Indiana University Cinema

The New Model

Brittany D. Friesner, Jon Vickers

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780253058102
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Películas y vídeos

In its first ten years, a small Midwestern cinema has attracted some of the most intriguing and groundbreaking filmmakers from around the world, screened the best in arthouse and repertory films, and presented innovative and unique cinematic experiences.

Indiana University Cinema tells the story of how the cinema on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington grew into a vibrant, diverse, and thoughtfully curated cinematheque. Detailing its creation of a transformative cinematic experience throughout its inaugural decade, the IU Cinema has arguably become one of the best venues for watching movies in the country.

Featuring 17 exclusive interviews with filmmakers and actors, as well as an afterword from Jonathan Banks ( Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul ), Indiana University Cinema, is a lavishly illustrated book that is sure to please everyone from the casual moviegoer to the most passionate cinephile.

Filmmaker Albert Maysles engages with IU students and faculty at a reception in IU Cinema’s lower lobby, February 2011. IU Cinema

Cinema is experienced in the moment. The effects can build over time, imprinting a film experience, emotion, or some transformative universal truth onto our very being. These changes can last a lifetime, but the catalyst was the moment. Much of this book has been dedicated to the creation of those moments and the vision, planning, attention, and, sometimes, luck behind them.

This chapter will present a collection of outputs associated with the hundreds, even thousands of such moments in IU Cinema’s first decade. Like any good institution, the Cinema strives to document much of what is curated and produced, even if what is presented is intended to be primarily impactful for the audiences attending in person. Inside are highlights from some of these outputs in the form of transcribed interviews and lectures, IU Cinema-designed posters and artwork, stellar photography from IU Studios and guest photographers, samples of newly commissioned musical scores, and a variety of additional works.

This chapter is divided into two sections: Filmmakers and Creative Works. The Filmmakers section is heavy on the written word, highlighting seventeen short and extended filmmaker interviews. The Creative Works section is a collection of images, design work, musical scores, and additional creative outputs.

“It’s the best place in the entire Midwest . . . maybe one of the best in the country.”

—Werner Herzog, director of Grizzly Man and Fitzcarraldo

FILMMAKERS

Each year, dozens of filmmakers visit IU Cinema by invitation, either directly from Founding Director Jon Vickers, founding Associate Director Brittany D. Friesner, faculty, or community partners through our Creative Collaborations, or via various campus units. Occasionally, filmmakers are also invited by conference or symposia hosts in connection with IU Cinema screenings.

There are many factors that contribute to the quality of programs and engagement when hosting visiting filmmakers. Negotiating these details is always crucial, as it is important every visiting filmmaker walks away from their experience as a new ambassador for IU Cinema. This mindset has helped spread the Cinema’s worldclass reputation across the industry.

While reading and reviewing the materials in this section is no adequate substitute for participating directly in these experiences, the insights visiting filmmakers have generously shared over the years remain inspiring and illuminating. The interviews have been edited and excerpted for length and are presented courtesy of the filmmakers.

“Indiana University Cinema is just incredible. . . . There’s nothing like it anywhere else. This is, for a film junkie, this is nirvana.”

—Joseph Bernard, visual artist and director of Night Mix and Intrigues (Part I–VII)

Creative Collaborations

Through IU Cinema’s unique and robust Creative Collaborations program, the Cinema has hosted hundreds of filmmakers since its opening. Regular partners for these filmmaker visits have included the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A), the Media School, IU Libraries Moving Image Archive (IULMIA), and the Center for Documentary Research and Practice. In addition to the filmmakers featured on the following pages, these partnerships have helped bring to campus renowned filmmakers Pedro Costa, Pema Tseden, Jesse Maple, Esai Morales, Rosine Mbakam, Joshua Oppenheimer, Madeline Anderson, Alison Klayman, Stanley Nelson, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Mike Henderson, James Balog, and Philippe Falardeau.

In addition to filmmakers, additional guests have visited IU Cinema as part of collaborative programs to present films, including civil rights leader Julian Bond with Eyes on the Prize (1987); chef, author, and food activist Alice Waters with The Baker’s Wife (1938); Olympic swimmer Greg Louganis with Back on Board (2014); and Broadway producer Harriet Newman Leve with An American in Paris (1951), among many others.

Visits are often led by faculty doing personal research on the work of these guests or are incorporated into coursework and frequently include class visits and additional student and academic engagement. Several of the visiting filmmakers through Creative Collaborations had substantial retrospectives curated and presented at IU Cinema. Many of the visits led to published articles or interviews initiated during their time at Indiana University.

Filmmaker Charles Burnett interviewed by Professor Michael T. Martin at IU Cinema on November 3, 2011, during a Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker event. Stan Gerbig/IU Studios

Natalia Almada in the lobby of IU Cinema prior to a Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker event in October 2014. Chaz Mottinger/IU Studios

NATALIA ALMADA

From the transnational dimensions of narco-corridos to the material expression of symbolic power in the form of extravagant mausoleums, Natalia Almada’s films offer unique and intimate portrayals of cultural phenomena stemming from the Mexican drug trade. Departing from the experience of common people, these films shed light on the complex interrelations between violence, immigration, the economy, and cultural production.

Almada’s visit to Indiana University was arranged by Associate Professor Jonathan Risner in partnership with IU’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese and IU Cinema. Additional partners were College Arts and Humanities Institute, Latino Studies Program, Department of Communication and Culture, Department of American Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Film and Media Studies. The curated program, Porous Borders: The Documentary Films of Natalia Almada, included screenings and conversations on several of her films, a Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker program, and meetings with students.

The recipient of the 2009 Sundance Documentary Directing Award for her film El General, Almada earned a master of fine arts degree in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Almada’s El velador (2001) premiered at New Directors/New Films and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Her credits include All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001), an experimental short film that received international recognition, and Al otro lado (2005), her award-winning debut feature documentary about immigration, drug trafficking, and corrido music. In 2017, Almada released her first fictional narrative film, Everything Else (2016). Her work is poignant and poetic with a distinct style and pace.

Almada’s films have been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Biennial. All of her documentary features have been broadcast on the award-winning PBS series POV, and, in 2012, she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the “genius grant.”

While at IU Cinema, Natalia Almada sat for an interview with founding Associate Director Brittany D. Friesner, “Natalia Almada: An IU Cinema Exclusive.”

Brittany D. Friesner: Why is film such a powerful artform?

Natalia Almada: I feel like, as a filmmaker, what I really love is being able to look at something in many different ways and think about it in different ways, then represent it visually and sonically. I feel like, as a viewer of film, there’s something very immersive, especially about the cinema experience, as opposed to watching at home or on your computer. There is something about the collectivity, the way the dark room envelops you, and how you really fall into a film that is incredibly powerful.

BF: Do you have a film experience that changed your life?

NA: I always think about when I was shooting Al otro lado, which was my first feature documentary. I was shooting about thirty miles north of the border with the Civil Homeland Defense Group and following Chris Simcox, who is the head of that group. I was starting to think, “I’m wasting my time, this is really crazy, why am I doing this,” you know. It felt pointless in a way. And then, I was looking through the camera, following his figure walking, and all of a sudden I saw eyes looking back at me from a ditch on the ground. It was a moment that really, I think, changed me, because I understood how powerful the camera is and how much I had to be very responsible and ethical with my use of it. It was also a moment of conflict, because I didn’t really know if I did the right thing, or what I should do—if I should continue filming and be the filmmaker, knowing my camera was definitely intimidating and humiliating these people who were already being humiliated. It was making their reality worse. Yet, it also seemed to provide the opportunity to give them a voice, which seemed important. So, it just really brought up for me in a moment I was filming the understanding of the real power and the conflict that having a camera means. The privilege and responsibility that entails. I always think of that as the moment that really marked me as a filmmaker.

BF: What or who are some of your artistic influences?

NA: It’s always different, depending what I’m working on. For example, working on El velador, I thought a lot about improvised jazz. There’s this kind of tension and release when you listen to the music that can make the chaos you can feel when listening to improvised music sometimes frustrating almost. But then, if a melody or something recognizable comes in, you feel this kind of “ahh,” this kind of release, because something made sense or was understandable. It moves in a way that works with your emotions. I am not a musician, so this may be my way of experiencing the music, but that’s what I thought about making El velador. I think with each film, there’s kind of a medium, or a certain artist, writer, or someone who is particularly important to me at that time. But I find being around different kinds of artists to be really important, and not just filmmakers, but to be in dialogue with writers, and musicians, and artists.

IU Cinema poster for Porous Borders: The Documentary Films of Natalia Almada, October 2014. Jennifer Vickers

“I don’t know why I make films. I love doing it. I love when I’m making a film. I love when I’m shooting. I love editing. For me, that’s when I really feel okay in the world.”

BF: Why do you make films?

NA: I don’t know why I make films. I love doing it. I love when I’m making a film. I love when I’m shooting. I love editing. For me, that’s when I really feel okay in the world, and the kind of noise and anxiety of life subsides in those moments. I stop questioning—it just is, and it is fine.

BF: Do you make your films for a particular audience?

NA: I hate the question of audience, and I think it’s often because it comes up when you make film work that’s not of the mainstream. I understand that’s not why you’re asking me now, but that’s often why I get asked. “Who is this film for?” is usually a question from somebody who feels the film isn’t for them, either because it is in Spanish, and it’s subtitled, or it’s about Mexico, and they’re not from Mexico, so why should they care. I think that one of the most enriching things about my experience has been showing films to completely different audiences all over the world. Showing them at home, showing them abroad, to young people, to older people, to different education and class levels, showing them on public television and in museums and in festivals. All of those audiences bring something different, and, in their responses, I have learned how something I have seen and portrayed is perceived by different kinds of people. That is the dialogue that really interests me, much more so than saying my films are to convince these people about a certain issue or to touch these people. When I look at art, I know it wasn’t made for me, and that’s the art I love. So, I think that’s the idea.

BF: When d...