Congratulations Everyone!

www.idahofilmfestival.org

Welcome to the 2008 Idaho International Film Festival.

We love to watch bleary-eyed film fanatics going to their 4th film of the day, so we're back with another filmic feast brimming with movies for every taste.

The 'Festival Village' in downtown Boise springs to life for the 6th year as filmmakers and fans descend upon historic downtown Boise to watch movies, meet actors, eat popcorn, support 'Made in Idaho' movies, attend a Gala Party or two, check out the free workshops and engage in lively post-movie debates with fellow filmgoers about more great movies than it is possible to watch. Don't miss Global Lens – a 10 film series of extraordinary film festival favorites. We are proud to present this eye-opening selection of international cinema curated by the Global Film Initiative.

And on behalf of the hard-working Festival staff and our invaluable army of volunteers, we want to thank you for your continued support.

See you at the movies!

Bruce Fletcher
Director: Idaho International Film Festival

www.idahofilmfestival.org
www.dallairemovie.com

And the winners are...

The Idaho International Film Festival is proud to announce the results of the Audience Award balloting for the 2007 Idaho International Film Festival.

Best Narrative Feature Film:
The Rocket: Maurice Richard
Canada: Directed by Charles Binamé

Best Documentary Feature Film:
This is War: Memories of Iraq
USA: Directed by Gary Mortensen and Scot Laney

Best Narrative Short Film:
Criticized
USA: Directed by Richard Gale

Best Documentary Short Film:
Green is the Color of Money
USA: Directed by Ben Shedd

THE EVENING CLASS / TWITCH

Friday, September 28, 2007

2007 IIFF—The Walker

The Idaho International Film Festival ("IIFF") launched its fifth year with the U.S. premiere of Paul Schrader's The Walker at the historic Egyptian Theatre in downtown Boise, Idaho. Warm t-shirt weather and a handsome attendance marked an enthusiastic start to the festival's four-day run, despite competition of a local Broncos game.

Dave Hudson and David D'Arcy at The Greencine Daily offered initial takes on Schrader's The Walker when it premiered at this year's Berlinale. Neither were particularly enamored with the piece. After a concise synopsis, D'Arcy concluded: "Schrader could have done a better job plotting this one, which is watchable, but lacks anything really chilling at its core, like the concrete consequence of corporate crooks walking in and out of the White House, or the ruthless tactics that they've been willing to use to stay there." He's quick to add, however, that Woody Harrelson plays the hero well. "The problem," he reiterates, "is that the villains of the real scandals in Washington are far more dramatic, colorful and downright sinister."


Hudson was significantly more "rankled" by the film's one-note delivery of bon mots and snide asides, which he suggests lacks the necessary political sophistication and a certain "rhetorical flair" to make the script compelling, let alone genuine. Though conceding Harrelson's performance was "probably" a good one, he complains that "the problem is, it really doesn't look it."

The Guardian's Ryan Gilbey, on the other hand, champions Harrelson's characterization of Carter Page III as "the performance of a lifetime" if not the reinvention of a career. Bravely broaching the subject of a recent trend of straight actors playing gay characters, the ensuing commentary at Ryan's blog deserves a canasta game all its own to host the bitchy innuendoes. It's always entertaining to hear straights wince (and in some cases whine) reverse discrimination.

D'Arcy wonders if "walker" Carter Page III wasn't patterned after real-life walker Jack Abramoff—"the guy who seems to have had carte blanche to walk anywhere where top Republicans were running things, the unelected fixer who walked corrupt politicians through legislation that they wanted passed"—but Variety's Leslie Felperin cites Jerry Zipkin—who "walked" Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale among others—as the source for the term's coinage. I catch whiffs of Gore Vidal myself though, as Dave Hudson insinuates, had Vidal been a stronger influence on Schrader's film the black frogs spit out on the canasta table would have been much more poisonous. Despite the film's scriptural and directorial weaknesses, Felperin likewise commends Harrelson's ingenuity at finding "new ways of making smarm charm, his gestures and gait convincingly suggesting affected camp without slipping into caricature. His signature line, 'I'm not naive, I'm superficial,' nails the character beautifully."


Perhaps it is performativity itself that is the saving grace of The Walker. Though it might be true that some of the political commentary lacks bite, it rings familiar enough to prove amusing, as the laughter at last night's audience indicated. True, we already know that voters don't elect Presidents, but at least we're past our disillusionment enough to laugh about it a little. Whatever warmth can be fanned from cynicism, The Walker's ensemble locates. Though I found Lauren Bacall's character Natalie Van Miter impenetrable as to motives (which might have been the point), she is always a wonder to behold, a true "star" who rarely fails to illuminate the screen. Lily Tomlin as Abigail Delorean drips just enough venom to make you question the twinkling mirth of her eye. And Kristin Scott Thomas as woebegone Lynn Lockner does (as Felperin so wryly puts it) "that brittle, haute-bourgeois siren schtick she does so well."

Not Schrader's best, The Walker is nonetheless a welcome addition to his "Lonely Man" series of films. Woody Harrelson's performance alone is worth the price of admission. Whatever one thinks about straight men playing gay characters and how liberating that might be, he does a respectful job and dodges no bullets. His onscreen kiss with his German-Turkish lover Emek (Moritz Bleibtreu) lasted just enough to bring it on home.

Cross-published on Twitch.

posted by Michael Guillen at 9/28/2007 09:47:00 AM 7 comments  

2007 IIFF—Praising Regionality & Local Heroes

What distinguishes the Idaho International Film Festival (which just wrapped up yesterday evening) is precisely its regionality. Sure, programmer Bruce Fletcher brought Boise some choice films—the U.S. premiere of The Walker, S.F. audience favorite Rolling, vintage '70s O, Lucky Man! and the Cannes-acclaimed Ten Canoes from Down Under, but it was the platform he provided independent filmmakers from Idaho and surrounding Oregon and Washington states that characterized the spirit of IIFF's mission: to encourage local filmmakers with the incentive of exhibition. Motivated by a variety of visions and ambitions, the regional line-up was admittedly a mixed bag of efforts, but here's a selection of the titles that caught my eye and/or ear.


At each of its screenings, Drew Wattle's five-minute short Miller Time provoked ire and outrage among its audience, some of who vociferously demanded a refund. This kinky scenario, interpreted by Wattle from writer Will Schmeckpeper's otherwise innocent script, positions a diorama that ingeniously combines DeWalt power tools, a dildo, and some S&M-tinged revenge wafting in the air. The short's sardonic humor clearly catapulted over its Boise audience even though it will probably cause a San Francisco audience to cheer gleefully when it (hopefully) arrives Bayside. Wattle and Schmeckpeper interpret the outrage as a "badge of honor"; as well they should.


Inversely, a regional darling at the festival given prime coverage in the Idaho Statesman was Brandon Freeman's The Broken Quiet, which initially made me want to hurl a few epithets or both of my boots at the screen for its Christian anti-abortionist stance. But as I settled into the screening, I found myself respecting the film if not liking it much. I suspect The Broken Quiet would be booed off the stage of San Francisco's exhibition venues, which demands some consideration of who the film is for and how it will find its appropriate audience? My respect increased when I discovered this first feature was made for $700! And when it gradually dawned on me that it's a film that will not completely satisfy Christians because of its strong language and because it somewhat downplays the issue of abortion to focus on the effect such a powerful issue has upon the film's characters. Which shifts it out of the realm of simpleminded proselytization and brings it down to the work of a single visionary with a story to tell and some notable talent and potential to tell it. That's not to downplay the film's position, which I confirmed with Freeman. He is definitely an anti-abortionist, no bones about it. As he explained to Erin Ryan at the Idaho Statesman: "Everything I do, in the end, my motivation is to glorify God, not to preach or evangelize, but to do the best I can for Him." Conflating prayer with a punching bag, Freeman makes clear this will be a lifelong fight.

So just as the woman in Miller Time's audience protested that the short had no business being in an international film festival; a comparable argument could be levied at The Broken Quiet. And yet these two examples of regional filmmaking balanced against each other somehow demonstrate the appropriateness of both, and cancel out the crisscrossing objections. Film is meant not only to entertain but to challenge and agitate, no matter which side of an issue you're on, and perhaps even more importantly, no matter what you're intending to do with the film. Perhaps precisely because of his short's acquired status as IIFF's lightning rod, Drew Wattles might push Miller Time out into the world, now that he knows he can get such a rise out of it. It doesn't sound like that was his original intention; but, his festival experience has provided the insight. Likewise, Brandon Freeman didn't make his film to solicit a Hollywood deal but because he felt compelled to by the dictates of his faith. As Bruce Fletcher recognized, "[Brandon's film is] fiercely non-commercial. He made the film to tell a story; he didn't make it as a calling card to get a job as a director."

The Broken Quiet's best scene, however, is when the aborted fetus returns as the vision of the grown man he could have been. Chills ran up my arms as I thought, "Oh my God, this is becoming an effective horror piece based upon Christian principles!" But it was only a tease. Freeman then returned to a more traditional narrative trajectory when he could have yanked open one of the doors to Hell. Regret has rarely been rendered so ominously and it would be interesting to see what Freeman could accomplish combining his faith and the horror genre.

I wish both filmmakers luck navigating the rocky waters of protest.


Arid Lands, directed by Grant Aaker and Josh Wallaert could easily have been two or three separate films. There's a lot of information to digest, all of it quite interesting, but some trimming might help this film punctuate its points more effectively. Several scenarios are laid out in sedimentary fashion, layer upon historical layer, layer upon geological layer, layer upon cultural layer. Focusing on the arid lands of the mid-Columbian basin with its indigenous scrub brush steppes, Aaker and Wallaert succeed in reconfiguring geography as a cultural force that affects the daily lives of individuals and communities. The relationship of how man shapes his environment is notated in succession by the respectful harvesting of indigenous Amerindians; the reclamation by advancing agriculturalists of godforsaken land via irrigational "baptism"; the Federal appropriation of the land for the Hanford nuclear site where plutonium was produced for the Trinity tests and the bombing of Nagasaki; and the urban sprawl encouraged by the largest environmental cleanup in history with its relentless development tracts and the rise of vineyard agritourism. Arid Lands is essentially an ode to the spirit of a particular place; a landscape of incredible contradictions marked by conflicting perceptions of wilderness and nature.


This Is War: Memories of Iraq, produced by Scot Laney and directed by Gary Mortensen chronicles the yearlong deployment of members of the Oregon National Guard 2/162 in Iraq, specifically through home movies made by the soldiers during their 2004 deployment. Though I will be writing this film up in greater detail, I do want to note that what distinguishes it from the many documentaries and features I have seen in the last two years on the subject is the unexpected usage of necessary gallows humor to survive the horrific circumstances the Bravo Co., 2/162 battalion is subjected to daily. Surprisingly, this movie made me laugh a lot because the soldiers themselves were so damn funny about their experiences under extreme stress, which is not to say that it does not soberly address the horrors of war through a personal register not usually heard in mainstream reportage.


Another great opportunity for the "Local Heroes" to flex their creativity was at a program of shorts under just that title. The program began with A.J. Eaton's The Mix-Up, which set the unsurpassed bar for the evening. A perfectly pitched comedy, crisply edited, well-acted, and concisely written, The Mix-Up is an intact professional piece of filmmaking, integral unto itself. Having already played at the 2007 Palm Springs ShortFest, IIFF was its second stop, on what should be a robust festival run.

I'm not quite sure why Mack Lewis's 1991 short Double Crossing has taken so long to be shown. But better late than never, especially with this clever homage to the classic police procedurals of the '50s and '60s. Filmed entirely in Boise in atmospheric black and white, Double Crossing delivers its script with tongue frequently in cheek.

John Jensen's Land of the Free is a well-produced dystopian vision of the not-too-distant future where fighting Homeland Security becomes the second American Revolution. Marred only by the fact that it's meant to be a calling card to solicit funding for a larger project, it frustrates for introducing elements it never develops. Here's hoping Jensen finds the money to burnish, let alone finish, his vision.

300 Pounds by Ron Torres is an admittedly silly spoof of Zack Snyder's 300. Torres, who appeared on stage mohawked and happy knows who he is, what he's created, and how he wants to distribute it, reminding that DYI can be fun. I loved the Spartan helmets that looked like they were made with cardboard, masking tape and bronze spraypaint.

Cross-published on Twitch.

10/01/07 UPDATE: Double Crossing director Mack Lewis emailed an explanation for the timelag between the film's shooting date (1991) and its presentation at this year's IIFF. Essentially, this was a revival screening.

"The film was shot over a day and a half in August 1990 with extra shots picked up the following April. Post-production was completed late August 1991. …Several of the locations no longer exist and show a vastly different Boise than the one we live in today. Scenes shot before the revitalization of Boise are the more apparent examples.

"The film can almost be seen as a period film or even a time capsule of sorts. It reflects a different time and style of filmmaking in a way that gives it a uniqueness that it didn't have when originally produced.

"The short was entered in the Idaho Film and Video Association's Nell Shipman Awards in 1992 and won for Best Short and Best Director. The screening held at the Idaho International Film Festival is its first public screening in 16 years.

"The short was also available for many years as a free rental at the Flicks. Over the course of the weekend, many people recounted tales of having rented the VHS tape and enjoying see the short on the big screen for the first time."

posted by Maya at 10/01/2007 08:30:00 AM 5 comments  

Monday, October 01, 2007

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2007 IIFF—Ten Canoes

Along with the theme of the regionality of the festival, there's the theme of how films brought in will play regionally. At the closing night gala I overheard a woman complaining to her friend about the closing night feature Ten Canoes: "All they did was talk about poop!" I shook my head in disbelief and thought, "Regional is as regional does."

I first caught Rolf de Heer's ethnographic photograph come to life—Ten Canoes—at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. It had won a special mention at Cannes and had just been announced as Australia's Oscars entry in the foreign film category. The screening was problematic in that the print projected did not have subtitles. Misled by the English narrative voiceover, however, I didn't know there were supposed to be subtitles so I absorbed the film on its projected merits. More than a year later, I finally caught Ten Canoes with its randy subtitles here in Boise, Idaho, which did indeed add another layer of comic meaning onto the film. One of the reel changes was a bit messy and the sound dropped out and I momentarily worried, "Oh no, am I going to get subtitles this time but no sound?" Fortunately, the projectionist pulled it together and I have finally seen the film as it was meant to be seen. I replicate (and tweak) my writeup from 2006 TIFF.


Ten Canoes is visually stunning, depicting movement between real time and dream time through strategic shifts of color and black and white cinematography. The story is simple even as the storytelling is complex. While hunting for geese and geese eggs, an elder tells his younger brother a story that proves relevant for the younger's own inappropriate feelings for the elder's youngest wife.

During the Q&A after the Toronto screening, Rolf de Heer was asked how he cast Ten Canoes. He responded by saying he would have to paraphrase the question: how the film was cast. It was the most remarkable casting process he'd ever been through. In many respects he could do little. The inspiration for the film was a photograph by the Australian anthropologist Donald Thomson of ten men in canoes on a swamp. The initial casting of the movie was for four of those ten. It was the community itself who moreoreless decided who was going to do what. The ten men in the canoes in the photograph were all named and everyone was related to them in some way and so the people who were most closely related chose to "be" them. The last of the ten canoeists were cast in that way. For the rest of the casting, a number of aspects came into play. Primarily, there is a complex kinship system where everyone belongs to one of two moieties with subsections and classifications that determine who can marry who. As far as he could understand it, in the aboriginal culture there is no concept of "fiction." Thus, the relationships on the screen between the characters had to be allowed in real life between actors playing those characters. This was so complex that there was nothing he could do to even determine who he could cast from. It didn't work for him to ask each actor which moiety they belonged to and try to figure it out from there; they moreorless determined these casting choices themselves. He had to concede to their cultural imperatives.


He was asked how Australians and the aboriginal communities reacted when they saw the finished film. The very first people to see the film were the aboriginals who saw the version that was completely in their language, including the storyteller's narration (in our version the narration was in English). It was the wildest screening he had ever been to. It was complete madness, chaotic, wonderful. It was the first time any of them had seen anything on the screen that was about them in their own language. There was yelling, screaming, laughing. The response was tremendous.


He was asked how he came about to write this story, to know this community, and to become so involved, and whether he spoke aboriginal. Not at all, he admitted, maybe five or six words. It started when he made a film called The Tracker and he cast David Gulpilil [who, incidentally, is the English-speaking narrator of Ten Canoes]. After he cast David, he found himself not knowing how to deal with him because he was so different from anyone he'd ever dealt with before. He didn't even know how to talk to him. David invited him to come meet his people and de Heer realized he had to accept that invitation so he could understand him better to direct him. As their relationship developed during the filming of The Tracker, David kept asking de Heer to make a movie that would be about his people starring his people. As the project developed, David himself moved away from his community and became distant from the project, but, by then de Heer had developed a relationship with everyone else in David's community.

When de Heer was at the Toronto International for his previous film Alexandra's Project, he was walking across one of Toronto's parks ruminating on Ten Canoes when all the contradictory elements of the script's thematic necessities and cinematic structure fell into place. In gist, the story of ten men hunting for geese and geese eggs was fundamentally undramatic but this was what the community wanted in the film and what he had to work with. The community was very attached to the Donald Thomson photograph and they wanted de Heer to bring it to life. They wanted the film to be about old times but they didn't want the old times to be depicted as a time of conflict. Because Thomson's historical photograph was in black and white, it seemed obvious that the recapturing of that image should be in black and white but he was under contract to deliver a film in color. It was while walking through the park in Toronto three years ago that de Heer figured out that if the film was set in mythic time when anything could happen, it would be sufficiently removed from historical old times, and could be contrasted by being shot in color. If the mythic times could be told by a storyteller as the old times geese hunt was occurring, then the film would be provided a dramatic structure that would make it compelling to western audiences while still satisfying aboriginal requests.


Because of his familiarity with the community, de Heer was asked if it has changed much since he first met them. Some aspects remain close to what he first encountered, they retain tribal customs even as some of the aborigines have become enamored with on-line banking.

The script was developed by de Heer sitting down with the aborigines, talking through each scene, discussing what needed to be said to further the scene, complicated by his inability to speak Aborigine and many of them unable to speak English. There was always a lot of talk before they could finally get down to a shoot. Despite all this complication, the performances are amazingly consistent and de Heer explains this as being a consequence of the aboriginal perspective that they were not playing their ancestors, they were their ancestors. This temporal aspect is difficult for Westerners mired in temporal tense to understand. Comparable to the aboriginal assertions that they are the land and the land is them. The western subject/object split, which we presume to be literal, collapses in the face of the aboriginal belief in their own literal connection. In being their ancestors, they could perform with relative ease and continuity.

Cross-published on Twitch.

posted by Maya at 10/01/2007 02:04:00 PM 3 comments  

© Copyright 2007 Arbiter Online

Writer and director Paul Schrader's latest, THE WALKER opens the

5th Idaho International Film Festival

By Dana Oland - doland@idahostatesman.com 

Edition Date: 09/21/07

It's an iconic film sequence from a Paul Schrader's "American Gigolo," a film that became emblematic of 1980s narcissism, emotional unavailability and appealingly shallow masculine charm.

It's a hot night in Los Angeles. Richard Gere as Julian Kay, the devastatingly gorgeous anti-hero of "American Gigolo," dresses for a night out. Revved up on cocaine, he sorts through his closet filled with Armani suits, drawers filled with layers of silk ties and shirts, until he finds the right look for his evening out.

Flash forward 20 years to another opulently furnished closet — more silk ties, shirts and cashmere scarves — only this is an undressing scene.

Woody Harrelson is Carter Page, a sophisticated Washington, D.C., socialite in Schrader's "The Walker." He finishes his evening and removes all the fashionable accouterment of his profession …

"… and we end with him taking off his hair," Schrader said, with as close to a giggle as a man can get who's been called one of the most important filmmakers of his generation in America.

"I knew aficionados would make the connection, so we thought we'd give it to them," Schrader said from his office in New York City.

His film "The Walker," staring Harrelson and a bevy of legendary Hollywood leading ladies, will open this year's Idaho International Film Festival on Thursday at the Egyptian Theatre.

This is by far the most prestigious opening film the festival has presented, according to Bruce Fletcher, who programs all the films for the annual Boise festival. "This is as big as it gets," Fletcher said. "It's a serious drama from a director who really understands redemption. It's a great film from the reigning auteur of male panic. When I found out it was a possibility, I seriously went after it."

The film is now playing in Britain. It made its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival two weeks ago. It will screen in Boise before it opens nationally Dec. 7.

Schrader has written and often directed some of the most powerful films of the last 30 years — including writing the screenplays for "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull" and "The Last Temptation of Christ," all directed by Martin Scorsese.

A walker is a man of a certain age and usually of a certain sexual preference who escorts the wives of rich and powerful men who are too busy, or uninterested in the opera or benefit of the week on the social calendar, Schrader said. Though they've been around since society was new, the term was first used in the 1980s to describe Jerry Zipkin, a socialite who often accompanied the likes of Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale.

The dressing and undressing sequences provide symmetry for a tetralogy — a somewhat obscure one — based on a character arc that spans four films, 40 years and four different characters who share particular traits, Schrader said.

Schrader calls it his "Lonely Man" series.

It started in 1979 with Robert De Niro's angry cabbie Travis Bickel in "Taxi Driver," and includes Gere's narcissistic Kay in "American Gigolo," (1980), Willem Dafoe's anxious, drug-dealing John LeTour in "Light Sleeper" (1992) and ends with Harrelson's superficial Carter Page in "The Walker."

"It's sort of that same kind of character, at age 20, 30, 40 and 50," Schrader said. "They're about these odd sort of service occupations: a taxi driver, a gigolo, a drug dealer and a society walker, these kinds of lonely men on the fringes of society, peeping in to other people's lives. It's a very loose-knit tetralogy, but in my mind there's a connection."

What Page really is, is superficial, a social attribute he plays by choice.

"It's a protective coloring in a way. He wears his superficiality the way others would wear armor."

Then of course the world conspires to test his superficiality as he goes down a similar path as Kay. When his closest friend (Kristin Scott Thomas) becomes entangled in a murder scandal, he offers to cover for her and finds himself the chief suspect and a sudden social pariah. His lawyer accuses him of being naive, to which he replies, "I'm not naive; I'm superficial."

Schrader's next film "Adam Resurrected" is based on an Israeli book about a former circus performer (Jeff Goldblum) who is spared the gas chamber in a World War II concentration camp. He becomes a ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors.

"The Walker," for all its star power — Kristen Scott Thomas, Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall and Defoe — is "still a chamber piece, a character piece," he said. " 'Adam' is much bigger."

Dana Oland: 377-6442

Movie Review: 'This is War'

Filmed by Oregon soldiers, this movie gives a different Iraq perspective

Edition Date: 09/21/07

In theory, a documentary is supposed to function like a newspaper article, presenting an objective report on a subject of public interest.

But anyone who has seen a documentary in the Michael Moore era knows that most nonfiction filmmakers bring an agenda to the screen.

Director Gary Mortensen bucks the trend with "This is War: Memories of Iraq," which will make its festival debut at the Idaho International Film Festival.

"Documentaries have morphed into political platforms," he said. "To be a good documentary filmmaker, you have to be objective. We were very clear we wanted to make an apolitical film — not an anti-war film or a recruitment film."

"This is War" follows nine Oregon National Guard soldiers into the heart of the Iraq conflict, from the front lines in Fallujah and Najaf to bomb-infested roads outside Baghdad where, as one soldier deadpans, they are "driving around until we get blown up."

"What we wanted to do was take the viewer through what a deployment was like," Mortensen said. "You have a unique insight into what these soldiers see for the first time."

Most of the footage was filmed by the soldiers, who captured the duality of boredom and danger in their daily lives during a yearlong tour beginning in 2004.

The making of "This is War" was not premeditated: The soldiers, unaware they would later star in a documentary, were filming on personal camcorders for family, friends and one another.

Only after their return home did Mortensen and executive producer Scot Laney, founder of the Military/Combat Stock Footage Library in the Portland suburb of Hillsboro, learn of the 40-plus hours of film and 100,000 digital photographs the soldiers had taken.

"None of this was scripted thinking it would be part of a documentary," said Mortensen, the library's president. "In viewing it, we were fascinated."

In particular, the filmmakers were taken by the humor: The soldiers crack jokes under fire and criticize their superiors on camera.

"They're goofing around while bullets are flying around them," Mortensen said. "It's a coping mechanism."

Considering their behavior, one would assume government roadblocks stood in the way of the film being made.

Not so; in fact, the Oregon National Guard offered additional footage and praised the finished work for its honesty.

Which is what Mortensen wanted — a war film from the soldiers' perspective, lacking analysis, slant or Hollywood gloss.

"It's not so much a film about Iraq as it is a film about America and another generation of Americans going out and doing their jobs," he said.

Chad Dryden: 672-6734

Filmmaker's focus is on morality, not on 'issues'

At age 23, Brandon Freeman already has learned to laugh at himself, at least when it comes to his early work.

"My first film was a 30-minute feature called 'Battle of the Mind.' It was terrible," Freeman laughed. "The movie is a dream, and you wake up at the end feeling cheated. Someone told me it's posted on YouTube as 'a movie some idiot made.' "

But even this first crack showed promise, the kind that landed Freeman a spot in the Idaho International Film Festival. His first big film, "The Broken Quiet," is one of only two locally made, feature-length projects accepted for 2007, and festival founder/director Bruce Fletcher said it's one of the best he's seen in the festival's five year history.

"As far as a feature debut, it's really strong. He's got a tremendous amount of talent," Fletcher said. "I'm a big advocate of all independent, local, DIY productions, and I think Brandon's film is fantastic. The seriousness of what he attempts to do, whether he succeeds or not, is impressive."

What Freeman attempts to do is tell a story rife with powerful issues without making "The Broken Quiet" an "issue" film. It's about relationships, mistakes, faith and lack of faith, anger, grief, being utterly lost, dying and wishing you could, but most of all, it's about forgiveness.

It follows a troubled teen named Ashlee (Kaytlin Schrader) facing unwed pregnancy, the loss of her mother (Laura Mason) and life with her severely depressed, formerly abusive, recovering alcoholic father (TJ Johnson) all at once. To Freeman's credit, the story is relatively balanced and complex, as opposed to the cartoonish, cautionary tale it so easily could have been.

"If you just make a film about an issue, it becomes forced and points a finger. In this film, issues become non-issues because they're about the people involved," Freeman said.

As a result, "The Broken Quiet" is not a heavy-handed treatise on morality, but Freeman's strong Christian faith is evident.

"Everything I do in the end, my motivation is to glorify God," he said. "Not to preach or evangelize, but to do the best I can for Him." So far, that has meant working and worshipping at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Boise, where Freeman heads up multimedia production. It was there that he dealt with his own addiction issues in a program called Celebrate Recovery, and the people he met inspired him to express the concept of total brokenness dissolving into peace and meaningful change.

"Until we're broken, we can never be real and never heal," one of his characters says, and the outcome of the film depends on it.

Audiences may not agree with everything they find in the story, but they will be hard-pressed not to get caught up in it. From the script to the lighting to the acting to the cinematography to the smallest nuances of background and sound, Freeman's first real film is a triumph, and it was done in only 10 weekends with a budget of $700.

At first, no one wanted anything to do with it, but Freeman kept visiting online film forums, sharing information about the project and asking sincerely for guidance and help, from his community and from above. One by one, the right people came around, and the movie happened — not exactly as Freeman planned, but exactly as it was meant to.

"It was either dumb luck or providence," he said.

Erin Ryan: 672-6732

Boise Meets World
Idaho International Film Festival begins

By Rachael Daigle: SEPTEMBER 19, 2007

The 2007 Idaho International Film Festival

presented by the Boise Co-Op

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		Reef www.reefboise.com
		Idaho Commission on the Arts www2.state.id.us/arts/
		Regal Entertainment Group www.regalcinemas.com
		Promo Shop www.promoshopboise.com
		Hampton Inn & Suites www.hamptonboise.com
		Boise Art Museum www.boiseartmuseum.org
		The Idaho Statesman www.idahostatesman.com
		The Arbiter www.arbiteronline.com
		Hewlett Packard