PTFF News
Newsletter Archives
29 June 2007
ContentsYou may have thought we threw festival and volunteer surveys in the recycling bin by June but those babies hang out in the festival office into perpetuity. Every now and again we dig them out for inspiration and motivation.
The following are actual comments we received in the comments section of our 2006 volunteer survey with PTFF feedback and reactions.
- Hated the volunteer (acid green) hat *But* loved that no one harassed me for pinning it to my sleeve rather than wearing it on my head. - Staff comment: Hatred for the florescent pink and green hats probably has been our number one volunteer complaint. ��For 2007 we finally have done something about it. Stay tuned�Ķ
- Didn't know there was a volunteer training! - Staff comment: Things change all the time. Whether you are a seasoned PTFF pro or a newbie we want all our volunteers to come to one of our two training sessions.
- I terribly missed (former Programming Director) Linda Yakush�Ķ the highlight of the training meeting was her little stories of challenges, directors who will be attending, different film subjects, etc. This is the HEART of the festival and always gave me a sense of excitement and anticipation, which greatly assists me in being a passionate, as well as informed volunteer. - Staff comment: Good News! Linda is coming back to run our training sessions. Peter Simpson will be there for the inside scoop.
- Could we allow volunteers into other venues on a space available basis? - Staff comment: After much consideration and conversation, we will grant your wish. ��This year, if you work twelve or more hours, your volunteer pass will give you access to any theatre venue screening on a space available basis.
- Still can't decide which was better, hanging out with the other volunteers or the great selection of films. - Staff comment: Life is full of difficult decisions.
- It was wonderful - I loved every moment! Staff comment: Ah, shucks!
- NEW - Work 12+ hours and get a volunteer pass. Unlike previous years, this pass gives a volunteer access to any venue on a space available basis.
- NEW - If you work fewer than 12 hours, you get one voucher for each three hours you work. (Vouchers are good for one screening at any venue on a space available basis.)
- NEW - Volunteer hats will be better quality, better color; they won���t end up in the rubbish bin or behind the door in the out building at your grandfather���s.
- Access to the Volunteer screening and party on Thursday, Sept. 27 will be granted if you���re wearing your hat.
Sign up for 2007
Now that you have heard what volunteers had to say from last year, and
seen our new benefits, please sign up to volunteer this year. ��Some positions
allow you to work before the festival begins so you can earn all your
hours in the summer and go to movies all festival weekend long. Or, perhaps
you want to be part of the festival excitement itself. ��Signing up now
will give you a much better change at getting the job you want.
Some of our current volunteer teams:
- Distribution of passes and posters (pre-festival)
- Venue Set-up and Strike crew (pre-and post-festival)
- Theatre inside or outside ushers
- Theatre ticket takers or ticket sellers
- Hospitality center staff
- Box Office staff
- Special Event staff
- Musicians and performers
Please sign-up here��or email volunteer@ptfilmfest.com to request a volunteer application today and you too might just have to say, ���The experience was fan-tabulous!��� Join us!
Three Films to See
It is not unusual this time of year for a number of films I'd love to
program for the Port Townsend Film Festival to find distributors instead,
making their way into US theatres a month or two before our annual event.
My reaction is usually mixed -- disappointment that the film won't be
available for the festival and yet I feel a secret pleasure at having
been able to see them before their general release.
Such is the case this week (starting Friday, June 29) at the Rose, where
Rocky has scheduled two films that have been described as musicals but
are more like dramas with songs. The first, an Irish tale called ONCE,
is a love story of such innocence that it made this reviewer alternately
long for my own youth or wonder if I ever had one. The second is an overly
rich but oh so savory French pastry. LA VIE EN ROSE is the purported
life story of France's "little sparrow," Edith Piaf. It portrays
love more corrosively, almost like an acid reflux disease.
There's little plot in ONCE. Boy, who helps his widower-ed father repair
vacuum cleaners by day, is a street musician by night. His love has left
him to seek a better life in London. Boy meets unhappily married Eastern
European girl who's an accomplished pianist. They collaborate, have a
little fight, make a CD together. Boy decides to go to London to sell
��his record and maybe find his old love. Girl stays behind in Dublin
to try to make her marriage work. Another unrequited love story. ��But,
it's the story's modesty that makes the nascent romance soar. That and
the songs written and performed by the film's stars, Glen Hansard and
Marketa Irglova--songs that are actually played all the way through,
beginning to end, serving not simply as score but as story also. As Rocky
said in an email to Rose subscribers this morning, This story of "two
musicians struggling with their art and hearts puts most big-budget productions
to shame."
If not much happens in ONCE, everything happens in LA VIE EN ROSE. Though
she of course lived her life chronologically, Piaf's psyche was more or less
fully formed by time she had reached adolescence. Her life was ruled by an
emotional core formed by a mother who was a street performer and probable
prostitute, a father who cared for her but who also made his living on the
street as a contortionist and likely pimp, and a grandmother who found room
in her brothel as home for the little girl. Given that background, linear
passage of time probably meant nothing to her. It was how she felt in the
moment that mattered.
Certainly, chronology mattered little to the film's director, Olivier
Dahan, who chose to bounce from event to event, back and forth without
regard to clarity, continuity, or comprehension. So, the movie is a mess,
but it's a grand mess, vibrant in song, in color, in drama, and especially
vibrant in performance. Marion Cotillard channels Piaf.
Those who grew to musical maturity after 1963, when Piaf died, may not understand the impact her voice had on listeners. ��Piaf had one of those rare voices--think of Billie Holliday, Ethel Waters, Judy Garland, and even Maria Callas, whose expressiveness triumphed over any other vocal quality they might possess. Her voice turned ones attention to it and only it, whether heard on radio, on record, or that rare chance of a live performance. Her voice carried decades with it, most particularly the struggles of the Great Depression and World War II, a period that is the film's only egregious omission.
According to Wikipedia among others, Piaf was in great demand and very successful during the war. Singing for high-ranking Germans at the One Two Two Club earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, ostensibly as a morale-boosting exercise. Instead, she gave the photos to underground workers who made counterfeit passports for all 150 captives. After returning to the camp again, Piaf secretly transferred the passports to the Frenchmen. Some managed to escape. Today, Piaf's association with the French Resistance is well known, except in this film which ignores the episode entirely.
The weather next week is supposed to be delicious, but don't let it seduce you from these two films.
In the headline, I mentioned a third film, but it's on DVD and can be watched anytime. Speaking of over-the-top, director Oliver Stone is arguably the best pole vaulter in Hollywood. His movies aim high and higher. When he released his long-gestating epic, ALEXANDER in 2004, the film tanked at the box office. Even at two hours and fifty-five minutes, it seemed like it had been whittled to the bone. Stone quickly issued on DVD, ALEXANDER: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT--a surprisingly shorter version that was even leaner and more confusing. Now, Stone has created ALEXANDER: THE FINAL CUT. He claims that, at three hours and thirty-four minutes, it will be the last version. "I have no more footage," he says. And Irishman Farrell seems unlikely to don that blond wig again.
Actually, ALEXANDER: THE FINAL CUT is a pretty decent epic despite its overreach and Grand Guignol style of acting (particularly on the part of Angelina Jolie, who at age 29 plays mother to 28-year-old Colin Farrell. Oedipal elements are evident as are Alexander's bi-sexual enjoyments. This is not a movie about moderation even if the Greeks did originate the philosophy. Rather, both the story and the movie are perfect demonstrations of the Greek concept of hubris, overweening pride, something humanity never seems to learn.
Stay Tuned for a Major Venue Announcement Next Week