Saturday, 2:45 pm (home)
I saw Stagedoor this morning. Not to be confused with Stage Door, of course (although I did actually see that film again last weekend, coincidentally enough). Stagedoor is a documentary about the Stagedoor Manor summer camp, a theatrical program in the Catskills where all kinds of kids go to participate in productions. The documentary focused on five kids, but didn’t delve too deeply or focus too much on just these five kids. The movie spent a lot of time looking at the overall camp culture.
The documentary reminded me somewhat of Spellbound, even to having a hyper kid who couldn’t stop talking. One thing I did not like about Spellbound was that it often seemed to make fun of some of its subjects, showing them acting or talking in a way that would provoke derision or contempt from the audience. I saw very little of that in Stagedoor.
Three of the kids from the movie were at the Paramount to answer questions with the filmmakers after the screening. (Taylor, the formerly hyper boy, was wearing a cowboy hat that practically swallowed his head.)
The one question I wish I’d been able to ask the filmmakers was about rights issues for the music in the documentary. These kids are putting on productions of well-known musicals—Mame, Annie, and Fiddler on the Roof among them—I mean, there were show tunes all over the place, and even the theme from “Sesame Street” at one point. That’s a lot of music, and one thing that filmmakers at my UT class have discussed is the difficulty and expense in securing the rights to this music. I believe the films can be shown at festivals without having to pay for the rights, and then the filmmakers hope that the distributor or PBS will pay for the rights.
This wasn’t really an audience of filmmakers, though, or people interesting in movies in that way, and the questions that were asked were pretty predictable. I’ve noticed so far that people seem to use the Q&A to offer comments about the movie or the subject matter. And people wanted to ask the kids a lot of questions.
I seem to have picked up a headache right before the movie started. The house lights in the Paramount were very dim—they seemed dimmer than usual. And it was so dark in the theater that it was a real challenge to take any kind of notes. Maybe I need to get a little bitty flashlight? Hm. I just took some migraine meds because the one thing I do not want to have today or any time in the next week is a headache of any kind.
Saturday, 10:45 pm (home)
Damn, I’m tired. I saw three movies today. I was supposed to stay at Alamo South for a fourth film, Swoon, which is about Leopold and Loeb. I was looking forward to it. But I was a little cranky because I ordered dinner at Alamo during The Puffy Chair and my food never got there. My soft drink did, so I was all sugar rushed and fidgety and hungry. This may explain why I didn’t like the movie as much as I thought I might.
I got home and called my mom, because the names of the filmmakers sounded awfully familiar. Sure enough, one of the Duplass brothers went to school with my married little brother. My mom knows their parents, they’re related to some other people we know, blah blah blah. People from New Orleans always have two degrees of separation (at the most).
The characters in The Puffy Chair fell too much into gender stereotypes for my taste. They were almost real people, and then the woman would start pressuring her boyfriend about marriage, or he would start hinting about women who try to change men, and so forth. Because, you know, we women are always trying to mold our men into some kind of ideal, and we all want to get married and have kids, whereas the men just want to be free to do whatever it is they want, which they never get to do when they’re involved in a relationship. I don’t really feel like I needed to see another movie with that kind of dynamic.
The Puffy Chair played at Sundance and when I saw it at Alamo South the theater was full—the movie sold out. It appears to be a very popular film. But then, I didn’t like Napoleon Dynamite either, so what do I know about popular trendy film festival hits?
I still need to talk about Tell Them Who You Are, which I saw at Arbor. Will do later.
Oh! I absolutely loved Tell Them Who You Are when I saw it in Toronto — I’m so glad to hear it’s playing other festivals now, too. Please do write about it later, I’m very curious about what you thought of it.
I posted my thoughts on Tell Them Who You Are in the next entry. Stacey, I think next year you need to come down here and watch these movies with me.
I think so too, Jette. I’ve sort of vaguely heard of SXSW, but I didn’t quite realize how much cool film stuff it involved until these you wrote these entries. Probably just as well — there’s no way I could have swung the TIFF, Sundance, and SXSW all within seven months. But now that I know, maybe I will have to see if I can find a way to get there next year since there will be no Sundance.
Off to read what you thought of Tell Them Who You Are. And probably babble at you in those comments, too.
Jette – I was an IA registrant, and as such couldn’t see Stagedoor – but as an alumni of Stagedoor Manor (’84-’91), I’m glad you enjoyed it, and that you felt it delivered a good overall look at camp life.
The reason for the lack of mocking towards the kids in the film is likely due to the fact that the director is the wife of a Stagedoor alumnus, and as such, probably approached the project differently than an “outsider” would.
And why would there be mocking toward the kids? They are all very talented and wonderful children.