Ah, the final installment of the Dallas International Film Festival coverage is presented for your consideration.
Sunday, April 3 at NorthPark
The showing of “More to Live For” was not the typical festival gathering. It was half Dallas International Film Festival and half an awareness/fund raiser for the bone marrow registry. A tall young man in a cowboy hat was seated with others in the audience including another fella with a boyish face and a middle-aged woman. Over in another row was an older man, who seemed to stand out a bit among the young hip audience.
As the lights dimmed, the audience discovered the lives of three men who had nothing in common except for leukemia and the desperate search for bone marrow. They were internationally-known musician Michael Brecker, Olympian hopeful/Nigerian Seun Adebiyi and top-of-the-world entrepreneur James Chippendale of Dallas.
When the lights came up, there was a Q&A with the middle-aged woman (Brecker’s widow, Susan), the boyish-faced fellow (director Noah Hutton, the 23-year-old son of Debra Winger and Timothy Hutton), the tall young man in a cowboy hat (Seun) and Chippendale. In the audience they recognized Dallas oncologist Dr. James Fay, the older man among the hip youngsters.
It was an exchange mixed with humor (“I’ll never get another date in Dallas, Texas, after they see the film’s kaleidoscope of women” and the deathbed close-up, according to James) and sincere dedication to their mission (after each showing of the film, 100% of the audience has signed up to be swabbed for the registry).
- Susan about Noah: “I really think we have the right guy to do the documentary.”
- James: “We didn’t do it for accolades — though accolades are nice!”
- Seun on his mother, who appears in the film: “She watched her son get this cancer, only to watch him go down a hill at 80 mph. So I guess she’s doing well under the circumstances.”
Once again it proved true to form as the audience immediately left the theater to waiting tables with forms and swabs. Then it was on to Post-Op studies for a celebration of the movie and its heroes. In the crowd were cast members including Paws in the City’s Tara Harper from “Most Eligible: Dallas” with their entourage of cameras, personnel and cables.
When asked why no stories about women were included in the film, the exuberant Chippendale admitted that they tried to find a woman but it didn’t work out. He went on to admit, “I enjoy life. I was a taker (before leukemia). . . I need to enjoy it even more.
Tuesday, April 5 at Magnolia
The red carpet was located on South Alley in West Village wedged between the Magnolia and Mi Cocina. Some of the media referred to it as the Windy Tunnel as a breeze continued. The big event of the night was “OK Buckaroos,” showcasing Jerry Jeff Walker with himself in attendance.
Having gathered at 4:30-ish to wait for the walkers to do their thing, media veterans (aka “The Rug Rats”) of past DIFF red carpets compared notes on the past few days. Pegasus News’ John Meyer was proving to be the leading authority on the carpets and movies. He scored “Wild Horse, Wild Ride” highly.
Wrangler John Wildman has returned to NYC and pr/Brit Emily Hargrove has taken on the role of coordinating the press and the pressed upon. While white Escalades can be seen dropping celebs off at the Lemmon, someone spots Rob Allyn and his son Conor, who represented “Blood of Eagles.” Looking like they just left Mi Cocina in HP Village, they chatted with media and friends.
At 5:30 p.m. a fellow strolls up in a cowboy hat and newcomers wondered if he was Jerry Jeff Walker. Oldtimers reported that it wasn’t. Looked more like a version of Woodrow F. Call. It was Bob Fanucci, who claimed to be talent as well as a journalist. Nope, he didn’t have a film in DIFF, but he was putting together one. Shoot! He looked western, so he was served up to the media.
Finally at 5:50 p.m., a couple of the white Cadillacs pulled up and out came a herd of folks of all ages. In the center of the group was a older gent, who looked like he had come in from the ranch. Wearing a white cowboy hat, open blue shirt hanging over his jeans and a windbreaker, he herded his passel of folks toward Emily. A standout in this herd was a stylish brunette in a tan leather duster, white jeans and a belt highlighted with a turquoise embedded buckle. No surprises here. It was Jerry Jeff and his wife Susan, who was rumored to be the brains of the JJW operation.
As Jerry Jeff entered the red zone, nothing fazed him. Photos with the whole group; solo photos and photos with Susan. He handled it all with ease. Then he broke from the backdrop and approached the photographers to discuss the pros and cons of diffused light. Whoa! Photographers were taken back a bit. Nobody actually talked with them, let alone about their equipment. Somebody corralled Jerry Jeff back to get to the interviews. There was a schedule to be kept.
Susan said, “I haven’t seen him so talkative in years.”
“OK Buckaroos” director Patrick Tourville said jokingly that “divine intervention” led JJW to pick him to make the film. He has always loved music and admires what the Walkers did in the mid-80’s to independently market and sell Jerry Jeff — “a precursor to everything happening with independents today.”
Eventually media, guests and the Walker entourage headed to the theater. It was easy to spot JJW in the crowd until he took off his cowboy hat. Then he just melted into the audience.
After the screening, a Q&A took place where JJW and Patrick explained them that the project started out as a concert film, but evolved into a broader documentary on the singer. Other questions included —
- One person asked how Jerry Jeff got into the music business, to which he responded, “I have no idea. You have to want to do it badly enough to do it, then you do it.”
- What was his favorite moment? Marrying Susan in Luckenbach. Hondo Crouch was best man. When the preacher said to Susan on JJ’s behalf, “I give you all my worldly possessions, and you give me your soul,” Susan said, “No! I give you my soul, and I get your crap?”
- Favorite version of his “Mr. Bojangles”? Nina Simone.
- Where is the Green Frog Cafe mentioned in “Desperados Waiting for a Train“? JJW was stumped by that one but suspected that it was in the West Texas town of Monahans. He didn’t stop there. Just pulled out his cellphone, put it on speaker and called Guy Clark who wrote the song. Sounding a little bewildered by the call, Clark said he “thought” it was his hometown of Monahans.
Then the crowd adjourned to Gilley’s, where JJW got on stage for a few tunes while Susan kicked up her heels dancing.
Friday, April 8 at Union Station
The big gala with presentation of awards was no different than any of the other red carpets except
- No film was to be shown.
- There were a whole lot more people.
- Larry Hagman and Peter Fonda were the headliners in the truest sense of the word.
While not as dressy as the opening night at the Winspear, guests have gussied up for the occasion. It was soon apparent that everyone was considered top drawer requiring a forever-lineup of red carpet walkers. There were now oh-so-familiar faces from past red carpets of the week and new ones who treated the walk a bit like a midway looking at the various media types. One would have not been surprised if one of the walkers had pulled out a camera to shoot the media.
Speaking of the red carpet, it was having a bad night. The first section was giving organizers a fit. There was this buckling that refused to be straightened out despite numerous attempts to smooth it out, relocate stanchions and stomping on it. But nope! The carpet was done. Luckily, despite the high heels and heads held high, no one let the lumping trip them up.
Presenting sponsor Arthur E. Benjamin Foundation’s Arthur Benjamin and his lady Sundays Hunt took the whole exercise liked seasoned troopers. . . Greg Ingram arrived with all his tattoos, muscle shirt, sunglasses and long hair in place. His date for the evening is his daughter. . . Director Anne Buford of “Elevate” was followed by the husband/wife documentarians Greg Gricus and Alex Dawson of “Wild Horse Wild Ride”. . . New arrivals Nicole and Jackie Stewart were a bit confused on whether they were supposed to red carpet or not. Organizers quickly rectified this situation and presented them to the media.
Minutes later the “big boys” arrived almost together and rightly so. Not only had Larry “J.R. Ewing” Hagman and Peter “Captain America” Fonda flown in on the same flight (they didn’t know that they were both headed to the DIFF), but it was revealed that the twosome are in a way related. Larry is the godfather of Peter’s daughter, Bridget.
Fort Worth native son Larry, with his startling blue eyes and cowboy hat, was happily playing the J.R. role on the red carpet. On the other hand, Peter in shades and looking cooler than cool brought along an accessory of sorts — Parky DeVogelaere, his gal pal. There was no shooting Peter without her, except at one point when it was requested for solo shots of Fonda and doubles with Hagman. At that point, Parky notified the media how to spell her name because “it’s always being misspelled.” The photography crew looked a bit confused but nodded politely. They hadn’t planned on including her or her name in the photos.
In the meantime, Fonda and Hagman looked appreciative to have had this type of reunion with scores of camera phones and professional photographers recording the meeting. Someone pointed out that Peter was wearing some pretty cool alligator cowboy boots, to which he laughs, “You can’t come to Texas without boots.”
While the red carpet continued to flow, guests started to fill the main room for the dinner and awards. Peter and Larry were led to meet folks, who turned positively giddy and had friends snap their photos on their cellphones.
When Larry finally got a chance to settle to dinner, someone asked for a photo. . . not a posed one, a natural one. He opened his mouth displaying the chewed up contents of his previous serving of food.
AT 8:15 p.m. master of ceremonies Gary Cogill started things off by telling Larry Hagman, seated at a front table, to “quiet down.” Gary then recalled his waiting in line decades ago at NorthPark to see “Blade Runner” and meeting a man whom he one day wanted to become — former Dallas Morning News‘ movie critic Philip Wuntch. He pointed him out in the filled-to-capacity-crowd.
Then the lineup of speakers (DIFF President/CEO Tanya Foster, Arthur Benjamin, etc.) came to the podium and talked about the film festival.
Artistic Director James “Mr. Cool” Faust then described the room as, “Not the biggest but the prettiest audience.”
Finally, the awards were handed out to the festival’s audience favorites, including both “Elevate” and “Wild Horse, Wild Ride.”
For the student awards, Larry Hagman was called to the podium. In his typical “chairman of the board” demeanor, he told the crowd that, “You have great taste.” But he also admitted that he hadn’t heard a thing said so far because of the room’s acoustics. (Editor’s note: Depending on where you were sitting, you were either blasted or heard nothing despite 10 huge speakers placed in the room.)
Hagman continued telling the crowd, “Free meal. Actors never turn down a free meal.” Guests started shushing talkers. They wanted to hear the words of Hagman.
Like a principal handing out diplomas, he announced and presented the awards to the student contestants. He never shook anyone’s hand, just did a simple knuckle bump. The kids loved him.
When he finally ran out of script, he looked out at the audience and said, “Let me talk about Texas. It’s good to be home.” The crowd agreed — it was great to have him back.
At 8:55, Gary was back and introduced a video about Rolando Diaz’s painting a key live auction item. Immediately following the video, the painting went up for bid. With two eventually being sold for $7,000 each: one was purchased by Arthur Benjamin, who announced that he was giving his to Michael Cain and his wife Melina McKinnon. Startled by the generous gift, Michael hugged Arthur.
Then it was on with more awards and Peter’s pronouncing Target with a twist as he presented the “Tar-jay” award. Not to worry. Larry had had his fun pronouncing TXU when presenting the “TXU Energy Light Up the Red Carpet” student awards.
(Speaking of TXU, those smart folks live-streamed the red carpet and award presentation including Larry’s and Peter’s comments.)
But the biggest winner of the festival was not one of the filmmakers nor the actors who got free meals. It was the Dallas Film Society that offered a dose of glitz, a lot of films and a step closer to becoming an even greater player in the independent film world.
Pass the popcorn and dim the lights. The show has just begun.