Taos Talks Strong Docs, "Smoke Signals" Receives 5 Acres

by Jeff Winograd

Some 1,300 years ago, drought forced the Anasazi Indians to leave their nomadic homeland in the Grand Canyon area, so they wandered east and organized permanent homes along the Rio Grande. One such "pueblo", as they were called, was founded in what is presently Taos, New Mexico. Traditionally a meeting ground, this Pueblo has been occupied consistently for over 900 years. It is the deeply resonant spirit and magic of this place that drives the Taos Talking Picture Festival. While founding director of Taos Talking Pictures, Josh Bryant expected this artistic community to embrace the festival, he could not have anticipated to what extent it would involve itself.

This community revealed its deep respect for films and filmmakers during the Q & A sessions following each screening. The audience participated with interesting comments, and their probing questions often lead to in-depth conversations that were cut short only by the need to keep the festival on schedule. This level of participation lends itself perfectly to the festival's focus on media literacy and key issues. The festival also concentrated on film workshops about writing and directing.

The films themselves represented a wide variety of approaches and subject matter. Director of Programming, Kelly Clement, did an excellent job of building a program filled with soulful and spiritual films. Not bowing to pressure to show only the hottest new films, Clement and his two key staff members, Jason Silverman and Dan Marano, have managed to create a festival with this thread of spirituality. Clement made it clear that Josh Bryant had made a distinct choice in naming the festival "Talking Pictures" rather than simply "Film Festival." The broader, more diverse implications of the name leaves room to work with other formats and to stress the importance of talking about these media pieces. An unfortunate consequence of this approach is that what was gained in thematic thread was sometimes lost in quality.

"Windhorse," the new film by Academy Award-winning director Paul Wagner, offers us a look at the profoundly disturbing treatment of Tibetans at the hand of their Chinese oppressors. The message of this production is powerful, but its low-quality video and mediocre talent leave it well short of what can be called a great film. Yet it is hard to fault Wagner for his format choice. Wagner needed to work around the strict limits enforced by the Chinese and felt that footage from Tibet was a necessity in this film. Another narrative piece, Spanish film "La Buena Estrella," (The Good Star) was far more convincing as a piece of art. Powerful characters helped this story that was well constructed, but at times a bit predictable.

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The festival's approach to picking films shined in the arena of documentaries. A few of the stand-outs included "Sam Shephard : Stalking Himself" and a wonderfully resonant film by Lutz Leonhardt, "Zakir and His Friends." Nicholas Barker's "Unmade Beds" blurred the line between documentary film and its fictional counterpart. The intriguing characters and their lives were interesting as the film got started, but fizzled as time dragged on. "Punching the Clown" also made a valiant attempt at clouding the lines between the real and the surreal. Using the life of singer/songwriter Henry Phillips as its basis, "Punching the Clown" attempts to give story to the songs that Henry sings. Although the songs are humorous, the stories didn't always work in this context. "Punching the Clown" was preceded by one of the festival's hidden gems, "Wayne Freedman's Notebook." This short film by Aaron Lubarsky is a warm look at television investigator, Wayne Freedman. The Taos Talking Picture Festival gives out several awards throughout the weekend, but clearly the treasure of this festival is the Land Grant Award. Given to a film that is considered "innovative," the award includes five acres of land for the winner. Jeff Jackson, whose Taos Land and Film Company administers this award, noted they hoped to "build a community of film makers." This year, the award was given to Sundance audience favorite, "Smoke Signals." On accepting, director Chris Eyre smiled and said simply, "My mother never taught me how to accept five acres of land." Showing great spirit and soul, many of the pretensions felt at other festivals were hard to find in Taos. Even as this festival grew astronomically (nearly 1,400 submissions in only its fourth year), the festival staff stayed true to what they believe in. Programmer Jason Silverman said, "It is the small choices that help keep the festival small." While Taos Talking Pictures could strive to be one of the prominent venues for independent fil, their dedication to the filmmaker, to media literacy, and to their community, has remained more important. Given the choice of flying a distributor out or a filmmaker, Kelly Clement says he chooses the filmmaker. "Media is more than just entertainment," said Founding director Josh Bryant. With Bryant's understanding of the power of media (not just as fluff, but as tool for change), Taos Talking Pictures will evidently remain on the right track. posted on April 28, 1998 |Share