by David Feela Twenty-four years is a long stretchto stay out of sight -- that’s four timessix years deep. A lot of timeon your head. All the while we speculatedhow it happened in the end, the moband the union bosses being so hard to tell...
Mark Stevens
Labor Day weekend, the action is mostly on the silver screen. Labor Day weekend, September 2 – September 5 is all about the Telluride Film Festival. However, one Telluride Film Festival regular, documentary director extraordinaire Ken Burns, always finds time on Monday, the last day of the epic film happening, to meet his public. For the third year in a row, Ken will take his traditional post at Telluride's popular book emporium, Between the Covers Bookstore, on September 5, 10:30 – 1 p.m. (ish) or just before he feels he needs to leave for the Closing Picnic.
This year Ken Burns signs copies of "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," "Jazz," "Baseball," and "The Civil War." Joining Ken at Between the Covers is a newcomer to Telluride, author Mark Stevens, in town to to sign copies of his latest work, "Buried by the Roan," an Allison Coil Mystery and the sequel to Stevens' best-seller, "Antler Dust."
The official website of the Telluride Film Festival claims there is no better way to attend the event than as a passholder. Further, it states there is "no hassle" with a pass. True. Sorta kinda.
Here's why. Your pass entitles you to seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Even then, not so much, because passholders are not created equal.
Especially for big buzz movies in the smaller venues (the Sheridan Opera House, the Masons and The Nugget) first-come, first-served means if you are a plain vanilla passholder, your lanyard may not get you in unless you arrive super early, as much as 1 1/2 – 2 hours in advance of the scheduled screening. Even then, remember you are behind sponsors, patrons, students, and Hollywood entourages, who can show up when they wish and jump the queue. When that happens, your treasured numbered Q becomes just another piece of paper to recycle.
[ click "Play", Gary Meyer discusses TFF 2011 features with Susan Viebrock]
Co-director Gary Meyer
The people who make the popcorn seem to know what they are doing. Let's give them a hand. Apparently so do the people who put together the Telluride Film Festival. Let's find out more.
The Telluride Film Festival built its acclaim as buzzmeister extraordinaire over 38 years by celebrating the art, not the business, of filmmaking. From the get-go, Festival founders and directors emeriti Bill and Stella Pence and current director Tom Luddy, also co-founder, plus Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger became renowned for turning their backs on The Industry, Hollywood shorthand for special effects, mind-numbing plots, testosterone-fueled blood and gore fests, blockbusters, crowd-pleasing franchises, bad guesses, and good luck. Telluride, on the other hand, puts the spotlight on intelligent storytelling and superior filmmaking to create a rich stew that is a seductive mix of past and present, foreign and domestic, obscure and accessible, dark and light, long and short, features and documentaries.
"The Descendants"
Every year, since the event got off the ground in 1974, The Telluride Film Festival, known locally as The SHOW, paid tribute to artists whose contributions resonate throughout the medium. Thirty-eight years ago, the first tributees were Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola, and Leni Riefenstahl.
The list of Telluride Film Festival honored actors swelled over the years to include Jack Nicholson, Gerard Depardieu, Clint Eastwood, Isabelle Huppert, Jodie Foster, Klaus Kinski, Shirley MacLaine, Toni Collette, Daniel Day Lewis, Viggo Mortensen, and part-time local (she met her husband Marc Schauer, her V.I.P host, when she was honored in 2004), Laura Linney.
George Harrison
The sun is shining bright yellow and the sky over Telluride is Colorado blue. But this weekend, people who like watching people making well-lit, larger-than-life spectacles of themselves will burrow in dark theaters. This weekend, September 2 – September 5, is the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival.
And it is not just about the full-length features. Documentaries are given equal prominence. Festival attendees applaud the shorts. (The directors and their appendages screen about 1,000 each year to make their picks.) Audiences also love some of the treasured restorations, often set to music.
"Telluride is the best film festival in the world," Clint Eastwood
"Albert Nobbs"
Once the vow of silence is lifted – now – and the world gets to know what's in store at the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival, Friday, September 2 – Monday, September 5, the fun begins and not just on the silver screen. All around town.
Only the Telluride Film Festival goes to the great expense of importing films and talent from all over the world, because Festival directors – Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer – believe in the importance of establishing an artistic as well as screen presence. So this weekend, actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, producers as well as critics, distributors and buffs walk side by side on the streets or stand in line blabbing about films. Everyone shows up in Telluride because the event is regarded as a jewel among film festivals, sans hype or hoopla.
The morning e-mail feed on Telluride Inside...
[click "Play" to hear Nicole Finger describing recent work]
It's that time again: Telluride Arts' First Thursday Art Walk (September 1, 2011), when venues of all stripes open their doors to showcase the best of Telluride's arts and crafts scene, with everyone staying open late until 8 p.m. At the Ah Haa School for the Arts the featured show is new work by Nicole Finger. The artist's reception takes place 5 – 8 p.m.
Art is not just about the right color on the right surface. It is about synthesizing an artist’s experiences. Nicole’s new work, new images of horses, proves we are what we create. "e-Motion" – the name of Nicole's show – is highly autobiographical and all the more powerful because the paintings are metaphors for Nicole's life in particular and in the artist's words, the "fleeting nature of life" in general.
"This festival (the Telluride Film Festival) is characterized by its small size and friendly atmosphere. If there were a few key words to describe Telluride, they might include 'intimate' and 'down home,' just as easily as 'monumental' and 'important," Boulder Daily Camera
Even without a pass, the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival, 9/2 – 9/5, has something for almost everyone.
The Telluride Film Festival opens with free films sponsored by Ralph and Ricky Lauren. The five film premieres start Wednesday night, August 31, just after dark – and a day before the cat is let out of the bag about screenings on the long weekend to come.
(Thursday at noon, when the embargo is lifted, Telluride Inside… and Out releases four different posts about this year's Festival, interviews recorded live with Festival co-director Gary Meyer about the features, the tributes, documentaries, shorts and special programs and who's coming to town.)
