POV Brunch at Sundance

Simon Kilmurry

16 years ago

We hosted our annual POV brunch on Sunday a welcome relief from the hectic pace of screenings, parties and general mischief that seems to be the Sundance routine. First to arrive was Steven Sebring and Patti Smith an artist who changed my life at a formative stage. Steven’s film Patti Smith: Dream of Life is an elegiac composition that beautifully integrates Patti’s life as a mother, rock musician, artist and poet, activist and ultimately, as she says, “as a worker.” It’s been a highlight to meet Patti and spend a few minutes with her. Some of the band Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty arrived a little later. The band members have yet to see the film, so the premiere will be the first time. (More on that later.)

The Smith family Jesse, Patti and Jackson with filmmaker Steven Sebring

The brunch is a chance to catch up with POV friends and filmmakers whose work will or has been a part of POV in the past. POV alums in attendance included Thomas Allen Harris, Yvonne Welbon, Paul Stekler, Tasha Oldham and Alex Rivera. Alex’s debut feature Sleep Dealer is creating a buzz at the festival.
It was a thrill to be able to announce that Traces of the Trade, Katrina Browne’s wrenching examination of the legacy of the North’s leadership in the slave trade, through her own family’s complicity, will be part of POV’s 2008 lineup. Katrina brought her production team, including Elizabeth Delude-Dix and Jude Ray, and several members of the family including Tom DeWolf, who has written a new memoir based on his experience in the film, Inheriting the Trade (Beacon Press).

POV’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry and Traces of the Trade filmmaker Katrina Browne at Sundance (See Flickr slideshow for more photos from the POV Brunch.)

Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Pravasath (Nerakhoon) showed up with an entourage of Thavi’s family. Nerakhoon has been in the works for 23 years, so everyone’s eagerly anticipating the fruits of that long gestation. The final POV film, Up the Yangtze by Yung Chang, announced the first deal of the festival with indie distributor Zeitgeist coming on board for a theatrical deal look for a release in spring. The last time I saw Yung and his EP Daniel Cross was at IDFA (where the film premiered) and Yung had just invited all IDFA attendees to party on his houseboat glad to see they survived that potential disaster.

Director Yung Chang and Executive Producer Daniel Cross (Up the Yangtze) at Sundance (See Flickr slideshow for more photos from the POV Brunch.)

Filmmaker/blogger AJ Schnack stopped by to let us know his new award announcement is right after the brunch. I’ve been thinking a lot about it and I’m excited about its potential. There is certainly room in the industry to recognize the craft of documentaries beyond what we currently have.

People seem to be excited about American Soldier and American Teen (seems to be a theme going on in these titles), though the buzz is just starting with quite a number of films yet to screen. On the fiction side, Ballast is getting people talking.

More to come from the screenings soon.