EDITOR'S NOTE: In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, The Sentinel-Record is presenting a weekly four-part series by one of its founders, Lorraine Link Benini, tracing its history. Part three deals with the documentaries and the filmmakers.
Where do I begin? A quick survey of all the documentaries we screened at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, let alone all that I, along with other members of the Film Screening Committee reviewed -- thousands, really -- gives an almost overwhelming abundance of rich creativity, each with a story to tell and an artist or team who created it.
Volunteers are the backbone of the film festival. Yet no one works longer than the members of the screening committee who review submissions for months. In our early days, six or seven of us reviewed 300, then 500, then 700. As our fame in the film world grew, the submissions grew. It was interesting, but we had to work hard to find the most memorable, then review the selection as a group to cover a wide range of topics. During the process, I started an acronym, NRV, for the ones with no redeeming value. They were the first to go. Many others were too long, the filmmakers likely getting so immersed in their subjects they found it hard to trim as needed. We worked with VHS tapes at the time and in those stacks, we also found the treasures. When enough of us agreed, the doc was in!
As I look back, the ones that remain at the forefront of my mind fall loosely into three categories. There were films that could take one's breath away by their sheer scope of natural beauty, a situation, or wildlife, or a film whose unique process was an art form unto itself -- the no-narrative, kaleidoscopic compilation shot in 24 countries of Ron Fricke's "Baraka," an opening night film, or David Lanier's "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance."
There were docs that moved us with their humanity -- the ones that gripped our hearts with their stories exposing all human emotions from tender kindness to the depth of Holocaust horrors.
And there were docs that had an impact locally, and in Arkansas.
These are simplified categories when one thinks of the scope, the effort and the impact of the work of the filmmakers, but it is one way to share recollections and bring them to life again.
It all started with the National Geographic film, "Shadow Hunters: Birdnesters of Thailand."
The Malco Theater wide screen brought the realities of Thailand into our lives. Stunning cinematography with a fantastic story of men scampering up handmade rope ladders high into the dark caverns to pluck bird nests from the walls, destined for expensive soup in Chinese restaurants. It kicked off the HSDFF and set the bar high for years to come.
Different civilizations, other cultures, endangered species, biographies, historical times ... the diversity coming to Hot Springs with the films was amazing. These were topics that moved the filmmakers to document the subject, so much so it often exacted a tremendous effort and cost on their part. One year we showed a documentary that we were told had a (most unusual) million-dollar anonymous donor who funded the project. The same year, another filmmaker mortgaged her home to be certain her film would be completed.
Veteran documentarians came to Hot Springs -- for example, Errol Morris with his biography of Stephen Hawkings, "A Brief History of Time," in 1991. D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus tracked the 1992 Clinton Campaign and brought "The War Room" in 1994. And the programs were full of debut films, as well as student work and filmmaker forums.
Early films, like Robert Flaherty's 1922 "Nanook of the North," the silent doc about an Arctic Inuk family, and the 1925 film, "Grass," about the nomadic migration of 50,000 people and their animals across the highest peak in the Zagros Mountains from Angora (modern day Ankara, Turkey) in search of grass to eat, revealed ancient struggles of cultures that vanished in time.
We missed a few opportunities through the years. In 1997, the film committee had chosen Ray Muller's "The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" just as Benini and I went to Germany for an exhibition of his work. Our cultural attaché promised contact with Riefenstahl, only after first telling us she was dead, then that she was highly reclusive. Not surprising due to her highly controversial association with, and film work for, Hitler. Eventually, I was able to talk with her. After first checking with the Jewish leaders in the community who were receptive, she was invited to Hot Springs.
Setting aside the controversies in her life, her film work was pioneering. The bulky equipment then was extremely heavy. Riefenstahl took the cameras outdoors. She slid them on rails, and was the first filmmaker to incorporate lifts and cranes for new camera angles and panoramas.
Riefenstahl was thrilled with the invitation, but at the time of the festival, she was scheduled for an underwater photo shoot in the Red Sea -- at age 95! Maybe another call would have brought her because she lived another six years.
At times the audience, especially in the question and answer formats with the filmmakers that followed the screenings, learned how these films sometimes precipitated or complemented or resulted in a lifetime commitment to the documentary's focus.
Tippi Hedren, for example, joined us in 1999 with her film "Life with Big Cats." Known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," Hedren's acting career was cruelly stunted by Hitchcock himself when she rebuffed his advances. During the production of an earlier film, she had developed a love of lions. She turned this passion into time, energies and resources devoted to her Roar Foundation and created The Shambala Preserve. Wild exotic species, -- lions, tigers, leopards, even elephants live their lives there, in Acton, Calif., about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. This haven accepts animals rescued by wildlife and humane societies, from bad zoos or people who bought the animals before they realized they were incapable of taking care of them. Hedren's commitment is not limited to producing the documentary.
While she was our HSDFF guest, I drove her to two sites in Arkansas where she wanted to inspect the treatment of captive animals. Delighted with the first, an elephant sanctuary, we then drove to an appalling place where we found sunburned lion cubs in cages with no shade and little food. She seeks out violations like this in the huge exotic cat trade and show business, then tries to correct the cruelty. She also works to persuade Congress to protect the animals and contain the exotic trafficking of animals. Here is a documentarian living her lifelong commitment.
From the beginning, the board of directors declared the HSDFF would take no position along political or religious lines. We were reporters, not the persuaders. Nowhere did this position get challenged more than in 1995 when "Straight from the Heart," a film by Dr. Dee Mosbacher and Francis Reid was in the lineup.
This film focuses on parents whose children tell them they are gay. It opens with an Anglican father saying, "I had thought that previously I did not know any gay people!"
He dearly loved his son who would eventually become the first person to die from AIDS in South Dakota. Then a black woman with twin daughters, and parents of a Navy pilot -- all who reacted to this information with a variety of responses. Each interview was poignant, and surely of great interest to any parent.
One day a Hot Springs civic leader came to me and said, "I want you to remove this film."
I presumed he had heard rumors that it was "a gay film," and he was uncomfortable with that. So I requested permission from the filmmaker to lend him the documentary before its official release. I felt certain the "talking heads" format, i.e., no touchy subjects or scenes -- would assuage his concerns. Wrong! He returned with his preacher and they were even more adamant. Threats about contacting the media and our sponsors surfaced.
At this, I felt we needed a board evaluation, so a meeting was called. All the directors came. As we sat around the table, I briefed them on the situation and suggested, before we discuss a response and a strategy, we take an anonymous poll to check our lineup on each side of this fence -- to keep the film or remove it, so we understand our level of unity or division on this matter.
We passed out paper, the directors turned them in and it was unanimous! Keep the film!
No discussion necessary. Here was our first censorship attack, and all directors, from many backgrounds and occupations, had one vision ... no censorship!
Even later, when we showed essentially X-rated films like "The Girl Next Door," the story of an Oklahoma girl who becomes a porn star sensation, and the life and work of the cartoonist Crumb, access was limited to people over age 18, but peace prevailed.
The HSDFF did not shy away from the horrors of war, the ugly side of humanity, the shame of past injustices or the prejudice of the present. Hot Springs welcomes experimental films, controversial works, creative endeavors and all filmmakers.
If you ask 100 filmmakers what is the best documentary about the making of a film, the answer most likely will unanimously be "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse."
Fresh from its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, "Hearts of Darkness" was included in the 1993 lineup. At the last minute, the 35 mm film was pulled, so we showed a VHS version at THEARTFOUNDATION with director Eleanor Coppola present. Shooting for three years the efforts to make the now-famous "Apocalypse Now," she captured footage of the saga, including raw and touching scenes of creative angst expressed by her husband, director Francis Ford Coppola, shot without his knowledge. We heard directly about the effort, the pain, the delays, the fears and saw how deeply they both invested physically, financially and emotionally into this project.
"We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane," Francis says in the documentary.
"Apocalypse Now" is considered one of the best films ever made about war. "Heart of Darkness" documented the drama and traumas -- the typhoons destroying the sets, the actors (in particular Dennis Hopper) high on drugs and alcohol incapable of speaking their lines, Marlon Brando showing up fat and unprepared for his million-dollar-per-week role, leading star Martin Sheen having a heart attack, issues with the Philippine government, financial woes and on and on. Yet with great musical scores, helicopter action unrivaled even today, and unforgettable scenes and characters, this once-in-a-lifetime production was documented for posterity in "Heart of Darkness."
These examples, plucked from a world-class lineup of documentaries were joined by other unforgettable docs, like Albert Maysles' 12- year documentation, "The Concert of the Wills, Making the Getty Center;" controversial pieces like "The Panama Deception" by Barbara Trent and David Kasper, 1993; "Tong Tana: A Journey to the Heart of Borneo," and Charles Guggenheim's "D-Day Remembered" and civil rights struggles in "A Time for Justice."
Too many to name, so many to salute.
Someday, perhaps the wonderful website of the HSDFF can list all the films and all the filmmakers showcased in Hot Springs. The lineup is powerful. I suspect it is the best documentary compilation anywhere, and will guarantee Hot Springs a significant position in the map of film worldwide.
NEXT WEEK -- Part IV: The ultimate dream and significant dreamers.
Local on 09/25/2016