Thursday, May 20, 2010

Interview with Artistic Director Carl Spence

The 36th annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) has officially begun, and instead of tapping out the usual humdrum preview piece I thought it might be fun to sit down with Artistic Director Carl Spence and let him do the majority of the heavy lifting for me. After all, when you’re talking about a 25-day festival spotlighting 405 features, documentaries and shorts from 67 countries why not turn to the man responsible for helping assemble this smorgasbord to help put it into some sort of cohesive perspective.

Sara Michelle Fetters: As the artistic director of SIFF, what sort of guidance or direction do you give the programmers as they assemble the lineup for the festival?

Carl Spence: My driving force has always been not so much trying to give the audience what they want but to my mind in knowing who your audience is the great thing about the Seattle Festival and what makes it so different from other festivals is that it has been widely embraced by the city and is so eclectic in its programming mix that it [hasn’t] programmed Films with a capital F but really celebrated films of all subjects and budgets and hasn’t distinguished between a Hollywood film versus an art house film or a film from Brazil or a film from the U.S.A. It doesn’t say one is more important than the other. It doesn’t discriminate.

And that’s sort of the driving force for me. [SIFF] can go from lowbrow to highbrow and everything in-between while also encompassing pieces of all the other arts like music and dance. There are a lot of different pieces that go together to make a strong festival.

Sara Michelle: Talk a little about this year’s LGBT lineup. On paper this appears to be one of the most diverse group of films I’ve seen from SIFF in quite some time.
Carl Spence: It is. We’re always looking for interesting films across all boundaries and while we’re not specifically looking for gay or lesbian films we are looking for good films and whether specifically or tangentially we always seem to end up with a [good] selection that will be of interest to the [LGBT] community. We’re also happy to present our annual Gay-la film, Violet Tendencies with Mindy Cohn from “The Facts of Life,” which is sort of a fun, light comedy about the ultimate faghag who still hasn’t found a boyfriend and decides to leave the nest of her gay friends to see if she can find a relationship on her own.

Sara Michelle: Are there others films in this year’s LGBT series you’d consider standouts?

Carl Spence: Howl is an amazing film. [It’s] about the life of Allen Ginsberg and it’s structured like one of his poems. It really stands on its own. But then I think all of the films in the [LGBT series] stand on their own. Each in their own way is a standout.

As part of “Ambiente: A Celebration of Spanish Film” series there are some titles I gay and lesbian audiences will respond to. There is Room in Rome which is a remake of the Chilean film In Bed. We’re showing Alicia Scherson’s new film Turistas which revolves around two women. Then we have Mediterranean Diet, which really isn’t a gay film but is still about a ménage a trios between a woman, her husband and her lover.

Sara Michelle: And then there is Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives, maybe the most controversial film SIFF has screened in years.

Carl Spence: It had some controversy coming out of Tribeca but I think that was all [overblown], like someone was trying to use it as a way to get some attention. But, in the end, I don’t really think there was much to the controversy. Even with the important issues that were brought up it’s still an exploitation film and made in that style, and I think people need to keep that in perspective.

Sara Michelle: So you don’t foresee any trouble with showing that film?

Carl Spence: I don’t think so. No. It’s an exploitation film. It’s like any of those films, like watching a Russ Meyer film. It’s no different than any other exploitation film. It’s not doing anything in a derogatory way. I think it’s great and a lot of fun. It is definitely a midnight film and it isn’t for everyone [but] I don’t see anything negative about it.

Sara Michelle: Talk to me a little about the opening night film, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s The Extra Man.

Carl Spence: That movie I just felt it was about these awkward people who don’t really fit in anywhere who all found each other and one [while] one is so different from the other they all just sort of make sense as a group. And Kevin Kline just sort of kills me whenever he’s one the screen. In this role he is totally back in form and he’s either funnier or as funny as he was back in A Fish Called Wanda.

Sara Michelle: That’s one of my favorite movies of all time so I can’t quite say he’s that good, but I do agree he is just fantastic in the movie. He steals the whole thing.

Carl Spence: He does. And I think it is just a perfect match between him and Paul Dano who underplays his role wonderfully. [The movie] is very inventive, not just in the writing but technically in regards to the art and set direction and to everything else. I just really enjoyed it. I think it is something that is enjoyable that’s also by a pair of filmmakers whom I really respect and whom I’m always excited to see what they are going to do next. It’s just a perfect way to open the festival.

Sara Michelle: Well, and the last time Berman and Pulcini were at SIFF it was for American Splendor, a modern American classic in my personal opinion. It must be nice to have them back both because they’ve had so much success here in Seattle and because their last film, The Nanny Diaries, wasn’t all that great?

Carl Spence: Well, [The Nanny Diaries] I think was more a commercial for hire job while The Extra Man is definitely the film you would think they would follow up something like American Splendor with. It’s an enjoyable film and I think opening night audiences will be very happy with it.

Sara Michelle: Going back to your Spanish film series, why Spain? What led you to go in that direction for your spotlight series this year?

Carl Spence: I’ve always loved Spain and I went on a trip to Madrid and it sort of got me even more excited about Spain, and then we just got all these great films. We sort of have the cream of the crop of some of the best films made [in Spain] over the last year and ones that had just been completed and are coming out so just made sense to choose Spain as our spotlight country. Everything from Cell 211 which was the Goya Award-winner for last year to Agora, Alejandro Amenábar’s new movie, will be showing.



We got some great support from the Spanish government. They’re underwriting some of these filmmakers and this is great exposure for them. But I just think these are a great group of films. Garbo: The Spy is this really amazing Spanish double agent who helped change the course of the history of WWII. Me Too is another great movie co-directed by a couple of first-time filmmakers. Gordos is the new film from Daniel Sánchez Arévalo whose films are almost always shown in the festival. The Dancer and the Thief by Fernando Trueba was Spain’s Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film and it’s very inventive and quite nice.

And there’s so much more. [The lineup] sort of spans the entire spectrum. There are comedies, there are serious films, there are documentaries, but [overall] I think the program really gives a nice overview of the best in cinemas coming out of Spain.

Sara Michelle: So this is the 36th Annual Seattle International Film Festival. Where do you see it going from here? Where do you think SIFF will be when it say turns 45 or 50?

Carl Spence: We’re planting the seeds right now to move into our permanent home in Seattle Center so that’s on the immediate horizon. That will give us a much stronger foundation to continue onward and will give us a much higher visibility in the community. So we’ll still have our SIFF Cinema location but we’ll also have a physical space that people can visit and will allow them to explore film 365 days a year.

We’ll also be doing quite a bit more educational programming. Right now we reach about 9,000 students throughout the year and we’re looking to expand that. Also, because we’ll be at Seattle Center which is a big destination for tourists that’s another audience we’ll be able to reach expanding our outreach globally.

So that’s what is on the horizon, and I think by doing that it will also strengthen what we do in regards to the festival as well. [SIFF] will continue in roughly the same shape and size as people have grown to love. We’ve set a strong foundation and it works well so I don’t foresee a lot of changes. People do wonder if we should shorten it [the festival] because it is so long but I’m not so sure about that.

Sara Michelle: Well I personally love the festival as it is. It’s absolutely unique. You never know what you’re going to get. Each trip to the theatre is a curious adventure or an exploration and that is something I truly appreciate. I wouldn’t change the shape and size of SIFF for anything.

Carl Spence: We work really hard to find films someone is passionate about. We don’t always agree within our own team but we try not to just be a survey of cinema. Some years there is only one film from Iran while in other years there might be three or four. One year we might have the first screenings of some big Summer films out of Hollywood. Others we might not have any. There are no magic quotas. We don’t have to show X amount of films from here [in Seattle]. It’s just more organic than that. We actively search out films during the year and we do a ton of research and outreach. We never know what the films we are going to show from year-to-year are and I think that’s a good thing. Seattle has its own beat and I really like it the way it is.

Sara Michelle: So, putting you on the spot, a person only has time to go to five films during the festival. What five do you send them to go see?

Carl Spence: Oh. That’s not fair. Five films? What do I have them go see? Anything? How about Howl, The Hedgehog from France, Loose Cannons directed by Ferzan Ozpetek, FarewellFarewell is simply a film everyone must see – and any film out of our New Director’s Showcase, but if I had to choose one I’d say Angel at Sea. But that’s just a few. I could go on and on and on, but that’s probably enough for now.

- Portions of this posting reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

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