1991 Theme: Movie Made America
Friday Night Event: Paint Me Now with Peter Max.
This event turned out to be the hippest multi-media experience to explode into the night of that year's festival. Films flickering on the wall, bonko dance music, and at the stroke of midnight, five people were chosen at random to change into Festival T-shirts and became human canvasses for Peter Max!
Premiere: High Lonesome, the Story of Bluegrass Music. Director Rachel Liebling introduced and commented on the film after the screening.
Regional Premiere: Writer/Director Michael Tolkin came to answer questions after the screening of The Rapture.
Work-in-Progress: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, co-producers/directors/editors of Brother's Keeper, provided Festival audiences with a glimpse into the heart of a filmmaker's creative process. After an introduction that described their background and their initial attraction to the subject, they screened a 25-minute sample of their work-in-progress.
An evening with...: Samuel Z. Arkoff was present to introduce the screening of the classic horror/comedy, The Raven.
Open Discussions:
- Interpreting the images
The film critics, Sheila Benson, Duane Byrge, Richard Schickel and Bruce Williamson discussed their role as interpreters and translators of the cinematic art for the public. How do they approach a new film? When do they chose to view a film more than once? How does writing with the constraints of a particular publication influence their work? What is their relationship to the film industry? How do they remain objective? Is objectivity desirable? All were questions to which they provided their personal answers. Bernard Mayes, moderator.
- Titicut Follies, American Film and the First Amendment
Following the screening of Titicut Follies, the only film ever restricted from public screenings by a U.S. court for reasons other than national security or obscenity, panelists Lillian R. BeVier, Robert M.O'Neil, Richard Schickel considered First Amendment rights, rights of privacy, and issues of consent. William Korte, moderator.
- Oscar Micheaux, Rediscovering an American Legend
Jean Firstenberg (Director of the American Film Institute) and Jane Gaines (scholarly authority on Oscar Micheaux and on black silent film), J.R.Green, Oliver W.Hill, discussed Micheaux's life, his career, his influence on today's African-American filmmakers, and the importance of the preservation of his films after the screening of Micheaux's Birthright.
Classic films featured: