Matthew Eugene Hunsucker
March 16th 2020
Reporting on PIFF 43 for Prof. Kristin Hole Film Festival studies class @ PSU
In 2020 the 43rd Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 43) happened amongst a few interesting events. First this is the first year with a new director at the helm of its parent organization the Northwest Film Center. With this came the merging of PIFF and the Northwest Filmmakers Festival. The addition of a judge competition for some films. The festival opened up with the Disney/Pixar film Onword. Then it was closed suddenly with worry of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. My original plan for reviewing and oberevering PIFF 43 was to go to films that I might have not had interest in seeing if it was not for a pass to the event. This is not to say that I didn’t have a few films such as Frank and Zed and Giraffe that I wanted to see. How every my plan a roulette of films was cut short before I could put my plan to work. So my round up this year’s event will be before the lens of these two films, my Portland State University class about film feviatals and programming, and my past experiences with PIFF and the Northwest Film Center.
This will be more of a scholarly approach to a round up or a review. With a little from the writers such as Liz Czach and Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong. As well as some excerpts from my class this quarter. To me film festivals have always been this land of magic, and a place where dreams come true. Being a native to Vancouver, WA and inspiring filmmaker, PIFF was the first to catch my attention, and would be the first film festival I would seek for a film of mine to get in. I did not get in at that time, but it did inspire me to learn more and get better at my craft. Over the years I would even get a chance to do an internship at the Northwest Film Center. Which gave me some insight to how the organization and it’s festivals worked.
As one of things that changed this year was the addition of competitions. In fact according to Wong, “Money and opportunity bring people to festivals. In recent decades, many festivals have added multiple competitions to their programs, so that filmmakers can use prizes to secure either distribution or capital for production.” (Wong Introduction 9) She speaks to the idea of how aspects of the film industry revolves around the culture of film festivals. In her essay she breaks down a bit of history and gives us an introduction to the world of film festivals. How money and profit intertwine in this world. At first glance it might seem like PIFF 43 is selling out or some other nefarious goal. I would say it’s plan to add competitions and to merge PIFF and the Northwest Filmmakers Festival was not in service of profit or to get buddy buddy with big corporate giants like Disney. Rather I believe it was in the service of helping local filmmakers.
In my first blog post of this series I spoke of Frank and Zed and Liz Czach paper “Film Festivals, Programming, and the Building of a National Cinema”. I felt that if PIFF and Northwest Filmmakers Festival were not one event that Frank and Zed would more likely have been a part of the latter festival. Czach spoke of national cinema’s and to me I took this to align up with regional events as well. Seeing as the United State is a large and diverse nation. That’s regions can act like nations all on their own. If not at least in the minds of the people who live there. “ National cinemas have been largely organized in terms of a body of great works by extraordinary filmmakers” (Czach 78). The Pacific Northwest has a few extraordinary filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant. I would have to disagree with Czach that a national cinema is marked by big names and auteur theory. Rather a feel of the stories and spirit the filmmaker imparts on to their work. What I mean by this can be examined by looking at the two films I saw.
While Frank and Zed premiered at Cinema 21, Giraffe US premiere was at the Whitsell Auditorium. Both lovely and interesting venues, without more indepth research I would say that venues do attract different audiences. In Wong’s oether paper “Publics and counterpublics” she speaks to the idea of subcultures. “Over the years, the definition of “international” has expanded and most film festivals actively solicit films from all comers of the world to the rapt attention of critics, cinephiles, and scholars.” (Wong Publics and counterpublics 89). Yes, both audiences were cinephiles in one form or another. However the crowd at Frank and Zed was a packed house, where Giraffe was much smaller. The atmosphere at both events were quite different. Where the local film had a large audience that could have been made of people who knew the filmmaker and were there to cher on friends and family. The audience seemed to be more diverse, in all categories. With the film from Denmark, I had little representation from people in my age group. If given more time it would have been interesting to talk with both audiences and get to know their reason for showing. Giraffe’s audience reminded me much of the regular members that come and see the films put on at the Whitsell Auditorium by the Northwest Film Center.
This is not to say that this is wrong, or that the audience is not mixed well enough. I actually think that this observation is a sign of great things to come. Because at Whitsell I did see others that I don’t think were regulars of Northwest Film Center. I think Not only has PIFF helped the regional side of filmmaking and programming. That the local and regional filmmakers and their followers also have added to the larger landscape of PIFF. As people who might only be interested in film made by locals might go out and see films made by the larger world community of filmmakers. The merger of PIFF and Northwest Filmmakers Festival bring money and opportunity to the film community as a whole. That locals will get to see more extraordinary filmmakers from outside of the vision, and extraordinary filmmakers from the local area will get more attention by those traveling the film festival circuit. My hope is that critics, cinephiles, scholars, and everyday film viewers will expand our understanding of film festivals and their role in both the arts and in entertainment.
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Source of Information:
“Introduction” Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen by Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong
Publics and counterpublics by Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong
Film Festivals, Programming, and the Building of a National Cinema by Liz Czach
https://nwfilm.org/faculty/jesse-blanchard/
https://cinemaunbound.org/films/frank-and-zed
https://cinemaunbound.org/films/giraffe
PSU School of Film @ PIFF 