Trailblazing: Authentic Films on the Making of CIFF's Trailers

April 14, 2013, 12:00 AM   |   posted by Lara Klaber in Videos

Every year by this time of the festival, we hear from our patrons that the trailer, specifically the catchy song, gets stuck in their head. While not at all a bad thing (you’re here to see numerous fabulous movies after all), this was heard and things changed this year. And in an entirely thrilling way! This year, for a first time in Cleveland International Film Festival history, we debuted 19 different trailers that were shown to audiences in an extremely organized fashion.

We were able to catch up with a few of the creative geniuses behind the trailers: Kate O’Neil, the Executive Producer, Kevin Kerwin, the writer/director/editor and Jon LaGuardia who was in charge of motion graphics and the finishing editors.

Kate O’Neil shared with us that in order to create an aspect of the festival that some patrons wait ALL year to see, they prepare months in advance and they are always thinking of what they are going to do. This year, all 19 trailers were shot in one day, but the edits took a good six months. And to make this happen, they pause on their lives to ensure that the trailers we see are up and ready to go in ample time. Their favorite part about putting the trailers together for us is the reaction from you, the audience. It is rewarding for them to be a part of the city and to celebrate the festival!

To create the festival’s trailers takes a great deal of collaboration from many people coming together. This year, O’Neil, Kerwin and LaGuardia would like to thank the actors in the trailers: Josh Logan and Mark McKenzie, as well as the team that made them possible:

Kevin Kerwin, Writer/Director
Kate O’Neil, Executive Producer
Kevin Kerwin, Editor
Jon LaGuardia, Motion Graphics, Finishing Editor
Keith Nickoson, Director of Photography
Jon LaGuardia, 2nd Camera
John Turk, Gaffer
Kip Gynn, Sound Recordist
Dan Bays, Sound Mixer
Image Campaign graphics: Brittyn DeWerth

Music: "Honest Man": Whiskey Daredevils from the release "Whiskey Daredevils III"
www.whiskeydaredevils.com
Greg Miller, Rebecca Wildman, Gary Siperko, and Leo Walsh

Special Thanks to:
Authentic Films LLC
Fusion Filmworks LLC
Tower City Cinemas
Commercial Sound and Image for Stereo Sound Mix

We want to know: Which trailer is YOUR favorite? Or can’t pick just one? Not a problem! We want to hear from you. Tweet your reply to us @CIFF on Twitter! And to hear them sharing their entire story, be sure to visit www.clevelandfilm.org and watch the “Meet the Filmmaker” series on them.

--Meaghan Earley
Photo by Bob Reiland.

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Divine Intervention: An Interview with Jeffrey Schwarz

April 14, 2013, 12:00 AM   |   posted by Lara Klaber in Filmmakers

Jeffrey Schwarz is the President and CEO of Automat Pictures. He has created many short films and several feature length documentaries. His new feature documentary, “I am Divine,” chronicles the life of the late film icon.

Cleveland International Film Festival: What inspired you to make “I am Divine”?
Jeffrey Schwarz: Since I was a teenager I've worshiped at the altar of Divine and John Waters. Anyone who feels like an outsider growing up can certainly relate to the world that they created and they way they lived their lives. Seeing Divine in those movies was just mind-blowing. I'd never seen anything like it and watching him on screen was thrilling. He was so fully committed to the characters he played, and the way he lived his life not caring what anyone thought about him was certainly inspiring. It's now been 25 years since his death and I started getting concerned that Divine's legendary status might be in jeopardy, particularly with a younger generation. There hasn't been a proper documentary about his life, so I wanted to fill that cultural void. Divine is an inspiration to misfits, outsiders, rebels, and freaks and I hope this movie reignites interest in this incredible individual. He's a poster child for misfit youth and proves that anything is possible. He can inspire people to fulfill their own creative destiny.

CIFF: What were some of the challenges you faced in making this film?
JS: The biggest challenge was not so much a challenge, but a hurdle that I wanted to jump before starting to make the film. I would not have made “I am Divine” without the blessing and support of John Waters, so that was the first phone call I made. He knew my work and trusted that Divine's story would be in good hands. John opened up his Rolodex to us and got in touch with all these people I was hoping to interview, telling them to speak with me. After getting John's blessing I got in touch with Frances Milstead, Divine's mom who was still alive at the time. She was totally supportive and sent me some incredible rare photos of Divine when he was growing up. She had a great life in Florida, surrounded by all these gay guys who adored her and made every day special. I'm so glad we were able to interview her before she passed away so she could talk about her boy. She was a lovely person.

CIFF: What was the first Divine film you recall seeing? What was your reaction at the time?
JS: I had read about “Pink Flamingos” years before actually seeing it—in Danny Peary's Cult Movies and John Waters' book Shock Value. At the time I had no tangible connections to gay culture, so John and Divine's sensibility certainly helped lead me down a creative path and was an inspiration. I saw “Hairspray” first right after Divine died, and worked backwards from there. I remember thinking how unfair and depressing it was that there would never be another Divine movie. I went through a completely obsessed phase and watched all the movies over and over, and practically memorized them.

CIFF: Do you have a favorite role that Divine played in a film?
JS: Dawn Davenport for sure. You get to see him transform from a bratty teenager to a homicidal maniac right before your eyes. It's a tour-de-force.

CIFF: This year's theme is "Be The Applause." What aspect of your film do you hope will inspire the applause of CIFF audiences?
JS: When he was growing up, Divine was picked on, teased and abused mercilessly. After meeting John Waters and the Dreamland crew, he found a group that accepted him, loved him, and encouraged him. He was able to take all his teenage rage and channel it into the Divine character. He threw everything that people made fun of him for back in their faces and empowered himself. He became an internationally recognized recording artist and screen icon and gives courage to anyone who’s ever been mocked, ridiculed, or ostracized. With all the talk about bullying today, I feel his story shows that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you love yourself. “I am Divine” is kind of the ultimate "it gets better" story.

--Interview by Bridget Kriner.

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Related Screenings:
04/13/13 @ 9:15 PM – I Am Divine
04/14/13 @ 2:30 PM – I Am Divine

Johnny and Sam

April 14, 2013, 12:00 AM   |   posted by Lara Klaber in Filmmakers

In the early 1960s, Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark crossed paths in Greenwich Village. Today, they reunite to combine their story through hundreds of letters, family movies, and photographs into one, all encompassing book. Their vibrant personalities and deep reflection is what drew Treva Wurmfeld to the story.

“Shepard and Dark” is the documentary directed by Wurmfeld that explores the history of these two men.

“Both men are writers,” Wurmfeld says. “Despite their differences, they both kept this incredible shared history. Johnny and Sam were already working on this book project when I started,” she continues. “In that sense the story’s focus was kind of there already, a real life play.”

Shepard is a Pultizer Prize winning playwright. Wurmfeld loved the idea of making a Shepard play from non-fiction. “[The filmmaking process] was aided in the fact that they were characters in themselves. It became very clear that the inspiration was how the two related to one another in real life.”

And her characters were involved in their on-screen development. “These are guys who have a lot of allure,” says Wurmfeld. “They knew how to construct their own images. Because they knew it and I knew it, they played a big role in how they were portrayed.”

It wasn’t easy for Wurmfeld to delve into such intimate detail, however, and was forced to make herself as vulnerable as her subjects. “I hadn’t ever done anything like this before,” she says. “I had to build a protective layer around myself to make this film. You have to kind of nurture your relationships with your subjects to get that intimate content and that wasn’t always easy.”

Though serious in nature, Wurmfeld says people genuinely laugh throughout the film. “There is comedy everywhere but it is honest and it makes people want to think about their own lives.”

--Molly Drake

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Related Screenings:
04/13/13 @ 6:30 PM – Shepard & Dark
04/14/13 @ 11:35 AM – Shepard & Dark

Tough Topics. Worldwide Awareness.

April 14, 2013, 12:00 AM   |   posted by Lara Klaber in Filmmakers

Filmmaker Nic Balthazar's movies tackle the tough subjects—autism and euthanasia, to name a few.

His first film, "Ben X" in 2008 was about autism. He worked on the story after he read that an autistic teenager in Belgium, his homeland, committed suicide after years and years of bullying. The boy's mother was devastated. After reading about this tragedy, Balthazar began work on the topic. The story became a film.

"I hope that my film can bring some hope where there was none," says Balthazar, who is being honored as one of this year's CIFF "Someone to Watch."

Although his story is based on a specific event in Belgium, Balthazar knows that it is a wider issue than that.

"When I travel with the film, I see that this topic is a story everywhere," he says. “When I go to Korea, they say, ‘this is a Korean problem.’ When I go to Japan, they say 'it is such a Japanese story.'”

He notices that awareness is growing, especially in America. “It is no longer the unknown disease, or issue, because Americans are addressing it," he says.

The issue has now become a multimedia play, entitled "Nothing," that is currently playing in Cincinnati. The result is a fascinating 'multimedia theater piece" that was a huge hit in Belgium. It uses bits from the film, too, but uses gaming, the Internet and music to tell the story.

His latest film, "Time of My Life," focuses on an issue that is just as "zeitgeist" or thorny—euthanasia.

The film tells a story of a historical event. Belgium is the second country to legalize euthanasia. This is the story of Mario Verstraete, a Belgian politician and the first man to make use of the law.

"He fought for the law for seven years before he knew that he himself had a very aggressive form of Multiple Sclerosis," explains Balthazar.

The story is told from the point of view of his best friend Thomas, a doctor, who must make a choice—whether or not to help his friend die.

The movie talks about what happens in a country where for the first time in history people who suffer can decide on their own life or death. But it is more than that.

"It is a story about friendship. And about life ... about friendship for life," says Balthazar. "It is courageous for CIFF to invite us, because the topic is a very touchy subject," he continues. “[Because] film is always very powerful," Balthazar says his projects are important “awareness raisers” for schools, parents and others.

And his films always deal with very important and topical issues. "Whether it is autism or overweight or gay or different ... the main problem is other people who won’t let you be different," says Balthazar.

--Anne M. DiTeodoro
Photo by Janet Macoska.

  Download Related PDF [2.1 MB]

Related Screenings:
04/12/13 @ 4:10 PM – Ben X
04/13/13 @ 6:45 PM – Time of My Life
04/13/13 @ 9:25 PM – Ben X
04/14/13 @ 2:20 PM – Time of My Life