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Inside the Mind of a Jury Member (Silverdocs 2009)

Published on August 18, 2009

by Angela Tucker

Jurors: Ingrid Kopp, Angela Tucker & Bryan Stamp

When Sky Sitney asked me to be on the jury for Silverdocs, I was excited. I have always held film festival juries in high esteem and could not believe that I was at a place in my career to actually be on one. It was humbling. Luckily, I was not feted with this task alone. My co-jurors were Ingrid Kopp from Shooting People and Bryan Stamp, formerly from Participant Media. Together we had the goal of watching 37 short films and choosing the best short film in the festival.

But how do you define “the best”? This question came up at our jury dinner—one of many free meals provided by Jackie’s Restaurant – Sky, the Artistic Director of the festival, laid out our mandate. Silverdocs had already made its curatorial statement by choosing the 37 shorts for the festival. It was our job to pick what we thought was “the best” of these 37. “The best” was a criteria that we set for ourselves. These criteria could stem entirely from your taste or aesthetic. There was a freedom allowed here that was liberating and daunting all at the same time.

Over a week in a really air conditioned (read: cold) theater, we screened some films with just the jury members and some films with audiences at their festival screenings. I never went to Q&As because it seemed unfair to go to Q&As for some films and not for others. No one told me this but it felt like the right thing to do. Plus, a bad Q&A can taint an entire film for me. I become so focused on the innocuous exchanges that tend to occur that I forget the gut emotion I experienced immediately after the film.

The first few days, my approach to the viewing process was fairly casual. I started to take notes but felt confident that the best film would rise to the top. The stakes felt pretty low until I had an innocent conversation with Ingrid about what awards at film festivals really mean. We both agreed that they were important but she reiterated something I had forgotten. For feature length films, awards at festivals can be instrumental in getting a broadcast or a distributor. Yes, the landscape is a bit different for shorts. With all of the online options for shorts, a good short film can find a great showcase somewhere. Still, an award at a major festival can bring important attention to any film that wins it. Not to mention, a much needed vote of confidence. This raised the stakes but in an important way. I continued to watch films with the notion that an incredible film would move me to recognize it but I had a better understanding of how significant our roles were.

There were many incredible films and I can honestly say there was not a single film that I wondered, “How did that film get into the festival?” That was the good news. The bad news was that simple fact made choosing the winners difficult.

Ultimately, all the jurors were in agreement about our two winners. Because the films were all great, we were in the fortunate position of not having to acknowledge a film out of obligation. For myself, the films we chose were films I was in awe of for different reasons.

Still from 12 Notes Down

Our selection for best film, 12 Notes Down, directed by Andreas Koefoed is about a star performer of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, 14-year-old Jorgis leads his peers with charming confidence and lifts the entire choir’s spirit with his generous smile. When his voice suddenly begins to change, Jorgis must decide when and how to make an unexpected yet graceful exit. In words that we wrote together, “the film is a beautifully realized coming of age portrait that captures the complexity of adolescence and the transformative power of music. The filmmaker created a tender, moving and assured film that is both skillfully crafted and emotionally resonant.”

Because there were many shorts to judge, we decided to give an honorable mention. It was Salt, directed by Michael Angus and Murray Fredericks, a visually stunning chronicle of photographer Murray Fredericks’ journey into the remote salt flats in South Australia. Through the painstakingly deliberate process of capturing his surroundings, Fredericks transforms the way one sees the seemingly desolate landscape while discovering the limits of his own capacity for solitude. We chose it “for its unique cinematic beauty and insight into a photographer’s creative process as he wrestles with landscape and solitude.”

Before we finalized our decisions, I was faced with a few concerns that I had to address. None of the films in our top tier were underdogs. (By an underdog, I mean a film that was new to the festival circuit or has never won an award.) In fact, they had all won awards at other festivals. Also as much as I loved these two films, I really wanted to honor a social issue film. Silverdocs does not have a social issue mandate but it was something I had hoped to do. This reaction surprised me. That seems ironic to say working at a place like Arts Engine but I always saw myself as someone who happens to like films that have social issue content rather than looking for it explicitly.

In the end, I had to go with my gut (and the other jurors) and choose films that gave that sense of awe I referenced earlier. There was a film that I loved that we did not award an honorable mention. As jury members, our choices are reflections of all of us and since we unanimously agreed on our winner and honorable mention and did not unanimously agree on any additional honorable mention, there seemed no need to push it. Still I sometimes feel a bit of remorse for not pushing for it. It was an important film.

Upon my return from Silverdocs, our office debated what makes a film a “social issue film”. From my years at Arts Engine, I have equated that idea with a film that makes you take action around something. But there are some people who believe the sheer act of telling a story about the human experience that comes from a truthful place is a social issue film because that story is so rarely told. (Enrico Cullen talks about this in depth in his wrap up from Silverdocs.)
Overall, this experience made me think about what I wish this industry had more of. I wanted to honor more artful, moving films with take action components and I wanted to honor more films by filmmakers of color—This industry still has a long way to go in terms of diversity – but in the end, you have to pick the film that moves you the most.

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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