SLIFF 2015 – We Are Movie Geeks

ONCE MY MOTHER, FIDELIO: ALICE’S ODYSSEY Win EDA Awards At 2015 St. Louis International Film Festival

After 11 days of celebrating magnificent and electric movies, the 24th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) concluded on Sunday evening. At the closing ceremony the International Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) presented awards to two women filmmakers. Cate Marquis (St. Louis Jewish Light) and myself were on hand to announce our winners – chosen by a panel of AWFJ members.

Lucie Borleteau’s FIDELIO: ALICE’S ODYSSEY received the EDA for Best Female-Directed Narrative Feature, while Sophia Turkiewicz’s ONCE MY MOTHER took the EDA for Best Female-Directed Documentary.

Actress Lucie Borleteau makes her feature directing debut with this insightful study of a woman situated in an almost exclusively male milieu. Sailor Alice (Ariane Labed) joins the freighter Fidelio as a replacement engineer, soon discovering that the captain, Gaël (Melvil Poupaud), is a man with whom she was once romantically involved. Though she leaves behind a fiancé on land (Anders Danielsen Lie, Oslo, August 31st), she finds her feelings for Gaël have not abated. Buttressed by a remarkable international cast, Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey presents a rounded portrait of a passionate woman faced with difficult choices. Greek actress Labed won Best Actress at Locarno for her memorable performance. Nominated for two César Awards including Best Debut Feature.

When Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz was 7 years old, her Polish mother, Helen, abandoned her in an Adelaide orphanage. Sophia never forgot this maternal act of betrayal. Now in middle age, as Sophia examines her troubled relationship with Helen, she discovers the full story behind her mother’s miraculous survival in the years before, during, and after World War II. The details of Helen’s pre-Australia life are the stuff of epics: orphaned at 6; abandoned at age 9 by an indifferent uncle; forced to live for years on the streets of her small Polish town (now part of the Ukraine); shipped at 16 to a Russian gulag to work as a slave laborer after Stalin and Hitler divvy up Poland; twice compelled to trek endless miles through Russian territory, ending up first in Uzbekistan and then in Persia; displaced to a refugee camp in Rhodesia, where she becomes pregnant — by an Italian soldier — with Sophia; finally arriving in Australia, where she’s forced to temporarily place her daugher in an orphanage. With Helen now sliding into dementia, Sophia must confront some difficult questions: Did she ever truly know her mother? Does she have it in her heart to forgive her? And is it too late?

SLIFF Executive Director Cliff Froehlich said, “Dating back to the silent era, women have been vital contributors to film art, but they have long been underrepresented and underappreciated in the industry. Thankfully, that situation is changing, and the number of women filmmakers has grown exponentially in recent years. SLIFF believes it’s important to shine a spotlight on their increasing role, and the EDA Awards are an excellent means of acknowledging the diverse works that contemporary women filmmakers are directing.”

According to AWFJ President Jennifer Merin, “SLIFF is one of the country’s top regional showcases for independent and international film, and it has been a delight to collaborate with them and to honor them for presenting such an exciting slate of films by and about women.”

AWFJ EDA Award Jurors

Marina Antunes (Quietearth.us, Vancouver, Narrative), Laurie Coker (True View Reviews, Austin, Documentaries), Cate Marquis (St. Louis Jewish Light, St. Louis, Narrative), Jennifer Merin (chair, Women’s eNews, New York, Narrative), Michelle McCue (chair, We Are Movie Geeks, St. Louis, Documentaries), Rebecca Pahle (Film Journal International, Brooklyn, Narrative), Betsy Pickle (AWFJ, Knoxville, TN, Documentaries), and Diana Saenger (Review Express, Alpine, CA, Documentaries).

AWFJ, an organization of top women film journalists and critics from across the U.S, Canada and UK, will distribute in December a full slate of EDA Awards recognizing the year’s best (and worst) films by and about women.

Click HERE for the full list of winners.

SLIFF 2015 Review : FOUR WAY STOP

Nationwide news media seems to be filled with tales of urban violence (for those living in the larger cities, these stories can fill the first third of local newscast). How do these neighborhoods become powderkegs waiting to ignite and explode? Is it from tensions and frustrations simmering to a boil just under the surface of society? That’s the question posed by the new drama FOUR WAY STOP. The film’s focus is 17 year-old Allen (Paul Craig), who is going through the interview section of another fruitless job search. He’s got a part job at a corner snack shack, but his tardiness and absences (looking for a better gig) has raised the ire of his unsympathetic boss. Things aren’t that great at home since his folks split quite a while ago. His sickly mother (Mary K Casey) needs his wages to support them and her new live-in beau (of course this bully constantly clashes with him). Several blocks away is Allen’s drug-addled dad (Jaan Marion) who repeats tales of his former glory days while also hitting up his boy for cash. Well, Allen’s old childhood pal Tay (Jason J Little) can offer him some work, but it’s not really, you know, legal. But Allen’s determined to resist that route even as every door slams in his face while his anger builds until…

Director Efi Da Silva inspires terrific performances from this energetic cast. Particularly memorable is Marion as he rambles and rants about the better times while resisting the urge to collapse after his latest bender. There’s also very effective use of St. Louis locations, best showcased in an early sequence of Allen and Tay racing down the gritty blocks, lit by rows of street lamps under twilight and darkness. There are scenes that crackle with tension as Allen keeps butting heads with uncaring employers and their staff. FOUR WAY STOP is an unflinching, raw tale of tough times on the still very mean streets.

FOUR WAY STOP screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium on Sunday, November 15 at 1PM as part of the 24th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. Purchase tickets here

SLIFF 2015 Review : ARCHIE’S BETTY

Here’s an idea that many kids (and adults) dearly wanted (or still want) to do. I’m talking about having such a love of literary characters, that you believe that you could actually visit their homes and towns. For fans of famous prose novels there might be a desire to go to Narnia, Oz, or Middle Earth. DC comics fans would love to live or work in Metropolis or Gotham City (Marvel superhero lovers quickly discover that the actual NYC isn’t filled with Avengers and mutants). Ah, then reality kicks in and we realize that these locales can only exist in our daydreams. But what happens when you hear rumors of a real place that inspired your favorite comics line. This is what happened to film critic and historian Gerald Peary. In his youth he didn’t gravitate toward the spandex crowd, rather he was smitten with Archie Andrews, along with his pals Jughead, Moose, and Reggie. And he was especially with the other two sides of Archie’s eternal “love triangle”, raven-haired rich gal Veronica and fresh-scrubbed blonde next door Betty. They’ve been having adventures in the little idyllic town of Riverdale for nearly 75 years now. Peary decided to follow up on rumors that it was based on an actual town, Haverhill, MA to be exact. As narrator of this entertaining documentary, he relates the story of cartoonist Bob Montana (source of some controversy-many believe he created the Archie feature, while the company insists that its founder John Goldwater come up with the concept) and how he fell in love with the town and high school, though only having lived there a few years. Peary and an Archie expert comb through high school yearbooks, newspaper clippings and the classic comic books and comic strips like a pop culture Holmes and Watson unraveling a mystery. Though Mr. Andrews was a print media hybrid of teen Henry of “The Aldrich Family” radio show and Mickey Rooney as Andy Hardy in MGM’s popular feature film series, that ginger lad is all East Coaster. Many of the comics models are tracked down (there’s an old video interview with the real “Moose”), but the surprising reveal of the title “four-color” queen makes for a heart-warming finale.

Peary makes for an entertaining guide through this quaint little town and the journey of this freckle-faced funster first appearing as a humor filler in publisher MLJ’s mostly action hero anthology “Pep Comics” into a media juggernaut that would ultimately take over the name of the company (MLJ became Archie Comics). There’s a lots of original art and classic (very valuable) books plus the merchandising: fashions, toys, a radio show, and a live-action TV movie (little mention though of the smash hit 1968 CBS Saturday morning show produced by Filmation Studios that registered Super Bowl-like ratings numbers and spawned the number one hit record “Sugar Sugar”). ARCHIE’S BETTY is a touching, whimsical ode to a bygone era and a tribute to the folks that created and inspired America’s favorite bunch of immortal ageless teens.

ARCHIE’S BETTY screens at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theatre on Sunday, November 15 at noon as part of the 24th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. Purchase tickets here

SLIFF 2015 Review – IT HAD TO BE YOU

Review by Stephen Jones

IT HAD TO BE YOU screens Friday, November 13th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE

IT HAD TO BE YOU is a very, very average movie elevated by the sheer likability of Cristin Milioti. Nothing in the movie is particularly groundbreaking, no envelopes are pushed, but Milioti radiates. She isn’t exactly new on the acting scene; she got her initial exposure (of note) being way too good for the last season of How I Met Your Mother, then a too-brief role in “Wolf of Wall Street,” but here she is carrying an entire movie on the back of her screen presence and charm.

The rest of the movie is perfectly fine, save the person-shaped section of drywall they cast as the male lead. The cast as a whole is mostly solid, some of the jokes have a really good Sarah Andersen vibe to them, and Sasha Gordon is a decent first time director. That her background is in music and she cast a musically talented actress who bears some resemblance to her in the lead role of the quirky young composer is a little first-time-writer, but there are much worse ways to show that hand.

Really, though, aside from Dan Soder showing about as much charisma as a hole in your pocket, there’s nothing to complain about in the movie. It’s not great, but it’s not trying to be. Gordon seems to be keenly aware that she’s a first time writer/director and plays it safe, but in a smart way. It’s the sort of small, low-stakes movie that can get one really good thing going for it, and Milioti is definitely that. I wouldn’t nearly nominate this for any big acting awards, but I could watch Milioti be a more human Zooey Deschanel all day.

But beyond that there isn’t much to say about it. It’s a good “let’s go to the movies, I don’t care what we see” pick. Or if you just went to see one of the heavier SLIFF films, this would be a very nice, light palate cleanser. It’s fun, entirely inoffensive (aside from some weird slurs thrown around by a character while yelling in the background, I have no idea what that was about…), and there are a lot worse things out there to see than this. Even if it won’t necessarily stick with you for very long after you leave the theater.

SLIFF 2015 Interview: Gerald Peary – Director of ARCHIE’S BETTY

ARCHIE’S BETTY screens Sunday, November 15th at 12:00pm at The Plaza Frontenac Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Director Gerald Peary will be in attendance. Ticket information can be found HERE

In ARCHIE’S BETTY, journalist and filmmaker Gerald Peary embarks on a personal journey to determine whether the beloved characters in “Archie” comics were modeled on real-life people. As an “Archie”-obsessed child, Peary believed that somewhere in America there was a real town of Riverdale, where Archie and his teen friends went to school. As an adult, he found that his fantasy might have basis in fact: Riverdale could indeed be the city of Haverhill, Mass., where Bob Montana, the original cartoonist of “Archie,” attended high school in the mid-1930s. Did Montana love Haverhill High so much that he based “Archie” characters on students in his classes? Was Archie inspired by a girl-crazy Haverhill High cutup? Was Veronica modeled on the most popular girl at the high school? Was Betty based on the girl living next door to young Bob? And what of Moose and Jughead? For ARCHIE’S BETTY, Peary meets with Montana’s surviving classmates, a veteran “Archie” cartoonist, and “Archie” experts to unravel the real story. A long-time film critic, Peary is a SLIFF alum whose documentary FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM played the fest in 2009.

Gerald Peary took the time to answer some questions for We Are Movie Geeks

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 28th 2015

We Are Movie Geeks: I enjoyed your documentary or ARCHIE’S BETTY. After all of the heavy, more political documentaries I’ve seen it was nice to see something that was simply a throwback to a happier time.

Gerald Peary: Yes, there’s definitely no political agenda with my film.

WAMG: I could really relate to the comic books at the barbershop that you start off the phone with. When I was a kid there was a barbershop with a cabinet full of comic books and I used to love to go there just to read the comic books.

GP: That’s where I discovered Archie, at a barbershop. I doubt barbershops today have stacks of comic books laying around. But the more people ahead of me to head to get their haircut, the better. That way I got to read more comics.

WAMG: Do you remember the comic book machines? Where you would put a dime and two pennies in a vending machine.

GP: Oh I’m so old I remember the 10 cent comics. In my day we just go into a store and buy them. People have become so inundated with superhero comics that they forget that there were others about actual human beings. Archie is popular around the world. I’ve discovered that Archie is read in places like Pakistan and India. Over a million copies of Archie comics are sent every month to India. I showed the film in Argentina where he’s known as Archie Gomez. He’s known all over the world. This is a movie that shows the teenage life of Archie and Betty and Jughead and Veronica.

WAMG: I think I liked Archie a little better later, after I read the superheroes. I remember the digest-sized Archie books.

GP: The Archie digests, which are a smaller format book, still exist. I talked to a comic book store owner and he told me that thousands of those are sent every month to Nigeria of all places, so Archie continues to be a worldwide phenomenon.

WAMG: Did you grow up a comic book collector?

GP: I collected some comics but I didn’t have a lot of money. I remember when I was seven years old and going to someone else’s house for a birthday party and walking into their bedroom and there were probably 1000 comic books in these beautiful stacks and I remember wishing I had more money to spend on them. I think maybe once a month I could afford to buy one comic book. Usually it was Archie, but occasionally it was Gene Autry, my favorite cowboy star.

WAMG: Archie made his debut in Pep Comics number 22 in 1941. Do you have any idea how much of that comic book is worth?

GP: That one is probably worth 50 or 60 thousand dollars. The first standalone Archie comic, Archie #1, sold for $170,000 which is the most any non-superhero comic book has sold for. I was at the home of someone in Boston recently who owned a copy of that comic book and I got to hold it in my hands and have my picture taken with it. Archie started out as six pages in the back of a Pep Comics and that was so popular that after a while, Archie became his own comic book. Next year, 2016, will be the 75th anniversary of Archie comics so happy birthday Archie!

WAMG: Do you think that they will do something in Haverhill Massachusetts to commemorate that?

GP: I hope so. Haverhill Massachusetts is a town that Riverdale is based on. My movie is about who the real life people in Archie comics are. Bob Montana, who was the original cartoonist for Archie went to Haverhill High. He moved to New York when he was 21 but he based these characters on people he went to high school with. So that’s what my movie is, going back to Haverhill and figuring out who these real people are – who’s the real Archie, who’s the real Betty, who’s the real Veronica who’s the real Jughead, etc.

WAMG: But this sort of grew out of a Boston Globe article that you wrote 25 years earlier, correct?

GP: Yes, 25 years ago is when I first tracked this story down. I went to Haverhill because I have read a little item in The Boston Globe that said that Archie and Betty have lived in Haverhill Massachusetts. I got The Boston Globe to send me on this assignment. I spent a month in Haverhill and met all these people who claimed to be the real Archie and the real Betty, Then I left the story for 25 years and came back to it, this time is a documentarian.

WAMG: Had a lot of these people passed away in the 25 years between?

GP: Yes that was a problem, so many had died. But I still had a couple of people in my movie who are in their 90s. I have one woman in my film that dated Bob Montana. She went to the prom with him in 1937 and she’s still around at age 94. She thinks she’s Betty because Betty went to the prom with Archie in the comic.

WAMG: But you met some other people in Haverhill who may or may not be Betty as well.

GP: That’s the mystery. My movie is called ARCHIE’S BETTY. It’s like a mystery. We moved from Haverhill Massachusetts to a place called Edison, New Jersey where perhaps the real Betty is. Her name is Betty Tokar. I don’t want to say too much more about her now because obviously I want people to see the film and find out.

WAMG: Did you know about Beckie Tokar when you wrote the Boston Globe article 25 years ago?

GP: I did not. Betty Tokar was a new person for the story. I originally only had a few candidates for Betty who lived in the town of Haverhill. One of the reasons that I made this new film is that a guy from Seattle Washington, who is an Archie expert, got in touch with me and told me that I had some things wrong in my article. His name is Sean Clancy and he told me I was wrong about Betty. So I made a film this time, and act three of the film is meeting the new Betty. If you’re an Archie fan and you care about Betty and Veronica, this woman is really amazing.

WAMG: And she was married to someone else for many years and in the movie she says that she never told her husband that she was the inspiration for Betty.

GP: Yes, she had a very jealous husband. He was a police chief, a very tough guy, and I’ve actually talked to some of her relatives who found Betty’s husband a bit scary. After her husband died a couple of years ago, Betty could at last tell the story that 70 years ago she had a boyfriend named Bob Montana and that he was the original Archie cartoonist.

WAMG: Bob Montana died relatively young though.

GP: Yes he died in his mid-50s. His father had a bad heart and so did he. He died cross country skiing and it’s one of my regrets that I never got to meet him. Even the original story I had to write without input from Bob. But everybody that met Bob Montana loved him. He was known as a sweet, sweet man.

WAMG: But wasn’t he a private man?

GP: He was a very private guy and there are not a lot of interviews with him out there. The interviews that we have found might have two or three quotes from him. So one of the mysteries is that Bob Montana himself never claimed to have based the characters in Archie comics on the people of Haverhill. He never mentioned names. This is why I call my movie a mystery.

WAMG: It is a mystery and there are clues throughout the mystery. There are last names of people that pop up here and there throughout the history of the comics. I found that fascinating. Let’s talk about this fellow named John Goldwater, the publisher of Archie comics..

GP: Right, he’s long deceased as well but he told people that the characters in Archie comics were based on people that he knew as a young man.

WAMG: I get the impression that you sort of dismiss his claims. Talk about that a little bit.

GP: I’m skeptical of it but I don’t dismiss it. There was a meeting around 1940 with John Goldwater the publisher and some of the illustrators and this is where they talked about this new comic that they were developing. I wasn’t at this meeting and nobody who’s still alive was at this meeting so it’s all speculation what actually happened. I try in this movie to be very fair and to give several narratives. Bob Montana and his fans and his relatives say Bob created all the characters. John Goldwater, The publisher, who was sort of like the Walt Disney of the world of Archie, says it was actually based on his story. He claims he went to a town called Hiawatha, Kansas and based Riverdale on that. He claims to have met two pretty girls in San Francisco that he based Betty and Veronica on. He also claims he went to school with a kid named Archie and based Archie on him. So he claims he was the creator and basically just told Bob Montana what to draw. I tend to be on the Bob Montana side but I do think that John Goldwater should get some credit. He certainly seems to be the one who conceived the project. He’s the guy that, in 1939 when the original Superman debuted in Action Comics and everyone was enthralled with superheroes, decided to do something different; a comic book about an everyday boy. He had seen the Andy Hardy movies with Mickey Rooney and that was a huge influence and there was a popular radio show called Henry Aldrich about a teenage boy. Goldwater thought doing a comic book about a teenage boy would be a good idea, so he gets a lot of credit for that. If he claims the name Archie came from a high school friend of his, I will accept that, but we don’t know who came up with things after that. In general my movie is on the Bob Montana side but more than anything, this is a pro-Archie movie, more than I care who created the characters. I love the Archie comics and I would love to get more people to love the Archie comics.

WAMG: Do you still read Archie comics?

GP: I’ve read a couple of the new ones. It’s gone through a crazy reconfiguring. A few months ago there was a new Archie number one starting all over with a redrawn Archie and a redrawn Betty and Veronica. He’s a rock and roll guitarist. The drawings are pretty interesting but I have not been too crazy about the storyline. In my movie, I salute the new Archie because Archie keeps changing and must change with the times but I am an older person and my heart remains with the old Archie comics that Bob Montana created.

WAMG: You talk in the movie about the new Archie comics and about how there’s the new supernatural Archie and there’s even a gay character and a gay marriage in the new Archie. What do you think Bob Montana would think of the new Archie?

GP: I think he’d be very confused. It’s such a different world. We live in a very multicultural world, and I’m happy about that. But I also like the old fashioned, insular world of the old Archie comic. People all over the world love the old fashioned world of Archie. Archie comics have tried to reinvent themselves over the past few years. It’s a very interesting thing that they’re trying. I’m a very liberal person and I appreciate the fact that Archie has a gay character and that there was a gay marriage that took place in Riverdale, and I know that got a lot of heat from right wingers, and I commend that, but I still like the old Archie comics.

WAMG: Has your film shown in Haverhill?

GP: Yes, and it was wonderful! What happened was all the relatives of people in the movie and a couple of people that were still alive and knew Bob Montana showed up and we had two tremendous screenings there in Haverhill. I had a stack of DVDs of the film, which I will be hawking there in St. Louis, but I didn’t bring enough. I ran out of DVDs because so many people in Haverhill wanted one as a record of their city and the people from Archie comics. They’re very proud of that there.

WAMG: I’m sure they are. You have been the St. Louis once before for the St. Louis international Film Festival, correct?

GP: Yes I was there in 2009. I was a jury member. It is a very well-run festival. I have been to other film festivals that are not nearly as well-curated as the one there in St. Louis. I like St. Louis. There are so many people that came from that city that most people don’t realize. People like T.S. Eliot and Vincent Price, and great jazz musicians, author Jonathan Franzen, etc.

WAMG: 100 years ago, St. Louis was the third largest city in the country. When you’re in town you should go to Blueberry Hill, a very popular restaurant and bar. About 30 years ago it was featured in an issue of Archie comics. There is, framed on the wall in Blueberry Hill, the panels from an Archie comic where you see Archie entering Blueberry Hill restaurant. It’s pretty neat.

GP: I didn’t know that. I will have to check that out when I am there.

WAMG: Good luck with ARCHIE’S BETTY and we’ll see you in St. Louis for the screening at the Saint Louis international film Festival.

GP: Thank you, I look forward to it.

SLIFF 2015 Interview: Trent Harris – Director of THE BEAVER TRILOGY

Director Trent Harris’ THE BEAVER TRILOGY screens at The St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, November 14h at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. Harris will be in attendance and will receive a Contemporary Cinema Award. Ticket information can be found HERE. It will be on a double bill with director Brad Besser’s THE BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4. Trent Harris will also attend a screening of his 1995 science fiction comedy/musical PLAN 10 FROM OUTER SPACE on Sunday November 15th at 6:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. Ticket information for that can be found HERE.

The long, odd tale of director Trent Harris’ THE BEAVER TRILOGY begins in 1979 with the chance meeting between Harris and an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Charmed and amused, Harris soon accepts the stranger’s invitation to come to the small town of Beaver to film a talent show, where the enthusiastic young man dons black leather and a blond wig to perform in drag as Olivia Newton-John. Harris captures the outlandish spectacle on tape, producing “The Beaver Kid,” a strange, funny, and ultimately poignant portrait of a true outsider. Not willing to let the story go, Harris then creates a dramatic piece, “The Beaver Kid 2,” based on the documentary. This interpretation, shot in 1981 on a home-video camera with a budget of $100, features the young Sean Penn re-enacting the same scenario. Still possessed, Harris rewrites the script yet again in 1985, casting Crispin Glover in the lead and shooting another version, “The Orkly Kid,” as an American Film Institute project. The three pieces then are finally re-edited, compiled, and screened at the Lincoln Center in New York City in July 2000, eventually playing to acclaim at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. The St. Louis International Film Festival also offers Harris’ PLAN 10 FROM OUTER SPACE whose playful title self-deprecatingly references Ed Wood’s infamous PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, often cited as the worst film ever made. After some bruising reviews for his RUBIN AND ED, Harris decided to one-up Wood and show the critics just how bad a film could be with PLAN 10, but he failed in his endeavor: It’s a sly and knowing hoot. When Lucinda Hall (Stefene Russell, now culture editor at St. Louis Magazine) discovers a century-old book penned by a mad Mormon prophet, she deciphers the odd artifact and is sucked into a world where spacemen, polygamists, and angels run amuck. Is she deranged or has she uncovered a diabolical plot to change the world led by Nehor (Karen Black), a peeved alien from the planet Kolob?

Trent Harris took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks in advance of his appearance at The St. Louis International Film Festival

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 28th, 2015

We Are Movie Geeks: Your films THE BEAVER TRILOGY and PLAN 10 FROM OUTER SPACE will be showing at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.

Trent Harris: I just finished restoring PLAN 10. It had been lost for a long time. This will be the first screening of it in quite a while.

WAMG: Have you been to St. Louis before?

TH: No, I’ve only driven through. I’m really looking forward to it.

WAMG: You’ll be receiving the St. Louis International Film Festival’s Contemporary Cinema Award.

TH: That’s quite an honor!

WAMG: And you’re going to be teaching a master class on independent filmmaking. Tell me about that it. Is that something you have done before and enjoy doing?

TH: Yes, I’ve done things like that before. I usually call it ‘Finally the Horrible Truth About Independent Filmmaking’. I wouldn’t consider myself a great teacher but that is something I enjoy doing.

WAMG: Do you still live in Salt Lake City?

TH: That’s correct

WAMG: What’s the local movie scene like there in Salt Lake City? It’s pretty vibrant here in St. Louis.

TH: It sounds like it. There’s a huge documentary community here that’s been getting a lot of national attention recently.

WAMG: Did you grow up a movie buff?

TH: Yes I started watching films when I was just a kid. My first job was as a projectionist in a movie theater when I was about eight years old.

WAMG: Who were some of your favorite filmmakers growing up?

TH: I grew up in a small town in Idaho so basically I grew up watching Elvis Presley movies and Japanese monster movies and things like that. It wasn’t until I got to college when I realized what movies can be. I saw an Ingmar Bergman film and I had never seen anything like that before and I got started in film right after that. I would say Stanley Kubrick is the Filmmaker that I admire the most. It’s hard not to like that guy’s films. He made one great film after another. I’m heading to Argentina tomorrow and a film festival there will be showing three of my films. Then I’ll go to St. Louis.

WAMG: Will they be showing THE BEAVER TRILOGY there in Argentina?

TH: Yes, they’re showing RUBIN AND ED, THE BEAVER TRILOGY , PLAN 10, and this movie called THE BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4. I’m not sure if they’re showing THE BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4 in St. Louis there or not.

WAMG: Yes they are. I have not seen that one yet. I saw somewhere where you claimed to be one of the first filmmakers to embrace the Internet. Can you elaborate on that?

TH: I think I was. When PLAN 10 came out and premiered at Sundance in 1995, I actually had an Internet site at that time. But nobody could look at it because nobody had a computer or knew what the heck that even was. I got turned onto it because the guys who did the special-effects for PLAN 10 had also done the effects for the Star Trek TV show. I was in their office one day and they wanted to show me something called the Internet. That was the first time I had seen it and they put up a site for me for the premiere of PLAN 10. We actually streamed the premiere party that we had for the film but I don’t think anyone could even watch it. Stefene Russell and I had what we called ‘the world’s first world press conference’, the first press conference on the Internet. We went up to the University of Utah because they had The big computers and satellites and whatever you needed, but I think there were only two or three people that even listened. One of them was in the UK, one of them was in Australia, and the other was in Utah.

WAMG: Are you a Mormon yourself?

TH: No.

WAMG: From what I read it sounds like PLAN 10 FROM OUTER SPACE uses Mormon doctrine for its science fiction elements.

TH: Yes, I grew up Mormon and was familiar with the doctrine. A lot of people think I made this stuff up but it’s straight out of Mormonism, what with God living on a planet called Kolob and a lot of other Mormon things that are interesting but that they don’t like to talk about much, But those are my favorite parts that I ended up putting in PLAN 10.

WAMG: Have any of your friends or family been offended by PLAN 10?

TH: There’s always somebody that will be offended by something but the movie did incredibly well in Salt Lake City. The first week it came out here, it was the number one film in the country per screen average. Every screening was full. It was in the Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Of course it was only on one screen.

WAMG: Have you seen The Book of Mormon?

TH: No I have not. Have you?

WAMG: Yes, I just saw it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Very politically incorrect but very funny. Karen Black was in PLAN 10 as well as your film RUBIN AND ED. What was she like?

TH: She is one of the most delightful people that I have ever met in my whole life. So many movie stars are no fun to work with, but Karen was exactly the opposite. When she heard I was making PLAN 10, she called me up and said that she heard I was making a new movie and wanted to be in it. I told her that it was so low budget I didn’t have the money for her. She said she didn’t care and she would be up there Friday and to make sure I had a role for her. She was just wonderful and it was a real heartbreaker when she passed away a couple of years ago. We had stayed friends right up until the end.

WAMG: Crispin Glover was in THE BEAVER TRILOGY and then a few years later he was in your film RUBIN AND ED. He seems like an odd duck. What was he like to work with?

TH: When we did the first part of THE BEAVER TRILOGY, he was really a delight and then it got more difficult when we were doing RUBIN AND ED. I don’t like to badmouth people but I’ll just say that I wouldn’t want to work with him again.

WAMG: Let me ask you a couple of questions about THE BEAVER TRILOGY. This fellow known as ‘Groovin’ Gary’, he was the original Beaver Kid though he’s never actually identified in your film. I found out that he died in 2009. Did he know that he was something of a celebrity?

TH: He certainly did. In 2001, when the final edited BEAVER TRILOGY came out and I think he was totally surprised by it. That movie just continues to play all over the world. It’s had the most remarkable life.

WAMG: Are you surprised that people still want to talk about it?

TH: Yes and I’m kind of sick of talking about it to tell you the truth. But he was so wonderful. People just gravitated towards him and his energy and how much fun he is in that movie. Even high-powered actors like Sean Penn and Crispin Glover don’t hold a candle to his performance. It’s something to watch.

WAMG: Yes, just a lot of natural charisma with that guy.

TH: Boy is there ever. I really liked him a lot. BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4 really explains a lot of things about him and how his life evolved after the movie.

WAMG: I was a little confused because in the sequences with Sean Penn and Crispin Glover there’s this suicide attempt scene. I’m not sure where that came from.

TH: He did shoot himself soon after I filmed him. It didn’t kill him though. He shot himself in the chest but it wasn’t fatal.

WAMG: How did he die eventually in 2009?

TH: A heart attack.

WAMG: Tell me about Brad Besser and your collaboration on BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4.

TH: Brad just came into my office one day and said he’d like to make a movie about me and kept asking me questions. People do that periodically and I thought it would just be an interview and it would be done, but he followed me for almost 4 years. It was incredible. I would go to Cambodia, and he would be there and I’d go to New York, wherever I was, he would show up. It seems like he interviewed everyone I know. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what he was making a film about. I didn’t know it was about what it ended up being about in terms of his look at the Beaver Kid. That was a good choice on his part because you can film me forever but I don’t think you’re going to get much of a film out of it.

WAMG: Would you ever consider remaking the Beaver Kid’s story again yourself?

TH: No. Please no!

WAMG: I know Brad Besser will be here in St. Louis for the screening of BEAVER TRILOGY PART 4 along with you.

TH: Oh good, I didn’t realize that.

WAMG: Does Olivia Newton-John know about THE BEAVER TRILOGY?

TH: I don’t know for sure. I tried to get her a copy back in the 80s. Sean Penn actually bought the house that she lived in previously and we were trying to get it to her but I think at that point she has gone back to Australia, and also celebrities were very paranoid about stalkers and things like that then.

WAMG: What was Sean Penn like as a young actor?

TH: He hadn’t done much at that time. I think he was shooting FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH or had just finished it while we were working on this project. You could tell right off the bat that he was going to make it. I’ve met a lot of actors, but with him there was just no question. I met Johnny Depp when he was young and I thought there was no way he was going to make it.

WAMG: You said you’re tired of talking about THE BEAVER TRILOGY, but it is the film we are showing at the St. Louis international film Festival. Do you sometimes feel that it has overshadowed some of your other works that you might consider to be better?

TH: I don’t know if I would say they are better, but yes I wish some people would pay more attention to some of my other films but I’m happy that people pay attention to THE BEAVER TRILOGY. I am flabbergasted that it has received as much attention as it has. I’ve been interviewed so many times about it and it’s usually the same questions.

WAMG: It’s a unique experience. You moved out to Hollywood at one point.

TH: Yes I was in Hollywood for about 12 years.

WAMG: Is that when you made RUBIN AND ED?

TH: Yes.

WAMG: Did you enjoy Hollywood?

TH: No. It was not a good experience. It seems that every cliché you hear about Hollywood is true. The crazy dishonest agents and the cigar chopping producers and the big breasted bimbos. All that stuff is really true.

WAMG: What is your next project?

TH: I’m working on a movie called WELCOME TO THE RUBBER ROOM. I’ve got quite a bit of it done.

WAMG: Is that a documentary?

TH: No. It’s about a beatnik type bar on its last night. It’s about to be torn down and turned into a Pottery Barn so it’s about all these malcontent artists trying to figure out what to do. It’s pretty funny. Stefene Russell is in it.

WAMG: She’s a St. Louisan I believe.

TH: Yes, she was in PLAN 10 and another film I made called DELIGHTFUL WATER UNIVERSE and in my RUBBER ROOM movie too. She’s great.

WAMG: You filmed that in Salt Lake City?

TH: Yes there’s a big studio space in a warehouse. We built a big set there.

WAMG: Maybe you can come back to the St. Louis International film Festival when WELCOME TO THE RUBBER ROOM is complete.

TH: I hope so.

WAMG: I’ve enjoyed talking to you.

TH: I hope you got what you needed.

WAMG: I did. Thanks a lot and we’ll see you in St. Louis.

TH: Thank you

SLIFF 2015 Interview: Lori Stoll – Director of HEAVEN’S FLOOR

HEAVEN’S FLOOR screen Saturday November 14th at 1:00pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Director Lori Stoll and storyboard artist Jeanie Everett Mitchell will be in attendance. Ticket information can be found HERE

In director Lori Stoll’s semi-autobiographical HEAVEN’S FLOOR, LA-based photographer Julia (Clea Duvall) meets an expedition leader who convinces her to join a trip to the Canadian Arctic. Desperate for more meaning in her life, Julia chooses to go despite growing tension with her husband. But a journey that starts on a whim soon becomes a life-threatening disaster, as an ill-equipped Julia finds herself stranded on sea ice with temperatures plummeting to minus 30 and darkness falling. Rescue arrives when Julia spots a lone skidoo racing across the frozen tundra. Malaya, an 11-year-old orphaned Inuit girl, and her uncle take Julia to a small Inuit community by the Arctic Circle, where the child opens the door to a unique and mysterious world. Julia is transfixed, but there’s a dark underbelly to Malaya’s home that troubles the photographer: Like Julia left alone in the frozen north, Malaya seems to require rescue. When tragedy later strikes, Julia decides to return to the Arctic to adopt Malaya. As the expansive north is replaced by the crowded south, the lives of both Malaya and Julia forever change.

Director Lori Stoll took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about HEAVEN’S FLOOR in advance of its screening at The St. Louis International Film Festival

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 28th, 2015

We Are Movie Geeks: I watched HEAVEN’S FLOOR a couple of days ago. Congratulations. It’s a terrific film.

Lori Stoll: Thank you.

WAMG: How autobiographical is HEAVEN’S FLOOR?

LS: It is based on a true story. I did adopt an Inuit child and most of the things that happened in the film happene,d but some of the facts were changed around a bit in terms of order and time was compressed.

WAMG: But you did legally adopt the child? I adopted a child from Guatemala so I know how much paperwork is involved.

LS: Yes, a ridiculous amount. We had to have home checks and FBI background checks, it took about a year. But it’s necessary as there can be a black market when it comes to adopting babies, though our daughter was 12 at the time.

WAMG: Yes my daughter was five months old and we adopted her.

LS: How old is she now?

WAMG: She’s 11. How old is your daughter now?

LS: She’s 28.

WAMG: In the movie she is 11 when you meet her. Is that how old she was when you met her in real life?

LS: Yes.

WAMG: So your trip took place in 1998? And that was in the Baffin Islands?

LS: Yes, I went on a ski sled haul, but it didn’t turn out to be quite the way I thought it would be. It was very similar to how it was in the movie.

WAMG: Actress Clea Duvall plays Julia, based on you, and she really panics and cries during this part of the movie as it’s very emotional for her. Is that how it was for you?

LS: Clea is an amazing actress. I think she played this part so well. Yes, I was terrified! I was sure I was going to die. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die. But I ended up getting rescued. I went on my own and I was rescued by this Inuit man and his daughter. They came up on a skidoo and I went with them. It took two days to get to town and to an emergency shelter. All that stuff happened just like in the movie. When we finally arrived, I slept for about three days because I was so exhausted.

WAMG: Where did you film the movie HEAVEN’S FLOOR?

LS: We filled it in Iqaluit. That’s sort of the seat of the Baffin Island, where all the government buildings are.

WAMG: Was it cold there?

LS: When we were shooting it was between -20 and -50.

WAMG: What are some of the challenges of filming in a climate like that?

LS: We had lenses that wouldn’t focus, lenses that were freezing, Glass that was breaking, cameras that were going bad. Our cast and crew had to be warned about frostbite and how to keep themselves safe. We were warned not to wear metal on any parts of our body because it would freeze. We didn’t know this stuff. The majority of our crew was from Los Angeles. There were some from Canada and we had to use as many people from that area as we could. But when you’re from Los Angeles, you never even think about dealing with this type of climate ever. We had no injuries, nothing bad happened but boy was it cold.

WAMG: Was this your first time back to Baffin Island since you had adopted your daughter?

LS: Yes.

WAMG: What is your daughter doing now?

LS: She works now for a publicity firm but before that she was working as a news reporter. She’s moved back up there. She loves it up there.

WAMG: And you have a young son like you like the character does in the film?

LS: Yes, he’s now in his second year at the University of Chicago.

WAMG: Was your husband’s reaction to your adventure similar to the character in the movie?

LS: I told him that I was going to write him as not the most sympathetic character and he said never to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

WAMG: I have some sympathy for him in the movie.

LS: Oh yeah, I mean he’s married to this crazy woman who’s bringing home a child, turning his life upside down.

WAMG: Yes, he was just sort of being the pragmatic one. Has your family seen HEAVEN’S FLOOR yet?

LS: Yes they all have and they all love it. I was a little concerned with my husband, though he was completely open to his character being portrayed as not the nicest guy in the world, but we’re still together and he was completely fine with it. He’s very proud of me. That was perhaps my biggest worry.

WAMG: This is your first film as a director. You’ve been a photographer for many years and HEAVEN’S FLOOR looks great. As a photographer, what was your relationship like with the director of photography George Billinger?

LS: He’s such a talented guy and that made things so easy. He did an amazing job. I definitely had my views on how things should look but I was a first time director and he was such a pro. He’s been around a long time and it has worked with directors like Steven Spielberg so I took his advice as much as I could since he had so much knowledge.

WAMG: You grew up in California?

LS: Yes, in Los Angeles.

WAMG: Did you grow up a movie buff?

LS: Yes I’ve always loved movies. I’ve always wanted to write and direct. I went into photography instead of filmmaking. When I went to college, I could’ve gone with either major but I chose photography.

WAMG: Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?

LS: Akira Kurosawa probably. DREAMS is my favorite movie of all time. I like Elia Kazan. I like so many of the older movies so much. I like Ingmar Bergman and I really enjoy the films of Alexander Payne as far as current filmmakers go.

WAMG: Have you been to St. Louis before?

LS: Yes I have.

WAMG: I think your film will be well-received here. What is your next project?

LS: I’ve written a script for another film and we’re trying to get that going, which is quite a process. It’s based on a true story about a young boy who grew up with a schizophrenic mother. It’s about all the trials and tribulations that he went through with his mother who was mentally ill but wanted to keep her son more than anything else, fighting the system and trying to figure out how to do that.

WAMG: Is this St. Louis screening one of the first times HEAVEN’S FLOOR will be shown?

LS: Yes in fact we just put some of the finishing touches on it to get it ready for this showing.

WAMG: Good luck with HEAVEN’S FLOOR and I hope you enjoy your trip to St. Louis for the St. Louis International Film Festival.

LS: Thank you. I so look forward to St. Louis!

SLIFF 2015 Review – TOUCHED WITH FIRE

Review by Dana Jung

TOUCHED WITH FIRE screens Thursday, November 12th at 7pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE

Two powerful performances dominate the new film TOUCHED WITH FIRE, which examines the sometimes blurry line between genius and madness. Carla (Katie Holmes, who also co-produced) and Marco (Luke Kirby, seen recently on TVs RECTIFY) are two creative and restless poets who are also bi-polar. They each display an almost obsessive need to write and perform their verse at local poetry bars. After a chance meeting attending group therapy in the mental ward of a hospital, the two find in each other a kindred spirit with a common bond—the burning need to create.

Though not really a film version of the book TOUCHED WITH FIRE, the film is informed by the basic themes of that work. Published in 1993, and subtitled “Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament,” TOUCHED WITH FIRE was written by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. Much of her work shows incredible insight into the condition of manic-depressive behavior (she herself suffered from the disorder, which she details in her other books), and TOUCHED WITH FIRE contains several case studies of famous artists, writers, and other creative people—including Lord Byron, one of the great Romantic poets.

Around these themes, writer-director Paul Dalio has made a thoughtful, touching, and beautifully acted film that asks many questions with no easy answers. What is the relationship between artistic expression and some types of dementia? Can we have true art without the influence of at least some sort of non-normal perception of reality? How responsible are creative people to live a life of normalcy, with the responsibilities of jobs, homes, and families? Almost mirroring the highs and lows of typical bi-polar behavior, the film tells the story from both sides. We see the “manic” exuberance of two people falling in love amid fantastical elements in lovely, visually wonderful scenes at the mental hospital. Later, we witness the depression and dark moods as the realities of parental pressure and the stress of a committed relationship deepen. Holmes is a naturally gifted actress who totally loses herself in the role of Carla. Wearing little makeup, with an almost haggard expression from her terminal sleeplessness, Holmes rides the mood swings of Carla with great depth and passion. From the scene of her first interaction with her mother (Christine Lahti in fine support), when Carla chokingly asks, “When did it start? What caused it?” we are rooting for her to find the answers we know she never will. Kirby is equally impressive, whether he’s spouting the most intellectual yet paranoid rap poetry we’ve ever heard, or trying to fight through his illness for the sake of Carla.

After the highs, when we come to the lows of the love story, the film raises its central question: Is manic-depressive behavior a gift, to be set free and nurtured, or is it an illness, to be medicated and controlled? TOUCHED WITH FIRE seems to see the value in both points of view, and even presents the notion that both may be necessary in some form in order to create lasting works of art. And as both an adult romantic drama, and as a study of the effects of bi-polar behavior on artistic expression, TOUCHED WITH FIRE succeeds admirably.

www.touchedwithfire.com

SLIFF 2015 review: THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE

How’s that old 1950’s standard go? “Why must I be a teeeen-ager in love?”. Well, for one thing teen love inspires countless films, from all over the world. Take Lithuania, for example. That’s the setting for THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE, a most magical time of year, indeed. Now, it is a love story, between two 17 year-old girls, set against the backdrop of fashion, photography, and … aeronautics? Tray table up and buckle yourself in…

The film begins at an air show at a small town airport. Lovely, somber Sangaile (Julija Steponaityte) has her head in the clouds, almost bumping into other flying fans, as she stares at the circling prop planes. She catches the attention of a brightly attired show worker, Auste (Aiste Dirziute), who is selling raffle tickets. The prize: a ride on one of the two-seater stunt planes. The friendly Auste gives the shy Sangaile a ticket, assuring her that she has the winning number. But when that number is called (thanks to some chicanery), Sangaile doesn’t step forward, choosing instead to dash home. Auste gazes sadly as she peddles away. At her family house, Sangaile insults her parents and party guests before she retreats to her attic room. There she finds an odd comfort in making small cuts on her arm. Sangaile returns to the airport the next day and discovers that Auste is a waitress in the terminal cafeteria. After sneaking her a special pastry treat, Auste invites Sangaile to join her as she hangs out with some friends after her shift ends. She has fun, but Sangaile’s focus stays on Auste and vice versa. Soon they are spending long days at Auste’s apartment as she creates dresses fo Sangaile. This leads to photo sessions in the nearby woods, as the friendship between the two young women evolves into a passionate love affair.

The freedom of flying connects with the ecstasy and blossoming of love in writer/director Alante Kavaite’s dreamlike portrait of two very different women who somehow connect. The outgoing Auste and the brooding Samsaile do fulfill a deep need in each other. Auste seems to give direction to the drifting, unfocused Samsaile making her feel alive, more so than her destructive “cutting” addiction. The film doesn’t quite reach the sublime heights of BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, but it’s a sweet, sensual story that often soars as high as the planes that the title heroine adores. Like that season THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE is warm and full of fun and frolic.

THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE screens at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac on Friday, November 13 at2:05 PM and Saturday, November 14 at noon as part of the 24th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. Purchase tickets here and here

SLIFF 2015 Review: THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Now this makes for an interesting double feature. Recently I looked at the SLIFF feature entry from France, ONCE IN A LIFETIME, a high school drama. Now, here’s another education-inspired film. But it’s much younger, as you can assume from the title THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. And it’s a whole lot…stranger. That’s the word for this character study from Israel. A great deal of scrutiny is place on the preschool levels, since those young minds are still developing along with their social skills. This tale is about a woman in charge of guiding these little ones as she realizes that one of her charges is quite uniquely gifted.

Nira (Sarit Larry) is the title character, devoted wife and mother (her son’s now in the Army), and teacher to a dozen or so kiddos. But one has a unusual talent. Little Yoav (Avi Shnaidman), without warning, will start to pace back and forth, prompting him to go into some sort of trance. He then recites incredibly sophisticated original poetry. Nira is stunned, while Yoav’s nanny thinks nothing of it, calling the boy an “oddball”. His teacher becomes obsessed, hurriedly jotting down this impromptu verse. In the evenings, she passes off Yoav’s gifts as her own at a night school poetry class, earning raves from the other students and her handsome instructor. But soon Nira becomes possessive of the lad, especially when she learns that the nanny has been using the poems for her acting auditions. After getting the nanny fired, Nira pleads with Yoav’s single dad, a rich restaurant owner, to enlist her son into special classes, or to hire a tutor to develop his remarkable talents. Father will have none of this nonsense, his son will not make his living as a poet. When Nira becomes adamant he takes Yoav out of Nira’s school and sends him to an exclusive, gated daycare center. This sets Nira on a dangerous course of action with far-reaching consequences.

Writer/director Nadav Lapid has crafted a riveting tale of obsession, often recalling the themes of AMADEUS, and even FATAL ATTRACTION. He guides wonderful performances from Shnaidman whose Yoav seems as confused about his gift as he is about the attention from his teacher. But Larry is the film’s complex, conflicted heart. Nira has no qualms about claiming Yoav’s verse, but the idea of the nanny reciting his words at auditions sends her into a rage. She’s full of contradictions, enjoying a passionate relationship with her hubby, but plunging headlong into an affair with little remorse. Yes, there are lots of sweet children at the school, but this film is quite adult in its language and sexual situations. You’ve never net a boy like Yoav or a woman like Nira, THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER.

THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER screens at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas on Friday, November 13 at 4:15 PM and Sunday, November 15 at 4:30 PM as part of the 24th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. Purchase tickets here and here

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