PARK CITY REPORT : Call to End Gulf War Mars Sundance Awards : Movies: A group asks presenter John Sayles to read the proposal. He does but notes that all filmmakers may not share the view and is proved right. The resolution is not voted upon.
PARK CITY, Utah — The Gulf War intruded in an unexpected and dramatic manner during the awards ceremonies at Sundance’s 10th film festival.
Awards presenter John Sayles had been asked by a group of filmmakers, including “Roger & Me’s†Michael Moore, to read a proposal on the war. In the name of the participants of the closing-night ceremonies, it called for “an immediate end to the American war in the Persian Gulf.â€
Sayles read it, but left room for a possible lack of unanimity in the audience by prefacing it with the temperate suggestion, “Don’t assume just because we go to the same festival we have the same opinions in politics.â€
He turned out to be absolutely right. Even at a gathering of filmmakers popularly thought to be liberal if not radical, the idea of such a resolution divided the room painfully. The matter was dropped rather than voted upon. It left the audience in a darker mood for the awards that followed and created knots of intense debaters at the party afterwards.
(For Sayles’ considerable pains to keep the ceremony from turning into a town meeting on the war, one anti-war adherent disdainfully gave him a little toy tank, in what passed for crushing scorn.)
The brouhaha Friday night was telling, however--an X-ray of the independent film world today. Far from rubber-stamping one another’s sentiments, these are artists who often do not even share the same viewpoints or the same interests. This maverick quality made the fact that nearly a dozen of the festival’s films are elaborations on the same theme--the failure of the American dream--especially telling.
The first variation on this theme came from documentarian Barbara Kopple with her passionate, complex “American Dream,†which traced the 5-year-long struggle and eventual fragmentation of a local union at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn. The film speaks to every kind of festivalgoer and became the first-ever to win three prizes at Park City--the Audience Award, the Filmmaker’s Trophy from Kopple’s peers and the Grand Jury prize, which it shared with “Paris Is Burning.â€
Thus Kopple joined Sayles in the list of filmmakers, established and first-time, narrative and documentary, whose films mirror a fractured and disappointed country.
Sayles’ ironically titled “City of Hope†centers on new and old patterns of corruption in a decaying New Jersey city; “Blood in the Face†lays out the chilling fervor of America’s new white supremacists; “Iron Maze,†told “Rashomonâ€-style, concerns a Japanese’s firm’s takeover of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town; in “Paris Is Burning,†gay New York blacks and Puerto Ricans forge a world for themselves to replace one that has rejected them.
“Straight Out of Brooklyn†charts the isolation and blighted promise of life in the projects; “Slacker†is an intricate portrait of 105 mostly young Austin, Tex., adults gripped by an inertia and a lack of commitment that is terrifying; “Trust†catches two all-American families in the throes of a deadly downward spiral; “Prison Stories†gives dramatic form to the grim statistic that 111% more women are imprisoned than were in 1980; and “Hangin’ With the Homeboys,†for all its considerable humor, cocks a cool eye on the chances--without more school--of two of its quartet to break their cycle of no work and no self-esteem.
Individually, these are striking films; cumulatively, their evidence is scathing and inescapable. To spend very much time watching them is to realize how starved an empty-calories mainstream diet can leave you.
Overall, this 10th-year collection was a rich, international assortment: the films of Robert Altman and Michael Powell to celebrate the best of what has gone before; a glimpse of a new generation of Japanese filmmakers to suggest some of the richness of the emerging present. And there was an exceptionally good crop of shorts to round out the features.
Even with a major miscalculation like the into-the-camera confessional “Whoreâ€--in which director Ken Russell sold actress Theresa Russell straight down the river, then photographed the trip--the overall programming this year seemed thoughtful and inclusive.
This is a very personal annotation of some of the prize-winners:
“One Cup of Coffee,†the head-and-shoulders favorite in the audience vote, is a remarkably unsurprising film about the growing friendship of two D-league baseball players--William Russ’ generous, almost over-the-hill pro and Glenn Plummer’s shy, 17-year-old black rookie--back in baseball’s uncharitable 1950s. It is carefully directed, shot, lit and art directed, without a mistake or a single arresting moment. Nevertheless, Plummer’s extraordinary performance, rich in every inner detail, is enough to make it mandatory. Expect it sometime in the near future; it came into the festival as a release from Miramax.
To judge by decibel level, the citation to 19-year-old Matty Rich’s “Straight Out of Brooklyn†for “most perfectly embodying the spirit of independent filmmaking†spoke for the hearts of all the audience as well.
The juries prizes seemed better balanced this year than last--and this is in spite of a roaring distaste for two of them, “Poison†and “Trust.â€
Creating the Waldo Salt screenplay award seems a good place to recognize talent that might otherwise slip by: Certainly it was good to see a non-mainstream film like “Hangin’ With the Homeboys†recognized for its cracklingly funny script by Joseph Vasquez.
Like last year’s “Chameleon Street,†which inexplicably placed ahead of Charles Burnett’s “To Sleep With Anger,†the dramatic feature award to Todd Haynes’ “Poison†created a vast amount of controversy. Inspired by stories of Jean Genet, its three sections are unrelated, shot in different styles, and seem to take pleasure in their moments of debasement and grotesqueness, like the spitting contest into a young acolyte’s open mouth. For me, this is Genet as done by Nebraska Eagle Scout Troop No. 17, a very peculiar business indeed.
A grain of salt about these awards: Peculiar or outrageous jury choices seem to have a way of working out for the best; they make the filmmaker and the jury euphoric at the time, then they simply never pick up a distributor, so everything levels out.
The 1991 Sundance Film Festival winners:
Grand Jury Prize, dramatic feature: “Poison,†director Todd Haynes.
Grand Jury Prize, documentary: a tie between “Paris Is Burning,†director Jennie Livingston, and “American Dream,†director Barbara Kopple.
Special Jury Prize, for a film that perfectly embodies the spirit of independent filmmaking: “Straight Out of Brooklyn,†director Matty Rich.
Audience Award, dramatic: “One Cup of Coffee,†director Robin Armstrong.
Audience Award, documentary: “American Dream.â€
Filmmakers Trophy, dramatic: “Privilege,†director Yvonne Rainer.
Filmmakers Trophy, documentary: “American Dream.â€
Best Cinematography, dramatic: “Daughters of the Dust,†Julie Dash.
Best Cinematography, documentary: “Christo in Paris,†David and Albert Maysles.
Waldo Salt Screenwriting award: a tie between “Trust,†by Hal Hartley, and “Hangin’ With the Homeboys,†by Joseph Vasquez.
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