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CINEQUEST - 2006 Opening coverage
Contributed by Sara Schieron
Thursday, 02 March 2006
The CineQuest 16 catalogue reads like 4 years of film school in 12 days. Filled with World Premiers and brandishing a hefty international film catalogue, the festival's big highlight this year will be their filmmaker forums. This is not to say CineQuest isn't showing off its biggest and brightest, it's got plenty of films and guests, but this year, their panels are saddled with celebrity moderators. The Day of the Distributor Features a panel called "Internet film Distribution: The Democratization of Opportunity", and it's moderated by the Chairman of Kontiki, Mike Homer. Additionally, the Day of the Writer Forum Series will be graced by none other than Lew Hunter of Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 and Richard Walter of Screenwriting: the Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing.
Beyond the filmmakers who are in attendance with their films, festival guests include this year's Maverick Spirit award winner, Edward James Olmos as well as William H. Macy who will be present to show his new film EDMOND and offer a Q/A to follow.
Festival Chair Halfdan Hussey made note of the guests and panels in his Festival Open Address. Packed with guests, the opulent California Theatre reverberated with speeches and thank yous, until the inaugural film short began. Sitting in silence the crowd anticipated the audio track but got nothing. Respectfully, Hussey remained silent through the obvious technical difficulty. When the final projection hit the screen "Thank you to Panasonic for making this Short possible", the joke that would litter the evening's discussion was born. Hussey began the ribbing: "You should really look into the filmmaking forums...this year we're teaching sound."
The festival opening this year is a pet from the Sundance Line up. THANK YOU FOR SMOKING is a taught and fast paced comedy based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name. Relentlessly acerbic, the film revolves around Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a Lobbyist for Big Tobacco who speaks to improve the image of smokers, smoking and cigarettes to a public who vocally admonishes him.
Though the affecting journalist (Katie Holmes) who interviews him for a prominent Washington Newspaper refers him to as the "Yuppie Mephistopheles", a relationship of sorts still results and ironically not because of Naylor's capacity for beguiling. We knew this could happen from Naylor's first lines. In the opening scene alone, we watch him unconscionably lure a 16 year old with lung cancer into believing in the heavenly aura of tobacco - on national television, with an applauding audience, no less.
Though Naylor is a twist on the classical anti-hero, he's not without his charms, or his friends. Explicitly manipulative, he's far from the only evil in the film. Weekly he meets with two other lobbyists, (representing guns and alcohol), who are darkly referred to as the M.O.D. [Merchants of Death] squad. Naylor is by no means the only disaffected spin doctor on the Block. Anti-heroes are more conspicuous when they stand alone, and though Naylor stands out, he doesn‘t stand alone. He's a product of his environment and a hero in the villainous machinery.
The film moves fast and the acting truly offers one the impression this speed is required to keep up with the characters, each of whom feel almost unwittingly comical as they make humor of the sufferings of others. The film itself depicts the conflicts of integrity and meaning in a context bleached of its values. To an effect, it is it's own expression of needful resistance.
Cleverly in this saga of smoking and conciliation not one person wields a cigarette. Quietly, the filmmaker's show their ideals.
One of the most wonderful things about the opening and closing night events at CineQuest is the structure. The California is a block away from the Paragon Restaurant, so the screening attendees collect in lines and clusters to make the tiny journey from theatre to the party. Along the way you can hear the commentary of the guests. Strikingly, the film's wit was appreciated but the crowd seemed to find the protagonist flat and lacking in resonance. "He wasn't supposed to be redeeming." one guest commented. To which the first replied: "I don't know but he should have been something." I heard more than once that Naylor's character left people wanting. An ironic comment as the film is about spin and ideological manipulation. The audience commentary wasn't thoughtless it was deprived. And to a degree, that sense of longing seemed to drill the success of the film home even more.
At the party, there was food, wine, a DJ and a boatload of filmmakers. In the door, the first person to meet was the programmer, Michael Rabehl. Rabehl highlighted the shorts, saying that the work of Bill Maxey, the long time shorts programmer, was in especially good form. In line I had met Neil Baker and Paul Gill, both of whom have shorts in the Student Series (PASTA POINT OF NO RETURN and BLACK CANDLE respectively), and I met Victor Bellomo, director of MESSAGE FROM THE BOSS, a film in the animated shorts. Increasingly the shorts are boasted for excellence and intelligence. Programmed by Maxey, the shorts series are the unsung gems of the festival every year.
Sheepish about his favorite of fest, Rabehl did mention two films: CHALK (screening 3/2 at 9:30 and 3/3 at 7:45), a comedy about the high school teachers in their first year, made in the style of Arrested Development; and FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD (screening 3/5 at 7pm, 3/7 at 5:15 and 3/8 at 12:30pm) a Finnish film based on the true story of a father who holds his family together after the loss of one of his son.
The lineup is a taut one. The crowd was buzzing about THE O TAPES, THE HAMILTONS, LUCID and FALL TO GRACE. MY CHILD: MOTHERS OF WAR faces its world premier on the 4th at 6:30 (California Theatre) will include a rally at the foot of City Hall prior to screening. So much each day and with 12 days of activity, sleep will have to wait.
Coverage of the festival, its guests and forums will follow.
