DISCUSSION ON INDEPENDENT AMERICAN CINEMA
An open discussion on the topic of independent American cinema took place on Friday, November 26th at the “Stavros Tornes” theatre in Warehouse A at the Thessaloniki port, in the framework of the 45th Thessaloniki Film Festival. The main speakers were directors Alexander Payne and Todd Verow, as well as film critic, Kent Jones. Taking the stand first, the Director of the Festival, Michel Demopoulos, explained that the Festival took the initiative to organize such a discussion on account of the prominent Festival guests from the USA, all of which display a significant oeuvre in American cinema.
As Mr. Demopoulos said, the Festival usually reserves a large portion of its program for the screening of independent American cinema. However, since most of this year’s new American films have already been screened elsewhere, this year provides the chance for viewers to watch films that they’ve missed in the past.
“Cinema is a mercenary”
Taking the stand, director Alexander Payne said that he constitutes an exception because all four of his feature films received financial support from large production studios. “Cinema is a mercenary, it’ll take money from anywhere”, he said. According to Mr. Payne, we often see mediocre small budget films that “scream” for financial assistance as well as remarkable large productions. “The important thing is to promote the director’s voice, regardless of the financial support”. Mr. Payne continued by saying that making a film is a difficult task but things are slowly getting better. “The positive thing is that large studios are opening up to the production of smaller independent films. Personally, though, I enjoy this conflict between the studios and the independent filmmakers. I believe in good films, regardless of the money involved”, he said.
Todd Verow noted that he does not consider himself an independent filmmaker but rather belongs to the underground movement. “I work outside of the norms of cinema. Personally, I can’t understand the mentality of the people in the studios and they can’t understand mine. Therefore, I don’t have to bother with those idiots”, said Mr. Verow.
Kent Jones sees studios willing to finance independent filmmakers as a positive move. He also believes that nowadays there are a number of films being made by people who start off by themselves striving to attract studios to finance their films. “There are filmmakers working in the system having to confront themselves. This is evident in their films. For example, one can see remarkable scenes in a film followed by indifferent ones that are there only for the purpose of making everything more comprehensible and accessible to the public”, Mr. Jones explained.
The role of Festivals
Commenting on the role festivals play in the promotion of films, Todd Verow mentioned the wonderful experience for a director, knowing that he has an audience. Also, some festivals pay directors in order to screen some of their films. “Festivals like Thessaloniki’s that don’t deal with Hollywood films are rather important for me”, he said. Alexander Payne believes that large festivals deal with large amounts of money as opposed to the smaller ones that deal more with the audience, screening films that are hard to come by in commercial cinema. However, small festivals usually cannot provide financial assistance to filmmakers. “The importance of festivals is spiritual. It’s extremely difficult to make a film. However, when you communicate with moviegoers and festival people your morale is boosted. The audience cheers you on. I’m very faithful to the festivals that supported me when I first started; I particularly love the festivals of Turin and Thessaloniki.”
Kent Jones believes that we cannot speak about Festival films because the director makes the film for the audience and not for one or more festivals. “Thankfully, though, there are festivals that provide us with the opportunity to see some films that otherwise we would not have been able to”, he said.
The Market today
Commenting on the situation today, Mr. Jones stated that, “People in Hollywood are complete idiots. Most are businessmen and they do not mind whether they sell meat or tickets.” Todd Verow believes that most disappointing thing about businessmen is that they don’t try to bring the audience to cinemas. What is important for them is the position of the film in the market and not its quality. Finally, Alexander Payne stressed the fact that businessmen are only interested in profits and added, “Our culture is being underestimated. Even if a good film is made it is usually overseen because of its ridiculous promotion and distribution”.
