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Show PageBl Here are the independent films at the U.S. Festival by Rick Brough There is lots to do in 1982, at the United States Film & Video Festival. There's an old rule at film festivals which says the average person is physically incapable of seeing everything available, or even most of what's available. You'll find out 1 what that means. This years featival has 46 full-length films, 62 video works, and dozens of guests in the fields of video and film, whether artists, critics, or professionals from the mainstream industry. Probably the most important impor-tant area is the competition, featuring film and video works by independent artists from across the country. Dramatic films Following are the works being submitted for film honors in the Fourth Annual U.S. Festival Competition. In the dramatic film category: "The Curse of Fred Astaire." Mark Berger's Faust tale is a crazy rock musical. The film's gay Faust, Clio Grant, sells his soul to be Fred Astaire no trifling feat, since Clio is an overweight 6'5" klutz. The picture's crazy musical style is such that, when the Devil demands payment, Clio's mother mistakes him for a tap-dancing devil act. Berger is scheduled to appear ap-pear at the festival. "The Dozens." "My mother told people I was in the hospital," says Sally Connors. "For two years, right?" Actually, Sally served time in prison for passing bum checks. When she's released, she must cope with a husband who's dealing cocaine and a daughter who barely knows In a stadium full of Chilean political prisoners, Jack Lemmon searches for his expatriate expatri-ate son, with daughter-in-law Sissy Spacek. "Missing" is a true story set during the fall of Allende's government. Major The U.S. Festival will its opening weekend, the much acclaimed "On Golden Pond" and the Jack Lemmon-Sissy Spacek political thriller "Missing." "On Golden Pond" is Park City's sort-of Intermountain Premiere. The film is also opening on the same day, Friday, Jan. 22 at two theaters in Salt Lake. But Park City has something the valley doesn't. Director Mark Rydell will be in attendance Friday night for the festival showing. Admission is $25, which also entitles you to a party in Deer Valley afterwards. "Golden Pond" has been greeted with an extraordinary amount of advance acclaim and excitement. It was featured on 'Time Magazine'" cover. When the film was sneak previewed in Salt Lake two weeks ago, it sold out in rapid fashion. Certainly one attraction is the one-in-a-lifetime cast: Henry Fonda as the oldster nervously facing death, Jane Fonda as his estranged daughter, and Katharine her. She leaves behind the prison world of convict camaraderie (where she became an expert at the rhyming insults of the "dozens" game) for an insecure in-secure dream of starting a laundromat. Sally is a tough-tender tough-tender heroine in this film by Christine Dall and Randall Conrad. (The latter is scheduled to appear in the festival.) "Dreamland." This docu-drama is the reallife answer to the old "Jazz Singer" story. Joanne Crayton plays herself, a gifted gift-ed gospel singer who feels drawn to assume a new identity iden-tity (Lady B.J.) and move into the worlds of disco and blues. Directed by Oz Scott. "Get Rollin" Pat the Cat rolls down the disco track in a cowboy suit with cap pistols. Vinzerrelli Brown dreams of cracking the Guinness Book as the first roller-skating millionaire. Inez Mitchell is a roller queen by night, a teacher of the handicapped by day. J. Terrance Mitchell (scheduled to appear at the festival directed this film which abounds with resilience resili-ence and hope. "Killer of Sheep." A black man struggles to dredge some dignity and self -respect from his uneasy family life, and his job at a slaughterhouse. "Love in a Taxi." A horny, ineffectual Jewish cabdriver strikes up a relationship with a divorced black woman, who yearns for life as it is lived in the movie mags, and her dreamy six-year-old son, who escapes to a land of birds and animals he calls "Africa". The boy's dope-dealing dope-dealing father launches them into an adventure in films to host two special premieres on volving a sought-after briefcase brief-case of heroin, but the human relationship is the real focus of this warm comedy by Robert Sickenger (a festival guest). "Mystique." In this unique film, a group of ad agency executives shell out $3,000 and gather at their company's country estate for a "leadership training seminar." In the early stages, their personal belongings are taken from them. More intimate possessions, like self-will and dignity, will be lost later. Yvette Mimieux plays the power-tripping lady executive who strips her underlings un-derlings both physically and psychologically. Anthony Quinn is the executive producer, and Bobby Roth (a festival guest) directs. "Paydirt." We will sell no pot before it's hot! A group of farmers in the Pacific Northwest hope to finance their dreams of a vinyard with much more lucrative cash crop marijuana. mari-juana. But when lurking mafioso types steal their entire crop, pot growers and vintners band together to stop the bad guys. A funny, violent, rueful film of modern pioneers directed by Penny Allen, whose "Property" "Prop-erty" was an award-winning at the first U.S. festival in 1978. "Out." A radical makes a metaphorical journey from the East Coast to the West, encountering a mystical Indian, In-dian, his radical cronies, and a lawman posing under the name Tommy the Tourist. "Street Music." In this story set in San Francisco's Fran-cisco's Tenderloin District, the residents of the Victory Hotel fight when their home is scheduled for demolition. premiere Hepburn as the supportive wife hoping to make peace between them. "Missing", which will have its national premiere on Saturday, Jan. 23, is based on the true story of Charles Horman, an American writer and film-maker in Chile who disappeared shortly after the Allende government fell in a military coup. Jack Lemmon plays Horman's father, a dogmatic, impatient businessman who travels to South America and discovers that locating his son is not as simple as he thought. Ultimately, he must confront his beliefs,, while he grows closer to the daughter-in-law (Spacek) that he once disliked. The film is a landmark for the director, Costa-Gavras. It is the first American film for the Greek artist who is known for such outspoken political thrillers as "Z" and "State of Siege". The admission for either showing of "Missing" on Saturday is $7.50. Later in the week, another premiere, "Cutter's Way," will play at the special price of $6. The film is rich in characterlike charac-terlike the old tenant who throws birthday parties for her cat, or the over-excitable ex-radical desk clerk who sees the hotel as another battlefield bat-tlefield in the fight against imperialist oppression. The two main characters are an aspiring singer (Elizabeth Daily) and her tour-guide boyfriend (Larry Breeding) who just want OUT of the hotel, but eventually join the fight. The film, by festival guests Dick and Jenny Bowen, is inspired by the real-life controversy over the demolition of San Francisco's Fran-cisco's International Hotel in 1979. "Union City." Surprise, Sur-prise, rock fans! The lady with the dreary brown hairdo hair-do is Deborah Harry, who plays a New Jersey housewife with a husband obsessed by the thief stealing sips from their milk bottles. Another rocker, Pat Benatar, has a minor role. Documentaries The films competing in the documentary division are the following: "Between a Rock and a Hard Place." A survey of life in the West Virginia coal mines that looks at three people: an old veteran pensioned off for black lung; a youngster returned from the big city to the pits; and a miner, 37 years on the job who stoutly reminds us that man was meant to work. "That means labor, don't it? Didn't mean do it with a pencil!" Filmmaker Film-maker Ken Fink is a festival, guest. "Booming." Is this the future of Summit County? Dennis Lanson examines the activity in the small town of Wyoming, where uranium mining booms and workers live out of house trailers. Thursday, January 21, 1982 "Brighton Beach." It's right down the boardwalk board-walk from Coney Island, a New York neighborhood where immigrants have flocked over the years. Two of the students at a brutal "executive training seminar" finally rebel Yvette Mimieux in "Mystique" an independent film by Bobby Roth. Racism and gentleness alike are in flower. Filmed by Carol Stein and Susan Wit-tern Wit-tern berg. "TJie Case of the Legless Veteran." James Kutchers joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1938, but the U.S. Army still thought he was good enough ' to fight when World War II broke out. As a result, Kut-cers Kut-cers lost both legs at the Battle Bat-tle of San Pietro. After the war, it was another story. In 1948, the Red hunters decided Kutchers was a threat to his country, and ousted him from his $36-a-week job with the Veterans Administration. While Kutchers Kut-chers waged a 10-year 10-year fight for reinstatement, the government tried to cut his disability pension and evict him from his home. A film by Howard Petrick, who will appear at the festival. "El Salvador: Another Vietnam." "We are sending planes but no pilots ... (and) technicians as a temporary training force." The six o'clock News? No, it's Eisenhower's defense secretary talking in the '50s about our Vietnam involvement. in-volvement. History may repeat itself, warn Glenn Silber and Tete Vasconcello, in a country where 1.5 percent per-cent of the owners hold 50 percent of the land, and the military has killed 25,000 people since early 1980 (including (in-cluding some of the people interviewed in the film). Silber will appear at the festival. "Gates of Heaven." A "Real People"-like story about pet cemeteries becomes a meditation on the dreams of Middle America. The film focuses on the family proprietors of the Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park the go-getter father, the younger son who wanted to be a songwriter, the older son who talks in slick California jargon ("Mentally wise, I don't mind opening the graves.") "Heartworn Highway." High-way." Meet the outlaws of country music the ex-con David Allan Coe, who publicly admits to killing a man in prison; Townes Van Zandt, who came to country via a college education in law and a term in an insane asylum; Uncle Seymour Washington, an old blacksmith-musician who helped the Outlaws reach the early roots of country music; and the family-spirited family-spirited Charlie Daniels Band, who seem almost tame compared to the other The Newspaper yS ""s. Guide to the y t U.S. Film and Video Festival X f f j Film programs Bl Special premieres Bl What you pay B2 Video programs B3 Guests B4 Video award winner B4 Film schedule B5 Video schedule B6 outlaws. Directed by Jerry Szalapski. "In Our Water." In the New Jersey town of South Brunswick, the Frank Kaler family finds that its tap water can eat holes in the laundry, will disintegrate noodles, and makes them dizzy in the shower. The reason? They live next door to one of the most toxic of the 50,000 waste dumps in the U.S. In her film, Meg Switz-gable, Switz-gable, a festival guest, points out that of the tons of waste produced every year, 90 percent is improperly disposed. "A Lady Named Baybie." Nadine "Baybie" Hoover, a gospel street singer, has been blind since birth. She was impregnated im-pregnated by her uncle as a young girl, and was after sterilized without her permission. per-mission. Even her innocent exuberance was scorned by friends. (A religious congregation ousted her because her fondness for acquiring dolls was considered con-sidered idol worship.) Somehow, she remains unbowed, un-bowed, in this film by Martha Mar-tha Sandlin, who will visit the festival. "Model." Frederick Wiseman, known for his non-narrative non-narrative probing surveys of American institutions, looks at the modeling profession, where only 2 to 5 percent of the hopeful pretty faces make a living, and half of them only last a few months. At the Zoli modeling agency, small differences in cheekbones cheek-bones or height decide a job. Subtle acting technique and hours of film craftsmanship yield a 30-second spot for panty hose. "Soldier Girls." This story of three female recruits is a scathingly funny fun-ny portrait of military hard-knocks hard-knocks training, where lectures lec-tures are given on "The Friendly Use of Nuclear Weapons", and female G.I's march along chanting "Pillage, plunder, burn and rape!" "The Third Coast." Houston, Texas is a paradox. While millionaires loll around swimming pools, the city's minorities complain about a lack of services, the cast also includes urban cowboys, money-harvesting evangelists, and a police department notorius for its use of deadly force. Filmed by Alan and Susan Raymond. "We Are the Guinea Pigs." In this anti-nuclear & j"t- ' film, Joan Harvey shows the impassioned views of people like Dr. Helen Caldicott, dissects the defenses of industry in-dustry and government, and travels to Three Mile Island to show the dying cattle and the children who trigger off radioactivity body scans. "The Weavers' Reunion." This legendry folk group bridged the Big Band and Rock era, popularized songs like "If I Had a Hammer" and "On Top of Old Smokey", and gave birth to the folk movement of Dylan and Baez. The Red Scare drove them into obscurity, but the original group Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Heller-man Heller-man reunites in Carnegie Hall in November, 1980, ironically, in the wake of Ronald Reagan's election. One Weaver observes, "This too shall pass. I've had kidney kid-ney stones. I know." "The Willmar 8." Eight women employees from a Midwestern bank grab picket signs and hit the sidewalks to protest the chauvinistic policies of their employees. "Sixty Minutes" covered this story, relying heavily on footage from this documentary. Actress-filmmaker Actress-filmmaker Lee Grant is a festival guest. Director's Showcase Another feature of the film program is the Director's Showcase, a collection of films made by independent or first-time directors. Several of them have already been released to theaters. They include: "Body Heat." a familiar film noir story the lovers' murder plot updated up-dated and set within the heat of a Florida summer, and given a certain dry conviction convic-tion by William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. Some of us think the film is too mannered, man-nered, but we're in the minority. Director Laurence Kasdan has been all over the movie map lately. He has been a writer on "Empire Strikes Back", "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Continenfial Divide", and this film. "Cutter's Way." Ivan Passer's film about a Vietnam veteran (John Heard) and his buddy (Jeff Bridges) was pulled out of release earlier this year because of critical blasts. After this Intermountain premiere, you can decide if it's a stinker. against power-tripping "Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder." Dennis Christopher stars as a Vietnam Viet-nam soldier, killing time on booze and drugs, who is asked by a mortally-wounded buddy to take care of a war orphan. Christopher winds up with 75 foundlings, co-star Susan Saint James, and a new purpose in life. Directed by Peter Werner. "Knightriders." The latest film from George "Night of the Living Dead" Romero is about a mobern-day mobern-day band of Arthurian misfits who joust on motorcycles motor-cycles and stage a travelling Renaissance fair. Will they yield to temptation when a big-city promoter asks them to go commercial? "Melanie." Glynis O'Connor, who you might remember from "Ode to Billie Joe", plays a hillbilly wife whose child is kidnapped kidnap-ped by her husband. (He's exasperated with his wife's illiteracy.) She follows him to California, and struggles to survive with the help of an embittered musician (Burton (Bur-ton Cummings of The Guess Who.) Directed by Rex Bromfield. "Raggedy Man." Sissy Spacek's husband Jack Fisk directs her in this story of a divorced mother with two sons trying to get ahead in a Texas town during World War II. The mixture of nostalgia, small-town bigotry, and suspense is un-wieldly, un-wieldly, but is reminiscent in some ways of "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Thief." "I am wearing $150 slacks ... $800 suits ... a watch loaded with diamonds. And you wonder how I make a living?" James Caan plays a high-class crook who has finished 11 years in stir and wants one big job to put him in retirement. Willie Nelson is his jail mentor and Tuesday Weld is the woman who offers him a chance to settle down. Directed by Michael Mann. "Wolfen." Director Michael Wadleigh is famous for the movie "Woodstock" and in that light, his werewolf movie strives for a social orientation. His premise is that detective Albert Finney discovers a tribe of super-intelligent wolves in New York who have kept their existence a secret by only feeding on the people society doesn't care about the ghetto poor. Films to B2 |