Sunday, August 29, 1999
Telluride festival tries to stay faithful to film
BY MARGARET A. MCGURK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
High in the mountains of southern Colorado, 2,000 film fans congregate each Labor Day weekend in a remote former mining village to indulge their addiction.
The 26-year-old Telluride Film Festival takes pride in keeping itself homey, low-key and non-commercial, even as it touts its artistic prestige. To thwart show-business marketing, it always withholds its lineup until opening day, and it awards no prizes. It has never even issued press passes.
Last year, when the festival marked its 25th anniversary, documentarian and Telluride regular Ken Burns described the event as “a transforming ritual blessedly free of film's ordinary distractions — money, celebrity, hype and media.”
Yet for all its treasured tradition, the festival this year appointed a guest director renowned for provocative, iconoclastic, rule-breaking artistry — and who is very nearly a stranger to filmmaking.
Peter Sellars has made a career of upending the conventions of opera and theater. He has infuriated traditionalists with his adventurous treatment of Mozart and Shakespeare, as well as controversial productions of modern operas (Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer).
His film experience is limited; he directed the rarely seen 1991 film The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez and acted in a couple of off-beat productions.
Festival co-founder and co-director Bill Pence said the choice of Mr. Sellars fits Telluride's history of adding “fresh people and new blood every year.”
Mr. Sellars “has been on our short list for a number of years,” Mr. Pence said. “We've known he has a passion for film. We love the idea of the intersection of film with other arts. When we use the words "art' and "film,' we use it kind of seriously.... By having someone like Peter Sellars (who has been) involved in practically every performing arts experience, we think we have someone who can show visibly that film belongs in that realm.”
Guest directors help the festival staff choose the eclectic mix of 30 or so films on the program, which ranges from the silent era to unreleased new works, both American and imported.
Past guest directors include critic John Simon; filmmakers Errol Morris, John Boorman and Peter Bogdanovich and performance artist Laurie Anderson.
When Mr. Sellars met with the festival staff last winter, “we were astonished at the depth of his knowledge of films,” Mr. Pence said. “The first thing out of his mouth was he'd like to see some very early Egyptian sound cinema. Now that's not something you hear every day. He's somebody deeply interested in the exotic.”
Mr. Pence let go only one other hint about the contents of the festival. “This year, Peter's contribution will be mostly in films that are not brand new.”
He estimated that undiscovered, rare, retrospective and tribute films represent 35 to 40 percent of the festival lineup every year.
The audience includes moviemakers and industry executives, even a few film critics, though business is not the point. Still, the festival has a reputation for finding exciting new films (Sling Blade, The Crying Game, Ed Wood) and launching careers (Kasi Lemmons, Gregory Nava).
Filmmaker and historian Bertrand Tavernier was guest director in 1995. He said of Telluride, “People there want to discover, and they have deep appreciation for the unknown. It is the festival for people who live for the cinema, not on the cinema.”
The explosion in independent filmmaking — and in film festivals — over the past 25 years means Telluride must compete with other high-profile — and more commercial — festivals to unveil the most interesting new films.
Mr. Pence denied the competition has hurt.
“When we started,...there was no Montreal (festival); then came Toronto, then somewhere along the line Sundance....Some of this has been good for us because it has kept some of the pressure off of playing films we don't want to play or expanding the festival beyond our ability to do a good job.
“If there's anything we've had to overcome it's the pressure of the marketing departments to do certain things certain ways. We just said no to a really big (movie) the other day. It wouldn't have been right for our festival and passholders.”
Passholders shell out between $250 and $2,500 to watch movies in two theaters and temporary sites, some outdoors. The weekend always includes panel discussions, student seminars and a couple of communal picnics. To the annoyance of studio publicists, anyone can talk to anyone else about any subject.
“Twenty-five years ago the film companies themselves were much more innocent and naive,” Mr. Pence said. “Frankly, I think hype is one of the great destroyers of this art or business or whatever it is. It's an obstruction. It also annoys people. There are so few movies you can go into these days and go as an innocent and take it in without being bombarded by interviews with the stars and how it was made.”
Though Telluride has more competition, it has lost none of its faithful followers.
“Every year it sells out,” Mr. Pence said. “It's an act of faith by a few hundred pilgrims. Usually two-thirds of the tickets are (purchased) by people who have been here before. That sort of speaks for itself.”
Margaret A. McGurk is Enquirer film critic. E-mail: mmcgurk@enquirer.com.
