I think the Shootout is one of the best annual events in our town. Some kind of crazy fun. I always wish I had enough free time to donate during the week of filming. It just seems like it would be the most intense and wacky fun/or not, but worthwhile regardless.
Why tie it to the state? What would that accomplish artistically? It seems like an artifical limitation to me. Plus, what would themes relevant to the state be exactly? Turquoise? Kachinas? It seems like any movie about the human condition is going to do address the concerns of New Mexicans' lives.
Are these last years or the ones they are producing this year?????
Eric B. - These are the ones that will be produced this year.
Alexis
Mikaela asks a great question, and Erik has what is 'currently' the correct answer. It's actually worse than kachinas and turqoise. The level of cliche from native NM screenwriters in this contest is galling.
If I read one more script with a Native Americans stranger, mysteriously appearing out of nowhere, as an all seeing, all knowing figure to explain the nature of the universe to a white character for 12 pages I'm going to puke.
Although I can't factually say for sure these scripts are written by Anglos, I'd bet good money on it.
A close second is the all seeing, all knowing nature of "place," as in this state, as a set piece for a screenplay. Sometimes it feels like a conspiracy set up by the Depertment of Tourism.
I've been watching for what M has asked as a member of the script reading group for Duke City the past 4 years. It did not happen this year as well.
This situation is incredibly aggravating, considering there are any number of NM set premises that are crying out for a camera and some actors that can say something not only about this place, but hit a universal chord as Erik points out.
Here's but a few examples off the top of my head.
When is there going to be a story revolving on a character who is Sandia Labs type struggling with the core nature of his/her work, which is basically to kill people? It's an easy and obvious moral dilemma any corner of the country can connect with...especially now.
Who the hell doesn't have the problem of toiling in a culture we don't agree with, but that house, car(s) and college education to pay for stand in the way of our morals? The dramatic possibilities are endless.
Where is the Native American who has lost his or her way (to crime, drug use...whatever) who finds themselves in a situation that makes them question their choices?
Where is the Anglo, city dwelling (ABQ?) character who finds him or herself in the small NM setting of their birth trying vainly to bring change to an environment that is hung up on tradition and fear? Certainly not a NM only situation by any means.
Where is the educationally and intellectually accomplished African-American character trying to climb the social, political and cultural ladder and fighting the inbred and seemingly impossible roadblocks every step of the way? How universal is the theme of 'effort' despite all apparent odds for a goal that character feels is worthy and necessary despite the evidence otherwise?
Where is the character...possibly a teenager...dealing with the internal family dynamics after that family loses everything in a Los Alamos type fire? Who can't relate to how outside forces start an internal disintegration when the grudges, hates, and power struggles get unleashed inside a family?
Where is the story of a core group of highly accomplished NM women...who happen to be community planners...trying to help reconcile the needs of a traditionally based, semi rural community and the encroachment of moden society, on their community? Who living anywhere can't relate to how a community reacts to things seemingly out of their control...until they realize that their lives are, in fact, very much in their control?
OK, that last one was a bone, but you get the point.
Of course, these are not stories, but premises. Good writers see a dramatic premise and mold story from them. Better said, that's what dramatists do. In order to do so however, you have to have your radar up and be a-w-a-r-e of the world around you.
If the status quo does not bother you, do not sit down to the keyboard.
There are dramatic premises in every cut of life here. Drama with enormous personal stakes, seemingly impossible situations to overcome and if so inclined to move people as any dramatist must, see the possiblities of eventual triumph at the end.
This is easy and no surprise to anyone reading this. So what's the problem?
From here it's a lack of guts. There's a very strange vibeI've watched my entire time here that somehow mutes artists from doing what they're supposed to do; throw light on darkness.
Darkness is uncomfortable. We do not as a NM culture like to either be emotionally uncomfortable or make others so. That is not the artists imperitive.
It's not just in filmmaking. I've rarely heard an artist in any medium explain a piece of work with the sentence, "This is my reaction to..."
Why is that? What is it here that the most prickly of personalities, artists, black out their '3rd eye' to the hypocrisy, struggles and suffering of this state and go after it like a wild dog?
part of there are any nu,mber of dire warnings from those at the top of the food chain here in filmmaking who instantly wave off anyone who proposes to do anything like this with all manner of, "well, that's lecturing...and you don't want to lecture. People hate that."
Well no shit. Dramatists can say anything about any premise with direct reference. It's hard as hell, yes, but that's what makes the cream rise.
Great artists can't see nor respect sacred cows. Everything is up for grabs.
All that said, I'm proud to report that none of these scripts chosen (nor the alternates) are terribly cliched. We had a good final pile to go through that were well above that threshold. Thye inner circle of the festival is very much aware of this. That's the good news you should know.
Perhaps this is the year that a turn is taken. They'll recognize a 'model' of what is possible vs. what they perceive the 'mob' wants, because as they say, it's easy to get the mob to agree with you as an artist...just agree with the mob.
That's it. Gotta go and finish that short about the Native American cleaning woman who lectures her bosses on the folly of their ways. I'm stuck on page nine...
G
PS: Once again it must be said this is the only public place in the city where this kind of discussion takes place. I am so grateful...
Amazing thoughts, Gene. Right on. ABQ is so lucky to have your brain here.
Gene...you are so right on about the artist's approach to darkness. But it certainly isn't confined to NM, rather it permeates American culture. For me, one of the primary reasons I read literature is to shed light on darkness. It's something I find incredibly compelling not to mention cathartic. I suspect its a very difficult place to go as a writer, both in terms of where you have to go to really explore that darkness and in terms of the exposure you suffer in public. And the risk is ratcheted up greatly by this ostensibly feel good culture we live in...which tamps down the darkness while feeding it blindly...
Damn, Gene. Thank you so much for validating my impulse (and articulating it so much more comprehensively!).
Having worked with teens for the last two weeks, I can confirm that the easy stories are not the ones that will grab this next generation. They're sick of the panacea of "culture," seeing it for the box that it is, and pushing to define for themselves what it means to have New Mexico as home.
I wish there were more trailblazers in front of them, because they could use a little direction and challenge from above. American apathy is strong, stronger sometimes than NM individuality.
Here's to the struggle...
I should say the box culture has become, co-opted by those in power and those who have fought to the top and want to stay there and keep everyone else in the most visible places where they can be most easily controlled and/or countered.
...that's a really good point on exposure and control. Have you noticed how any so called 'underground' art movement makes the front page of the style section of every major newspaper within months?
I put the full and complete blame on my generation. We have this pathetic and bizarre need to be the Most Relevent Generation of All Time. This is not the ssame as being youthful and vibrant, but pure ego drive.
Go to any meeting where there's 40 plus hipsters and kids and watch the power dynamic change once a kid puts something interesting on the table. Happens every time...
The result is what you point out; highly stylized manipulation that smells and feels like art/culture, but really is the same shit designed to make doing a nose count easy for advertisers, etc.
As for tralblazers. Wow. I think the problem is too many artists have bought into a false reward system. I'm all for artists making a living for sure, but there's a line.
Maybe the answer is we put our money where the darkness is like Marjorie points out?
G
"Under My Skin" was the oh-so-well-deserved winner. I thought "Confession" was close, but for overall production (Elizabeth Martinez did a phenomenal job there) sound, story, makeup, and acting, "Under" was head and shoulders above the rest. The others were good, but there was no real competition. IMHO ;~)
Ugh. Confession, such potential. Worst DP EVER. SO BAD. Breaks my heart. But I'm glad someone liked it, I def. thought it was top three, although I favored Talk Me to Death too.
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