Filmmakers must deal with variety of obstacles

2010 Traverse City Film Festival

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Fourteen documentary filmmakers discuss their trade during a Saturday panel at the City Opera House, part of the sixth annual Traverse City Film Festival. Sheri McWhirter/Record-Eagle

August 1, 2010

BY SHERI McWHIRTER smcwhirter@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sun Aug 01, 2010, 07:14 AM EDT

Traverse City — A record number of speakers took the stage at the City Opera House for the largest discussion panel in the Traverse City Film Festival's six-year history.

Fourteen documentary filmmakers spoke about the challenges they face through their work, as well as the payoffs, even when they're not financial. Many argued that documentaries are best seen in theaters, but acknowledged how television becomes an important venue for their films to reach wider audiences.

"I think it's beholden on documentary filmmakers to make films people want to see in a theater. We should be mindful of making documentaries people want to see in that environment," said Sam Dunn, one of the directors of "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage."

Director Nicolas Rossier, whose film "American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein" will screen today at 9 p.m. at Milliken Auditorium, said his distributor told him it's not a theatrical film, a common challenge for independent documentarians. However, audiences in New York did see the film.

"Without a theatrical release, documentary films like mine don't have a chance," Rossier said.

The process of making a documentary can sometimes be upsetting in how the artistic is commercialized for distribution, said director Michael Webber, whose film "The Elephant in the Living Room" will screen today at 9:30 p.m. at Lars Hockstad Auditorium.

"We do more with spreadsheets than with scripts. It's really frustrating," Webber said. "You are creating a piece of commerce that happens to be a film."

"Cane Toads: The Conquest" 3-D film director Mark Lewis agreed that documentary filmmaking has to be a business, "and that's tough," he said.

"If you make a documentary that doesn't make money, you're dead," Lewis said.

Director Judith Ehrlich, whose film about Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers screened twice at the festival, said a "vow of poverty" often comes with the career decision to make documentaries.

A great vehicle documentary filmmakers can look to for financing is the pay cable channel HBO, said Michael Moore, filmmaker and festival founder. The channel spends a great deal to buy documentary films each year, but the trade-off is that the films won't be seen in theaters, Moore said.

Traverse City resident Jennifer Anderson said the directors' discussion captivated her and she stayed until the end, even after a power surge temporarily caused the lights to go out.

"I thought it was wonderful. It's my favorite part of the festival, getting people talking. It's part of what makes the film festival so special," she said.

Today's free comedy panel discussion at 9:30 a.m. at the City Opera House will include satirist Sabina Guzzanti, comedian Jeff Garlin and Moore.