Heartland Film Festival 2019
Where in the world is Heartland?, my readers might ask, as I am usually reporting in from the far corners of the world. Most recently El Gouna, Egypt and soon (in January) Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Heartland Film Festival is in Indianapolis, Indiana. As its name suggests, it is in the heartland of the United States of America. Now considerably disunited between “red” and “blue” states, the USA needs to regain its heart, and Heartland Film Festival is truly a festival of the heart, with films that touch the heart, people who are truly committed and enjoying offering films that “inspire and uplift, educate and inform, or shift audiences’ perspectives on the world”.
This state is decidedly (or perhaps not so decidedly) “red” as it is the state formerly governed by the U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence himself. Its apparent prosperity may well be the result of its favored status.
Indiana does have “purple pockets”, I was told by my airport-to-hotel-driver, an intern from Purdue University, an Indiana native daughter. After all, Pete Buttigieg has been Mayor of South Bend, Indiana since 2012 and is running for Democratic President. And Mike Pence might not have won re-election had he tried to run again.
Indianapolis itself, a thriving metropolis with a population of 2,411,086, has become more racially diverse since 1970 when it was 81.6% White. Today it is 61.8% White, 28% Black or African American, 9.9% Hispanic or Latino (of any race, the census adds), and 2.8% Asian. That “off-white” group, Jewish, has about 28,000 people. I am not sure what its immigrant status is. Understandably the population shifts complicate matters for the majority rule and has divided city-dwellers of diverse backgrounds from the more conservative homogenous farmers who raise corn and soybeans.
Known as “Crossroads of America”, it also is home to three Fortune 500 companies, the health insurance company Anthem Inc.; pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and Simon Property Group, the largest real estate investment trust in the U.S.
It is a beautiful city, annually hosting the world’s largest single-day sporting event, the Indie 500 and with a robust philanthropic community supporting several cultural assets, including the world’s largest children’s museum, one of the nation’s largest privately funded zoos, historic buildings and sites, and public art. The city is home to the largest collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war casualties in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C.
Why does this matter to me when I am here to cover a film festival?
Going to Egypt and Bangladesh is exotic; going to an American city is prosaic. Only I felt the same trepidation going into a middle American city as I felt going to those places…and as in “those places”, I was quickly put at ease because, in fact, people are people. We all want the same peaceful, family- and friend-centered, healthy, economically and politically stable environments. So here, I was put at ease, learning the facts and meeting the people of the city on a one-to-one basis just as I was in Egypt, Bangladesh and yes, even Iran!
The world of international film is one of idealism and that is a large reason for many people choosing it as their field of work. I am lucky that it has sustained me so that I am able to take hours to write my observations. In Egypt, as in Bangladesh and Iran, I was surprised, in spite of myself and my so-called open-mindedness, by the open sharing of controversial and even seemingly taboo subjects through cinema. I expect an American film festival to be equally open. We in the U.S. are unfettered by censorship, so what’s the issue here? We are so encumbered by political correctness that we often do not address issues head-on. Moreover, there are taboo subjects we are loathe to discuss openly and they include race and disabilities. At Heartland, these are given plenty of coverage. But it is not a “cause-centered” festival.
Heartland has a healthy dose of American indie cinema and international cinema, much of which I have been lucky to have seen in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Egypt. And there are also the surprising films, both fiction and docs that we had no idea existed or no plan to see.
Heartland has now become the first place in the U.S. to begin to see some of the 93 international feature Oscar 2020 contenders in one venue. I have been lucky to have seen several already in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Egypt, like Adam, Dear Son, Honeyland, Pain and Glory, Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Midnight Traveler, For Sama. (You can click on each title to see what I have written about these films)
Its prominent programming of international cinema is in part because the fest’s president, Craig Prater began his international film festival career as executive director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival under its founder, Mayor Sonny Bono. The greatness of Palm Springs IFF is that you can see many of the 93 contenders there. But since the Academy has changed its dates, those five features which receive the nomination now are already known, so the guesswork in choosing your own favored films is diminished. Heartland offers the chance to see at least 20 of the contenders and to begin to place your bets. My bets so far include Parasite, Pain and Glory and Honeyland, which are here, and Les Miserables, which regrettably is not here.
Parenthetically, Prater also co-founded the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (U.S.’s largest short film festival) and the Film Noir Festival. He was then recruited by the Royal Thai government to lead their new Bangkok International Film Festival as executive director. He has also served as the director/producer of the Latino Film Festivals for the National Hispanic American Educational Foundation in Indio, California and Tampa, Florida and has served as executive VP, strategic partnerships for the San Diego International Film Festival and director of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
What surprised me most about Heartland, aside from its friendliness and the chance to meet everyone informally with time to spare to talk, is that many of its excellent films are not “mainstream” but were found in largely unexplored places and deal with important social issues. Programming by Greg Sorvig and of the international films by Hannah Fischer and the others on staff who see films is exceptional.
Take Woman in Motion which is about Michelle Nichols, the African American star of Star Trek who took it upon herself to diversify the NASA astronauts. In 1977, with just four months left, NASA was struggling to recruit scientists, engineers and astronauts for their new Space Shuttle Program. That is when Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, challenged them by asking the question: Where are my people?. She embarked on a national blitz, recruiting 8,000 of the nation’s best and brightest, including the trailblazing astronauts who became the first African American, Asian and Latino men and women to fly in space. While the international sales agent, and perhaps the U.S. distributor is the professionally well-known if low-profile Submarine pictures, this film only screened at the Cannes Film Festival’s market (one among some 1,000 other films screened there) and it showed at opening night of the Florida Film Festival. Here it is one of the main buzz films in the Documentary Feature Official Selection of 66 films.
Of the eight films I saw at Heartland, each of which was exceptionally interesting, my personal prize, surprisingly to me, would go to Colewell directed by Tom Quinn and starring Karen Allen, the sort of a film that used to show in the early days of Sundance — a regional, introspective character driven film — and second prize would go to The Translator/ Un Traductor, Cuba’s entry for Best International Feature Oscar Nomination, based on the true story of the father of the director-brothers Rodrigo Barriuso and Sebastián Barriuso in which a Russian Literature professor at the University of Havana is ordered to work as a translator for child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster when they are sent to Cuba for medical treatment.
Other films I was able to see and plan to write more about were
American Tragedy, a surprisingly constructive account of the 1999 Columbine Massacre as told by Sue Klebold, the mother of of the murderer Dylan Klebold as she attempts to reconcile how the son she thought she knew, the son she loved could willingly be a school shooter. “If love could have stopped Columbine,” she says, “Columbine would never have happened.” If love cannot save us, what solutions might save us from more and more such mass murders? This is discussed in depth.
Boza! follows the lives of three young sub-Saharan African immigrants in search of a better life in Spain. Latter Day Jew is an odd piece by H. Alan Scott, a gay standup comedian, cancer survivor and former Mormon as he prepares for his Bar Mitzvah.
My Home India, another untold story about India’s welcoming Polish refugees after World War II and their lives in India today. The director, Anjali Bhushan, is considering turning this 44 minute documentary into a feature. She cowrote the doc with Malgorzata Czausow, a retired Polish Consul staff, who gathered together previously unseen materials. The rare collection of archives (and family photo albums) combine with some of the first-hand testimonies of survivors. Kira Banasinska, the heroine of the documentary, was the delegate for Red Cross in India and wife of the Polish Consul General Eugeniusz Banasinska. Kira was instrumental in enlisting the charitable maharaja of Kohlapur to donate land at Valivade and construct barracks to house the refugees (between 1943 and 1948). Kira died at the ripe old age of 102 (1899–2002) in Hyderabad and throughout her life, she played an important role in pioneering Montessori education as well. Read a more complete account of the film here.
Two nostalgia pieces were The Apollo, the uplifting history of Harlem’s most well-known performance space and Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace,a sequel of sorts to Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie, both directed by April Wright whose father owned a theater.
Two fiction features I saw were from Germany (Balloon), a fascinating family drama based on a true story of a family escaping East Berlin in a hot air balloon, which was made because the family was so disappointed with the inauthenticity of Disney version, and Queen of Hearts,Denmark’s submission for Best International Feature Oscar Nomination, a frightening tale of transgressive sex by a woman attorney. These are all worth seeing and not to be found at every festival.
I missed so many that I wanted to see in my limited time here, like The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs, an Indiana native son who was a founding member of America’s Socialist Party and a five-time candidate for U.S. President. As a fierce advocate for workers’ rights and social change, his oratory tested America’s tolerance for free speech and landed him in prison. But even from prison, he campaigned for the presidency.
Or Syndrome K, the story of three courageous Roman Catholic doctors that made up a deadly and fake disease to same Roman Jews from deportation at the hands of the Nazis, or We Shall Not Die Now about the Shoah all Indiana-made films. There were so many others, like Zulu Summer, about a suspicious email from an African prince that is received by a radio DJ in small town Montana which leads to an international alliance that changes the lives of people continents apart.
House of Champions comes from New Zealand and is about three housemates who begin a rigorous training for the upcoming Special Olympics. This doc, needing special distribution, is a perfect candidate for exploring new avenues of distribution by someone like Peter Broderick who really should give a special panel discussion next year for these filmmakers with such special subjects.
Jump Shot: The Kenny Sailors Story uncovers the true story of Kenny Sailors, the developer of the modern-day jump shot in basketball and how he defined the game, though he was never credited. Repped by Endeavor, this has only screened at the Chicago International Film Festival before coming here.
The festival is also one of the few FIPRESCI connected festivals in the U.S. and it is on target for the international film festival initiative called 50/50 by 2020 in which 50% of its program will be films by directed by women by 2020.
There are many other special sections and presentations aside from the Documentary and Narrative Official Selections. Anniversary Films of classics included Some Like it Hot on its 60th anniversary, Bachelor Mother (80th anniversary), The Wizard of Oz (80th), Midnight Cowboy (50th) and five others. And many special presentations including Easterseals Disability Film Challenge in its sixth year of giving filmmakers- with and without disabilities — the opportunity to collaborate and tell unique stories showcasing disability in its many forms. 13 finalists of shorts screened in an afternoon screening.
The $60,000 in cash prizes awarded at the 28th Heartland International Film Festival Annual Awards Brunch October 19 were:
- $15,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature — House of Hummingbird, directed by Bora Kim about Seoul 1994, in the year the Seongsu Bridge collapsed, in which 14-year-old Eunhee wanders the city searching for love.
- $15,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature and $2,000 Richard D. Propes Social Impact Award Documentary Feature — For Sama, directed by Edward Watts and Waad al-Kateab who shoots beautiful letter to her daughter about why she, her husband and Sama stayed in Syrian until they were forced to leave.
- $5,000 Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award — Fire on the Hill, directed by Brett Fallentine. A documentary about the horseriding community in South Central LA with three of the film’s subjects attending the ceremony, one of the subjects, Ghuan Featherstone, said, “This film is about perceptions and changing those perceptions. Here we are in the Midwest and our lives relate to you.”
- $2,000 Richard D. Propes Social Impact Award Narrative Feature — The Garden Left Behind, directed by Flavio Alves
- $2,000 Indiana Spotlight Award — The Miseducation of Bindu, directed by Prarthana Mohan
- $1,000 Humor and Humanity Award — Standing Up, Falling Down, directed by Matt Ratner
- $2,000 Best Premiere Award Documentary — Barefoot: The Mark Baumer Story, directed by Julie Sokolow
- $2,000 Best Premiere Award Narrative — System Crasher, directed by Nora Fingscheidt
- $2,000 Best International Film Oscar Contender — Pain and Glory, directed by Pedro Almodovar
- $1,000 Audience Choice Award — Narrative Feature — Feast of the Seven Fishes, directed by Robert Tinnell
- $1,000 Audience Choice Award — Documentary Feature — Jump Shot, directed by Jacob Hamilton
- $1,000 Audience Choice Award — Indiana Spotlight — We Shall Not Die Now, directed by Ashton Gleckman
- Matt Ratner was the festival’s other two-time winner, as his film, Standing Up, Falling Down received the festival’s Humor and Humanity Award and $1,000, and he received the FIPRESCI nod for Best Directorial Debut for USA Narrative Film. As he accepted his second award, Ratner, said, “Places like Heartland are so meaningful. There is a space in a crowded marketplace for films about people struggling with their humanity.”
“From South Central LA cowboys to South Korea, our award winners truly demonstrated the international scope of Heartland,” said Craig Prater, Heartland Film President, following the awards presentation.
“This was a banner year for us programming-wise, as we were able to screen so many of our top choices from the film festival circuit, films that are in major consideration for the Oscars® and top critics awards right now,” Greg Sorvig, Heartland Film Artistic Director, added. “Audiences are filling our theaters because they have realized that the Heartland International Film Festival is quickly becoming a true awards tastemaker film festival. With that combined enthusiasm we enjoyed from both our film fans and our filmmakers, it’s great to then cap it by rewarding the wonderful films and filmmakers that won this year. They really deserved it.”
