Three Questions with
BRIT WITHEY

Brit Withey is the Program Director at the Denver Film Society. The DFS organizes numerous film festivals throughout the year, including the Denver Jewish Film Festival in August and the Denver International Film Festival in October.

How big a deal is the Starz Encore Film Center for the Society and the Denver film scene in general?

I think that's one of the most significant film-related achievements that's happened in Denver in a long time. What it will achieve when it opens in 2002 is a film center/cinematheque for Denver to show films that otherwise would never screen here in Denver. Festival fare-type films, similar to Landmark Theater-type films, although not films that we would be competing with Landmark to screen. It gives Denver the opportunity to see a lot of films that they would never see, year-round programming, as well as a home for all the Denver festivals. We'll be doing (revivals), retrospectives on specific directors and documentaries. Documentary films don't get much play in theaters. Independent work, collections of shorts, animations. Things that you wouldn't be able to see without this Film Center. It's a huge deal.

Are film shorts getting more respect lately?

It's become a much bigger deal lately, especially with online festivals happening. People are really able to get the short films that they make noticed via playing them online. It gives access to millions and millions of people to see the film outside of a festival venue. Again, that's something we could do at the Starz Encore Film Center, bring in shorts to play with all the features. It's tough when you make a short film to get it noticed by a whole lot of people outside the festival circuit. Theaters don't run short films in front of features anymore. Although there has been some talk that perhaps they could go back to [shorts] instead of commercials, but it's probably never going to happen.

What excites you about film today?

I mean there's tons of stuff. The Dogma 95 movement-- Lars von Trier and that whole segment of filmmakers that are making films without music or props, no superfluous pieces to the film. If there's something in the scene, it has to exist on the [set] and if there's music in the scene it has to be present while they're shooting the film. It comes from a record player, not a score or written material for the film to be edited later. I think that's really interesting. I'm still a huge fan of documentary film. Errol Morris, I think ... he changed documentary filmmaking, with his Interrotron, which is a system for interviewing his subjects where they're on camera, they're seeing him on the monitor as opposed to a one-on-one interview. I don't think he's ever made a bad film. I look forward to everything he does. He made Mr. Death, which was in theaters about a year ago. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, which was in theaters not too long ago. There's a guy who's obsessed with moles and someone who's a lion trainer. A film about obsession is what it was. He did a film about pet cemeteries in California. There's a film about a woman ... who invented a more "humane" device to slaughter cattle. So he always comes up with these characters and they're not characters, they're real people that are so fascinating. It's incredible.

--Andrew Wells

FLIP SIDE

Film Notes

It's never too early to look ahead to the holiday season. Okay, usually midsummer is way too early, but this year, summer's blockbusters are taking a backseat to the most highly anticipated epic adventure since The Phantom Menace turned out to be 50 percent dung: The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. It's almost done. Yep, the entire trilogy ... it was shot all at once for a budget of about $270 million in New Zealand by Peter Jackson, the director of The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures.

The first installment, Fellowship of the Ring (the films will follow the book's titles), is opening worldwide December 19, and the following two films will open December 14, 2002, and December 14, 2003. Tolkein fans, possibly the most anally compulsive fantasy fans on the planet, have been pleased for the most part by the leaks of pictures and the teaser trailer (available at www.lordoftherings.org). There was an extended preview at Cannes. Reports have it that people went nuts. Nuts, I tell you.

The cast: Elijah Wood shoulders Frodo, Cate Blanchett is heavenly as Galadriel, Ian McKellen earns his knighthood at Gandalf, Liv Tyler makes eye candy as Arwen (a role supposedly enlarged for the trilogy), and Christopher Lee (Hammer's Dracula of choice) will ham it up as Saruman. Unlike Star Wars, digital effects will only be used where deemed necessary-- for example, the hobbits will be shrunken digitally, battles will be populated with CGI additions to real live cast, and Gollum will be a CGI character (which makes a whole lot more sense than Jar Jar Binks). Other than that, good old fashioned makup and masks will do the work. One reason Jackson was chosen to direct was his ultra-violent (and ultra-cheap) special effects work in Australian cult classics Dead Alive and Bad Taste.

--Chris J. Magyar

photo by Sean Hartgrove

Local Arts

For those of you who think Denver is still a cow town, note: it is at the least a well-designed cow town. Local firms are starting to get noticed by the big boys in architecture. Case in point: Architectural Record interviewed landscape architects Mark Johnson and Ann Mullins of Civitas in May (online at archrecord.com/INTRVIEW/PROF0501.asp). The two talk about their love of the Western landscape and their distaste for red tape, both of which bode well for the design future of the region. Architectural marketing consultant Isabelle Matteson, who is based in Denver, said, "Local firms and local projects are getting published left and right." That's definitely good news-- and good design.

AR7 Hoover Desmond Architects knows how to create street presence. The firm's office at 1645 Grant St. has an enormous window which has always been beautifully appointed in the best of modern style, with a Mies Barcelona chair and table hosting fresh gladiolus. Seriously. It was someone's job to replace the flowers each week. The window offers a stunning tableau to passersby and many have stopped in out of curiosity. But, the wall behind was maybe a little too big and blank. Well, no longer. Works by local artist Mark Brasuell, chosen by AR7's Don Winderski (an inveterate art collector), are on display-- and selling quite well. So will AR7 add art consulting to their list of services? Said managing principal Gary Desmond, "No. Though it's really a win-win situation. We get some great art on our walls and Mark gets some nice visibility and sells some work." This type of relationship works for lots of other artists. Look for coverage of other "nontraditional" gallery spaces in future columns.

So it's not the Louvre, but RTD in Denver is requesting proposals for artwork for one of its bus transfer centers. Work must be "highly visible" and, of course, durable. Think of how many grimy hands will touch the darn thing. RTD also cautions the art cannot be "sharp or in any way a danger to our customers." I'm assuming they refer here to physical danger. Don't get me started on other possibilities. For more information, check out their listing on ArtistsRegister.com, under "artists resources/opportunities." Deadline is July 15.

--Kimberly Graham