What is Storytelling

George Lucas quoted in a Wall Street Journal interview on 6-18-2007:

"There are two forms of entertaining. Circus is random. And voyeuristic. It's basically what you see on YouTube now. I call it feeding Christians to the lions. The movie term is throwing puppies on a freeway. It's very easy. You sit there and watch and see what happens. You don't have to write anything, you don't have to do anything, you just sort of watch it happen, and it's interesting.

Then you get to art. Art is where a person contrives the situation and tells a story, and hopefully that story reveals the truth behind the facts. Storytelling is trying to come up with an idea that is insightful in terms of giving you a different insight into how things work, or is amusing."

A Heartland Truly Moving Picture is always art.

Why Inspirational Truly Moving Pictures matter

From the Wall Street Journal - 6-12-2007 - "A Cultural Conversation with Micheal Flaherty ... His Movie Company [Walden Media] is Far From Hollywood in Many Ways"

And I am quoting...
"But as a young adult [Micheal Flaherty] , he found himself working on Massachusetts education reform during the week and tutoring disadvantaged kids in Boston on Saturday mornings. When he could ask the children what they did the previous evening, it was always the same thing - watching TV or movies. But when Titanic came out in 1997, Mr. Flaherty recalls, they started telling him about going to museums to see exhibits about the famous sinking. they even took books out of the library on ship-building. 'I saw a big idea here.' "

Becoming Jane

I saw this film on March 28th, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

The “Jane” is Jane Austen and this is a fictional depiction of her young adult life before her novel writing career. I suppose half of the tale is based on fact such as she rejected a marriage proposal, and half the tale is made up to create engaging story-telling. But that’s not important.

The essence of the story is the mores of proper English society around 1800. Woman had their place. And that place was to give oneself to an arranged marriage and become a dutiful wife and mother. It was even more important to be in these roles if you were a daughter of a minister of modest means who had lots of children to care for. Jane was one of those children.

But Jane has spunk and smarts and a stubbornness to live her own life as she sees fit. Anne Hathaway plays young Jane convincingly and Anne’s good looks are played down as much as possible. It’s Jane’s inner self that makes her attractive and not her exterior appearance.

And she is so attractive that she has three suitors; the rich and dull one, the poor and roguish one, and a secret and nefarious one. This circumstance allows us to see England from the various social strata, which is fun and informative.

Jane, 200 years ahead of her time, shows beauty and grace and charm and spirit, and will not buckle to her day’s lot in life. We should all have such courage “… to follow our bliss” knowing we have but one life to live.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Gracie

I saw this film on May 9th, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This is a story of a loving, close-knit family in the 1970s. The father is obsessed with his love of soccer and for his children, which include two grade school sons, his high school son and soccer star, and high school daughter, Gracie. All of his children share his passion for the game. A tragedy occurs and the high school daughter is determined to play with the high school boys’ soccer team.

This is before title IX and the road to her joining the team is virtually impossible. Everyone is against her; that is, the male soccer-team players, the male soccer-team coaches, and her father. And everything is against her. Girls aren’t allowed to use the weightlifting room at school and the Board of Education is worried about her safety.

First she gives up and behaves badly. Then her love for the game and competition takes over. The only questions that remain are whether she will be given a chance, and whether given a chance, she is tough enough and good enough.

Gracie eventually becomes a role model for young people and especially for girls. She displays courage and spirit and even heroism, and she never gives up hope in trying to reach her goals.

Gracie’s parents are very compelling. Dermot Mulroney and Elizabeth Shue show being good parents is not about money. It is about being good role models and instilling positive values in their children.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Meet the Robinsons

I saw this film on March 12th, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Lewis is the ultimate nerd in this Disney Digital 3-D animation. His life started out sadly as a baby left on the door of an orphanage. As a 12 year-old at the orphanage, he is smart beyond his years. He is a consummate tinkerer, inventor, and scrounger of parts. His goal is ultimately to make a time machine so he can go back in time to find his real parents.

His plans almost come to fruition at a science fair, but an evil presence interrupts his plan. A mysterious 13 year-old boy, Wilbur Robinson, then intervenes and takes him to the future with a Dream Memory Machine. The plot turns more than complicated. We deal with generations of good and evil – past, present and future. It takes a lot of storytelling to tie it all together.

There is much humor in this both serious and farcical movie, and it mostly comes from the bad guy – the evil yet lovable(?), inept and stupid bad character Bowler Hat Guy, who derives most of his power from the top of his head with the intelligent and even more evil hat named Doris. And there are more characters everywhere – singing frogs, an almost effective dinosaur and an octopus butler.

Lewis displays a tremendous amount of inspirational behavior. He wants to make the world a better place via his inventions. He never gives up. He “…keeps moving
forward…” no matter what happens, and no matter what the obstacles are. He is loyal to his friends and offers olive branches to his enemies. He is quite a mature and heroic little boy.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Bridge To Terabithia

I saw this film on January 23rd, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This is a story of a poor 10-year old boy who wants to be the fastest boy in his class at school. To his surprise, the new girl who moves in next door to him beats him out fair and square and wins the race. This is no way to start a relationship or friendship.

However, they have something in common. They are both being bullied at school. And they each react differently. The boy, Jesse, is passive and tries to stay out of harm’s way. The girl, Leslie, is aggressive and challenges her tormenters. Who knows what the right way is to fight bullying, but they find their defense in friendship with each other. And, they find a wonderful way to experience this trying time in life via their vivid imagination and the creation of a magical and enchanting kingdom that is very real to them.

They are both creative people. He is an artist and she is a writer. These creative people are able to close their eyes, picture another world, and keep their minds open to fantastic visions.

But the bullying persists and they attempt to come to grips with their pain in various ways. They try to out smart their tormenters and do, but they don’t enjoy being bullies and becoming like their enemies. And then … a great tragedy occurs.

This story is based on a Newbery-winning novel. It is a child’s story. But, it is also a story for adults. It will bring you emotionally to your knees. It is lovingly and professionally told, and the fantasy part of the story – the magical kingdom – is
wonderfully and briefly shown on the screen. This keeps the story grounded and
believable.

Jesse and Leslie are beautiful people regardless of their ages. They show us how to enjoy life, how to do the right things, how to be faithful to one’s friends, and have hope for the future. We learn a lot from these ten year olds.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Miss Potter

I saw this film on December 17th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This is the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of many classic illustrated children’s stories such as “Peter Rabbit.” She was raised in the latter part of the 19th Century in an upper middle class, stuffy family. And worked in the early part of the 20th Century.

It is a story of rebellion, and one woman’s liberation from knowing one’s place, settling on an arranged marriage, and quietly raising a family in the shadow of a man. Beatrix (Renee Zellweger) would have none of that. She had a dreamy artist’s imagination and talent and temperament from an early age and simply rebelled and lived in her own created world. When the world recognized her talent, she slowly became a part of the commercial world via the book publishing industry and a mentor/love interest (Ewan McGregor) and the mentor’s sister (Emily Watson).

The cast is brilliant. You go back in time with them a 100 years and live with and understand their stilted social mores. The art direction and cinematography are stunning and are worthy of Academy Award nominations.

There is one neat trick of animation that appears throughout this film. The drawn animal characters occasionally become animated, but only to Beatrix. It sounds hokey, but it is a clever way to demonstrate how real these characters were to their author. And, it’s why they have rung true to children and to adults for many generations.

Beatrix is a model for determination and pluck and steadfastness. This is a beautiful story beautifully told. Undoubtedly, this film will be compared to “Finding Neverland.”
“Miss Potter” is of the same high quality.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Freedom Writers

I saw this film on December 13th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Woodrow Wilson High School is located in Long Beach, California. The school is voluntarily integrated, and it isn’t working. The Asians, the Blacks, the Latinos, and a very few whites not only don’t get along, but also stay with their own and are part of protective and violent gangs. There isn’t much teaching or learning going on at the school. It is a warehouse for young teenagers until they can drop out or are kicked out.

With this background, an idealistic teacher (Hilary Swank) arrives to teach Freshmen English. She is very educated, pretty, middle class, non-ethnic, well-dressed, and smart. From day one, she doesn’t fit in the classroom with these tough kids, and she doesn’t fit in with the faculty, who have all but given up and resigned themselves to being the keepers of the student warehouse.

But our idealistic teacher will not give up. She slowly and painfully tries to teach by first learning about “…the pain…” the students feel. She encourages each of her students to keep a journal of their painful and difficult life, and then to share the journal with her. She also attempts to get the four ethnic groups to come together by getting them to recognize what they have in common; specifically, their music, their movies, their broken families, and their broken community surroundings.

While struggling with the students, she has to deal at the same time with two complicated and demanding male relationships. Her husband (Patrick Dempsey) is often supportive, but often jealous of her time commitments. Her father (Scott Glenn) is often disappointed of her career choice, but often proud of her courage and tenacity.

This story feels real. It is beautifully done. The acting of Swank, Dempsey and Glenn is professional and believable. More importantly the story highlights our society’s challenges in schooling the children of poor and one-parent families.

The movie doesn’t give miracle answers. But it does give hope. And in the end, sincere effort appears to count for something … maybe everything.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

We Are Marshall

I saw this film on November 21st, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This film is based on a true and tragic story. On November 14th, 1970, the Marshall University football team, football coaches, athletic staff, key alumni, and friends were flying home to Huntington, West Virginia after an away game against East Carolina. Their plane crashed killing all seventy five (75) aboard.

How do a University and a small town of 50,000 people respond to a massive tragedy that affected so many students and town residents? This movie is about their struggle
to come to grips with that tragedy.

Without bitter rancor and with humility, some felt the University should start up a new football team and persevere through a long rebuilding process to honor the dead. Others, again without rancor and with humility, believed that starting up a football team would be too painful a reminder of the tragedy.

It was decided to start a new football team immediately and play the next season in 1971.
This movie is primarily about the difficulties of the development of the team.

Matthew McConaughey plays the new Head Coach brilliantly and believably. He is a combination of country bumpkin enthusiastic huckster and a wise man. And he does it simply because he believes – “Maybe I can help.” He displays courage and perseverance and makes sacrifices with a career move that could throw him out of his beloved profession, head football coaching, forever.

The town and University have to quickly break the Vince Lombardi-like notion that you play the game of football for one reason only – to win. They learn how you play the game matters, and even simply showing up is a kind of victory too.

This is a compelling story well told and very moving.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Charlotte's Web

I saw this film on November 13th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

There is a lot of responsibility to be taken on when you put an E.B. White classic book to film. There is even more responsibility when there is already a wonderful and popular animation video of the book available. But this film takes on this responsibility in spectacular fashion. Half live animal animation as in “Babe” and half live action, the film is stunningly made.

The story is about the runt of a pig litter. There are ten teats available and eleven piglets. The eleventh piglet is doomed to be destroyed until the farmer’s daughter (Dakota Fanning) saves and adopts the runt who is named Wilbur.

Finally the piglet, Wilbur, gets to be too big to be a pet in the house and is sent across the road to another farm. The farm animals and Wilbur become “humanized” as we understand their animal talk. Five (5) goats, two (2) cows, two (2) geese, one (1) horse, one (1) rat and one (1) spider become a microcosm of society and Wilbur’s family and friends and neighbors.

It sounds preposterous, but it is utterly believable because the special effects are so good it all seems real and your disbelief disappears so you can get lost in the story. And … what a story.

Wilbur slowly realizes that he is an animal raised for his meat and the end of his life is months away and he is disconcerted to say the least. But he has a friend determined to help him out – a spider named Charlotte (voice by Julia Roberts), who will try many things to keep Wilbur as a permanent farm animal and not just food on the table for the farm family.

The society of animals have many lessons to teach children (and adults); specifically, friendship, sacrifice, living with the death issue, hope, determination, love, duty, fairness, respect, humility, and much more.

However, this is not a heavy lesson on mature life issues. Laughter and joy permeate the film and puns and chuckles are everywhere throughout the film.

The artistry of the film is outstanding. The farms and surroundings are idyllic. The synchronizing of the words and animal movements are right on. Everything on the screen leads you to believe the story is real.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.