The Virginia Film Festival, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year from November 9-12, chose a topic at the forefront of many people’s minds—both locally and nationally—with its Race in America series. A collaboration with James Madison’s Montpelier, the series features notable filmmaker Spike Lee, who will screen his documentary 4 Little Girls. And from a frame-by-frame analysis of Harold and Maude, to Trudie Styler’s directorial debut about a transgender teen, to co-director Lynn Novick’s decade of research with Ken Burns for “The Vietnam War,” this year’s discussion guests ensure that viewers will see movies in a whole new light.
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Lynn Novick appears on Thursday to discuss “The Vietnam War” documentary series, which she co-directed with Ken Burns. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
To tell the full story of Vietnam along all of its harrowing dimensions, the producers of an epic new film series about the war required 10 years of research, more than 100 personal interviews and a healthy dose of humility. “I personally have been obsessed with the Vietnam War for most of my adult life,” says Lynn Novick, who co-directed “The Vietnam War,” a 10-episode, 18-hour documentary, with longtime collaborator Ken Burns. “But it was still humbling and exhilarating to find out how little we really knew about it.”
The conflict, spanning the terms of five U.S. presidents and killing 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese, was so sprawling and divisive that even those who were immersed in it—soldiers, protesters and leaders alike—have struggled to make sense of what happened or to find common ground with other points of view. Many chose to bury the memories and move on.
Fifty years hence, Novick and her team made creative choices aiming to fill the gaps in the war’s oft-distorted narratives, beginning with the voices they included in the film. In addition to hearing from Americans impacted by the war, Novick made four trips to Vietnam to interview military and civilian Vietnamese from both the north and south.
Taking the time to establish trust and a connection with her subjects is a hallmark of Novick’s technique. “They dealt with the same emotions as our soldiers,” she says. “They had leaders who were imperfect at best, and were all trying to survive a horrific event. It’s like going through the looking glass and looking at ourselves from the way they saw us.”
In a similar vein, the film features interviews with ordinary Americans and their families rather than “famous” decision-makers and celebrities such as Henry Kissinger or Jane Fonda. “They’ve had their say, many times over,” says Novick. “We wanted to hear from people that you didn’t know and hadn’t heard from, and who maybe didn’t have a legacy to protect.”
The daunting task of sifting through hundreds of thousands of photographs and huge quantities of newsreel footage, audio recordings, music and photos fell to a small team of meticulous researchers and producers in New York. “Everything had to be collected, digitized and put into a database so we knew what we had when we needed it,” says Novick. Marc Selverstone and Ken Hughes of the Miller Center at UVA provided vital guidance and legwork in finding key bits of presidential audio from their archives.
Popular songs by artists from Bob Dylan to the Beatles, inserted in the timeline precisely when they were first released, imbue the film with authenticity and tension. “A lot of these compositions and recordings are national treasures, and the artists wanted assurances that they would be used in their historic context in a meaningful way.”
Among the most important tracks was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio,” released just after the Kent State protest shootings and never before licensed, which took a year of negotiations with producers to secure.
To give the film its deft cohesion, Novick and Burns orchestrated every episode along with their writer Geoffrey Ward and producer Sarah Botstein. “Little by little we have to put our arms around the entire show and try to wrestle it to the ground piece by piece,” says Novick. “We have to boil it down to make it into a watchable film, and it’s a long process that takes many years.”
Now, finally, the film has reached its ultimate audience: the people who lived through the war and others who wish to learn from it. In Charlottesville, even as local veterans debate how the documentary covered issues such as the valor of combat troops, the U.S. media’s skewed portrayal of important battles and the deep impact of PTSD on returning soldiers, they agree on its potential to enlighten older and, especially younger, generations of Americans.
“I think it’s a good thing to revisit at this point,” says retired Marine Colonel James T. O’Kelley Jr., who commanded forces for three years in Vietnam. “I see cities burning overseas, and it feels like we haven’t learned what we should have.”
Army veteran Tom Oakley says the film revived intensely personal memories, but also provided some healing. “Coming home was the hardest part because of the way we were treated,” says Oakley. He was moved by an apology from a protester in one episode of the film.
Bruce Eades was drafted into the Marine Corps and learned to speak Vietnamese before being sent to the war zone, where he survived the Tet Offensive. Now serving as commander of the American Legion Post in Keswick, Eades says the film has given him a measure of hope. “Maybe it’s not too late for us to learn from the war,” he says. “Maybe something like this can unify us. I think we need today’s young people to learn from history, to lift us up, to save us.”
The Ruination of Lovell Coleman. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
VFF films with Virginia ties
The Ruination of Lovell Coleman
Director Ross McDermott met Lovell Coleman in Charlottesville 10 years ago when he saw the then octogenarian putting a new roof on his house by himself. Coleman, now on the cusp of 94, has been playing the fiddle since at least age 14, when he joined a popular band called The Virginia Vagabonds in 1937. McDermott says, “He comes from a self-made generation where even owning an instrument was a privilege.” The documentary’s title comes from something Coleman’s father said when his son would stay out all night playing with the band: “That fiddle’s going to be the ruination of Lovell.” Lovell responds in the film, “I’m so glad I was able to be ruined.”
Another musical component in the film, McDermott says, is that for the last 15 years Coleman has been playing his fiddle at nursing homes, often for people younger than himself. “He’s just so youthful, so a lot of what the film touches on is the importance of healthy aging,” McDermott says. “But also the impact that music can have, especially for senior citizens and those with dementia.” McDermott, who worked for the Charlottesville Mural Project for six years before becoming a filmmaker, says, “This guy is so unique. Besides the life he’s lived, he’s just a good human. I try to make things that are of a positive nature, showing the good of humans. …I think we need to be reminded of people who have lived simple lives but also good lives.”—Raennah Lorne
The Twinning Reaction. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
The Twinning Reaction
Local filmmaker Lori Shinseki has spent the last six years making a film about the aftereffects of a psychological study that purposefully separated multiple sets of twins in the 1960s and tracked their development as they were adopted, then reared in separate homes.
The secret study took place in New York and it’s difficult to know, Shinseki says, whether all of the twins were orphaned or their mothers were young and unwed, and perhaps manipulated into giving up their children. One reason there are so many questions is that the files are locked at Columbia University until 2021 and at Yale University until 2066. The lead researchers were psychiatrists Viola Bernard, then director of Columbia University’s Division of Community and Social Psychiatry, and Peter Neubauer, a child psychiatrist. The adoptive parents were never told they were adopting a separated twin, believing they were participating in an adoption study, not a twin study. The documentary tells “the story through [the twins’] eyes,” says Shinseki. “Because they were never given a voice. This film is an opportunity for them to speak and be heard in a way that they never were before.” ABC’s “20/20” intends to air a segment on the film by the end of this year.—Raennah Lorne
Afrikana Film Festival Showcase. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
Afrikana Film Festival Showcase
Enjoli Moon, founder and director of Richmond’s Afrikana Independent Film Festival, says she founded the event to “create a platform that shows cinematic works of people of color with a special focus on the global black experience.”
This AIFF will showcase five short films from their second annual festival in September. The Tale of Four, directed by Gabourey Sidibe of Precious fame, tells the story of four women in one day, inspired by Nina Simone’s “Four Women.” #donttouchmyhairRVA, directed by Chaz Barracks, explores “what it means to establish your autonomy as a black person who identifies as a woman in this world,” Curiosity, directed by Brittney Sankofa, is an experimental film about a woman and her journey with love. The Colored Hospital, directed by Terrance Daye, “gives us a look into the spectrum of emotions of black male experience,” Moon says. And Quiet Girl, directed by Evita Castine, is an experimental “peek into the mind” of one black woman. “Each of [the films] tells their own distinct story,” Moon says, “but there is a connective tissue that makes them relevant to each other and relevant to the people who watch it, whether they’re people of color or otherwise.”—Raennah Lorne
Charlottesville: Our Streets
In the aftermath of the weekend of August 12 in Charlottesville, dozens of filmmakers, photographers and journalists collaborated on Charlottesville: Our Streets. “Our mission was to stay objective,” says director Brian Wimer. “As documentarians we listened…what we heard became the narrative—one which was in many ways unexpected. Someone with the clergy told us about singing in the street and seeing one of the militia members mouth the words, ‘thank you.’ When we interviewed the militia, one of its members told us the exact same story, unsolicited. That kind of personalized corroboration of the nuances and paradoxes revealed many of the unspoken truths of the day.”
The filmmakers interviewed people on the streets of Charlottesville during the Unite the Right rally. “Not everyone agrees in the film,” says Wimer. “Nor will everyone in the audience. But I hope people can watch the film with an open mind and use it to spur dialogue across the aisle on multiple issues…”—Raennah Lorne
Light House Studio provides youth filmmaking workshops year-round, and during the film festival, the nonprofit is screening a program of students’ shorts. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
Light House Studio
Light House Studio provides youth filmmaking workshops year-round, and during the film festival, the nonprofit is screening a program of students’ shorts.
The documentary Hijab, was made by Charlottesville High School students during an after-school program, Keep It Reel. Deanna Gould, executive director of LHS, describes it as “powerful.”
Gould says that most of the works were written, cast, produced and filmed during a one-to-two-week period. The participants have some assistance from mentors who are knowledgeable in filmmaking, but largely they work independently.
Another film by students, Black Girlhood: Access & Assets, screens on Friday at Newcomb Hall. This film was selected to showcase before the evening’s feature film, Tell Them We Are Rising.
Two films from the Adrenaline Project, a 72-hour film festival in Charlottesville that took place prior to VFF, will screen on Sunday. A musical called Out of Stock, which picked up an Audience Award, and Surf & Turf, a romantic comedy that picked up a Juror’s Award.—Anita Overcash
As events that transpired in Charlottesville inform the national conversation on the politics of race and resistance, the Virginia Film Festival has placed the subject at the center of this year’s programming. And the Race in America series features some of the best filmmaking on the subject. Attending this year’s festival will be veteran filmmaker Spike Lee, who will present his documentary 4 Little Girls and video short I Can’t Breathe. A Q&A with Lee and University of Virginia professor Maurice Wallace will precede the films.
Viewing the collected works of Spike Lee reveals three decades of a fiercely talented technician using all means available to speak the truth in its purest form to anyone who will listen, and shout it at those who won’t. Though the notion that he is intentionally provocative has taken root in the public’s collective opinion of Lee, a deeper reading of his work suggests that he places equal value on the content, style and craftsmanship of his films, but uses them as platforms to elevate the underlying message or fundamental truth of the story on a higher level. Often, those messages are uncomfortable ones that require direct confrontation, whether in the form of Samuel L. Jackson demanding we “cool that shit out” following a montage of internal racism made external in Do the Right Thing, or the ripped-from-the-headlines commentary of last year’s audacious Chi-Raq. It’s not just that Lee demands to be heard, it’s that he demands you listen to and recognize the truth.
In 1997, Lee released his first documentary, 4 Little Girls. The film tells the story of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963, in which four young African-American girls—Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair—were killed by white supremacists at their church in Birmingham, Alabama. Though known Klansmen were held and questioned, there were no charges filed and the FBI closed the case, until it was reopened in 1977 and subsequently in 2000. The brutality and senseless loss of life is considered a turning point in the Civil Rights movement, and the next year saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Though an explicitly political message can be drawn from it, Lee dedicates much of the film to the personalities and families of the girls who lost their lives.
Lee garnered praise and an Academy Award nomination for the documentary, and contemporary critics sometimes commented that it was perceived as a departure for the director in both style and tone. Interviewers from the time of its release asked about the film’s political message, to which Lee would politely offer that it was to learn more about these four girls, that there was no specific call to action. Indeed, the film sees Lee in the role of observer rather than auteur. The politics are inherent in the story and the event had large societal and legal repercussions, all of which are thoroughly examined, but in his commitment to truth, Lee has no agenda in exploring this topic beyond making the audience come to know who these girls were, whose future the world never witnessed.
Lee had initially wanted to make the film as a student, but would not do so without the participation of Chris McNair, father of Carol. Both understood that the time was not yet right—Lee was still a budding filmmaker, and McNair was not yet ready to open that chapter of his life to the world.
Lee will also be presenting I Can’t Breathe, a video short that interweaves footage of Radio Raheem’s fate in Do the Right Thing and Eric Garner being pinned to the ground by police, despite his pleas for medical attention, which would lead directly to his death. The video is a stark reminder that though cell phone camera technology is new, the tragedies that they record are not. Do the Right Thing itself is partially based on real events, what’s known as the 1986 Howard Beach incident. Though the film is fictional, its depiction of racism and police violence is as truthful as on-the-ground footage.
Safer films may take home the trophies instead of Lee’s, only to be forgotten, but a Spike Lee Joint endures because it isn’t what we want to see, it’s what we need to hear.
Other Race in America screenings
Hidden Figures
One of the best crowd-pleasers of 2016 recounts the contributions of black women to the early space program, boasting a top-notch cast, terrific music and an inspirational true story.
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities
This documentary looks at America’s historically black colleges and universities, which have been an invaluable resource to many, but their establishment and continued legacy did not come easily.
The Confession Tapes
From Netflix’s “8th and H” series comes this episode about a group of Washington, D.C., teens wrongfully convicted of murder in 1984, some of whom are still serving time based on false accusations of gang affiliation.
An Outrage
This documentary on lynching in the American South was filmed on the locations of many actual such events, bringing attention to the harrowing fact that racist mobs murdering innocent people in this fashion is not ancient history, and the emotional societal scars are still felt today.
The Birth Of A Movement
Too often, bigotry and racist caricatures in old films are dismissed as “that’s the way it was.” Birth of a Movement proves just the opposite, recounting journalist and activist William M. Trotter’s opposition to D.W. Griffith’s 1915 celebration of the Ku Klux Klan in The Birth of a Nation.
O.J.: Made In America
Though the world may not have recognized it at the time, the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman was perhaps the most significant intersections of race, class, the justice system and the media industrial complex. This in-depth documentary explores the story from every conceivable angle, and vividly recounts a chapter in American history many considered closed.
Harold and Maude. Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
Harold and Maude producer Chuck Mulvehill and director Hal Ashby met during post-production work on The Landlord (1970), and eventually became partners in the company DF Films (Dumb Fuck). Mulvehill says when the story of Harold and Maude came his way, “My first reaction to the script was ‘It’s weird.’ Hal’s take was that there was humor and humanity and that’s what we went for.”
Mulvehill is joined at the film festival by Ashby biographer Nick Dawson for a discussion of Harold and Maude in a shot-by-shot breakdown of the filmmaking. Here’s a peek at what to expect, according to Mulvehill:
1. Shot: High POV of Harold and Maude sitting among a multitude of white tombstones in the National Cemetery.
Comment: As filmmakers, this shot signified to us the sadness and futility of war (one of the film’s themes). Sadly, if filmed today, 46 years later, it would have to be a higher, wider shot.
2. Shot: Morning-after scene with Harold blowing bubbles and Maude asleep (with a contented look on her face?).
Comment: Oddly, while this was pitched as a love story, the studio never thought it was a love story. They were not down with the idea that the relationship might actually be consummated.
3. Shot: At the burial site at the cemetery. The last shot of Maude exiting with her bright raincoat and yellow umbrella in contrast to the somber funeral garb of the other mourners.
Comment: It was by design to wardrobe Maude in bright colors in contrast to the drabness around her. Maude’s yellow umbrella stands out as a splash of color in comparison to the somber tones and dress of the other mourners. There is a continuing theme of color contrasts that permeate the film emphasizing Maude’s zest for life and disregard for convention.
4. Shot: Harold hanging.
Comment: This (contrasting) color palette theme was used for Harold’s makeup as well. When we first meet Harold his makeup is very pale and as the film and the relationship with Maude progresses his color (makeup) becomes more normal in tone. These choices created quite a bit of consternation with the studio who when watching dailies panicked as they were sure we didn’t know what we were doing. It was at this time that Hal stopped taking their phone calls, which only added to their angst.
5. Shot: Freeze frame of the Jaguar/hearse as it goes over the cliff.
Comment: This was the worst cut of the film. It was a compromise as the high-speed camera, that would have given us a slow motion shot, broke down midway through the shot and we didn’t have the money to recreate the moment. This was filmed on the last day of shooting and we were over schedule. The compromise is the cheesy freeze-frame that was ultimately used.
Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock plays with themes that haunted his entire oeuvre in The Lodger, an early career crime thriller about a serial killer who has it in for London’s blonde women. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
In a world where digital theaters project billions of colors in subtle gradations that mimic all the hues of real life, choosing to watch—or produce—a black and white film may be taken as a small act of defiance. For movies shot after the advent of color film, the choice of black and white is often the territory of auteurs motivated by their own reasons for telling their stories in the stark monochrome palette.
Classic blockbusters have relied on the colorless approach to spur diverse results. Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) used the medium’s immediate ability for retro recall and comic effect, while Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) used its presumed blunt seriousness to lampoon the apocalyptic threat of war.
Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust epic Schindler’s List (1993) and French director Michel Hazanavicius’s sensation The Artist (2011) used the medium to critical accolades, earning Academy Awards for Best Picture.
With such highly regarded works in black and white, it should come as no surprise that the Virginia Film Festival has a selection of old, new, foreign and domestic films that accurately convey a range of emotion from sorrow and silliness, to drama and terror.
November. Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
November (2017 Estonia/Netherlands/Poland)
If you’re seeking an exotic flick offering a tale of young love and deathly mystical black humor, November is all you. Based on a novel, this 19th-century Estonian folktale should intrigue horror fans and art house snobs alike. Director Rainer Sarnet employs a rich grayscale that fills the screen with painterly swaths of threatening forests, moonlit hills, ancient churches and cozy, fire-warm hovels inhabited by filthy faced villagers. This setting is ideal for the film’s supernatural element: impoverished farmers using demonic forces to conjure soulless servants. Unrequited love and the doom of winter lay the icy groundwork for this captivating Tribeca Film Festival winner. With English subtitles.
Tonsler Park. Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
Tonsler Park (2017 U.S.)
UVA art professor, accomplished sculptor, painter and filmmaker Kevin Everson returns to 16mm in this documentary chronicling Election Day 2016 in Charlottesville. Though he produced multiple shorts since his last longform film (the eight-hour Park Lanes 2015), Tonsler Park adds to a prolific output, which often aims to capture the daily lives of African-Americans. Here, he exposes the shortcomings of a democratic system that fails those it proposes to empower. Everson will be on hand for a discussion with fellow director Claudrena Harold.
The Lodger (1927 U.K.)
Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock plays with themes that haunted his entire oeuvre in this early career crime thriller about a serial killer who has it in for London’s blonde women. A suspicious landlady believes her new tenant to be The Avenger, the lethal lunatic. Though longer cuts of this spine-chilling silent exist, catch this showing for live music performed by Matthew Marshall and the Reel Music Trio, and an introduction by Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz.
1945. Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
1945 (1927 Hungary)
In an ironic twist on the World War II/Holocaust theme, two Orthodox Jewish men show up in rural Hungary to drive fear into the hearts of the guilt-ridden townspeople. Fittingly realized by Ferenc Török in a nuanced monochrome that feels both historically respectful yet contemporary, 1945 shows the nefarious power of guilt and the unending aftermath of carrying out evil deeds. Forced to face their recent sins that only came to a close months earlier, the entire Hungarian town becomes unnerved by their actions, compounded with a thorough dread of revenge by the Jewish strangers: real and imagined, financial and spiritual.
The Immigrant. Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
The Immigrant(1917 U.S.)
Comic icon Charlie Chaplin stars in and directs this short, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary. The mustachioed protagonist gets into trouble through good ol’ problematic misunderstandings both on his way to and after his arrival in America. Two other Chaplin shorts from 1917 also highlight the schedule: Easy Street, about a vagabond-turned-cop, and The Adventurer, featuring Chaplin reprising his tramp role to bust out of jail, become a hero and then ruin an elegant affair. Ben Mankiewicz again serves up the intro, and Matthew Marshall and the Reel Music Trio supply the soundtrack.
Pixar senior scientist Tony DeRose, who leads a master class on animation techniques on Thursday, says everything changed in 1986, when John Lasseter used computer graphics to make the bouncing lamp and ball movie, Luxo Jr. Photo: Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
Tony DeRose, senior scientist at Pixar Animation Studios, wants students to know that the math and science they must learn in school really is helpful. It’s applicable in their activities, games and movies, and DeRose is holding a master class during the Virginia Film Festival to drive home this point. Joining him will be Earl Mark of the UVA School of Architecture and Sara Maloni of the UVA Department of Mathematics, who respectively have published research into digital animation and forms of geometry.
The purpose of the seminar is to “show how various math and science concepts are used in making a Pixar film,” DeRose says. “We’ll pull back the covers to show some of the techniques and disciplines that we use to bring our characters to life and tell our stories.”
Tony DeRose joined Pixar just as the first Toy Story movie was about to premiere. For more than 20 years he was charged with researching problems that needed to be solved so that the worldwide leader in animated films could improve its movies and their emotional impact on audiences.
“Just to see a character on the screen requires a lot of different formulas, and the branches of mathematics, computer science and art have to come together,” DeRose says.
Pixar does much work on improving visuals in the area of physical simulation programs, such as the motion of clothing, water and smoke or the bulging and stretching of muscles. The studio creates animated characters that are stylized and lifelike, but that do not aim to appear precisely as human, DeRose explains.
Special effects in movies with actors, however, have a different challenge when they attempt to create a passable human on the screen, DeRose notes. He gave a hypothetical example of the Star Wars franchise trying to generate a new Carrie Fisher through computer graphics.
“Because humans are so used to looking at other humans, we are attuned to the slightest subtleties,” he says. “It is very hard to create a virtual character that is indistinguishable from the human. It ends up being creepy.” DeRose and colleagues call that quality of creepiness, when you don’t quite get to the real human, the “uncanny valley.”
Asked about virtual reality as it is now, he says it is analogous to the computer graphics field in the mid-1980s. Back then, “we had the feeling computer graphics would be good for science and engineering visualization purposes, but we really hadn’t demonstrated that it could be used for emotional storytelling.” Then in 1986 came John Lasseter, who used computer graphics to make the bouncing lamp and ball movie called Luxo Jr.
“Virtual reality hasn’t had its Luxo Jr. moment yet,” DeRose explains.
In recent months, DeRose has taken on a new role in education and outreach for Pixar. The programs include Pixar in a Box for those interested in exploring and creating, the Young Makers Program and a 10,000-square-foot traveling science exhibition. The payoff is enthusiasm that becomes a vocation.
In leading research at Pixar, DeRose realized how satisfying it can be “to study mathematics and computer science to create software programs to give to artists to turn into something that everyone on the planet might enjoy.”
“Mathematicians rarely get that kind of exposure,” DeRose says. “It’s a chance to touch everyone’s lives.”—Mary Jane Gore
The Luxo Jr. moment
Deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress, Luxo Jr. (1986), a two-minute animated film, was a game changer because of its inaugural use of procedural animation, shadow maps and its ability to convey emotion. Originally intended as a way to demonstrate computer graphic capabilities, the short was the first CGI movie to earn an Academy Award nomination, and the lamp has became a mascot for Pixar Animation Studios.
War stories: Through the looking glass with Vietnam documentarian Lynn Novick
VFF films with Virginia ties
More fabulous: Trudie Styler’s Freak Show champions LGBTQ youth
