After a successful first year, the team behind the One Take
Film Festival has no intention of falling prey to the sophomore slump. They’ve
added new venues and partnerships to turn the celebration of documentary
filmmaking into four packed days of great movies, music, cocktails, and
conversation.
Held this
Thursday through Sunday (April 19-22), the festival is an extension of the
fantastic year-round One Take Documentary film series, and just like that
series, it’s dedicated to bringing the best nonfiction films to local
audiences. Programmers Linda Moroney and Bri Merkel have spent the past year searching for the kind
of thought-provoking documentary films One Take has become known for. And the
duo are excited to bring those films to Rochester, cultivating an exciting
atmosphere for film lovers eager to broaden their horizons.
While the
festival maintains a regular home at the Little Theatre, this year adds the
Dryden Theatre to the fold, screening the highly-acclaimed “Ex Libris,” from iconic director Frederick Wiseman. The
festival will also see the return of the well-received VR Garden, offering a
chance for attendees to strap on goggles and view immersive nonfiction films in
virtual space. There’s also the One Take Film Festival House Band, Guy Higgins
and Friends, playing unique pre-film sets of themed music to set the mood.
Attendees
can stick around after the evening screenings to chat about the movies and sip specialty
cocktails, courtesy of festival’s brand-new partnership with the Rochester
Cocktail Revival, which will bring DJs and guest bartenders
right to the Little Cafe.
“We worked
really hard on curating a festival that allows you to see some great films, but
also have fun,” Moroney says. “There’s music and
fancy cocktails, but you’re also learning, growing, and expanding your
worldview.”
This year’s
lineup will present a collection of films with much to say about America at
this particular moment, and also how the issues currently facing our nation
reflect and connect us with the rest of the world. Many of the films reinforce
the festival’s commitment to building a sense of community and finding local
connections whenever possible.
“There were
so many great conversations happening before and after our films last year,”
Merkel says. “That element of community is really strong in our festival, and I
really hope that people will come and give these films a try because you’ll be
seeing stories that we can all relate to. And the discussion doesn’t end when
the credits roll.”
One Take will also host a program of short films from
Western New York filmmakers on Saturday, April 21, at 10:30 a.m. The festival
lineup also includes the anticipated “RBG,” about the life of Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as art doc “Boom For Real: The Late Teenage
Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat.”
A
taste of the festival’s offerings follows. For more information and a full
schedule of festival events visit otff.org
Back in 2016, Irish filmmakers John Murphy and Traolach Ó Murchú spent six
months in Rochester interviewing a few of our city’s many photographers — from
hobbyists to professionals — about their personal relationship to their chosen
medium. The resulting film, “Photo City” offers a fascinating look at Rochester’s history as “the image capital of the
world” and what that legacy looks like today. Talking with former Kodak
employees, historians at the Eastman Museum, and artists (including CITY’s own
Frank de Blase) reveals a city with a rich history,
an intense love, and a deep need for the visual art form. Both showings will
also feature a post-screening Q&A with directors John Murphy and Traolach Ó Murchú. (Thursday,
April 19, 6:30 p.m. with an encore screening on Saturday, April 21, 1:15 p.m.)
The vital “12th and Clairmount” powerfully chronicles the Detroit
riots of July 1967. Director and Editor Brian Kaufman lends his journalistic
eye, foregoing traditional talking heads to weave a complex narrative
exclusively through archival footage, illustration, and voiceovers that meld contemporary
interviews, oral histories, radio broadcasts, and dispatch recordings, giving
necessary context to a revolution. It’s a sobering, maddening, and sadly still
timely tale. It’s also one with many similarities to the upheaval Rochester
experienced during the summer of 1964. A conversation with Kaufman will follow
the screening. (Friday, April 20, 6:30 p.m.)
Eugene Jarecki’s sprawling “The King” starts off as an entertaining cross-country
road trip touring major locations in the life of Elvis Presley, from the
backseat of a 1963 Rolls Royce owned by the singer. But as it goes on, the
subject of the film continues to expand until it’s about nothing less than the
mythology of America itself.
Presley has come to mean many different things to many
different people — not all of them necessarily positive — and as Jarecki parallels the rise and decline of Elvis with the
rise and fall of America, he touches on ideas of cultural appropriation and race,
the political career of Donald Trump, and the fallacies of the American Dream,
to question how we became a country seemingly in freefall. He even finds time
to include several music performances along the way (all performed in the
backseat of the Rolls Royce!). And if the film sometimes reaches too far and
tries to cover too much ground, that feels oddly appropriate. (Friday, April
20, 9:15 p.m.)
“Becoming Who I Was” tells the
emotional story of Padma Angdu, a young Indian boy
believed to be a “Rinpoche,” the reincarnation of a high-ranking Tibetan
spiritual master. Over the span of several years, directors Moon Chang-Yong and
Jeon Jin document Padma’s sweet relationship with UrgyanRickzen, the older man who
is his tutor and doting caregiver. But when the boy’s expelled from the
monastery while waiting for members his former community to come and claim him,
Urgyan decides to take Padma on the long journey to
return him to Tibet. Bring tissues for this one. (Saturday, April 21, 4 p.m.)
Director Bing Liu spent years and years shooting the subjects
of “Minding the Gap” before he ever knew
he was going to make a film. Liu trains his camera on himself as well as his
two closest friends growing up in the Rust Belt town of Rockford, Illinois. We
see the group spend their time hanging out and skateboarding, and there’s a
sense that it’s not just a way to pass the time, but a necessity for each of
them to cope and survive their troubled home lives.
As the teens transition to adulthood, the film takes the form
of a coming-of-age story, but evolves into a heartrending study of the cycles
of abuse. Liu’s close relationship to his subjects lends the film a natural
intimacy, allowing us to see these young men face down whatever life has in
store for them. A Skype Q&A with Liu will follow the screening. (Saturday,
April 21, 9:30 p.m.)
In “Ex Libris: The New York
Public Library” master documentarian Frederick Wiseman gives
audiences an inside look at what it takes to keep an American institution
running. Nothing if not thorough, Wiseman examines every facet of the New York
Public Library system and its 92 branches throughout the city. From
administrative meetings to book clubs and community meetings, Wiseman trains
his camera on employees, patrons, scholars and the people who depend on
libraries every day. Scene by scene, he builds a case for these building as the
very lifeblood to an educated society. (Sunday, April 22, 2 p.m. Dryden
Theatre)
“Unfractured” follows biologist and environmentalist Sandra Steingraber
in her determined efforts to get fracking banned in New York State. It’s a
battle that takes her from Albany all the way to Romania, but along the way she
sometimes struggles to balance her life of activism with being there for her
children and husband, who we see hospitalized at Strong Memorial after he
suffered a series of strokes. Despite the obstacles, the film becomes an
inspiring story about the too often unsung activists around us who are fighting
every day to make a difference. Both director Chanda Chevannes
and Sandra Steingraber will be in attendance for the
screening. (Sunday, April 22, 6:30 p.m.)
This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2018.
