The Perils of Q&A

So I have been stewing for a couple of weeks since we screened at Riverspace courtesy of the Rivertown Film Society. The film looked and sounded great. The venue itself is very nice and welcoming, but the thorn I keep coming back to was the post screening Q&A.

I like Q&As, and this one irritated me! I like talking about the people in this film and the emotional connection I have to them, but I don’t like to suggest that the film can solve problems. It can only illustrate and elaborate an existing and pertinent issue, which if I am lucky, can generate passionate conversation about the nature of our relationships to this migrant diaspora and the contributions they make in tangible terms to our ever-evolving society.

There is no doubt that we had a rather rapt and supportive audience. It was clear that everyone was involved and been moved by the film but I was amazed when it became obvious almost instantaneously that it was also, in the eyes of a small minority, an opportunity to monopolize the conversation and politicize the film beyond my mandate or intentions.

As the less patient started to leave with their questions still ruminating, there evolved a diatribe on the value of farming Shitake mushrooms, an opine on the value of farming communes and a spoken tome on the need for subsidies not just to farmers but across a wide array of areas.

As I stood there listening I kept asking myself the question. What does this have to do with my film? The answer was nothing. I kept expecting the pertinent questions to come out but there were several instances where finally I asked. Is there a question?

I know that the film and its inhabitants, in particular the Jamaicans, is what connect me to it constantly. It seemed that many wanted to make it a film about the downtrodden Hudson Valley or our lack of large-scale organic farming. While there are a myriad of questions, some without answers that the film poses, the film is an entity unto itself and therefore complete. I kept thinking to myself “Are you asking me questions about a film you wish it was?” “That’s not the film I wanted to make.”

I readily admit that I don’t have a solution to the sustainability of apple farmers in the Hudson Valley -- I didn’t make that film but I know it doesn’t look good.

I guess for some people Q&A means I ask you a question and you tell me what I want to hear.

Seasons wins at Queens International Film Festival

Every independent feature needs some recognition and we now have our first official festival Award. 

Last night at the Queens International Film Festival Seasons In The Valley received the award for Best Feature Documentary.  

We are really pleased because we used the positive feedback from audiences at Temecula coupled with some serious conversation I had with my editor Giacomo Ambrosini, to take another three minutes out of the film. It may seem like quibbling but I think we managed to speed the pace and really catapult ourselves into the story and this may just have clinched the deal.

Getting an award like this is an important step forward in proving the film has some value in the public eye. We look forward to sharing it more and more and the dates are beginning to come in with three more additional screening dates in January and February.