Editor’s column/daily commentary welcoming feedback and opinions.
I describe myself as a “true believer” in film festivals and independent film. Mr. Rissient was the original “true believer.” If he took a liking to your filmmaking, you were “made” like being accepted into a high echelon of the movie mob. His word, his advocacy carried great weight.
Sundance is really a friend to horror and genre films no longer. You get the feeling looking at the schedule the last couple of years that there seems to be a preference for GREASY STRANGLER outlandishness and cinematic pranks, as opposed to breathtaking “scare the crap out of you” cinema. Who is the genre lover in the programming staff? Something tells me they wouldn’t admit to it if there was one.
And that’s the balance I think men need to strike, even when it (as it so often does) go against every instinct to “fix things” and “problem solve.” We need to be ready to stand up and speak out when a loved one, or a friend like Rose or my other film fest friend, or in fact, a complete stranger needs us to do so. But we also, need to never assume we’ve got all of this gamed out, that we’ve got it down, we know the score.
I was wrong and I was wrong because it is so very easy to be wrong as a male in this arena. It is so incredibly easy to think of me first. It is beyond easy to not consider everything that vitally needs to be considered simply because I have a penis. It is a painful admission to make even as I seek to correct it and do better.
Please help me fight for this chance. Help me fight to protect DACA by speaking out and calling your representatives. I promise you that DACA recipients don’t want a free ride. We’ve never asked for that, all we want is a chance to keep contributing to this country in every field, even film.
Those films are going to make the “Make America Great Again” crowd (which everyone knows is actually code for “Make America White Again”) stop for a moment and reflect and decide that they shouldn’t be tacitly saying, “We’re okay if you eliminate (read, “kill if you have to, but by all means force to leave the country”) all the blacks and Jews as long as we get those clean coal jobs back like you promised.”
Let’s face it, there is a lottery aspect to all of this, except YOU have quite a bit of influence over who gets that big-ass check. I feel like I am saying the same thing over and over again here, but the fact is that the culmination is a genuinely affecting moment that sweeps every single person involved up into it. And THAT is the magic of Film Prize.
Irene Cho was a fucking force of nature, an unstoppable, and indefatigable hustling bowling ball of energy that made things happen, that stitched shit together, that produced and promoted both officially and unofficially. She was the real deal.
And meanwhile great film and entertainment journalists and critics like Steve Dollar, Susan King, and Ed Douglas aren’t getting raised on a pedestal by the people who employ them. Or frankly, not employed nearly as much as they should be. These are pros. People that do this stuff the right way. I don’t remember one of them having issues reading through the first fucking paragraph in a press release.
I obviously have a fond and emotional connection to the video store culture as it was back in the day. And I know that the city of Dallas will miss having Premiere Video around to serve as a one-stop go-to place to find something you’re dying to see but couldn’t find elsewhere or to just load up on films for a couple nights.
