Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler! They are amazing. This opening sketch from Saturday Night Live is priceless!

I just got back from New York. I am an unusual midwesterner. I do NOT enjoy over-friendly waitresses and servers. I do NOT enjoy shuttle drivers who try to be tour guides. Most of all, I really do NOT enjoy chatty cabbies. First of all, I am generally sad to be leaving whomever I am leaving (in this case, my son). I’m often over-tired because I’ve stayed up too late the night before trying to soak up every remaining minute. Finally, I just want to go to the airport in the comfort of my own thoughts and, this particular trip, I had a lot to think about. So, of course, I get the world’s chattiest cabbie.

The guy was an expert on everything political. He couldn’t stop talking about how the Republicans hated the country (you’d think I’d like that) because they always serve their own interests and the interests of their friends and business partners. Then he started on Sarah Palin, the running mate of John McCain. He starts telling me that Brooklyn is the same size as Alaska in both area and population. I think this guy is out of his mind. I’m listening to a raving idiot. I tell him, “I don’t think that’s right. I think Alaska is a lot bigger than Brooklyn.” You ever driven from one end of Brooklyn to the other, he asks me? You have no idea, he says to me. Brooklyn is HUGE. Alaska only looks big on the map, he says, Brooklyn IS big. And then he tells me an even more unbelievable fact. “And there’s only about 2000 people in the whole state.” My tiny hometown had 12,000 people so I am quite sure that is so very wrong.

I get home and I can hardly wait to get online. And what do I discover? Brooklyn is about 96 square miles. Alaska is 656,000 square miles. Alaska is almost 7000 times larger than Brooklyn. So I check out the population data. Brooklyn has 2,465,326 residents, that’s more than 34,000 people per square mile. Alaska has 683,478 residents, about 1.2 people per square mile. Not 2000 but it sure seems paltry in comparison.

Jon Stewart has such a gift for elucidating rampant political insanity.

Sometimes, we get all caught up in the very “serious” business of making films. So much to do, so little time, even less money … but the creativity, the excitement, the satisfaction of making something we really care about. We do take the creative process and ourselves ever so seriously, sometimes. But there are those other times, those other times when we are just exhausted, silly and having fun. Filmmaking is like that. It’s so stressful sometimes that everyone ends up being crabby with one another. But, like any group that endures difficulty together, there is a certain sort of bonding that occurs. I wouldn’t say it’s like the relationship that forms between those who go to war but it’s certainly stronger than the average work environment.

So, at the end of the shoot or, often, at the end of the day, everyone lets their hair down and gets silly. We’ve seen the worst of each other and have still been able to find a way to work together and respect each other. These photos are of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico documentary crew. We got together after we got back to take photographs. Pamela Jo is so precise about what she wants that the photo shoot was almost as grueling as the film shoot in Mexico. At one point, we all started laughing and goofing around … I think it may have been because we were sitting on an ANT HILL. Justin and I had shorts on so we were quite miserable. Jeniece and Jared were amused at our discomfort since they were both wearing jeans. And then Pamela Jo asked us to hold still for “just one more.” We all lost it.

From theatre entrances and shuttle stops to events and information booths, volunteers are everywhere at the Festival. Over 1,200 volunteers dedicate their time to help make the Sundance Film Festival a thriving environment for independent film. If you are interested in volunteering for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival you can submit an application to the Volunteer Department.
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2009 Sundance Film Festival Volunteer Information

The Sundance Institute recently announced the selection of seven filmmakers as the 2008 Annenberg Film Fellows for the June Directors Workshop. The film projects and filmmakers are:

BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE/John Magary (writer/director): Set amidst poverty, with moments of both joy and upheaval, BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE is a retelling of the chaotic life of Antoinette Dawson as she raises seven children in New Orleans. John Magary has written and directed several short films, including SITE IN FISHKILL CREEK, WE ARE ALL GUERRILLAS, WHAT’S IT LIKE THERE? and OUR NATIONAL PARKS. His short film THE SECOND LINE was a national finalist for the Student Academy Awards, and has played at festivals around the world, including Sundance, SXSW (Special Jury Prize), Tribeca, AFI Dallas (Grand Jury Prize, Best Short), Edinburgh, and Torino.

CASA GRANDE/Fellipe Barbosa (co-writer/director) and Karen Sztajnberg (co-writer): Exploring issues of class privilege among Rio’s decadent elite, CASA GRANDE depicts a teenage boy’s struggle to escape his overprotective parents as they covertly spiral into bankruptcy. Fellipe Barbosa completed his MFA in directing at Columbia University. Two of his short films, LA MUERTE ES PEQUEÑA and SALT KISS, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. SALT KISS was also an official selection of the New York Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and won over 10 international awards, including in Aspen, Austin and Guadalajara.

MEADOWLANDZ/Moon Molson (writer/director): After a black American teen finds his African immigrant stepfather passed out drunk in their tenement-building hallway, he and his friends spend the night trying to unload the stepfather as they inexorably barrel toward a violent resolution. Moon Molson is a New York-based filmmaker living in Harlem. His short film POP FOUL has screened at more than 75 film festivals worldwide and has won more than 30 international film festival awards, including the Panavision Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Palm Springs ShortFest, the REEL Shorts Jury Prize at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival, the HBO Short Film Award at the 2006 American Black Film Festival, and the 2006 Student Academy Award.

POLETOWN/Daniel Casey (writer/director): Set in the heart of Detroit’s dying Polish community, POLETOWN follows the story of three men whose fates collide in the wake of racially motivated murder. A native of Detroit, Daniel Casey holds an MFA from the American Film Institute. Casey has been awarded four Emmys for his work in public service announcements, as well as the Herman Fox Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking and AFI’s prestigious Tom Yoda Scholarship. Casey’s feature film, THE DEATH OF MICHAEL SMITH, made for just over five hundred dollars, took the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and the Best Feature Award from the 2007 Silver Lake Film Festival

SHOCKHEADED PETER/Frank Budgen (writer/director): Adapted from the award-winning West End stage show, via the nineteenth century nursery rhymes of Heinrich Hoffmann, SHOCKHEADED PETER is a deliciously gruesome, hilariously nasty, cautionary tale for adults. Frank Budgen started directing commercials full-time in the early 1990s after leaving BMP-DDB advertising agency where he was an award-winning copywriter and creative director. He co-founded Gorgeous Enterprises, which frequently tops the UK Production Company of the Year list.

TSHEPANG/Lara Foot Newton and Gerhard Marx (co-writers/co-directors): A devastating portrayal of child abuse in rural South Africa, TSHEPANG is a vivid portrait of a town cut off by poverty. Lara Foot Newton earned an honors degree in drama from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Among the 34 productions she has directed to date, 23 have been new South African works, including a staging of Zakes Mda’s novel WAYS OF DYING. Foot Newton, in collaboration with Gerhard Marx, won six international awards for their short film AND THERE IN THE DUST. Gerhard Marx is an artist, scenographer, animator, and theatre maker. His work, including AND THERE IN THE DUST, a short animated film co-directed with Lara Foot Newton and animated by Marx, has won numerous awards. His scenographic and theatre work has received international acclaim and has won him two Naledi Theatre Awards.

The Beijing Olympics is underway. The opening ceremony aired on Friday. To be honest, I didn’t catch it live. I was busy working on the documentary and lost track of time. Film director Yimou Zhang (whom I adore) was the director of the opening ceremony. I have heard every sort of review from “It was magnificent” to “It was terribly boring and uninspired.” Summers in Wisconsin are not typically spent in front of the television so I never acquired the habit of watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. It barely registers on my television viewing radar. Fortunately, the internet affords me the opportunity to watch it at a later time to find out what all of the commentary was about.

The thing I heard that was most startling was about Taiwan. The Chinese government and the Bush Administration (of course) do not recognize Taiwan BUT their athletes are being allowed to compete in the Olympics. They cannot, however, carry their national flag or have their national anthem played because they are not a nation in the eyes of the communist China. So, they carried an odd flower-shaped symbol that encompasses the Olympic rings and their star. (You can read an excellent summary of the Olympic Committee position at Cup of Cha — formerly Daily Tea Leaves.) One of my former students, Shwuing was from Taiwan. I find myself wanting to call her and ask her opinion about all of this AND to find out what they Taiwanese are thinking with the current “rise” of mainland China in the socio-eco-political arena. I think I would be a tad fearful, if I were Taiwanese.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony (albeit a tad late) was the “dance painting” choreographed by Chinese-born Shen Wei The use of human dancers with paint-drenched socks to capture a wall-sized painting of grace and movement was really fascinating. Shen Wei lives in the U.S. but the Chinese invited him to create a piece for the opening ceremonies. During an interview, Wei said he had to leave China to grow as an artist. His work reminded me of a piece I’d seen at the Getty by Bill Viola. I found myself wondering who had inspired whom.

We had sent word to Mexico that we wanted a photo of Marvin’s plane. Unbeknownst to us, Justin had snapped a photo with his cell phone so we had a picture here all along. We’ve imported and labeled all of the footage now. All of the photos are in and nearly all are labeled. The audio is cleaned up. Songs are in process. All is moving along with (as Mary Poppins would say) the precision of a British Bank. “Tradition, discipline, and rules without disorder or chaos.” Okay, maybe a little chaos.

Justin came by today with the audio for the feature BAD TIMING. It’s sounding really sweet. Lunch with Jared, Mike and Pamela Jo to catch up and bounce around ideas. Always fun. Oh well, better get back to work or I’ll be in trouble (again). Got to get my nose back to the grindstone.

I decided to pull a couple of frames from the aerial footage so everyone could appreciate our commitment to filmmaking. Marvin Longhurst graciously took our crew newbie, Justin, up in his small plane so we could get some fantastic footage of sunset in Dublan. At 6′6″, Justin truly had to fold himself into the back co-pilot seat. We were told that Marvin got the engine for the plane out of a snowmobile. I don’t know if that is true or not but I sure am glad we found out AFTER he went up because, otherwise, I think we probably wouldn’t have let him go. They’re resourceful folks down there. Everybody is some sort of MacGuyver. A little bit of wire, some duct tape, few sheets of tin and a snowmobile motor … voila … instant plane. One of the sections of the film talks about all of the things the pioneers had to make for themselves because they just didn’t exist there. You couldn’t run to Home Depot and pick up tools and supplies. You had to make them from things that were in the area. So, here, you can see a shot of Justin’s left knee up against Marvin’s back with the scenery below AND a shot of this right knee with the view out the other side. He said it was easier to shoot out the right side. It’s a great addition to the film because you can see how vast the valley is and the agricultural beauty of it. Not bad for a bunch of duct tape and tin.

This weekend, we went to Colonia Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico. As we drove into the canyon, Pamela Jo said, “This is the dugway.” I had seen photographs (like the one above) of the colonists wheel-locking their wagons to prevent them from literally tumbling into Juarez. They had the same situation navigating the steep, narrow mountain trails between the colonies of Pacheco, Cave Valley, Chuichupa and Garcia.

As we neared the canyon floor, I found myself thinking that filmmaking was a lot like traveling the dugway. I had been thinking a lot about the process of making films. We were nearing the end of the third (3rd) day of our Mexico shoot and the entire crew was exhausted. Still, everyone was pushing hard to get everything the project needed. Tempers were short, misunderstandings were causing upsets and the fear of NOT finishing was amplifying everyone’s apprehension. “Why,” I thought, “would anyone want to do this for a living? More importantly, why do I love it so much?”

I spent a lot of time pondering that thought. (Anyone who has made a film knows that time on the set is comprised of lengthy periods of interminable tedium punctuated by moments of frantic action … so I had plenty of time to ponder.) I was surprised at some of the thoughts that came to mind upon reflection. Few of the things I had were positive. Filmmaking is not for the faint of heart. If it were easy, everyone would do it. It’s hard work with more opportunities for failure than success. It’s risky. It’s frustrating. It’s a team effort so the project is only as strong as its weakest link. So, why?

I ended up thinking that making films is a lot like pioneering. Every film is distinct. Even if you’ve made a film before, THIS film is different. With each film, you are going into new territory. The story has to be carved out, the characters established, the conflict provides the growth and maturity that makes the whole tale worthwhile. Filmmaking is like building a city in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one who can tell you what to do, you just have to figure it out and make it work. Success or failure, live or die, it’s all up to you. At the end of the day, you can create a project the has a meager existence or a flourishing, inspiring success.

Everything depends on your ingenuity, creativity, determination, planning, cooperation and ability to think under pressure because, like those wheel-locked wagons, a film production is BARELY CONTROLLED CHAOS. The horses can barely hold themselves back. Gravity is pulling the wagon, trying with every step to get it rushing headlong into the abyss. It’s like that making films. Everything is always threatening to run out of control and come crashing to brutal ending. You’re always trying to adapt to whatever is happening to avoid the crush of the chaos. And me, when I’m making films, I feel like one of those guys trying to hold that wheel in place, trying to keep everyone moving in the right direction — safely — so we can get to the end of the path with everything and everyone intact. And, if you do it right, the results can be amazing. The footage is breathtaking. The performances are powerful. The story is compelling and satisfying.

This weekend, I realized how much I love making films in other countries or remote regions. I love capturing things that very few people have seen. I love the challenge of bringing your “A” game to the set every day because you have no idea what may come up, what may fail or what may need to be handled. I love working on creative projects with a group of equally committed souls, people who value and understand the purpose for sharing the story AND are willing to commit their time and life energy to giving tangible form to the tale. Filmmaking, to me, is snatching a moment in time and preserving it so that others can share in it … now and in the future. Giving tangible form to something snatched from the ether requires every ounce of my attention, every fiber of my being, my complete concentration and that of my compatriots. It engages me like nothing else on Earth. I guess that’s why I love it. It takes all of me and demands even more.

It was midday on the second day of shooting when she walked in. She was there to be the voice for one of the colonists. She was “getting on in years,” so we were worried she might not be able to read or have the stamina for the shoot. This pioneer woman, Rita Skousen Johnson, let us know what she was made of and it was some pretty hardy stock. Not only did she read fluently, flawlessly and with great emotion, she went on to let us know that she knew the people she was reading about. She grew up in their presence and remembered times spent with them. She told us stories about several of the early settlers. Turned out her father was a polygamist and she was a child of his second wife. When asked about how it was growing up as a child of polygamy, she said, “It was wonderful. There were so many of us and we had such a good time together.” She told us about her father’s experience with the grist mill. More importantly, she explained what a grist mill was (and a burr mill) and how it was used to grind wheat into flour. She told us how her mother would bake a loaf of bread to make sure the wheat was properly ground (the pioneer version of “quality control”). She talked about her years teaching at Academia Juarez. Our time together flew and I found myself wishing I had several days to just talk with her. In many ways, she reminded me of my Grandma Greening, who was also a school teacher, rural wife and mother. Like my grandmother, Mrs. Johnson was an amazing woman and I’m so glad I got to spend some time hearing her story.

RITA SKOUSEN JOHNSON, COLONIA JUAREZ, MEXICO
©2008, Jared Moschcau. All rights reserved.