Calling me on my Bullshit...

In case you have been reading the comments of my last blog post (and judging from the sudden spike in traffic, somebody must be), I seem to have caused a bit of a stir by posting a quote from a recent Indiewire interview with Darryl Macdonald (Co-Founder of the Seattle International Film Festival and Executive Director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival) on an old adage of his about how “the smaller the film, the bigger a big pain in the ass the filmmaker is going to be”.  Just to set the record straight, I didn’t necessarily mean this as an attack on SIFF and I am really glad Darryl has been kind enough to write in to share his thoughts because I certainly don’t want this to just be a “one-way street”.  But, I did think it was necessary to re-post his most recent comment and offer a response of my own to a few items.

Daryl Writes:

I haven't lived in

Seattle

or been anything more than marginally involved in the programming there for 4 years. In responding to Chris, I'm merely addressing his attack on SIFF, launched under the guise of an attack against my own misquoted off-the-cuff remark that was printed in Indiewire, and setting the record straight as regards my own comments to Indiewire's journalist. If you really want to know my history and SIFF's history of support for Seattle's own independent filmmakers, you'll look back through the SIFF archives or SIFF's 25th anniversary book at the very long list of low-budget Seattle films and filmmakers we've showcased, and the large programming platform we carved out for them. We also created the Fly Filmmaking program - the first of its kind in the world - which provided the tools and support to let

Seattle

filmmakers make their own films and own the rights for those films at no cost to them, and provided a showcase for exhibition of those films within the Festival. Our support for "truly independent" filmmakers from the rest of the country and the world is equally obvious. I don't have any idea who you are, but deluded is something I've never been accused of being - simply a realist who has toiled in the field of film festivals long enough to earn the respect of the vast majority of the journalists, 'truly independent' filmmakers and film lovers I've had the good luck to work with or on behalf of over the years.

And hey, Clint has a forum to say what he wants about the state of the world or independent cinema or anything else he likes, but I think it's important to call his bullshit and factual errors about SIFF and the work that it has done on behalf of independent cinema for over three decades. That's allowed, isn't it - or is this supposed to be a one-way street? And once again, for the record: I'm speaking on behalf of myself - not SIFF - they can respond for themselves if they think Clint's comments even warrant a reply.

My Response

Daryl –

First of all, pointing this out might make me a jerk, but some might see irony in a comment meant to call my “bullshit” and point out my “factual errors” where the second sentence gets my name almost entirely wrong?  Sometimes people mess up and call me Cliff or Quint, but to completely miss on 4 out of 5 letters sure made me chuckle a bit. 

Regarding being “misquoted”, I guess I’d say that is something you should probably take up with Brandon Judell, the guy who wrote the Indiewire article.   I didn’t go to journalism school or anything, but I understand that writers don’t want to develop a reputation for misquoting people.  If he screwed up, I’d imagine he would probably want to get that fixed as soon as possible.  But, I also understand that accusing journalists of making up lies is probably not something that a guy with your vast professional experience would want to do either.

I’m sure that this is news to you, Darryl since you haven’t even lived in

Seattle

for the last 4-5 years, but there have been some grumblings from local filmmakers that the international fest seems to ignore filmmakers from their own backyard in favor of studio-indies with big budgets.  Based on my own experiences with SIFF, I know that this isn’t 100% accurate.  I have seen some local films (Sarah George’s film Catching Out is one that immediately pops into my head) at SIFF that I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise.  But, my experience also says that this criticism isn’t entirely unfounded.  I once asked to apply for consideration for the Fly-Filmmaking competition that you mentioned and was told that it was a “closed, invite-only event”.  At that time, I did a little research and found an interesting article in Indiewire by Cal Godot (from 2000, when you were presumably more involved with the event), which seems to counter your belief that the fly-filmmaking competition is all about helping local filmmakers. In terms of elitism, the contest probably isn’t on par with a “whites-only” country club, but it isn’t exactly what I would call an event meant to bring the local filmmaking community together.

As far as not speaking for SIFF goes, I understand completely.  Who knows what sort of conversations you and Carl Spence have had recently (he is surely aware of the quote because I emailed it to him yesterday), but if someone on our board of directors (especially a co-founder) was quoted with an adage about small filmmakers similar to yours, I certainly would ask them to distance themselves from our festival. 

Darryl, keep workin’ on that tan, buddy.   In Seattle we just had a bit of a snow storm, so

Palm Springs

sure sounds alluring.  Maybe someday I will be a big enough star to attend your film festival, but until then, please say “Hi” to Richard Linklater for me. 

Comments

[Tray]

You pwned him Chris.... Errr... I mean Clint.