AIFF 2012: Friends of Film Head Bob Sharka Visits Festival

The first night of the Festival as I ran into a guy near the ticketing in just a polo shirt.  It was about zero outside and the chill was coming in through the doors.  Since I'm trying to spot the visiting film makers, I looked at him and with a smile asked, "You're from out of town right?"  He introduced himself as Bob Sharka from LA, from Friends of Film.

A few days later, after the film El Estudiante, I ran into him again and got a chance to find out what he was doing up here.  By the way, he was more appropriately dressed for cold weather too.



Did you hear how he completely avoided that last question? He clearly doesn't want to say anything bad about the local movies and he didn't miss a beat as he said so without actually saying it. A born salesman. I'm going to follow up with him when I visit my mom in LA to see first hand what the organization does. Here's a link to the Friends of Film website if you want to know more about them.

I thought I had something up on El Estudiante, a wonderful Mexican film about a seventy year old who returns to college that involves students putting on a play on Don Quixote and very positive old and young relationships. 

AIFF 2012: Meet the Festival Director and Alaska's SAG Rep

I got more video taken than I was able to put up during the festival.   First is a short video with Festival Director Teresa Scott in the back of the Bear Tooth theater.  I caught here after the film El Estudiante, eating a taco as part of the Mexican Consul's Reception.  Then on Saturday night, just before the film Alaskaland, I talked to Ron Holmstrom. He is the Screen Actors Guild representative in Alaska and was scheduled to give a workshop on acting in the movies and also to talk about using SAG actors and the fact that for short films and low budget films normal SAG salary rates are waivable. His workshop wasn't in the Festival program and I didn't hear about it until after it was over. But I got to hear a little bit before the film began.

AIFF 2012: What Makes A Good Documentary? Cutting Loose and Ping Pong

Jim Parker - AIFF Docs

[This is a followup of the post on my choices for best films.]

Documentaries were the strongest program in the festival this year and as I mentioned in one post,  Saturday they were scheduled so that one could actually see six of the seven in competition.    That shows someone paying attention to details.  That someone most certainly is Documentary Programmer Jim Parker and his programming partner Cindy Franklin. 




I've been thinking a lot about what makes a good documentary this week.  A lot of this was spurred by watching Roadmap to Apartheid. I thought it did a lot of things extremely well, but it also seemed overly one-sided - unnecessarily so.  I'll explain my reactions in detail in a later post.  But it raised for me the question of how fair does a documentary have to be?  After all, shouldn't documentaries 'document'?

So, before explaining my choices for best documentary, I'd like to come up with some criteria.

1. Documentation
   This includes getting all the most pertinent information - both factual and emotional data - that helps the viewer understand the situation covered by the film.  This is probably hardest for reviewers to assess when they aren't knowledgeable about the subject of the film.
2. Truth
   In feature movies the film maker can create her own world.  In documentaries one is expected to present one's representation of the truth as accurately as possible.  This includes the viewpoints of the various sides in any situation.  And if one chooses to present just one perspective of the situation, then this should be stated clearly. 
3. Story Telling
   This is about how good the movie itself is, including such factors as:
1. Story is told as efficiently and interestingly as possible - which means the film moves along without scenes that, interesting or beautiful as they might be, aren't necessary to telling the story.
2. Pace, audio, visual quality are all as good as they can be to keep the viewer engaged.
4. Significance How important is the topic in the greater scheme of things?  While this shouldn't detract a film maker from engaging in something that interests him, if two films are otherwise equal, I would pick the one with greater significance. 
5. The Whole Package
   How it all works together.

Because there were so many good documentaries, I'm going to do several posts on them.  This one focuses on Cutting Loose and  Ping Pong.

Using these criteria, I rated Cutting Loose the best documentary.  Actually, that's not true at all.  My gut reaction was that Cutting Loose was the best and then I started thinking about why.  So this film and Roadmap to Apartheid spurred me to write up my criteria.  My choice is not one I'd fight to defend.  There were a lot of good films and I could argue persuasively for all of them, including Roadmap.   So why Cutting Loose?

Cutting Loose worked because it was the best Whole Package.  Everything worked.  The dilemma for any documentary maker is the conflict between documenting - archiving all the important details for history - and making a good movie.  It's a dilemma I know well as a blogger and my readers would probably agree that I err on the side of documentation, especially when I'm dealing with important public policy issues.

Cutting Loose is about a contest for convicts who work as prison barbers and hairdressers in Scotland.  In another nice touch by the documentary programmers, it was paired with Ping Pong, a film about a very different contest  - the world championships for ping pong players over 80 years old.  There was a similar structure in both films - focus on a few of the  individual competitors before the event, and then showcase the event. 

Ping Pong did more documentation.  We know much more about each contestant.  Its subject matter was both light and important.  While ping pong might not be that important among the world's issues (though it played a big role in relations between China and the U.S.)  the topic of aging is.  We saw people between 81 and 100, who, despite their age and its accompanying physical ailments, were able to perform highly skilled physical tasks.  I would say it was a reminder of the importance of having a goal and hope to make life worth living.

That same message comes through in Cutting Loose, which found the golden mean between documentation and story telling.  The critical message I got from the film was how respecting and trusting prisoners - getting to use the scissors in prison -  gave them a sense of both respect, responsibility, and pride, which was important if they weren't going to return to prison after their release.  My daughter has taught me the importance of hair to one's self image and the movie echoes this with the challenge to the barbers to not mess up the hair of inmates they live with.

This film used just enough documentation to give us an awareness of a world most of us don't know.   And since crime is a major issue in the world and since prisoners seem among the least deserving of sympathy, it's good to be able to see them as human beings who can overcome past mistakes.  And as with the octogenarians in Ping Pong the barbers and hairdressers in Cutting Loose gained a reason to live through what they did.

So, for the sake of getting the message across, we got enough documentation.  Then the film makers took what they had and made a well paced movie with good visuals and music that told the story in 29 minutes.  AND, they probably had the best title in the festival with two words that captured the idea of barbering and getting out of prison.

I'd add that as Francis Duffy walks along the shoreline in his blue and white striped shirt reflecting, I was puzzled by what language he was speaking.  But as he went on, I began to hear some of the words as the ones in the subtitles.  You can get a sense of this and of the whole film in SXSW YouTube trailer below.





My hat's off to the film makers Adrian McDowall and Finlay Pretsell.  I want to let you know that though the festival didn't see fit to award your film, I did.


Sorry that this came out much more academic than I intended.  As I said, I tend to err on the side of documentation over entertainment.

AIFF 2012: My Choices For Awards

 
Let me list my choices first here with little comment and then I'll want to talk separately about some of the categories and why I differ, when I do, with the Festival's awards.

Table Cell	Official Festival Awards	My Choices
Features	Winner: Lad: A Yorkshire Story Runner Up: Things I Don't Understand Hon. Men:  Shouting Secrets	Winner: Between Us  and  Passionflower Runner Up: Shouting Secrets
Documentaries	Winner:  Roadmap to Apartheid Runner Up: The World Before Her Hon Men: Ping Pong	Winner:  Cutting Loose Run. Up: Unfinished Spaces and Reportero*
Shorts	Winner: Lapse Runner Up:  Calcutta Taxi Hon. Men:  Cockatoo	Winner:  Calcutta Taxi and Lapse Runner Up:  Mossadegh and Suddenly Zinat
Animation	Winner:  Paths of Hate Runner Up: Lemons Hon. Men:	Winner:  Much Better Now Runner Up: Lemons Hon Men:  Paths of Hate
Supershorts	Winner:  Her Next Door Runner Up: Matriarche Hon. Men:  Polarized	I'm ok with the first two, but the third did nothing for me.
Sundance	Winner:  Rousseau's Children Runner Up: No Horizon Anymore	Didn't see enough to form an opinion.

HTML Tables

In most cases trying to separate levels is questionable - though I feel strongly about Cutting Loose. I'll give some reasons for my choices in some separate posts.

[See What Makes A Good Documentary?  Cutting Loose and Ping Pong   I'll add a one or two more here as I get them up.]

One of the issues is comparing films with very different budgets and produced under different circumstances.   

 There were some 'in competition' films I missed - Grassroots in the feature category, The Trial of Ben Barry and Hunt in the shorts category, and Y.E.R.T.  in the documentaries.  And as Passionflower demonstrates, some very good films didn't make it into competition.

I'd note that Passionflower got audience choice in the feature category with Shouting Secrets getting second. As I write, the audience awards for documentaries aren't up yet. 

*I was told Reportero, for technical reasons, was not eligible to be in competition.  But I don't have those restrictions.  

AIFF 2012: Features Awards

Features In Competition:

Shouting Secrets

Lad:  A Yorkshire Story

Between Us

Confine

Aquí y Allí

Grassroots

Things I Don't Understand


Honorable Mention:

Shouting Secrets

Runner Up:

Things I Don't Understand

Winner:

Lad:  A Yorkshire Story


[UPDATE Dec. 10, 5:45pm: AUDIENCE AWARDS:  Passionflower won the Audience Award and Shouting Secrets was the runner up.  I've got video of Passionflower director Shelagh Carter here and I'm hoping to write more about the film.]

AIFF 2012: Documentary Awards

Documentary Films in Competition:

Go Ganges

Roadmap to Apartheid

People Of A Feather

Ping Pong

Cutting Loose

World Before Her

Y.E.R.T.


HONORABLE MENTION:

Ping Pong

RUNNER UP:

World Before Her

WINNER:

Roadmap to Apartheid

AIFF 2012: Animation Awards

In Competition:

The Backwater Gospel

Frankie Rulez!!

The Game

Lemons

Much Better Now

Paths of Hate

Survival of the Fetish


HONORABLE MENTION:
 
Lemons


RUNNER UP:

Light Me Up

WINNER:

Paths of Hate

AIFF 2012: Shorts Awards

In Competition:

Calcutta Taxi

Mossadegh

Cockatoo

Hunt

Lapse

Trial of Ben Barry


HONORABLE MENTION:

Cockatoo

RUNNER UP:

Calcutta Taxi

WINNER:

Lapse

AIFF 2012: Super Shorts Awards

 SUPERSHORTS IN COMPETITION:

Bip Bip (Beep Beep)

Blue Dame

Gutty

Her Next Door

Matriarche

O.V.N.I (UFO)

Polarized





HONORABLE MENTION:

Polarized

FIRST RUNNER UP:

Matriarche  

WINNER:

Her Next Door

AIFF 2012: Snowdance Awards

SNOWDANCE IN COMPETITION:

Catching Alaska’s Light Waves

I Met Her In A Coffee Shop

Mothers Against Pornography

No Horizon Any More

PNBMOWE

Rousseau's Children Runner


HONORABLE MENTION:

Scared: Matt Jardin

Keith Reimink at Awards Ceremony

FIRST RUNNER UP:

No Horizon Any More - Keith Reimink


WINNER:

Rousseau's Children - Monica Scharer

AIFF 2012: Live Blogging Awards - UPDATED

7:19 The musicians are gone and they are setting up the stage.

Matt Jardin and Harvey Hubbell from Disleksia the movie with OA staff

Carl and Nathan Weber - Alaska Tier 2 Zombie Hunter

Linda Beja and Jon Benedict - Snowdance Programers

Keith Reimink - No Horizon Anymore South Pole

Folks waiting for the Awards to begin

I'm at the Organic Oasis waiting for the awards ceremony (a rather inflated word for what they do here) to begin.  It's going on 7pm and should be starting soon.    There won't be a live feed, but I'll just keep updating as things happen starting a little after 6pm Alaska time.  I suspect the awards won't be given out until about 7pm.  Then I'll post as things happen.

But last night they showed the Quick Freeze movies - had to be done in three days and somehow include 'duct tape,' 'sunrise,' and 'hostess.'

I've got video of the Quick Freeze Awards from last night and I'll add it here as soon as it finishes uploading and downloading.

AIFF 2012: Passionflower, Fairbanks Nigerians, Scottish Cons With Scissors, Elder Ping Pong, Havana, and Lots of Duct Tape

My Saturday at the film festival was one very satisfying movie after another.  [Check the AIFF 2012 Tab above for what's on today.]

I'll start with two movies that will show again today (Sunday Dec. 9) that are very well worth watching.

Passionflower plays today (Sunday Dec. 9) at 3pm at Alaska Experience Theater.

For some reason I do not understand at all, this film was not selected to be in-competition.  It deserves to be.  I chatted with the director Shelagh Carter briefly the other night - the video is here - and that's the only reason I went to see it tonight.  This film isn't easy, and it doesn't offer any easy solutions.  Nevertheless, even though this film didn't begin until close to 11pm I was wide awake and completely in the film the whole way.  It's the story of a young girl whose beautiful mom is behaving badly.  Today we have a word for this - mentally ill.  Actually, the story is about the mom, for the most part from the girl's perspective.  Making the film even more powerful was that I knew from my chat with Shelagh that the little girl was sitting near me in the theater.  And Shelagh will be at the showing tomorrow as well.  BTW, she's all grown up now, art has gotten her through all this, and she is a professor of film and theater in Winnipeg, Canada.

Alaskaland plays today (Sunday Dec. 9) at 5pm at Out North.

This film takes place entirely in Fairbanks.  It's in the Snowdance category, but it could just as easily have been in the features.  It focuses on a Nigerian family - Dad's a professor of engineering at UAF - and the struggles of the children living in three cultures - the family's Nigerian culture, the general Fairbanks culture, and the black Fairbanks culture.  An outstanding film by a UAF alumnus and with the help of the newish  UAF film program.  Good stuff that tells an Alaskan story that most of us had no idea existed. I do think this film would be improved if it had a title more indicative of the story. 

Now I can talk about the others.  I'll just mention them briefly now and I'll write about some of these at more length later.   All of the films I saw today were good, so I won't keep repeating that. 

It started with a pair of in-competition documentary films - Ping Pong and Cutting Loose.  Cutting Loose was exactly right from my perspective.  Scottish convicts who know how to cut hair, and act as prison barbers, have a hair cutting contest.   But really, the story itself doesn't mean much - it's how they tell the story that matters and they did it well.

Ping Pong highlights eight contestants in the octogenarian world ping pong championship in Inner Mongolia.  An inspirational movie for all of us for whom 80 is getting to be in the foreseeable future.

Most common use of Duct Tape in Quick Freeze films

Unfinished Spaces. Wow!  I was going to go home and get a nap before the afternoon films I had scheduled but Kelly talked me into staying.  For now, I'll just say this is the Buena Vista Social Club for Cuban architects.  More later.

Quick Freeze.  These were the films made since earlier this week (I forget now when), using the three terms - duct tape, sunrise, and hostess.  They were staggeringly good for such a quick turnaround.  I did ask one director if he hadn't started working on an idea before the words were given out and he said, "No."

AIFF 2012: Lapse Director Gilles Guerraz Talks From Paris

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:  Sunday morning (Dec. 9) at 11:15 am Native Tongue short film program plays at the Alaska Experience Theater.  

This is a strong set of four short films.

 I've posted an email exchange with Mossadegh director Roozbeh Dadvand and I've posted a video with Calcutta Taxi director Vikram Dasgupta.

I've even posted a link to the whole third film - Suddenly Zinat . . .  


I chatted with Lapse director Gilles Guerraz and one of the writers, Grayson Wolfe, via skype.  Lapse was missing from this program last week - they had trouble with disc/project compatibility.   I'm putting some of the skype chat up now.

In the video portion below we talked about how he budgeted the film (Ulule helped), the crew, learning by doing, and the camera.  Gilles speaks slowly, but it's worth the effort to listen.



Grayson Wolfe, one of the writers of Lapse, wrote on his blog about watching the final version of Lapse at the Cannes Film Festival.

I watch Lapse again.  No English subtitles this time, and I enjoy it even more.  On a second viewing, I can’t find anything about it I don’t like.  This time I pick up on more subtleties, things I missed when I was reading subtitles.  The film works without dialog, a definition of pure cinema.  I am very impressed with Vincent Londez’ performance, the lead actor.  I wish I had promoted it more.  Not that I had the time, of course.

AIFF 2012: Paul And Bryant Make Out With Everyone

When they told me the title of the film, it didn't register.  I realized why when I checked out the program where it is listed as P.N.B.M.O.W.E.   Paul Jones and Bryant Mainord are local film makers and their film is in competition in the Snowdance category.  They told me a little about the film Friday night at the film makers reception.




It plays

SATURDAY  10 PM at Alaska Experience Theater.

AIFF 2012: Growing Up With Mentally Unstable Mom - Shelagh Carter Talks About Passionflower

  [Check the AIFF 2012 Tab above for what's on today.]

I got to talk to Shelagh Carter Thursday night.  Her film Passionflower is about a young girl whose mom's mental illness makes this difficult.  It takes place in Winnipeg.  But let her tell you.  It shows

Today (Saturday Dec. 8) at 10:30 at the Alaska Experience Theater and

Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3:00 pm at Alaska Experience Theater


It was a little noisy in the Bear Tooth lobby when we did the video.

AIFF 2012: From Miss India to Kenyan Runners

  [Check the AIFF 2012 Tab above for what's on today.]

I saw two films Thursday:

Things I Don't Understand  seems to fit well here at What Do I Know?  I'm too tired to write usefully about the film now.  It shows again Saturday night at the Bear Tooth.  There are a lot of characters with issues, including a musician who turns down a paying job as a coffee bean because he has to be true to his art.  You can see the trailer at the film's website.   The small Alaska Experience theater was full - about 30 people.

The World Before Her - is an Indian-Canadian documentary that looks at the boot camp to train the dozen or so finalists for the Miss India contest and a nationalist Hindu camp for young women.  The juxtaposition of the new and old India makes for a stark contrast.  For me the most interesting characters were the young woman of ambiguous gender and her father.  She is the trainer at the fundamentalist camp and pushes the campers hard as she espouses an extreme Hinduism.  Yet  she does not plan to get married and describes herself something like half woman and half man.   Her father will have none of this because a wife's place is in the house. 

Then I went off to the film-maker reception at the Spenard Roadhouse where I talked to a few film makers.   Mark Mudry is in the video below.  His film Where Dreams Don't Fade, about Kenyan runners, will be screened

Friday Dec. 7 at 10pm at the AK Experience Theater  and
Sunday Dec. 8 at 7pm at Out North

AIFF 2012: Dan Mirvish Created Eisenstadt - A Fake Journalist Who Leaked Palin's Africa Is A Country

Mirvish's fake McCain advisor leaker Martin Eistenstadt

 [Check the AIFF 2012 Tab above for what's on today.]

Between Us  film maker Dan Mirvish, it says in the Dan Mirvish Director's video,  is a shameless self-promoter.

I'd seen Between Us and liked it a lot and wrote a very positive if short review.  Dan saw it and emailed me and soon we were chatting over skype - some of which you can see below in the video.  He mainly talks about the film but mentions in the background creating Martin Eisenstadt, a character who admits to being the McCain staffer who leaked the story that Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country that MSNBC picked up as a real story.(Link goes to Martin Eistenstadt video.)

Between Us plays again Friday at 8pm at the Bear Tooth.  Go see it.

Some interesting points - the play the film is based on was in two acts:  1.  The midwest house and 2. the NY City apartment.  In the film they switch back and forth as both evenings unfold.  Falling off the ladder in the movie was inspired by Dan's falling off a ladder while remodeling and breaking his leg.

A part that I didn't get on video answered my question about the links to Virginia Wolfe.  He told me there is a whole genre of Virginia Wolfe movies that include two couples that argue, such as Polanski's Carnage.


This video is really long for me (17 minutes).  I finally decided to just let it run almost unedited.  I don't see my role here as producing video as entertainment, but as documentation.  So I don't want to cut out some part that might be important to someone researching Mirvish in 20 years when he's a household name, and he will be if he keeps this up.  

AIFF 2012: Go Ganges - Respectfully Irreverent Trip Down The Ganges

Somewhere in the film Go Ganges, JJ says something like, "At some point you just have to accept all the confusing differences and embrace them and then it's wonderful."  (That was a very rough paraphrasing.)

It's that willingness to go with the flow, to be curious about India, to try to understand some Hindi and to get permission from the holy man and from the river itself before taking off on their adventure,  that both allows them to have thoroughly enjoy themselves in the often difficult conditions of India and to make a movie that reflects their affection for the country.  Doing some yoga and learning some Hindi is one level of commitment, but when you put a plastic tube up your nose and pull it out your mouth, you show you're willing to go the extra kilometer. 

And knowing that, their humor - most aimed at themselves - is warm and friendly.  This is a wonderful way to see India and to see how audacious ideas which seem crazy to normal folks aren't necessarily crazy. 

A delightful sequel to Paddle to Seattle and good for the whole family.

It shows again Saturday at 4pm at the Alaska Experience Theater.  This is definitely a feel good movie.

Here are JJ and Josh answering questions after the film:

AIFF 2012: Truth Dripped off the Screen from the Film Between Us

Between Us had a good audience in the tiny theater downtown.  I wasn't looking forward to watching two couples duking it out, but I quickly got pulled in.    Truth dripped off the screen as the four people  revealed secrets about themselves and about each other.  Sometimes they worked as couples, sometimes as individuals, sometimes the women teamed up, sometimes the men, as alliances shifted constantly.  It wasn't easy to watch, but these secrets weren't simply these four people's secrets, they were the secrets of all of us.  Powerful.  'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' came to mind and I even stopped at Blockbusters to see if they had a copy so I could compare them.  (They didn't.) 

OK, that's my first impression.  Let's let it settle and see how I feel later.


It plays again Friday at 8pm at the Bear Tooth.   


Here's an answer from an interview of director Dan Mirvish by Kerry at the Napa Valley Film Festival last month.

4) As both the film’s Director and Writer, how did you come up with the idea to write the script for “Between Us?”
There was talk on Broadway of turning my last film, “Open House,” into a play, but during all my meetings, I asked if anyone had any good plays that would make good film adaptations. I read stacks of them, turned down the one that became “Ides of March” and chose “Between Us.”  It seemed to fit where I was in life: married, with young children, and struggling for some sort of artistic integrity. I got together with Joe Hortua, the playwright, and he liked my ideas for a filmed adaptation. So we collaborated on the screenplay that kept most of the dialogue that made the play so successful but added elements and restructured it in a way that I think make it work cinematographically.

AIFF 2012: Paddle To Seattle Guys Do the Ganges - Tonight at 8pm

Sunday  hunkered down and decided I needed a new strategy (well, actually a strategy period) for the festival.  It's now down to seeing as many of the films in competition in as many categories as possible.

So tonight (Monday) it's Between Us at 5:15 at Alaska Experience Theater.  This is a feature in competition.  The festival website blurb is:

In this darkly comedic drama, two couples reunite over the course of two incendiary evenings where anything can happen. Grace and Carlo are a newly married New York couple who visit their old friends Sharyl and Joel in their huge Midwestern home. But despite their wealth, the hosts are in a violently destructive marriage. Two years later, the couples reunite in New York, but now the tables are turned as the young couple struggles with their marriage, parenthood and financial woes, only to discover that their old friends are even more successful and much happier than they were before. Featuring Julia Stiles and Tay Diggs. Based on the hit Off-Broadway play of the same name. Adapted by original playwright Joe Hortua.

So, I go for marital discord while my wife is in Seattle and then maybe get some more light hearted fair with Go Ganges. (8pm at the Bear Tooth.) Paddle to Seattle won an audience award here in 2009 and it was a delightful kayak trip from Skagway or Haines to Seattle.  The guys didn't take themselves seriously at all and it was a great contrast to the testosterone filled Mt. St. Elias where 'every step could be your last' narration and belittling the American climber who decided not to go on to the top.  

This time they are in India and that should be fun.


Yesterday I ended up missing the morning and early afternoon programs.  I needed a break and there were things I needed to do around the house.

But I saw two worthwhile films which I want to write about at length later.  The first was a documentary in competition - The Road To Apartheid -  which compared the Israeli occupation of Gaza to Apartheid in South Africa.  While this was clearly a one-sided piece with some glaring omissions, it's a film about an important world issue that needs to be seen and discussed.  Unfortunately, the topic is one that many people don't want to hear, especially if the message counters their existing story about the issue.  I'll go into this more after the festival is over.  It plays again next Saturday at 1 at the AK Experience Theater.

The 8pm film was Shouting Secrets.  I was a little skeptical going in - family discord on the res was the image I had from the blurb.  But it turned out to be a fine film - the most enjoyable and satisfying film I've seen so far.  I have video of the director which I want to post before the next showing at 3pm on Friday at the Alaska Experience Theater.  I know it's when many people are still working, but how much do you get done on Friday afternoon anyway?

I think Alaska Natives will particularly enjoy seeing Native Americans portrayed like normal people on the big screen.  Yes, there is family discord, but it's simply human family discord, not Native American family discord.  In fact Swiss director Korinna Sehringer said that she originally wrote with a middle class white family in mind, but decided to change it to make it more universal and more interesting for her.  The result was a very moving film that happens to be about a Native American family that everyone can relate too.