photo by Scott Erwert |
Hometown filmmakers make good at the famed indie festival. BY ALORIE GILBERT |
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ONES TO WATCH: Our top film picks from Sundance. For more information on Sundance Festival films go to www.sundance.org Portland director Chel White has something in common with Robert Redford. At a reception for filmmakers at the 15th annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last week, White met the visionary founder of American independent cinema's most important event. Redford personally welcomed White, whose short film Dirt screened at Sundance, and the two soon discovered a shared interest in the Beat movement. Just as Beat writers advocated progressive ideas and opposed conformity and censorship, Redford's Sundance Institute, which hosts the annual festival, strives to nurture and encourage innovation and artistic narrative through the medium of independent film. White's film was among the 118 feature films and 60 shorts selected for Sundance this year. Dirt, which he both produced and directed, competed in the festival's shorts program. White is just one member of the small, close-knit community of independent filmmakers thriving in Portland. His film was selected from more than 2,500 submissions and exhibited to an audience of more than 12,000. Sundance could be his bi opportunity. Despite a growing Hollywood influence at Sundance in recent years, the festival retains an organic element that gives filmmakers a chance to interact directly with their audiences. Filmmakers promote their films on the street and in the theater, handing out flyers and inviting passersby to screenings. Directors introduce their films and invite questions afterward, often joined by several members of their cast and crew. Having a film shown at Sundance enhances a filmmaker's credibility and legitimacy, says Todd Korgan, a Portland director whose short film Have You Seen Patsy Wayne? competed in the shorts program at the festival last year. The film is a character study of a comically delusional woman who believes she is the love child of Pasty Cline and John Wayne. Sundance was the second festival venue for Patsy Wayne, which has now shown at nearly 40 film festivals, including the Aspen Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. The exposure at Sundance proved to be a launch pad for several of Korgan's new projects, including making Patsy Wayne into a feature-length film. With time-lapse techniques and flickering visual effects that produce an antique feel, White's Dirt artfully depicts a man who has turned a childhood game of eating soil into an obsession. The absurd extremes of his taste for earth are comic. As produce begins to sprout from the character's body, the image becomes a metaphor for self-sufficiency and independence. The black and white, four-minute film has been well received by Sundance audiences, often getting laughs. White earns his living doing commercial production and has a diverse background in filmmaking. He's produced award-winning independent short films and television commercials, directed music videos, and composed music and sound design for films. White worked with Gus Van Sant to produce visual effects for My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and To Die For. White's currents projects include directing several animated shorts for the HBO children's program A Little Curious, which premiered on Feb. 1. His next project is The Beats, the Bomb and the 1950s, a documentary based on the story of Beat poet Robert Briggs, now in his 70s and living in Portland. Both White and Korgan say they've decided against taking the Hollywood route, and the Northwest offers a fertile environment for filmmakers. "I personally think we have a wealth of talent in front of and behind the camera," says Korgan, whose commercial work subsidizes his artistic projects, a common financing model for independent filmmakers. He and White find the Northwest Film Center and the small but accessible local film community to be a invaluable resources. "It's a tough market for a filmmaker," says White, citing the trend over the last few years of production businesses passing Portland by to set up shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, where they can get a favorable exchange rate. Still, he has no desire to move. "I'm influenced by the place I live, and I like the influence Portland has on my work," he says, mentioning that the environment, people, architecture and, yes, even the weather are elements that color his work. For now, Portland remains a small market, but it's still enough to sustain a community of film artists. Recognition at festivals such as Sundance validates their ongoing efforts and struggles to make films that, in White's words, "are worthwhile, meaningful and feed the soul."
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