Busy day. We were on a panel in the morning, NFB Coffee Talks: Boys to Men & Sex, Love & Video Tapes.
Hubert Davis, INVISIBLE CITY (Canada)
Barry Greenwald, EXPERIMENTAL ESKIMOS (Canada)
Sarah Goodman, WHEN WE WERE BOYS (Canada)
Anna Lorentzon, Barbara Bell GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR (USA)
Very pleasant experience, moderator Lea Marin was well informed and had lots of specific questions about the films and the process of making them.
There was a lot of talking about how to establish and keep the delicate relationships you need with your subjects, and how to develop and keep them, and the other filmmakers had long processes of showing the film to them alone and in different groups, then discussing the things that they were uncomfortable with. Most of the subject of GSH are very happy with the film, but to this day, PD has still refused to see it. He had an employee watch it, and based on his reactions, initially decided that he wanted about half the film cut. That KGB (the metal man responsible for all those amazing contraptions) watched it later and gave a glowing review helped a little, but not that much. It is very hard to discuss a film, and what to cut out of it, with somebody that has very strong opinions, yet has not and will not watch it. The end result was that we cut one piece out and then just said that there are no legal reasons to remove anything, we have the signed releases and contracts.
And then I sit there feeling like a jerk among all these sensitive documentary filmmakers, for not being able to keep on good foot with, ok, only one of our subjects. And not loosing sleep over it. (That's me, I think Barb did) Yes, we knew all the time that PD would not be happy with anything that wasn't just about the PD world, that other people are not really allowed to have conflicting opinions on situations that he was part of. But we did somehow believe, in our happy frenzy of getting accepted at Slamdance, that he would be able to see the film as a whole.

Anyway, interviews the rest of the day, short nap that turned out a bit longer that planned, but I still made it to the filmmaker dinner.