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Women in Film: I’ve got all my sisters with me
“We stalk other sister filmmaking teams,” Elizabeth and Emily Dell tell me. In post-production on their indie hip-hop film, “B-girl,” they are at the Women in Film panel and brunch, eager to swap stories with Emily and Sarah Kunstler, whose documentary about their father, civil rights lawyer William Kunstler is in competition at the festival. The film, based on their father’s experience going from hero to “most hated lawyer in America,” explores the cases Kunstler fought for justice.
I breathe in the smells of the brunch: coffee, orange juice, estrogen. Outside a spa locker room I don’t know that I’ve seen an event with such a high ratio of women over men. Certainly not in the film world, still known as a good ole’ boys club where I’d been called “doll.” But the women gathered here are making a change in those statistics.
The metaphor of sisterhood amongst women who may have never met before is true in this room. Maria Burton, who works with her four sisters at Five Sisters Productions, tells me about her recent trip to Africa. Bonded by common passions for storytelling, film and the subject of the day -- social consciousness in filmmaking -- the conversations flow easily and openly.
A few men mingle as well, including two of the subjects in the Kunstlers' documentary, “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe.” Gregory “Joey” Johnson, whose case centered around the right to burn the American flag as free speech, and Yousef Salaam, wrongfully convicted in the Central Park jogger case and jailed from age 15 to 22 before he was exonerated.
Trudie Styler, perhaps the most easily identified on the panel for her marriage to rock star Sting, produced the feature "Moon" and was a crucial figure in the film "Crude," a documentary about the battle between communities and a corporation, an indigenous people nearly destroyed by oil drilling and Chevron. Mary Ann Smothers Bruni’s documentary explores women honor killings in Iraq.
“We are in an awakening, a soul-shaking in this country. For the first time Americans want to change,” says Lucy Webb, actress, writer, producer and moderator of the panel. “Will we see changes in film?”
Styler fields the question first. “Going forward, I don’t want to be involved in anything without substance.... We hope Obama will change everything, but he’s not God and we have to be accountable, and as filmmakers we need to be accountable and responsible....To provoke and entertain.”
Beau St. Clair, who produced “The Greatest,” a drama about a family dealing with the loss of a beloved son, talks about how risky a straight-on drama is. She describes "The Greatest" director Shana Feste as “fearless, willing to go anywhere emotionally.” And with the female energy on-set, it felt very safe.
“Free speech is only here if we use it and keep testing it in the courts,” says Liz Garbus director and producer of “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech,” which premiered at the festival and will air on HBO later this year.
Mary Ann Smothers Bruni has been going to Iraq for 20 years and sees her writings, photography and the film “Quest for Honor” as part of the dialogue about the conflict in Iraq. “The only way to know how to resolve the situation is to know the people.”
Lili Haydn is a rock violinist who has toured with Sting and collaborated with Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Page. On the panel after composing her first full film score for the documentary “Over the Hills and Far Away,” she takes a moment to acknowledge the company she is in. “You’ve humanized situations that feel so distant, and by humanizing we are brought closer.”
Styler speaks about traveling to Beirut after Christmas and seeing the local coverage of the recent crisis in Gaza. “We don’t get that coverage here,” she said, “and need to be much more aware, to get deeper into the heart of situations.”
“That is the social consciousness” we’re talking about, Lucy Webb says. “The awakening.” She references a song of Haydn’s, and when she asks about the lyrics, Haydn graces us with a free, mini mid-morning concert. She sings:
“Stranger, stranger things have happened,
goodness brings a chain reaction,
liberate me from inaction,
stranger, stranger things have happened.”
“There are so many problems in the world, you can get paralyzed,” she says about the genesis of the lyrics. “And yet, so many conflicts that seem impossible have been resolved,” referencing the peaceful resolution of apartheid in South Africa. She recalls a story she heard from a rabbi about Chanukah, how in the midst of the destruction of the temple, someone thought to light a candle and reconsecrate it.
"There are more love stories at Sundance. The films are very personal now," says "Motherhood" director of photography Nancy Schreiber, responding to a question about the theme of romance and comedy in the films in this year’s festival. “It’s a dark time in the world,” says Beau St. Clair. “Love is a hopeful emotion, and at the end of the day we better bring light back in.”
“Stranger, stranger things have happened,
goodness brings a chain reaction,
liberate me from inaction,
stranger, stranger things have happened.”
-- Rebecca Snavely
(Top photo: Elizabeth and Emily Dell, Sarah and Emily Kunstler. Credit: Rebecca Snavely)
(Middle photo: (L-R back row) Beau St. Clair, Liz Garbus, Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, Emily and Sarah Kunstler (L-R front row) Lili Haydn, Trudie Styler and Nancy Schreiber, Credit: WireImage)
(Bottom photo: Liz Garbus and Mary Ann Smothers Bruni. Credit: WireImage)
Correction: A previous version listed Trudie Styler as a producer on the film Crude.
Thank you for a lovely article!-Lucy Webb
Posted by: Lucy Webb | January 27, 2009 at 08:17 PM