Celebrating Cinema as an Art, Telluride Unveils ‘09 Fest

The annual festival always offers a mix of old and new. Among the classics and repertory films slated for this year’s Telluride Film Festival are silent films and restored works. Marcel L’Herbier’s “L’Argent,” a French silent film from 1928, is described by the festival as, “an appropriate commentary to Wall Street crisis and global economic storm.” The screening will feature a new score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

“This is a discovery that we are going to be hearing about for years to come,” touted festival managing director Julie Huntsinger, in a conversation with indieWIRE.

Bernhard Wicki’s 1961 German film, “Miracle of Malachias,” is another work that organizers are excited to introduce to audiences, calling it, “something of a miracle.” It’s described as the story of, “a well-meaning priest who causes a louche nightclub to be transported onto a chunk of rock in the North Sea, where it naturally becomes a trendy sensation.”

The festival will also present a number of documentaries, for free in the Backlot screening room, showcasing behind-the-scenes films and biographies of filmmakers and musicians.

Telluride’s organizers feel that it’s as important at a film festival to offer classics and repertory cinema as it is to debut new work. “For those of us who love movies,” explained festival director Gary Meyer, in a conversation with indieWIRE recently, “I don’t think that our world is limited to new movies. We often relate something we see to our past moviegoing experiences.”

An event that is revered by its fans, many of whom return year after year for the intimate festival, Telluride remains a stalwart supporter of cinema and its artistic value, presenting films and pushing an agenda of preservation and celebrating the big screen experience.

“People have a hard time seeing cinema as art,” agreed Julie Huntsinger, “I contend, and I think we all share the idea, that cinema is an art and there is a canon [that] audiences need to know what preceded the films that are out there.”

Among the other special events is a screening of Jean Renoir’s “Toni” along with a panel discussion about the late film critic Manny Faber, featuring panelists Greil Marcus, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Kent Jones, Robert Polito, Robert Walsh and Patricia Patterson.

Organizers faced financial challenges putting together this year’s festival, dealing with a drop in corporate sponsorship, but with the support of AMPAS and backing from patrons, they said they were able to maintain the quality of their event without having to cut corners. The drop in sponsorship also freed up a number of festival passes for sale, giving more people the ability to attend this year, Meyer and Huntsinger said. They added that there will be even more filmmaker guests than in recent years.

The Telluride Film Festival begins tomorrow and will continue through Monday in Colorado. Eugene Hernandez will be covering the festival all weekend for indieWIRE and Anne Thompson will be reporting for her Thompson on Hollywood site. Please check back all weekend for ongoing coverage.

—The full Telluride Film Festival lineup is available on the next page—

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Which of these narrative films playing this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival are you excited to see?

	"A Prophet" by Jacques Audiard
	"An Education" by Lone Scherfig
	"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" by Werner Herzog
	"Bright Star" by Jane Campion
	"Coco Before Chanel" by Anne Fontaine
	"Fish Tank" by Andrea Arnold
	"Gigante" by Adrian Biniez
	"Life During Wartime" by Todd Solondz
	"The Road" by John Hillcoat
	Other...

Read & React: Celebrating Cinema as an Art, Telluride Unveils ‘09 Fest