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Never mind splashy screenings for the likes of Baby Mama and Speed Racer. Tribeca '08 will largely be a forum for the Little Films That Can. And many won't. Some projects may have the money for a reasonably slick marketing push; some won't have enough coin to fly the director's family out for the premiere. Regardless of the camp into which they fall, we thought it only fair to allow the people in charge of these films, the directors, to appeal to our readers themselves.
We posed the same five questions to every filmmaker accepted into the festival and offered them the chance to reply. Below are the responses we've received, virtually unedited. (We've made a few snips for clarity; that's it.)
Guy Maddin, director of My Winnipeg
1 Why should someone watch your movie, in 100 words or less? (Don't just paste in your marketing blurb. Persuade our readers.)
I think I can hypnotize you, the viewer, so that you will rise from your seat and walk right into the screen which receives my images. I want you to live within the movie as surely as Keaton became Sherlock Jr. I think you will not want to leave the movie. I think you will still be in there long after I've gone back to my hotel room. I think some of you will even move to Winnipeg as a result of seeing my film. I want to do you this cruel mischief!
2 Without spoiling your plot, describe a scene in your film that audiences will love.
False modesty prevents me from using the word love, but I think the audience will get an ardent kick out of some very strange and moving archival footage I dug up dating from 1923 and depicting eleven horses whose heads were frozen above the ice surface of my home town's river for one entire winter.
3 If your protagonist were an animal, what would he/she be and why?
I am my own protagonist in this film and I've always thought of myself as a worm.
4 What will surprise me about this movie?
I think everyone will be shocked to find how much of themselves and their own home towns they will find in this sometimes grim picture.
5 How would describe your filmmaking style or philosophy? How is that reflected in this project?
Honesty of feeling is the most important thing for me. No matter how ugly or masochistic the feelings I experience, no matter how bad they make me look, I feel it is essential to really nail them on screen, as purely as possible. I feel this brutal nailing will give me my only chance at entering the film canon some day—something worth shooting for, I think! Sometimes getting the feelings right means using euphemisms or metaphors for mere facts. By using this method my documentary annoys some old school doc purists, but if you give the film a chance you'll agree it's the only method possible for my subject matter, which is the home.
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