Making history at the House of the Seven Gables filmmaker reception

By Mary Beth Bainbridge

The gently falling snow seen through the windows from the intimate Hooper-Hathaway House was a special bonus for the filmmaker reception. The historic low ceilings and wide pine planks on the floor stir the imagination. The unmatchable ambiance of the centuries old space was a terrific treat, even for long time locals. The rooms were abuzz with excitement for the week of incredible films to see at Salem Film Fest 2016. It was fabulous to meet filmmakers Lewis Bennett, Cyrus Dowlatshahi, Eamon Downey, Stephen Scott Scarpulla, David Shapiro, and Olympia Stone.

The private Friday afternoon affair at the House of Seven Gables was hosted by Zephyr Gallery. The exclusive list of attendees enjoyed the friendly bar service provided by Bill Legault and some delicious nibbles from the Flying Saucer Pizza Company. This intimate setting was well tended to thanks to Julie Arrison-Bishop, Deb Costa, Ryan Conary, and the Gables staff. A zillion thanks to elise mankes, Stan Franzeen, and Joe Cultrera for volunteering their time. And a super shout out to Jeff Schmidt for conceiving of this brilliant idea.

I hate to be a name dropper, but it felt like I had found my way into a groovy club catering to creatives. If you are feeling left out, then be sure to get an All-Access Pass or become a sponsor for Salem Film Fest 2017!

Branded by Salem Film Fest

By Mary Beth Bainbridge, SFF goodies collector

I love fashion. But lately I have been wondering if I am starting to look like a NASCAR driver. I surely hope my besties would point outsuch a fashion faux pas.

My typical morning starts with me pouring coffee into my Salem Film Fest mug while I am wearing a Salem Film Fest t-shirt. I go about my day and sip tea from a Salem Film Fest stein that rests on a Salem Film Fest coaster. I look at my clock on the wall and see Salem FilmFest posters. I head out the door and grab my jacket which sports not one, but THREE!, Salem Film Fest buttons. And then I pull on my hat and recognize it is also pinned with a Salem Film Fest button.

You might be asking how I overlooked my adoration of groovy SFF goodies in my ode to Salem Film Fest [an earlier blog post]. I didn’t.

My SFF gear addiction is not exclusive to a single week. I enjoy being surrounded by these fun tokens of fantastic Fests all year long. Andall these SFF merch purchases feed my altruistic nature knowing I am supporting a fave fest.

Editors note: SFF Merchandise can be purchased at the CinemaSalem Cafe during the festival, while supplies last (especially if Mary Beth is around)!

SFF Advice: Arrive early and stay late

By Mary Beth Bainbridge

Salem Film Fest 2016 marks the ninth year of an extraordinary Fest.  Here is some advice on how to make the most of your Fest experience. To put it simply: arrive early and stay late.

Avoid disappointment—get your tickets early. You can get your tickets in advance at the CinemaSalem box office, thus avoiding any ticketline or uncertainty whether you can see all the films on your carefully selected film itinerary.  Opening and closing night films are always the first to sell out. This year I predict DRIVING WITH SELVI and KEDI will sell out.

Arrive early. I suggest 30 or even 40 minutes early. Those minutes will be filled quickly. Stop in the CinemaSalem café to discover their latest liquid creations. While there, pick up some snazzy SFF merch—the proceeds help this growing Fest and you can look fashionable wearing the latest t-shirt. Get the new SFF tote bag, too, because you will want a place to stash your SFF cache. Obviously, you will want to visit the concession stand for the REAL butter on the popcorn at CinemaSalem!! IF you are an All-Access passholder, then you can be seated early in the theater, just like VIP boarding at the airlines.

Salem Film Fest offers musical interludes before some of the screenings, so arrive early to enjoy the sounds of a local musician. A marvelous moderator will introduce the film and tell you what special guest will be attending the Q+A. You won’t want to miss the Salem Sketches either; these mini-docs screen immediately before the feature documentary and reveal fascinating facets of Salem. This year, collect all six Salem Sketches!

Certainly plan to stay late. The moderated discussions following the documentaries are rich conversations that cannot happen anywhere else. SFF 2016 has 35 feature length documentaries and 30 shorts with nearly 2/3 of those screenings having a filmmaker or subject in attendance. And at the end of a day on Friday or Saturday, you can go to a party with fellow filmgoers, meet some filmmakers, and bask in the SFF glow. Examine the events at SalemFilmFest.com and plan your Fest experience.

Take it from me, the before and after moments of a Salem Film Fest film are just as faboo as the films themselves. You owe it to yourself to arrive early and stay late.

Double Feature - THE THREE HIKERS and KEDI - Editor Mo Stoebe Interview

By Jeff Schmidt, Program Director, Salem Film Fest

In what appears to be a Salem Film Fest first, a filmmaker is attending the festival representing two different feature documentary films - editor Mo Stoebe will join director Natalie Avital in the Massachusetts Premiere of THE THREE HIKERS and director Ceyda Torun in the US Premiere of KEDI.  I had a chance to speak with Stoebe earlier this week about his work on those films, as well as his overall experience working in documentary film.

JS: What is your background and how did it lead you to working on documentaries?

MS: My background is firmly rooted in film and video, I have been editing and designing motion graphics for the past 17 years. I started in feature editing when my friend and colleague Tom Keegan directed his first documentary, OUT IN INDIA: A FAMILY'S JOURNEY, in 2005 and subsequently asked me to edit it. I was hooked ever since.

JS: How did you become involved in THE THREE HIKERS?

MS: THE THREE HIKERS was looking for an editor to come onboard when they had finished the bulk of their shooting in early 2013. I had an initial meeting with the director, Natalie Avital, and we had a really good conversation about what she wanted the project. So we got along very well right off the bat and have been friends ever since. Colin Hawes, our assistant editor on the film, started organising footage for a few months and I began to pull together the most important sequences that summer. We then worked up to a screening of the strongest material, a part selects reel, part rough edit that was about five hours long. We then added another great editor, Matt Michael, to our team and worked towards a rough cut which was completed by spring of 2014. At that stage, Paul Crowder came in and lent his invaluable experience as an editor and filmmaker to bring the film to its final shape.

JS: How did you become involved in KEDI?

MS: KEDI started for me right as THE THREE HIKERS locked in the summer of 2014. Here the team consisted mainly of Ceyda Torun, the director, and Charlie Wupperman who is also the DP of the film. The process was to initially sculpt down all the beautiful footage they had captured to build a number of possible stories. Building these first rough blocks took about ten weeks and from there we mainly worked on figuring out how to string these blocks into a coherent structure and build bridges and connections from one to the other.

JS: What drew you to each film?

MS: THE THREE HIKERS was instantly appealing to me as I knew about the Hikers from what I had heard in the news. I’m generally interested in stories with a geopolitical background and I thought theirs had a lot of potential. KEDI on the other hand was very interesting to me because it presented such a different challenge. How do you weave a story from all this material? The shift to a more poetic approach here was really refreshing…

JS: The stories in each film are told in very different ways, can you talk about how that influenced your editing style/choices?

MS: THE THREE HIKERS is a fast-paced ride that aims to keep the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats while at the same time conveying a large amount of information. So we worked on keeping the film moving as fast as possible without becoming too overwhelming. KEDI was almost the complete opposite, as here we were working on conveying a feeling about Istanbul as a magical place and its cats through images and sounds.

JS: What do you like about working in the documentary form?

MS: What I love about editing documentaries and editing in general the unique nature of each project. I often compare my work to solving a puzzle with multiple possible solutions and it is very rewarding when you see that puzzle taking shape and coming together to form a whole.

THE THREE HIKERS screens on Saturday, March 5 at 2pm at CinemaSalem

KEDI screens on Sunday, March 6 at 2pm at the Peabody Essex Museum 

A New High - An Interview with Producer Eamon Downey

By Jeff Schmidt, Program Director, Salem Film Fest

In A NEW HIGH, a diverse group of men and women come together to climb out of homelessness and drug addiction through an unorthodox recovery program that uses mountain climbing as a means of rehabilitation. After one year of intense physical and mental conditioning, the team attempts to summit one of the most dangerous mountains in the country, Mt. Rainier.Producer Eamon Downey spoke to me earlier this week about the making of the film:

JS: How did you become of aware of Mike Johnson and this rather unique rehabilitation program at the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle?

ED: Our film’s Executive Producer/Producer Philip Erdoes had heard of a similar program in Washington around a decade ago. Given the unique approach of this recovery program and it’s tremendous success in helping addicts overcome their addiction, our team reached out to the program in 2012. After a little digging, we found Mike Johnson leading his own climbing out of homelessness and addiction program at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. Our production crew flew out to visit the team and himself to see if there was a film there. It was probably within five minutes of meeting Mike and the team that we decided it was imperative we move to Seattle immediately to spend a year documenting this transformative story.

JS: How did you approach them about making your documentary? 

ED: Approaching anyone to be featured in a documentary is a delicate subject especially when we’re looking to follow them as they recover from the darkest periods of their lives. However, being in the depths of recovery, the team members felt it was equally important to share this story of perseverance, if for nothing else so that it may inspire other addicts to seek treatment.

JS: Was there any hesitation from any of the participants featured in the film in taking part?

ED: Initially upon hearing that some filmmakers from New York City want to follow their lives in recovery for a year, there may have been a bit of hesitation that was quickly alleviated once we met with the team members. It was clear that we wanted to share this story for the same reason they agreed to participate: to share their journey and instill hope in others struggling to summit their own personal demons. Once we established we were all on the same page, all the participants were eager to be part of this film.

JS: How tough was the climb up Mt. Rainier for you as filmmakers - physically climbing and capturing it on film? 

ED: Climbing a mountain is a challenge. Climbing a mountain with the extra weight of film equipment in addition to your climb gear is extremely difficult. Running up and down along rope lines to capture each character as they make their way to the summit is almost beyond comprehension,  but Samuel and Stephen did tremendous work filming the climb as you’ll see on screen. They trained alongside the recovery climbers throughout the year, but between the extra pounds on their backs and filmmaking duties it’s almost as though they had summited the mountain twice during the climb, but without a single complaint. The importance to do justice to the story was their fuel.

JS: It's a very inspiring story that unfolds as we root on the participants, both with the climb and in putting their lives back together - can you talk about how it was for you as filmmakers witnessing both the triumphs and pitfalls?

ED: Spending a year in such an intimate setting with the recovery climbers really transformed them from documentary subjects to friends whose recovery we personally cared about succeeding. Being an objective documentarian is such a difficult balance and of course we were proud of their personal triumphs and saddened when some recovery climbers hit roadblocks in their path.  The real lesson learned here isn’t if you summit you win or if you stumble you fail; it’s your perseverance to stay sober or to keep coming back for treatment that defines your recovery.  It’s just as inspirational witnessing a full recovery as it is seeing someone that stumbled get back up and keep trying.

A NEW HIGH screens on at 8:30pm on Friday, March 4 at the Peabody Essex Museum