, which was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics in Cannes, clearly worked for many in attendance and had attendees buzzing favorably after the showing.

The film is the seemingly simple, often quiet story of an Egyptian police band that mistakenly ends up stranded overnight in a small Israeli town. Kolirin, a filmmaker with long lost dreams of being a musician, said he conceived of the film after imagining a uniformed man singing an Arabic song. He developed the story from there.

Made amidst the current cultural and political stalemate between Israel and Egpyt, the story takes on greater meaning in its depiction of band members bonding with local residents in the small town. Asked during a Q & A session about the recent wave of strong Israeli cinema, the film’s producer Eilon Rachkovsky noted that filmmakers back home seem mostly done "dealing with political issues all the time." But, politely interrupting his colleague, director Eran Kolirian clarified, "I have to disagree, this is a political movie." (Reprinted with permission, copyright Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE 2007.)

topics: arab cinema, music, political film, telluride film festival

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34 from the Telluride Film Festival

Some three dozen new features will be unveiled this weekend at the 34th Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, including anticipated first screenings of new films by Noah Baumbach ("Margot at the Wedding"), Sean Penn ("Into The Wild"), Wayne Wang ("A Thousand Years of Good Prayers") and Werner Herzog ("Encounters at the End of the World"), as well as acclaimed recent festival hits from Julian Schnabel ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), Christian Mungiu ("4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"), Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud ("Persepolis"), and Baltasar Kormakur ("Jar City"). Rounding out the list, as always, will be a number of surprise showings — one of which will be Todd Haynes’ anticipated "I’m Not There" — as well as a number of archival films, tributes, and a new series of movies about the movies.

[SF360 editor’s note: This article appeared originally in indieWIRE Aug. 30, 2007. IndieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez will continue reporting from Telluride, with dispatches posted throughout the weekend at indieWIRE.com.]

"I have to say thank you to the filmmakers of the world for making what is my first year look very good," praised Gary Meyer, the new co-director of the festival, in a conversation with indieWIRE. After a number of years as a key staffer, Meyer was named to run the event with Tom Luddy after festival co-founders Bill Pence and Stella Pence announced their departure at the conclusion of last year’s edition. "If we had any problem," enthused Meyer, "It was that there were too many good movies."

Actor Daniel Day Lewis, star of the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film "There Will Be Blood," will be one of three honorees in Telluride, but Anderson (who will present the award) is only expected to show a portion of his still unfinished new film. Also to be honored in Telluride this year are renowned Indian director Shyam Benegal ("Ankur," "Bhumika," and "Zubeidaa") and composer Michel Legrand, whose films "Five Days in June" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" will screen this weekend. The festival will also honor film critic Leonard Maltin, who will present a selection of Vitaphone shorts.

Fewer than 2,000 passholders attend the intimate Telluride Film Festival each year and attendees do not learn the full lineup until just 24 hours before the fest kicks off. After a traditional outdoor street party on Friday evening, screenings begin throughout the small mountain town and the ritual bonding and buzz begins, typically in long lines outside theaters.

"Over and over again, people say, ‘my favorite thing about Telluride is standing in line and talking about movies," boasted Meyer, during the conversation with indieWIRE.

Comparing the event to a big dinner party, Telluride Film Festival co-director Tom Luddy told indieWIRE last year, "We started the fest in Telluride because we couldn’t think of a more magical and beautiful place to bring people together," adding that he loves to "bring people together…in a place where they can mix, approach the filmmakers and talk." He added in the conversation last year, "We feel that in four days (people) live an intense time with film and with other people who love film."

While the new films, some already anticipated as Oscar contenders, receive considerable attention among attendees, equally popular are the archival showings and special events which pack Telluride’s converted theaters that are constructed (to top-notch technical specifications) just for the weekend festival.

King Vidor’s classic "The Big Parade," one of the many classic films on tap, will be presented with a live musical performance by Gabriel Thibaudeau, as will Korean director Shin Sang-ok’s "Bound by Chastity Rules," and Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer’s "People on Sunday" (with a live performance from the Mont Alto Orchestra), and Richard Lester’s "Help!."

Telluride guest curator Edith R. Kramer from the Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley has booked five archival programs for Telluride ’07, including a salute to director George Kuchar, along with screenings of Marco Ferreri’s "Dillinger is Dead," Teuvo Tulio’s "The Way You Wanted Me," Frank Launder & Sidney Gilliat’s "Millions Like Us," and Paul Fejos’ "Marie, A Hungarian Legend."

Asked how he and Luddy choose just a few dozen new feature films from the more than 500 that are considered, TFF co-director Gary Meyer explained, "For our audience, who travel a long way to see the films we are showing — and at great expense — we want to try to give them a sampling [of films from around the world]."

FESTIVAL LINEUP

New feature films and documentaries (information provided by the Telluride Film Festival):

1. Todd McCarthy’s "Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema" about the influential publicist, sometime film distributor and film buff who discovered talent such as Jane Campion and Abbas Kiarostami.

2. Lee Chang-dong’s "Secret Sunshine" stars Jeon Do-yeon, winner of the Best Actress prize at Cannes, as a young woman trying to adjust to a new life with her young son amidst tragedy.

3. "Who is Norman Lloyd?," Matthew Sussman’s biography tracing actor/director Norman Lloyd’s 70 years as an entertainer.

4. "Rails and Ties," Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut, stars Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden in a story about two families in physical, emotional and psychological collision.

5. Julian Schnabel’s "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" turns Ronald Harwood’s adaptation of ELLE France’s editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby’s best-selling memoir into a celebration of his hero’s two remaining assets: imagination and memory. The film, which won Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes, stars Mathieu Amalric, Marie Josee Croze, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Consigny and Max von Sydow.

6. Winner of Cannes’ Palme d’Or, writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s film, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," set in the final year of Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania, depicts the horrors of the Securitate and the brutality of its methods used. Starring Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu.

7. In Eran Kolirin’s "The Band’s Visit," the Alexandrian Police Orchestra, comprised of eight or nine slightly bewildered Egyptian policeman, head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in a foreign city. Starring Ronit Elkabetz, three-time winner of the Israeli "Oscar."

8. "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," Wayne Wang’s adaptation of stories by young writer Yiyun Li, explores the cultural differences between China and America while a father (Henry O) travels to Spokane to visit his daughter.

9. Stefan Ruzowitzky’s "The Counterfeiters" is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history set up by the Nazis in 1936.

10. "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud’s adaptation of Satrapi’s graphic novel by the same name, is a gripping, bittersweet and surprisingly funny female coming-of-age tale. Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop provide voice support.

11. "When Did You Last See Your Father?", David Nicholl’s adaptation of poet-novelist Blake Morrison’s memoir directed by Anand Tucker tells the story of a son’s conflicting memories of his dying father. Starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent.

12. In "Terror’s Advocate," Telluride veteran Barbet Schroeder documents the story of the controversial French lawyer Jacques Verges, a former Free French Forces guerrilla who defended unpopular figures such as Carlos the Jackal and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.

13. "Into The Wild," writer-director Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction tale of Chris McCandless’s (Emile Hirsch) solo journey into Alaska’s most remote wilderness.

14. "Jar City," adapted from one of Arnaldur Indridason’s best selling detective-novel series by writer-director Baltasar Kormakur, is a police thriller set in contemporary Iceland starring Ingvar Sigurdsson.

15. "Jellyfish," co-directed by popular Israeli novelist Etgar Keret and his wife, screenwriter Shira Geffen, who won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for their film, follows three women through their lives in Tel Aviv. Stars Sarah Adler, Ma-nenita De Latorre and Noa Knoller.

16. In writer-director Li Yang’s "Blind Mountain," the promise of a decent paying job lures a woman to a desolate farming village in Northern China only to find out she’s essentially been sold in to slavery.

17. "Brick Lane," Sarah Gavron’s adaptation of Monica Ali’s controversial Booker Prize-winning novel, follows Nazneen (Satish Kaushik) from her impoverished life in Bangladesh to post-9/11 London, where she struggles to make sense of her life.

18. Oscar-winning Kevin Macdonald returns to Telluride with "My Enemy’s Enemy," a documentary that tracks Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, a.k.a. the Butcher of Lyon.

19. "Cargo 200," Aleksei Balabanov’s controversial film set in 1984 ravaged industrialized Russia offers a detailed portrait of the Soviet Union in its death throes.

20. "Margot at the Wedding," from writer-director Noah Baumbach, tells the story of Margot (Nicole Kidman), who tries to stop the wedding of her sister Pauline (1993 TFF Tributee Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the less-than-impressive Malcolm (Jack Black). Ciaran Hinds and John Turturro round out the ensemble cast.

21. In "Encounters at the End of the World," Werner Herzog explores the vast empty splendor of Antarctica and, along with the physicists, biologists and volcanologists he interviews, tries to extract meaning from this desolate place.

22. "Wind Man," Khuat Akhmetov’s striking second feature centers around a struggling town in post-Soviet Kazakhstan visited by a mysterious, aging, sickly man with wings and the gift of flight.

23. In "Journey With Peter Sellars," Mark Kidel travels the globe with Sellars (TFF Guest Director, 1999) to reveal the inner life of a true visionary.

24. "Steep!," writer-director Mark Obenhaus’s extreme skiing documentary features ski legends Stefano de Benedetti, Glen Plake, Doug Coombs and Seth Morrison.

Backlot, featuring ten films about films (information provided by the Telluride Film Festival):

25. "A Lucky Adventurer of Korean Film: Director Shin Sang-ok, about the kidnapping and imprisonment of Sang-ok and his wife, actress Choi Eun-hie. Directed by Lee Sung-soo.

26. "Bergman Island: Ingmar Bergman on Faro Island, Cinema & Life," features clips from behind-the-scenes footage from "The Seventh Seal," "Through A Glass Darkly" and "Persona." Directed by Marie Nyrerod.

27. "Chris & Don: A Love Story," about British-born author Christopher Isherwood and his unconventional relationship with Don Bachardy. Directed by Guido Santi and Tina Mascara.

28. "The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk," Warner Brothers presentation of the history of cinema’s sound pioneers.

29. "Estrellas," a story about Julio Arrieta and the unemployed extras, actors and crews he hires on South American productions. Directed by Federico Leon and Marcos Martinez.

30. "For The Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism," featuring interviews from J. Hoberman, Elvis Mitchell, David D’Arcy, John Powers, Roger Ebert, Richard Schickel and many more. Directed by Gerald Peary.

31. "Hats Off," follows the day-to-day life of Mimi Weddell, a 92 year old actress living in New York City. Directed by Jyll Johnstone.

32. "Man In The Shadows: Val Lewton," Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones celebrate Lewton, his key team and their films.

33. "Maurice Pialat: Love Exists," a tribute to the late Pialat. Directed by Anne-Marie Faux and Jean-Pierre Devillers.

34. "The Story of the Kelly Gang," a restoration of the original from 1906. By John, Charles and Nevin Tait. (Reprinted with permission, copyright Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE 2007.)

topics: film festivals, telluride film festival

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Telluride in transition

Changing horses in midstream is never recommended, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. That’s the case with the one-of-a-kind Telluride Film Festival, founded in 1975 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and James Card. An intimate four-day buffet of tributes, premieres, restorations, and revivals laid out in the Colorado mountains, Telluride is an oasis for film lovers. The deal-making, gossip, and financial chitchat endemic to Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, and Sundance are absent and art (and the art of the anecdote) take center stage. At the end of last year’s conclave, however, the Pences announced their retirement and handed their share of the reins to exhibition veteran Gary Meyer. The fest subsequently consolidated its headquarters in Berkeley and enters a new era as the curtains go up Friday on the 34th annual bash. What changes lie in store?

Precious few, frankly. The unique cachet of Telluride — which derives from the isolation and beauty of its location, the absolute secrecy that cloaks the program until mere hours before the opening program and the small number of passes (1,200 for sale to the public and journalists, a couple hundred for patrons and 600 for festival employees, who are at the movies when they’re not working their shifts) — is something neither Luddy nor Meyer wish to mess with. Indeed, Meyer’s familiarity and history with the festival (he’s been a regular attendee since the second fest in 1975, and a part of the curatorial team and a member of the Board of Governors for several years) had a lot to do with Luddy and Bill Pence’s decision.

“We both identified Gary years ago as the person who’d be the new co-director,” Luddy confides on the phone from Taos, en route to Telluride with a van of staffers and volunteers. “I have a lot of confidence in Gary. I’ve known him forever.” Meyer, of course, co-founded and ran Landmark Theatres for 20 years before selling the chain in 1996, and most recently consulted various exhibitors while running the Balboa Twin in the Richmond District. “Gary’s certainly got the right kind of sensibility for the festival,” says an objective but interested observer, Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing. “I think he’s the perfect match for Telluride.” For his part, Meyer says, “I can’t imagine there being a better next act.”

Luddy and Meyer solidified the staff by bringing in Julie Huntsinger to take up Stella Pence’s mantle as Managing Director. Huntsinger’s entry to the film biz came almost 15 years ago as Luddy’s assistant at Zoetrope in San Francisco; she soon moved up to production supervisor for feature films. Director of support Muffy Deslaurier, meanwhile, agreed to relocate from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the Pences lived and had maintained a festival office.

Several degrees of efficiency are gained by having the fest’s permanent year-round staff in one place, Luddy notes. That applies to the programmers as well, even in the age of DVD, Fed Ex and broadband. “It was becoming a little more difficult, especially when we were seeing new films from studios on digital formats when they’re unfinished,” Luddy explains. “Bill would have to go to Boston, and a lot of time would be lost. Now Gary and I can see [a work in progress] together, at Pixar or Lucasfilm.” Hu, who’s based in Los Angeles, seconds that emotion. “There are times just being in California makes it easier to be plugged in,” he states.

Neither Meyer nor Luddy anticipate, however, that being based in the Bay Area will influence the festival’s programming. Especially this year, when the bosses are sticking to the main road rather than blazing a new trail. “Except for the fact that I’ll be introducing more movies, it’s going to look like Telluride has always looked,” Meyer asserts. That means a guest programmer with a specific theme, for one thing. Edith Kramer, the retired curator and director of the Pacific Film Archive, is filling that role with a focus on avant-garde film, including a salute to a Bay Area experimental filmmaker. [SF360.org editor’s note: Our pre-fest guess, Bruce Conner, was incorrect. George Kuchar is the tributee.]

Another constant at Telluride is three honorees: One household name (Penelope Cruz filled that slot in 2006), an individual who’s well known in cinema circles but not to the general public (Walter Murch was feted last year) and an artist who’s achieved a reputation in his or her own country but is largely unknown beyond its borders (filmmaker Rolf de Heer of Australia took the bows). Bay Area film buffs without tickets to Colorado should know the cat has slipped out of the bag with respect to the last category. Careful readers of the small print in the PFA’s September/October calendar will share our conclusion that it’s not a coincidence that the veteran Indian director Shyam Benegal is coming to Berkeley with three of his films a scant two days after Telluride.

A tribute to Benegal in Colorado would be perfectly consistent with Meyer’s mantra for Telluride’s attendees. “They deserve something they haven’t seen before,” he declares. “I don’t want someone to come from New York and say, ‘Tribeca showed five of these movies.’” Between Luddy and Meyer’s clout and the festival’s reputation for attracting quality films and the top filmmakers, there seems little chance that throngs of unsatisfied filmgoers will suddenly start appearing at the Telluride hitching post.

topics: film festivals, telluride film festival

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