Catching up on my AFI Dallas dispatching …
Tuesday I caught David Poland’s panel on “Should Real Life be Protected from Filmmakers?” David moderated, and the other panelists were Children of Invention director Tze Chun (and dammit, I still need to catch that film — missed it again here), journalist Eric Kohn and Art & Copy director Doug Pray (who also made the somewhat controversial film Surfwise).
This panel raised some interesting issues that I’d like to see delved further into. For instance, in the case of the two filmmakers on the panel, we have one director who made a narrative film (Children of Invention) that is heavily autobiographical but somewhat fictionalized, and a documentary film (Art & Copy) in which the director said during the panel that he was unable to get his subjects to say anything negative about advertising in general or specific ads, or he wouldn’t have had subjects to interview at all. Narrative films are, of course, very often based on semi-autobiographical material, but I’d love to hear more about the decisions directors of those types of films make with regard to what to include or not, where to fictionalize versus pulling directly for life.
But for me, Pray raised some compelling issues around documentary filmmaking that speak to the issue of whether a documentary can ever capture objective “truth” (or for that matter, whether there even is such a thing) and where the lines are for a documentary filmmaker between telling a story — or conveying a particular message the filmmaker wants to get across — versus documenting a subject or an event. Of course, every director brings his or her own bias to a film, whether documentary or narrative, but when you’re saying, as Pray did, that he was unable to get anything that told the other, potentially negative side of the story in making his film, for me that raises a question of whether as a filmmaker he was actually making a “documentary” versus making a promotional film that paints an industry in exactly the way in which the subject wants it painted. I’m not sure I even know where I’d draw those lines myself, but it’s certainly a topic that I think merits discussion, both by the critics who evaluate such films and the documentary filmmakers who make them.

Yesterday, I participated on a panel on “Sex and the Movies” that proved to be lively and engaging. On the panel with me were Lisa Rosman, who writes for US Weekly and Flavorpill, and actresses Arianne Martin (The Other Side of Paradise, playing here at AFI Dallas), Heather Matarazzo (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Hostel 2) and Monique Parent (who’s been in many, many pictures, most of which include “totally gratuitous nudity” — her words, not my own personal judgment of her work). With AFI’s John Wildman moderating, we kicked off by discussing the portrayal of sex and sexuality in films, particularly as it concerns young girls/older men (Towelhead, Twilight) versus younger guys/older women (The Reader).
But from there we veered off into a whole range of topics, from the objectification of female bodies in films and the media (some great insights into that from Ms. Rosman, who talked about US Weekly and the reality that what they produce there is driven solely by consumer demand), to misogynistic attitudes in everything from hip-hop music to websites like website Mr. Skin (which I’m starting to kind of consider as a personified arch-nemesis of sorts — I’m now picturing “Mr. Skin” as a seedy-looking guy with greased-back hair, skulking around dark corners in a dirty trenchcoat, offering pictures of tits and ass to passers-by) to whether Hostel 2 respresents a misogynistic worldview (for the record, I don’t think it does, although the Saw films for me are in a completely different category of “yuck”).
Matarazzo had some very interesting things to say about Hostel 2, in which her character is hung nude, upside down, and tortured to death by a female character — so interesting, in fact, that it made me want to view the film again with her perspective in mind, although I generally don’t find the Hostel films pleasurable to watch. She also seriously made me crave re-watching Welcome to the Dollhouse, which is going to be a top priority upon my return. I may even do a retro-review on that one.
Martin and Parent had some pretty fascinating things to say about working nude and doing sex scenes in films; I didn’t get a chance to talk to the latter as much as I would have liked, but I’m thinking about getting ahold of her and doing a lengthier interview with her, as I’d love to hear her perspective on whether she views the types of films she’s tended to work in as objectifying of women or empowering of them sexually. She was quite fascinating to listen to, and struck me as very smart and open about sexuality generally.
Still have a couple of AFI Dallas reviews coming up, but very briefly: Saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead, which I quite enjoyed; RIP: A Remix Manifesto, about copyright issues in sampling, which is completely fascinating and probably was illegal to even watch; and Haze, a tragic and cautionary documentary about drinking among college students, centered around the alcohol-poisoning death of a college freshman at the University of Colorado. Tonight we’re catching The Cove, which I expect to be good, but hard to watch.
Also, caught a couple of great little short films: Lucy, about a 16-year-old girl struggling with delayed onset of puberty (not quite “Welcome to the Dollhouse” material, but still quite good) and Danzak, an award-winning short about a Peruvian girl and her dying father, a traditional dancer, which was excellent. Going to the closing night party, and will also have some pics and maybe a video from that to put up later as well. Traveling home tomrrow though, so may not have a chance to get all that done before we leave — we’ll see how late we’re out tonight, and how long my stamina holds.

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