It’s been a good three weeks since
I attended the Oneota Film Festival, and I’m still not entirely sure how to
write about it. Part of this is because I covered the Oneota Film Festival back
when I first started this blog and there was a lot to write about. Now, I feel
like I’ve run the gamut, and the things I see are starting to get less and less
important. Do I write about the historical mill when a lot of towns have a similar
sight? Do I stick with the unique restaurants? Or do I simply have to devote
more time on the weekends to exploring the area to find something new to write
about? On the other hand, the last time I went to the film festival it was as
an outside observer, emphasis on “outside.” So it seemed appropriate to go this
year and experience as much of the event as I could.
One of the things I like about the
film festival is that it’s held at Luther College in Decorah. I’ve written
about the college, but never much about the events there. This is because the
college mostly shuts down on the weekend. For someone who went to a Big 10
school in a verifiable city, this can be hard for me to wrap my mind around. Go
to Luther College’s campus on the weekend, and you will see a couple of
students out walking around, but if you go in the afternoon and there doesn’t
happen to be, say, a home football game, then you could be forgiven for
thinking everyone in the college had gone home for the weekend. The bottom line
is that Luther College is a closed system to me, and I would love to be able to
get inside just a little bit to see if there are any similarities to the
university I attended.
The film festival provided an excellent
opportunity to get inside Luther College. Mostly because it took place in the
morning and early afternoon. Partially because if there’s one universal truth,
it is that if an event like a film festival is big enough to involve at least
two buildings on a college campus, the energy seems to spread across the rest
of the campus, infecting students and nearby residents with its energy. People
want to see what is going on, or they’re inspired to get out and do something
meaningful to them. Of course, when I was in college and, say, a football game
was drawing everyone to the stadium, that was my cue to take off for either the
local bookstore or gaming store and spend the next couple of hours seeing what
wonders were available. Either that or spend it in bed next to a girlfriend,
enjoying the fact that we were having our own moment while the rest of the
world marched on.
So the Luther campus was busy that
morning. There were more than a few students crossing between buildings, and a
lot more people, dressed in decidedly not-student clothing such as khakis,
loafers, flats, overcoats, sport coats and professional-style dresses in
appropriately dark colors. I joined the crowd, went to the admissions booth,
and prepared to pay the entrance fee, which was nonexistent. This was my first
surprise. This is not a small event; the film festival lasts from Friday to
Sunday. They have about 20 independent movies showing, plus a question-and-answer
session with some of the filmmakers. Perhaps it isn’t the Cannes or Sundance,
but it is a legitimate film festival. That the organization charges nothing is
both ludicrous and wonderful, and if you don’t feel the urge to donate at least
a couple dollars after being told this entertainment is available for
nothing…well, let’s be honest, you may want to see if the movies are your cup
of tea.
See, most of the movies are
documentaries, documentaries with a definite liberal slant. I watched a
documentary on women and the gun culture in America, which was very informative
and remarkably even-handed, as well as a documentary about wounded veterans
being taken to Montana to fly fish as a type of therapy for the wounds, mental
and physical, they sustained while in Iraq and Afghanistan. Others include a
documentary on why the fight to eliminate “entitlements” is wrongheaded, a
documentary about the pollution of the Ganges River in India, documentaries on
the environment, unemployment, and one about people living in Detroit now,
trying to make their way in a city that is constantly on the edge of failing,
if it hasn’t tipped over already. I watched part of that too, having lived in
Michigan most of my life.
To be honest, the documentaries
were good, although they lacked that smooth coat of polish professional
documentaries have. This actually served to make most of the movies better. The
lack of polish let the filmmakers’ passion shine through, and some of the best
moments were where subjects would just talk for a few minutes. No sound bites,
no quick camera shots to bits of film that would make the sound bite more
memorable, no music in the background—just someone talking, pouring their heart
out to the camera in a way reality TV producers wish they could repeat.
Would I recommend the Oneota Film
Festival to anyone else? Yes, although I’d warn people that these are films
with a message, and you might not always want to see what they have to say. If
you’re in the mood for, say, Miss Congeniality 3 or the latest entry in the Die
Hard franchise, then these are not the films for you. It’s hard to dismiss
these films, though. An obvious amount of time and effort has gone into each of
them, and I can honestly say I would recommend everyone see them.
I’m not sure where Decorah got the
idea for a film festival, or how they’ve kept it going for so long, but I
really enjoyed it. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to go again.
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