FESTIVAL ROUNDUP



 
 

Mill Valley Film Festival

Like its original inspiration, Telluride, Mill Valley has the rare ability to host an international film festival while maintaining the home-spun atmosphere of a cozy mountain town. Now in its 20th year, the festival attracts industry luminaries, yet the glow and potential pomp of celebrity attendance is kept in check by the undeniable charm and beauty of the town itself.

This year, the festival's annual New Media/Videofest included Lars Van Trier's Medea, as well as three new and noteworthy documentaries: The Hamster Factor, on the making of Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys; Herbert Hippopotamus, profiling the Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse; and A Visit to China's Mao Country, Eleanor Coppola's new work. Interactive CD-ROM artists from the U.S., Canada, and France were also featured in the New Media Fest.

Screening seven world premieres (including Fools, the first ever feature by a black South African) and 22 U.S. premieres of feature films and offering work from 31 countries during its 11-day run, the Festival holds its own against other American fests like Telluride. International film fans buzzed the brightest for such works as Germany's Lea, featuring Hanna Schygulla in a rich evocation of events following a young girl's traumatic separation from her mother, and Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together.

Though the festival, perhaps because of its non-competitive format and middle-weight status, may not have quite the gravitational force to attract hungry distributors, a strategically minded indie might do well to take advantage of the relaxed setting where attending panelists such as Larry Meistrich of the Shooting Gallery, Neil Friedman of the William Morris Agency, or Matt Brodie of Miramax Films could be more easily encouraged to lend an ear.

Isabel Sadurni is a San-Francisco-based writer and filmmaker.
 
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© 2005 Filmmaker Magazine