Blog-o-STIFF

STIFF 2008 Poster Contest

We are looking for a poster to represent a 10 day independent entertainment festival that will feature the best in film, music and stand-up comedy.  The motto for STIFF 2008 is - "It's not the size of the film festival, it's how you use it", so your poster should include this theme.  Your poster may be used for the program cover, official T-shirt, VIP badges or other promotional needs, so there are a ton of opportunities to get a lot of eyeballs on your design. 

1^st Place - $300 cash & (2) VIP badges for STIFF 2008 ($100 value)

2^nd Place - $100 cash & (2) VIP badges for STIFF 2008 ($100 value)

3^rd Place - (2) All Access badges for STIFF 2008 ($100 value)

DEADLINE for artwork submission is March 1^st.  You can enter as many times as you want.  Decision of the judges is final.    Submit a medium res jpeg of your artwork to contact@trueindependent.org

If your design is selected, you will need to provide a full resolution, 11x17, 4 color vector (with each color on its own layer for screenprinting).

Troy Nelson - A Healthy Dose of WTF

I have negelected to let everyone know about a recent development...  Troy Nelson, one half of STIFF favorite, Black Daisy has come onboard to be the Music Director.  Obviously, we love Troy and are as happy as pigs in slop about it.  Megan Seling interviews him in this week'd Stranger.  It's pretty hilarious.  You can check it out here:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=490780

Now..  If we can just figure out a way to keep Cody Hurd from being so popular and in town a little more, maybe we'd be able to get Voltage Periscope to play STIFF this year.   

Big Brother is Watching (still)

Are you curious about what happened to our stats the day after I posted this blog about our stats being viewed by the army and department of defense?  They suddenly went to ZERO for two days. 

Admittedly, we just had a submission deadline on January 15^th and things typically cool off immediately after a deadline, but I know for a fact that we couldn’t have zero visitors because I was actually visiting the site during that time so I could make a list of changes for our designer.  Obviously, I think the two incidents are related and I’m sure this will make some people worry that I ran out of medication or something. 

But if I did clue in somebody that I could see them watching and they fixed it, what exactly does that mean?  Should I be less concerned?  Once these folks realize that I haven’t done anything wrong, will they notify me that I am no longer under investigation?  Will I get reimbursed by the government for the performance hits that my phone and internet services have taken?  The next time our web stats report zero, should I be suspicious?

I love my country.  I fear my government.

Clint

anal cavity search, anyone?

Have you ever felt like you were being watched?  I mean, REALLY felt like you were being watched?  It’s one thing to hear a weird noise during one of your phone conversations that you can pass off as your imagination or an equipment glitch, but it is another thing to really feel something breathing down your neck.   I have mentioned previously to friends that I thought my phone was making some weird noises.  They chided me for being paranoid.  The more they chided, the more I relented.  They had a point.  Why would anyone care about me?  I haven’t always made the best decisions, but it isn’t like I am doing anything illegal.  Who would be tapping my phone?

Then, a couple days ago I was going through the STIFF web referrals and noticed some strange domain names popping up.  In case you don’t know what web referrals are, they are the logs that a web provider keeps to show who is linking to and visiting our site.  That way, we can tell who has linked articles and blog postings that we might not have noticed ourselves.  Domains are incredibly generic records of who is visiting your site.  Most of the time, domain info doesn’t really tell you a whole lot, just that 5-6 people with speakeasy accounts have visited.  Sometimes, you’ll see a specific university or public library system.  I think that most of the time these are filmmakers who have submitted or are thinking about submitting.  Then, I noticed one that was kind of weird.

 

Army.mil?  Why is the army checking out STIFF?  We don’t typically get a lot of films from soldiers.  We did show Patricia Boiko’s Corporal’s Boots at STIFF 2006, but we don’t really get traffic from the names of specific films because our schedule info is hosted on a different server.  Then, I saw another acronym that I didn’t recognize at first.

Osd.mil?  What could that be?  I typed it into a browser and was pointed to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  WTF?  Why is the Office of the Secretary of Defense interested in Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival?  My blood pressure went up a little bit. How do you end up getting the government checking you out more times than the entire student body of a university where we recently had a packed screening of some of our favorite films?  I started racking my brain trying to think about press conferences I have seen where politicians answered questions about spying on US citizens.  When pressed, didn’t Bush say that you have to be a citizen receiving correspondence from a foreign shore to even be considered for this surveillance? 

Oh crap…  I suddenly remembered a couple emails that have hit my inbox lately:

Dear Sirs

I am XXXXXXX an Iranian Film maker. As my film "XXXXXXXXX "has surveyed the extent to which the Democracy exists in Iran, I could not receive financial aid for film production from any
institution. Whereas it is not possible for me to pay the registration
fee, I will appreciate you to introduce me if there is any other way
to my film participation in your excellent film festival. I sincerely hope that you can help me in this matter.

And, my favorite of the two:

My name is XXXXXX. I’m a young Film Director from Iran. I am very interested in American culture and people and I like to participate in your Film Festival.  My film is about War in Iraq and terrorists attacked on an American soldier in Iraq and I shot my film in Iraq. (It’s 30 minute) However, the Iranian system doesn’t allow usage of Credit Card. Unfortunately; it makes it impossible for me to pay the fee.  However, I would like to join your Film Festival with my film.  Below is synopsis of the film:

Hmm..  Emails from Iran with the words terrorists, attack, democracy, Aid, American Soldier, join, participation…  I guess I can understand why somebody from the government might want to take a little closer look at what STIFF is.  Surely, they’d check out the site, see it was a film festival, realize that we haven’t done anything and move on to the next phantom threat.   

But then my writer’s mind went into overdrive.  I started to wonder why they have been to the site so many times.  I’ve only received two emails from Iran.  Once suspicions have been raised about you, how much information do they collect before they realize you aren’t a threat?  Or, what other information do they start to look at that I can’t notice on a referral log?  It’s not like anyone sends you a candy gram to let you know that you are being investigated for something.  Then I started to think about the weird noises I have been hearing on the phone and the strange lag in my internet connection, even though I have the most bandwidth my provider will sell. 

All at once, bits and pieces of every phone conversation I have had for the past year started to ooze into my consciousness.  I’ve been working on a documentary for about 6 months about the alternative comedy scene in Seattle.  What would happen if someone who suspects me of being a terrorist has overheard a comic talking to me about “Bombing” at one of the clubs recently? What if that agent has just the right combination of overzealousness and ignorance of slang?    I doubt that the civil servants listening to phone calls are world-renowned for their sense of humor.  Would I stand in line at the airport and let someone I was traveling with utter the word, “Bomb”?  Even as a joke?  Not unless I was in the mood to spread my cheeks in front of strangers.

Then, I went white when I recalled a very recent conversation I had with my wife.  We moved about a month ago and every single garbage day I have lugged out tons of recycling and bags of garbage to where I had been told to leave it, only to come home to piles of wet cardboard and ripped garbage bags.  Ours was the only house not getting picked up.  It became a daily ritual where I would call Seattle Public utilities, have someone tell me that I needed to call back after 6 and leave a message (which I would do) and then have to start the cycle again the next day.  After about a month of this, these calls became less friendly and less friendly.  One time I was talking to my wife about the situation and I angrily commented that the only solution “might just be to blow up the building”.  Before my dad died, he always gave me little bits of wisdom, but he never mentioned that it might be a bad idea to say that you wanted to bring down a government building ESPECIALLY when the government is listening to your conversation.  If I have kids, this is something I plan to pass along. 

I pursued a degree in criminal justice and in my studies I met many people who have since ended up working for "the man".  It is a society like any other which means that it is made up of many different people with many different motivations.  Along the way, I met more than one person who could care less about civil liberties.  But, in a court of law, tried by a jury of my peers, I am confident that there is nothing outside of an easy explanation.

But what about court for TERRORISTS?  Can government agents just pick normal citizens up?   Do people suspected of terrorism even get a trial?  I doubt I have many peers at Guantanamo.  I turn 35 in March.  I don’t really find much time to work out these days.  I am in the process of ringing in a pretty soft middle age.  How much waterboarding can I take before I start admitting all kinds of shit that I didn’t do? 

So, if I go missing for any extended periods of time, please write a letter to amnesty international or something.  And to all you jokers out there who think you are being funny, please don’t send me text messages asking if I can hook you up with any heroin or yellow cake uranium.  Because, as our old friend Kurt Cobain said, “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you”

Thanks,

Clint

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. 

Small Films = Big Pain in the Ass?

Darryl Macdonald who is on the board of directors for the Seattle International Film Festival says:

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/01...als_the_2.html

"We have an adage at film festivals, but the smaller the film, the bigger a pain in the *** the filmmaker's going to be. It's not a generality, and it seems to bear itself out. Anybody who works at a film festival, either in hospitality or programming, will tell you this, "It's the people who haven't yet tasted success who are the most demanding people to deal with. In general the bigger the star, the easier they are to deal with. It's not always the case, but often enough it is. With a certain amount of success comes a certain amount of self assurance. Directors you particularly see this in. Actors less so. They have no demands and if something goes wrong at the screening-- heavens forbid it's the screen in the wrong aspect ratio or the print is scratched or whatever--they tend to be mellower."

I want to point out that Darryl is affiliated with SIFF, not STIFF. At STIFF, we typically avoid films with big stars in favor of these smaller films that SIFF seems to have a big problem with. I have dealt with some celebrities that are actually very laid back and nice, but I have had a far different experience with first time filmmakers than Darryl. I find that most small filmmakers are very excited to screen their film at a festival. They are very gracious and don't expect first class travel and accommodations in exchange for attending the fest. I also find that many of these smaller films take more risks and contain more passion that their studio-indie counterparts.

Ironically, I got an email from a studio a few days ago looking to talk to Darryl about "getting their film into this year's fest". He told me that he had screened at SIFF before and that Darryl was his contact for getting the film into the fest. I explained that he had the wrong festival and told him how he could get a hold of Darryl. But, I thought it was interesting that at so many of these big fests it is just a matter of who you know. At STIFF, we take great pride in pulling the majority of our program straight from the submission pool. To charge these "smaller films" that you loathe a good sized submission fee and then turn around to take the bulk of your programming from studios that make a phone call seems a bit disingenuous to me, but I'd really like to hear from other filmmakers.

He Was A Quiet Man

The Best Feature Film winner from STIFF 2007 opens at the Galleria 11 today before its world-wide DVD release in few weeks.  I actually took a bit of heat for screening this film last year because of the cast (Christian Slater, William H Macy, and Elisha Cuthbert).  Several people wanted to know how that qualified as a “True Independent” film.  Director Frank Cappello had mentioned that he got some of the same kind of flack when he screened at a few film festivals and called it “reverse snobbery”. 

It’s funny because Frank had told me when I first met him that he had tried to make the movie in the studio system for quite some time, but could never quite find the right people to make it happen.  Out of sheer frustration, he just woke up one day and decided to finance and make the movie himself.  During a party at his house, Christian Slater showed up uninvited and started telling everyone at the party that he “was Bob”.  Slater believed in the project so much that he basically worked for free on it and brought his friend (Macy) along.  Frank did many of the effects himself and shot much of it guerrilla style without permits, etc. 

I have heard horror stories about festivals that charge submit to their festivals and turn around to fill their program slots up with movies that play the major fests.  This is something that I am always conscious of and want to make sure never happens with STIFF, but I am also aware of the fact that some members of the press only care about movies with celebrities that they know.  So, the last couple years while visiting fests like SXSW, Sundance and Slamdance for my day-job, I reached out to a few films that I thought might generate some interest about playing at STIFF.  I found that it is actually pretty hard to pull off.  Many of these films have so many layers of bureaucracy that it is almost impossible to talk to a real decision maker. When you finally run across one, they are often only interested in talking if you can come up with a hefty screening fee and first class travel and accommodations for the cast and crew – something that our small fest just can’t afford.  He Was a Quiet Man is the only film that I have ever approached about screening where everything just worked out.  I think a lot of it had to do with Frank Cappello and I almost never even saw this movie or met Frank to begin with.

I was at SXSW with my friend Dave and I had a break from work.  We were planning to catch a certain film (I can’t remember which one) and went to the wrong theater by accident.  Dave and I read the description for He Was a Quiet Man and almost didn’t go.  Dave wasn’t very excited about Christian Slater.  I remember him saying that Christian Slater hadn’t been in a good movie since Kuffs (and even then…).  We decided to give it a try since Elisha Cuthbert was in it though and I am so glad we did.  I really loved the movie and I think that it is going to put Slater back on the map.  His acting was incredible.  He really nailed it. 

I have linked some reviews from a few papers.  Like most of my favorite movies, people seem to either love it or hate it.  Moira McDonald from the Seattle Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars, William Arnold from the PI agrees that Slater kicks ass, Annie Wagner at the Stranger didn’t seem to care for it, but Scott Foundas at the Seattle Weekly loved it and they made it a SW Pick, so go figure… I say, go see it now and decide for yourself, or go pick up a DVD in a few weeks.  You’ll be glad you did.  He Was a Quiet Man is AWESOME!

http://edb.seattletimes.nwsource.com/ae/scr/edb_ed.cfm?s=st&evt=273677

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/345932_quiet04q.html

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=474248

http://seattleweekly.com/2008-01-02/film/pick-he-was-a-quiet-man-christian-slater-goes-on-a-rampage.php