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Show The Newspaper Thursday, January 28, 1982 Page B5 The remaining festival films byRickBrough 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 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 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. "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 involving in-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. "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. 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: "Brighton Beach." It's right down the boardwalk board-walk from Coney Island, a New York neighborhood where immigrants have flocked over the years. Racism and gentleness alike are in flower. Filmed by Carol Stein and Susan Wit-ternberg. "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.") "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. "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 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: "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. "Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder." Dennis Christopher stars as a Vietnam Viet-nam soldier, killing time on booze and drugs, who is Films to B7 f Deer Valley Condominiums PARK CITY, UTAH Luxury condominiums can be purchased at Lakeside now. 2 bedroom units with loft. We u i!l provide you with a free Park City condominium (or this winter ski season if you purchase now. Contact Paul H&nseen Probe Real Estate, 801-272-4215 801-583-0606 i Villi I W (J j J i imiis team )w t t i- 'v ' ,:- - . ' 4 - I s - . "k.- , v . . - r - - v: .i.i,,u,,...,u.,, -""'" 412 MAIN STREET, PARK CITY, UTAH Open Daily From 5:30 to 11:00. 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A Peter Weir Film BMLLIPOLI Mon Thurs 7:00, 9:00 " NOT SINCE 'GONE WITH THE WIND 1 HAS THERE EEEN A GREAT ROMANTIC EPIC LIKE WARREN BEATTY TRR7Y KOSrNSKT JACK NICHOLSON REDS Mon-Thurs 1 J& V sy 7:15 2 DAYS ONLY TUffF Fri,Feb.12 Tfff?nEffinif Tickets on Jk JOj Sat- Feb. 13 ,B-CUJ-lSw- sale now |
