I must begin this week with a correction from last issue: the splendid, chic Skyview Lounge is located on the top floor of the Lafayette Plaza Hotel, not the Riverview. I sincerely regret the error, which is in direct conflict with my goal of getting people to go there.
And hopefully many went to the lovely Skyview atop the Lafayette Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, April 24 at 5:30, and networked with members of the Mobile Film Group. There wasn’t a film shown at that one, but on April 26th, two films by “nomad filmmaker” Bill Daniel will be shown at Satori on Old Shell Road.
Daniel will show “Selective Service System Story,” his video about a film by Warren Haack and Dan Lovejoy (1999, 7 minutes, digital video) and “Last Free Ride,” the lost San Francisco hippie houseboat movie by Saul Rouda and Roy
Nolan (1974, 90 minutes, 16mm to digital video).
“Selective Service System Story” introduces viewers to a young film student at San Francisco State College who devised a scenario for a short documentary film that would simultaneously make a bold, graphic statement against the Vietnam War and secure his own physical deferment from the military draft. Three decades later, Bill Daniel interviews director and subject Dan Lovejoy and cameraman Warren Haack.
Daniel describes the other film he will screen, “Last Free Ride,” as “gem of a cultural artifact” from a free-form community of house boat dwellers living on San Francisco Bay. Their homemade feature film about a fictional rock band also functions as a documentary of those times.
Since tracking down and meeting those filmmakers, Bill Daniel has been screening this time capsule of a film in conjunction with his Creative Capital sponsored project, Sunset Scavenger, a work-in-progress essay on climate change and the beginning of the post-oil era.
Visit www.billdaniel.net for more on these films and, above all, check them out on Thursday, April 26 at 8 PM at Satori Coffee House (5460 Old Shell Rd.) Admission is $5.
If that screening is not to your liking and you feel like a little drive, the documentary “BRATS: Our Journey Home” will be shown in Gulf Breeze, Florida, with Q&A with writer/director/Army Brat Donna Musil.
“Brats” are people who grow up on U.S. military bases around the world, then struggle to fit into an American lifestyle with which they have little in common. There are approximately 760,000 adult military brats living in Florida and 145,000 living in Alabama. April is “Month of the Military Child” and this documentary will give viewers a glimpse into what their lives are like, which is particularly relevant given our national situation.
Writer/Director Donna Musil comments, “We BRATS have no true hometowns and our friends are scattered to the winds. As a result, we often go through adulthood feeling lost and alone. This film is dedicated to those who have known that feeling.”
Some of the better-known Brats who participated in the film include: Kris Kristofferson, who not only narrated, but donated original songs to the production, and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf who is both a BRAT and the father of BRATS. They and others discuss the profound affect growing up “brat” has had on their lives.
For further information about the documentary, the filmmaker and to see a trailer of the film, please go to www.bratsfilm.com. Tickets are $5 for Film Society Members and seniors, $7 for non-members. Proceeds benefit the non-profit organization Brats Without Borders.
Screenings are 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm at the Gulf Breeze Cinema 4, Hwy 98, Village Live Oak Shopping Center (by Office Depot) in Gulf Breeze, FL – 850-916-9404. There will be a Q & A with the writer-director after each show.
If that’s not enough innovative, unusual, independent cinema for you for one day, then I can’t help you. With planning and a cooler of sandwiches, you could hit them all!
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
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