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2004 Flickerings Post-Fest Report
Getting Serious at Flickerings 2004
"Holy Moments" and Sacred Obligations
Getting down to business: this year's
Flickerings was marked by a sense of seriousness, a matter-of-factness in the
attitudes of both session leaders and participants — an assumption that
we all came to work, so we might as well roll up our sleeves and get to it:
whether the hard work took the form of shooting a film, analyzing a film, or
wrestling out fundamentals in the rarified realm of film theory.
In fact, Flickerings could not have chosen firmer ground upon which to build
a renewed vision (after last year's Dogme
'95 "retreat") than with a careful consideration of the work of André
Bazin. The French critic's most recent high profile was when Richard
Linklater's Waking Life memorably invoked Bazin's notion of cinema as
vehicle for "Holy Moments". As with the Dogme movement, Bazin's religious
overtones point up both the seriousness of his approach, but also the
Christian spirituality which informed that approach to hitherto trivialized
critical enterprise. Flickerings '04 featured a daily seminar on Bazin led
by Doug Cummings, a Bazinian figure himself, who runs
several well-respected film-related web
sites in addition to his ongoing mentoring of critics and serious film
buffs. Doug, along with several other guest critics, also introduced and led
discussions following this year's Featured
Screenings. Peter Chattaway (who brought the Canadian perspective to his
introduction of the Jesus of Montreal screening) and J. Robert Parks
lent a practiced and professional air to our consideration of several of this
year's films. Likewise pitching in were Mike Leary and Stef Loy of The Matthews
House Project, along with Christians for Biblical Equality, who hosted a screening
of Whale Rider. "Andre Bazin would have loved this theater," noted
Doug, recalling anecdotes about Bazin's tireless promoting of films and
screenings in places — well, in places like our birdy barn. We also
think he'd have approved of the hands-on approach to film culture we've tried
to build into Flickerings, for film watching but also film making.
E I G H T - H O U R F I L M S C H O O L
As critics and film buffs inside our
theater wrestled with André Bazin's ideas about film, a group of young
filmmakers were busy outside in the sun working through the nuts and bolts of
making a film. Flickerings' new Eight-Hour Film School took a
cast and crew of workshop attendees through a three-day process of creating a
scene — preproduction, production, and post-production — as a
steady stream of passerby collected to watch. Actually, that sort of
"gaper's block" was exactly what we'd hoped to provoke when we decided to
workshop this particular scene: it was set at the scene of an accident, just
after a car had crashed into a tree. Now, we didn't actually crash
the car — an old Chrysler New Yorker someone abandoned on the
grounds after last year's fest — into the tree: what we did was smash
the front end with a forklift and then tow the car into position. And while
you might think that experience tough to top, the sight of a dozen workshop
participants turned cast and crew shooting on location all day Saturday was
unquestionably a Flickerings festival highlight. Workshop leaders Kevin
Nikkel and Bevan Klassen (Winnipeg filmmakers and Flickerings regulars) began
pre-production Friday afternoon with a classroom discussion of the difference
between script and screen, considering just what difference a director can
make.
Our director was Adam Hall, an entrant in
both 2004's and last year's Showcase. Adam brought the same measure of
seriousness to the film workshop that we saw throughout the festival. Working
with our instructors before the fest began, Adam created storyboards and
shotlist for the scene (from the film The Apostle), then had the
chance apply — or revise — his vision under the always
unpredictable conditions of the location. Day Three provided further
challenges of this sort, when scheduling problems meant hastily devising a
new editing room inside the Speaker Hospitality trailer, where the workshop
project moved into Post-Production. The Eight-Hour Film School created the
exact sort of excitement and growth we'd hoped for this year. Next year,
we'll explore ways to develop this component of the program even further.
Among other directions, we'll look into sponsorship as a way of integrating
some of the newest filmmaking technology into the process. Stay tuned.
F I L M S H O W C A S E & " F I L M M A K E R S O N L Y"
Once
again (as in Adam's case), we were excited to see returning Showcase
entrants at this year's Flickerings, both in the Showcase program an in the
evening "Filmmakers Only" discussion sessions. Staying in touch, sharing
ideas and new works, and above all building relationships gives filmmakers a
chance to be a part of a growing community. Even more, the filmmakers
themselves have helped shape the vision of this community in the
ongoing conversations — officially-scheduled or otherwise — that
make Flickerings more than just a great place to screen your film.
Which is not to say Flickerings isn't also a great place to screen
your film: the short-film Showcase has fast become among the most
popular morning sessions of Cornerstone Festival. Once again, the Showcase
featured a strong line-up narrative, experimental, documentary and animated
films from variety of filmmakers — many of whom were present to
introduce their films. (See the complete of 2004 Showcase Films and
Filmmakers.) Congratulations to
participating filmmakers, and to those whose works we screened as a part of
our Best of Flickerings session.
Thanks also to the guest critics at the Arts & Faith discussion board who selected our "Best of"
program, a welcome development and of which more in a moment.
Meanwhile, there were other notable signs of growth: among these, some
detected a subtle shift in the atmosphere of those nightly Filmmakers Only
sessions. As the collective vision of Flickerings has become more
clarified over the past four years, there's been less a sense of groping for
identity than one of raising a standard and encouraging everyone to reach for
it. The sessions are unstructured, but the discussions naturally gravitate
to issues of common concern: legal restrictions on music in films, keeping in
mind who the intended audience is, setting one's comedic sights higher than
going for just another laugh. Filmmakers shared works-in-progress, gave and
took constructive criticism. Discussion over such sensitive matters as
creative expression and vision was often intense. The atmosphere was what
some of the attendees from certain church backgrounds might have called
"discipleship," yet the substance bridged the gap from the personal to the
aesthetic: there was sense of the seriousness of the enterprise (even if you
were making comedies!), repeated calls for honesty, humility, respect for
audience and for material. Some welcome veteran voices guiding the
discussions included longtime Flickerings favorite, experimental filmmaker
Carl Rust, along with ex-Big Ideas staffer Steve Leeper. Steve was at
Cornerstone again with the "Mystic Art Soup" program, which offers workshops
for kids on such things as animation: next year we're thinking of giving
Steve a slot in the Flickerings program to share some of the great animated
shorts he's collected in recent years.
T H E C O N V E R S A T I O N C O N T I N U E S
This year our Best of Flickerings
program was selected by a group of Chicago critics and film buffs who
participate with likeminded souls from around the world on the Arts & Faith discussion
board, "The Best Place on the Web for Discussion of Christian Faith & the
Arts." In recent years, Flickerings' vision and community has been enriched
considerably by joining into the always-lively A & F conversation about films
and filmmaking. Indeed, A & F is one of several year-round conversations
from which the annual Flickerings conversation can be said to emerge. Once
again, we had a large A & F contingent (many longtime correspondants meeting
for the first time in person!) pick up the discussion "live" at Flickerings.
The Film Snob highlight for Flickerings '04 was the high-flown discussion led
by J. Robert Parks following a screening of one of his personal favorites,
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us. When the
Dance Club (Flickerings' unruly roommate in the metal building) began warming
up, the discussion carried over to the empty children's tent next door and on
into the night. No doubt, the discussion for that and other films will carry
back online. Feel free to join in, or even just "lurk". More than lurk: A &
F has published a list of Top 100
Spiritually Significant Films" that has been a great conversation starter
and check-list for movie rentals.
We hope you'll join us in the ongoing conversation that is Flickerings, one
way or another, and next year F2F at the fest.
But remember: there's more to Flickerings than just talking and lurking: if
you really want to participate, show up next year with your new film. Entry information for 2005 will be posted in
August, the entry deadline will be March 1st of next year. 
See also
Best of Flickerings 2004
Complete list of 2004 Film Showcase Films
Flickerings' Epic Survey of Jesus Movies
Catch Up on the Conversation...
Flickerings 2003 Post-Fest Report
Flickerings 2002 Post-Fest Report
Flickerings 2001 Post-Fest Report
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