Region Profile

Mainstream Thai cinema is coming up on the international radar lately. In 2003, Francis Ford Coppola spearheaded the international release of Suriyothai, one of the highest grossing Thai films ever when it was first released in that country. It recalls the heroic exploits of a 16th Thai queen defending her country against Burmese invasion.

Between the pomp of the Kennedy Center and the stately elegance of the Smithsonian, a diverse group of organizations, filmmakers, and creative personalities is proving there’s more to DC than snipers and bad policy decisions. Herewith is a sampling of the best, the brightest, and the quirkiest.

SilverDocs

Indianapolis is a city best known for its Motor Speedway and the Indy 500. But the “Racing Capital of the World” is also home to a growing film and art scene. It’s true, there is more than corn in Indiana.

Over the past six years, the New Jersey Salon has been hosting networking events and screening works from local filmmakers. In the first couple of years, it was difficult for the Salon to gel, as it bounced around local coffee shops before finding a permanent home three years ago in the offices of Salon leader Allen Chou's Passion River Productions, in Edison. And while turnout hasn't always been great, there have been enough new faces and continued interest to keep the Salon moving forward.

Tucson, Arizona, has a long history of filmmaking, dating back to the good old days when Old Tucson Studios was built, in 1940, for the epic western "Arizona". There is a clique of skilled filmmakers that still try to eke out a living making feature films in Tucson, and some of them, looking for word of paying gigs, occasionally show up at AIVF Salon meetings. And then there's the rest of us—film lovers who are tired of waiting around for Hollywood productions to come to town and just want to make movies. We make up the core group of the AIVF Salon.

In her review of Phil Kaufman’s 1978 remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, legendary film critic Pauline Kael wrote, “The story is set in San Francisco, which is the ideally right setting, because of the city’s traditional hospitality to artists and eccentrics.” This hospitality extends to movie venues. With its wealth of alternative screening spaces, San Francisco is one of the most welcoming cities in the country for non-Hollywood film.

Iowa is best known for early political caucuses, Old Settlers Picnics, the fictional River City of Meredith Wilson’s musical Music Man, Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams, and although not quite as famous, the corncam website. Yes, corncam. At www.IowaFarmer.com/corncam/corn.html you can literally sit back and watch the corn grow, with updates every fifteen minutes. But Iowa’s fields of opportunities are both vast and varied for mediamakers of all types.

If one thing can be said about Athens it is that it has proved time and time again to be a true breeding ground for creativity. Given that reputation, it is no wonder so many artists call Athens home. “It really is only in Athens that you can find the type of person who has the heart of an artist, the soul of a geek, and the mind of an academic. That is what distinguishes Athens from other places. There are people that really have no problem moving back and forth between all those areas,” says Scott Shamp, director of Athens’ New Media Institute.

Community Media Conference

September 9–15, 2002

WITH STARZ IN THEIR EYES