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Kim Voynar

By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com

Posted Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 - Comments Off on Ebertfest Dispatch: Woodstock Flashbacks
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Ebertfest Dispatch: Woodstock Flashbacks

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If I had the ability to travel back and forth in time, one place I’d for sure go would be Woodstock. Blame it on growing up with hippie parents, but I’ve always wished that my folks had made the trek to Yasgur’s farm just so I could say I was one of those nekkid little hippie babies running around there. Tonight I had the almost-to-next-best-thing: the opening night film at this year’s Ebertfest was Woodstock, the Director’s Cut. Four hours of hippie rock ‘n roll bliss, and even if I wasn’t interested in the rest of it, I’d have sat through the entire thing just to see Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix on that big screen at the lovely Virgina Theater.


What was particularly cool was checking out the crowd throughout the film. The packed house was pretty well-stocked with older folks who were, once upon a time, a part of the Woodstock generation, and they were completely into this film. I figured half or more of the crowd would sneak away during the “Interfuckingmission,” but the vast majority stuck it out and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. After many of the performances, the audience applauded enthusiastically as if they were really there, and I heard quite a few people singing along with Country Joe McDonald: “So it’s 1, 2, 3, what’re we fighting for?” And I for sure wasn’t the only one mesmerized by Janis Joplin, and gazing in ecstasy at Jimi Hendrix, larger than life, playing that guitar like it was an extension of his body. Damn.
Also, I really want an outfit like Grace Slick wore at Woodstock. She was a total hippie goddess.
Prior to all the Woodstock acid-flashbacks, I popped over to the Opening Night Gala at the President’s House with Trouble the Water filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. It was a lovely affair, with a nice spread of food to munch on, and most of the fest guests who are in town tonight were there, including Guy Maddin (here for My Winnipeg, which I’m seeing tomorrow no matter what else happens), Misty Upham (Frozen River), Karen Gehres (Begging Naked), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues) and Catinca Utaru (here all the way from Romania for The Fall). Trouble the Water’s Kimberly Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts are in town as well, and they stopped by the party with daughter Skyy, who was born at Sundance during the film’s premiere there last year. Skyy’s 15 months old now, and pretty much stole all the attention from anyone in her vicinity with her baby cuteness.
In other interesting Ebertfest news, it was announced at the party that Roger and Chaz Ebert have made a donation of $1 million to UIUC, Ebert’s alma mater, to fund a film studies program that will host workshops with master filmmakers, writers and such. Very cool of Ebert to give back to the school and town from which he hails, though I wouldn’t expect any less of him.
Tomorrow’s the first full day of the fest, and it promises to be a busy one. There’s a panel on “Movie Making and Distribution in Times of Turmoil” that I plan to check out in the morning, and then after lunch there are screenings of My Winnipeg and Chop Shop. Following Chop Shop I’m going to be moderating a Q&A with the filmmaker, Ramin Bahrani, and then post-dinner is the screening of Trouble the Water, which I’m looking forward to seeing again with this audience. More tomorrow, along with pictures … if I can beg, borrow or steal a USB cable that will work with my digital camera, since I brilliantly forgot to pack that necessary tool.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon