By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Consider the threshold crossed.

While certainly nothing on the scale of Cannes or the once-important-but-now-shameless Sundance, the first Gulf ArtSpace Film Festival has forged important headway for the Mobile area cultural scene. The day-long event promises to build on an art form that, to date, has served more as mere entertainment in our area.

Two four-hour sessions went off with nary a hitch at the Fairhope arthouse. Gulf Executive Director Wendy Robertson, diligently manning a concession table when Artifice bumped into her prior to the start of the night’s proceedings, estimated an afternoon crowd of nearly 40 attendees. “This afternoon was great, good attendance,” she enthusiastically recounted. “We had a good mixture of kids and adults. We’re pretty pleased with it so far. It’s a lot to build on.”

The brilliant April weather worked against them in Robertson’s estimation. “It’s hard to grab people when you’re competing with a day like this. People are going to weddings, parties, the beach.” While her viewpoint was understood, it added up to an odd collection of diversions in my estimation. Someone prone to choose a day in the salt and sand over an artistic experience seems unlikely to attend the festival anyway.

Robertson was hopeful the evening crowd would pick up to match the daytime headcount, but it never even rivaled it. When the slate of films kicked off in the second floor gallery, only about 20 folks filled the eclectic assembly of chairs and couches.

The assortment of works varied in theme and quality. Some pieces hit home, some missed their mark. However, what was to be applauded was the endeavor itself, not only of the filmmakers but the volunteers and attendees.

Denizens of the Mobile cultural scene, from a variety of disciplines, pitched in to bring the affair some valuable manpower, some going so far as to donate furniture to the cause. The salon-style arrangement paid off by bringing Gulf’s customary casualness to the fore.

Gulf Chairman Dr. Lynn Yonge was hopeful about the experience.

“There’s things we need to do a little differently,” he said during the intermission, “and we’ll learn from all of this, but overall, I think it’s been great. The reaction has been really good.” He noted the truncated timeframe within which the event was executed. “Six weeks is no time at all to put one of these things together,” Yonge said. “Next year, we’ll start a lot earlier.”

Gulf would like to get an even wider representation of local talent in the roster.

Alex Harrison, a nascent local filmmaker and central force behind the event, was just as hopeful. Appropriately, I bumped into Harrison sitting in a sidewalk café with other writers and auteurs in a moment that seemed torn from a travel guide for a bigger, more adventurous town. Alex not only had a few entrants in the festival, but also lent technical expertise and assembled the introductory short film. He, too, feels the future is bright for the festival.

The only disappointing trait of the event was the lack of attendance by familiar faces. While I didn’t get a handle on just exactly who was there in the afternoon, the evening was unusually bereft of the local avant-garde who normally clamor for any event at Gulf, including some fairly auspicious Gulf members, curators, and artists. I have little doubt they will be in abundance at the premiere of new artists being held on Friday, April 28 so one has to wonder if the area’s dominant perspective of film as little more than pop entertainment haunts the artistic realm as well. Surely the allure of springtime lawn parties in tony neighborhoods would hold little sway over the brave souls who have made Gulf what it is to date.

After all, we’re talking about folks who believe in the power of art, people not unlike damali ayo. Ayo, an Oregon conceptual artist (she prefers her name in the lower case) who generated the deliciously rich satirical Web site rent-a-negro.com, coined a phrase that festoons her site and is available on everything from journals to coffee mugs to apparel. It’s a slogan I haven’t been able to get out of my head and one every artist of every genre should wear emblazoned across their very lives.

“Art should make you think and feel. It doesn’t have to match your couch.”

With Gulf’s first film foray in the books, and ground finally being broken on the independent cinema near downtown’s Bienville Square, perhaps Mobile’s art realm is ready to embrace different mediums, to “think and feel” more than ever before.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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