Macon Film Festival for the First Time

This weekend, I attended my very first film festival. The hype had been incredible, especially since the president of the Board, Terrell Sandefur, came to my class to promote it. He was looking for student volunteers to act as emcees for introducing the films. Though I wanted to do it, I couldn’t, so that is one experience that I’ll have to take part in next year!

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much that I could go to, but what I did go to I enjoyed immensely. On Thursday, the opening day, I spent some time familiarizing myself with the locations, and even got to talk to James Kicklighter about #SafetyForSarah, which was a hashtag he had written on a piece of gaff tape and attached to his festival pass.

The hashtag, he told me, was in reference to Sarah Jones, who was the crewmember who died recently on the set of Midnight Rider. “A lot of my friends in the film industry have been affected by it, and it’s shaken us to our core, because it’s the kind of accident that is completely avoidable,” said Kicklighter. “Over the festival I’m wearing this as a reminder to myself and other people here that when you’re a director, your first priority is the safety of your crew.”

I also got the chance to do a brief interview, filmed by the Macon Film Festival crew, with the director of Echoes, Diane Bou-Chedid. Her short, featured in the Student entries, dealt with a young woman who after finding tapes from her deceased father, decides to go to his place and collect his memories. Bou-Chedid said that the film was inspired by her own relationship with her father.

The next day that I was able to go was the closing day, Sunday. Since a lot of the films I had wanted to see were screening at the same time (namely Birthday Cake, Desires of the Heart and a few of the student shorts) I had to make a decision. I had heard the Jayson Blair documentary was good, so I decided to go see that. A Fragile Trust was, for those people like me who had never heard of him, about a man who had worked for The New York Times and had been caught in plagiarism.

As a journalist myself this documentary was not only extremely eye-opening, but it was also thought-provoking. It made me think about how I write my own stories, and how easy it could be to fabricate the stories that I do. But I don’t, not only because I am passionate about the work I do, but also because if I can’t be bothered to actually go investigate these stories I do, then why should my readers bother to read the story? The documentary was very well put together, and included actual interviews with Jayson Blair, trying to find justification for why he did what he did.

After I watched that documentary, I ate lunch at The Rookery (see my other post about that experience!) and then headed over to see a music documentary called Open Mic Night After The Apocalypse. The film was about a young man who, after his dear sister’s death, wanted to shoot a music video featuring seven bands out in the desert. Though the description was good, the documentary didn’t appeal to my personal tastes. It wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever seen, but it wasn’t quite my favorite. Afterwards, the director/producer, Mike James, came up for a Q&A session.

That, I think, is a wonderfully unique experience that I truly enjoyed. When I think of film directors, I think of these unreachable people who live in Hollywood and have lots of money. But Macon Film Festival made the directors and filmmakers accessible, which I loved.

The last screening I went to (that had another screening tacked onto it) was the screening of the Academy Award nominated film Nebraska. This movie definitely wasn’t what I expected at first. It was a very recent movie, but it was filmed in black and white. For the longest time, I think this distracted me, mostly because I am so used to color films. I think the choice to film in black and white was an interesting one, and I’m still trying to puzzle out why it was done. However, the movie was very good, and it was amazingly well put together.

Afterward, Matthew Modine popped in to show a short film he had done called Jesus Was A Commie. Despite this provocative title, the short was about how communism has been twisted from its original purpose, just like the words of Jesus Christ in the Bible, and how that is shown in the world today. This was definitely a film that made me think. In fact, I had one of those moments of panic where I was thinking about death and what comes after, and how I would cease to exist at some point. The short was very well done, and afterwards Matthew Modine also had a short Q&A session.

Overall, my experience with the Macon Film Festival was limited, but it was definitely a memorable experience. There were good deals, good films, and amazing people. I’ll be making sure to clear my calendar for next year’s 10 year anniversary!

Amanda