Reflections on 2008 and Top 10 Favorite Panel Discussions and Q&As

2008 saw the birth of the One-on-One Q&A, where I interviewed a number of filmmakers including Lucia Small and Ed Pincus (The Axe in the Attic), Leah Meyerhoff (Unicorns), Paul Krik (Able Danger), Fritz Donnelly (To the Hills 2), Phillip Van (Come Wander With Me), Sue Williams (Young & Restless in China), Daniel Robin (My Olympic Summer), Josh Koury (We Are Wizards), Lucía Gajá (My Life Inside), Tambay Obenson (Beautiful Things), Dawn Scibilia and Alan Cooke (Home), Richard LeMay & Jason Brown (Whirlwind), and Paul Lovelace & Sam Douglas (The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose).

New to the contributing notetaker team was Erin Scherer (Are You From Bingo?), who helped me tremendously at South by Southwest, and contributions by aliases Majimafia and Ultradevotion. AMPeters and Jennifer Warren were back with more notes this year, as well. I also want to thank my friends Adolfo Doring and Amanda Zackem, whose film Blind Spot played at the Woodstock Film Festival, for taking me to the mansion on top of the hill :)

And before I forget, thanks to IndieGoGo for making The Film Panel Notetaker one of its resources, to indieWIRE for listing it as one of their Blogs They Love, Infincine and any other blog or website that linked to here.

I made my first trip to Austin, Texas for SXSW and a return trip to Silver Spring, Maryland for Silverdocs, while also staying on the home front for the New Directors, New Films, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Film Festival, IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Conference and Woodstock Film Festival. I also made appearances at a number of very-well programmed film series, screenings, and discussions including Stranger Than Fiction, Rooftop Films, the Museum of the Moving Image, and MoMA. And in March, I was very fortunate to attend the first ever Cinema Eye Honors for nonfiction film presented by Indiepix.

And I cannot close this year off without mentioning fellow indie film blogger and DIY filmmaker extraordinaire Sujewa Ekanyake’s documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip, in which Sujewa generously interviews me and several other indie film bloggers about the rise and somewhat unseen future of indie film blogs. Just trying to see how many times I could put the phrase ‘indie film blogs’ in one paragraph :)

Like last year, it was very hard for me to narrow it down to just 10, as there were so many interesting and wonderful conversations from which to choose. (If you would like to share some of your favorite panel discussions of 2008, please leave a comment.) I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or just my love of non-fiction films, but most of the Top 10 has something to do in one way or another with documentaries. But much of my underlying reasoning can really be attuned to the following criteria: Information and material that I learned and haven’t seen before at panel discussions, diversity in the members on the panels, great moderators, the way in which the panel or discussion was presented, and the ability to entertain, enlighten, and inspire my readers…as well as those that made me laugh my ass off...you know who you are :)

Here’s hoping for more of these wonderful attributes…as well as new surprises…in the year to come.

#1
A Tribute to St. Clair Bourne

Museum of the Moving Image
Astoria, NY

February 10, 2008
This was a very lively discussion that introduced me to the work of the late St. Clair Bourne, who produced and directed many documentaries about prominent figures in African American culture and history including Paul Robeson, John Henrik Clarke, Gordon Parks, and Langston Hughes. Moderated with much respect and appreciation for Bourne and his work, Warrington Hudlin led a great mix of scholars and critics. Nonso Christian Ugbode also presented a clip montage that he edited of Bourne’s films. That same montage would be screened a month later during a tribute to Bourne during the first annual Cinema Eye Honors, which leads into the perfect segway for my #2 pick…

#2
Cinema Eye Honors Roundtable Discussion
New York, NY
March 18, 2008
To my surprise and delight, halfway through the ceremony for the Cinema Eye Honors, co-chair Thom Powers gathered to the stage four directors whose films were nominated for awards that evening including Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Darkside), Esther B. Robinson (A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory), Jason Kohn (Manda Bala) and Pernille Rose Grønkjær (The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun) for a roundtable discussion. While I did kvetch about the lack of light in the seating area for me to see my own notes I was taking, the whole experience of it all trumps that, and I therefore bestow #2 to this very clever and might I say daring idea to break up an award show with a discussion with its honorees.

#3
Stanley Nelson: History in the Making
SXSW Film Conference & Festival
Austin, Texas

March 9, 2008

Stanley Nelson is one of my favorite historical documentary filmmakers. Not only did he show clips from a few of his docs (Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till), he also screened a sneak peek clip of his upcoming film Wounded Knee that is now an official selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It was the first time Nelson showed this clip to the public. I noted in my notes that I often like panels that include film clips because they bring a lot of perspective into the discussion.

#4
Behind the Screens - Under Our Skin
Tribeca Film Festival

New York, NY

April 27, 2008
While I attended several filmmaker conversations myself at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, the notes provided by contributing notetaker AMPeters helped this particular discussion on the documentary Under Our Skin make it to #4. Peters’ notes solicited the most comments than any other notes on The Film Panel Notetaker this year. It was clear by the subject matter of the film, lyme disease, and the information presented in her notes that people were clearly affected.

#5
My Olympic Summer
New Directors/New Films

New York, NY

March 30, 2008
The Q&A with My Olympic Summer director Daniel Robin at New Directors, New Films is clearly an example of fiction blurring the lines of non-fiction, a topic addressed by many a film blogger this past year. A re-telling of the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics with real home movies that are manipulated into what I felt to be an artitistic and compelling story, the reaction by audience members during the Q&A who thought it was all real, only to learn that it was non-fiction, seemed to shock and irk many of them, which made for a tense, yet very important discussion.

#6
Acting Out
NewFest
June 14, 2008
Notetaking newcomer Ultradevotion provided notes from the Acting Out panel featuring out actors and filmmakers such as Heather Matarazzo. 2008 was the first year The Film Panel Notetaker attended NewFest, and ultimately a milestone year for the LGBT community as same sex marriages were declared consitutional in the state of Califoria, but then upsettlingly repealed in November when Proposition 8 received the majority vote, which has since then lead to nationwide protests.

#7
No Borders Case Study with John Hadity

Independent Film Week

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
New York, NY
2008 marked my 8th visit to IFP’s annual Filmmaker Conference (fka IFP Market & Conference), but the first year I was invited to attend a seminar that was not a part of the conference itself, but rather the No Borders International Co-Production section. That seminar was a rather interesting and informative talk on single picture financing presented by finance guru John Hadity.

#8
Shooting in India
Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival

New York, NY

November 8, 2008
This was also my first time at the MIAAC Film Festival and since I’ve never heard people talk about what it’s like to shoot a movie in India before, my interests were immediately sparked. Parvez Sharma (A Jihad for Love) did a nice job moderating a group of panelists who were either from India and shot a movie in India or weren’t from India and shot a movie in India. Either way, all had interesting stories to share.

#9
Herb and Dorothy
Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival

Silver Spring, MD
June 21, 2008
Herb and Dorothy the movie was quite a nice change of pace with its light-hearted subject matter compared to more hard-hitting, yet equally well-made documentaries I saw at Silverdocs. So it was even nicer a treat to see Herb and Dorothy the people make an appearance at the Q&A after the screening along with the director Megumi Sasaki.

#10
Actors Dialogue: Mary Stuart Masterson & Melissa Leo
2008 Woodstock Film Festival

October 5, 2009

Woodstock, NY
Martha Frankel nearly brought me to tears with laughter for a second straight year in a row with her casual yet very-well researched moderation for a conversation with actresses Mary Stuart Masterson and Melissa Leo at the Woodstock Film Festival. Hey, Martha…stop being so funny so I can let other panels have a chance to be on here next year, will ya?

Honorary #11
Here's to Life: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to One Life to Live

New York, NY

June 10, 2008
I try not to veer off topic too much on The Film Panel Notetaker, but how can I leave out one of my very favorite panels of the year? Thanks again to Ultradevotion for her very colorful commentary!

SXSW - Stanley Nelson: History in the Making - March 9, 2008

I took plenty of notes at panels during SXSW over the past few days, so I thought I’d start by posting notes from my very favorite panel there by far, that being the discussion with historical documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson. I had been a fan of Nelson’s documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, and really wanted to hear him speak about that and other films I have yet to see. Not only did he show clips from a few of his docs, he also showed a sneak peek of his upcoming film Wounded Knee that’s slated to air on PBS sometime next year. It was the first time the public has ever seen it. I often like panels that include film clips because they bring a lot of perspective into the discussion.

SXSW Film Conference & Festival
Stanley Nelson: History in the Making
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Austin Convention Center – Room 15 – 1pm

Pail Stekler moderates a discussion with Stanley Nelson at SXSW 2008.

Moderator:
Paul Stekler - University of Texas

Panelist:
Stanley Nelson - Exec Producer, Firelight Media

Stekler began the discussion by saying he had seen Nelson’s documentary Two Dollars and a Dream years ago and liked it a lot. Since then, Nelson has made multiple films including The Murder of Emmett Till and Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple. Now Nelson is finishing a film about Wounded Knee.

Stekler: What if any challenges do you face in making historical documentaries?

Nelson: Every film has a different challenge. One challenge is that you’re usually limited to the historical context. A lot of my films end up on TV and you have to work within the time slot. I kept Jonestown down to one and a half hours. You have to determine what you will leave in and what you will take out. You’re telling history, but also making entertainment.

[Clip of Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple. Scene of the last day of People’s Temple in Guyana before the massacre in 1978.]

Stekler: What was the challenge of making Jonestown? What was your game plan?

Nelson: Early on in the process, I found members of People’s Temple that were still alive. I wanted the film to be told by the people who were there. I originally thought we were going to do re-creations, but once I found out how much footage there was, I didn’t need to do that. I started collecting the footage there was. Nobody had ever put it all together. There was so much footage that NBC shot. One of the real limitations of the film was trying to do it without narration.

Stekler: Why do filmmakers shy away from narration?

Nelson: I think it’s a kind of style. For example, a lot of documentaries on HBO have no narration. In films that were about such topics as anorexia or rehab, you don’t really learn too much about the topics themselves, but more about the stories of the people dealing with them.

[Clip of The Murder of Emmett Till. The scene is a re-creation of the taking of Emmett Till with narration.]

Stekler: What were some of the challenges and the structure for Emmett Till?

Nelson: In 1955, Emmett Till was a black kid from Chicago who visits his uncle in Mississippi and gets murdered for whistling at a white woman. I found people who were witnesses to the murder who say things they never said before. It wasn’t my original intent. I had been there to get the historical perspective. When I first got the idea for Emmett Till, I wanted to see what also has been done on him before. There was an 11-minute short called Eyes on the Prize.

Stekler: Tell us your funny story about the re-creation of that scene?

Nelson: The last bit of them washing out the truck, that’s me in the overalls. I received a call from the MacArthur Foundation that same day between takes, and I was dancing.

Stekler: Did this film make the news?

Nelson: The last two people interviewed in the film had never talked about it before. I showed the film to an audience at the Schomburg Center in Harlem and a lot of people got mad and wanted to go down to the town where the murder took place. The case had been re-opened and investigated. They turned evidence over to the D.A. and it was decided not to do anything with it. Even though the suspects were put on trial, the case was never really investigated.

[Clip of A Place of Our Own about and African-American community on Martha’s Vinyard. The scene with Isabelle Washington, Adam Clayton Powell’s first wife.]

Stekler: Tell us about A Place of Our Own?

Nelson: I was interested in what African American lives are like. I wanted to do a film about black resorts. When I grew up, it was an unknown place. It had a black population in the summer. I mixed together a personal story of my own family history and this place. It was really strange. I would never do it again. It involved a lot of sharing. My editor and my wife pushed me to do it. It asked about growing up on an audio tape, and the editor listened to it and asked further questions. It was really hard. Why would anyone care? It was such a disaster that I thought no one would ever see it. I got it down to a fine cut and sent it to Sundance, where it got in. What was fascinating was I don’t think I had a clear idea when I was making this. I found home movies. I asked friends and family to get involved. The bad thing was that 95% of the home movies were made on the beach, and not within the homes.

Stekler: How do you see your role as a filmmaker?

Nelson: I’m very interest in the black middle class, because that’s my history and I don’t see them on film and TV. I’m also interested in telling stories of the institutions behind the history.

[Clip of Wounded Knee that will air on PBS’ American Experience sometime next year. Scene is an animated recreation of the children of Wounded Knee being sent to boarding school.]

Stekler: Tell us about Wounded Knee.

Nelson: In 1973, American Indian groups took over the town of Wounded Knee to draw attention to the massacre that happened there in 1890. The difficulty in making films about historical events is, how do you tell the story without a huge amount of back story? The film starts with the siege of the town, and then goes into the back story.

Audience Q&A:

Q: Have you ever been approached to do a social change documentary?

Nelson: I try to do a mix between historical and social change films. Running was about an election for city council in New York City in 2001. I did some10-minute short films on affirmative action. I’m doing one on immigration. Trying to do different things kind of gets old unless you take yourself away from it for a while.

Q: Is it always organic or do you start out knowing what your films will be?

Nelson: I don’t always know what they will be. I put an idea on paper and turn it into a proposal. I don’t do too much research. I don’t usually go into a pitch meeting and get a check right away. For Emmett Till, I got some books and only read the intro, table of contents and index. Then I begin a proposal. You need to know more than the people you’re applying for money from know.

Q: What choices did you make for the animation in Wounded Knee?

Nelson: One of my advisers didn’t like it. I had to try to figure out what there is new to do. A lot of people know something about boarding schools. I found a book of ledger art with drawings from their time at the schools. We thought it would be great to animate it. It’s been kind of controversial with the production team. We asked ourselves, does the animation make light of the actual events? They’re not complicated drawings. We hired an animator for it.