Napa Valley Film Festival

napa valley film festival

As the country grappled with the outcome of an intense election cycle, traumatized liberals and conservatives alike came together at the Napa Valley Film Festival with questions about the future direction of this country. What they found were films that explored those themes and the broader idea of what it means to be an American in this day and age.

Take, for example, Captain Fantastic whose star actor Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings series and 28 Days) told I&S, “[the film] made me think about, not only my family, but our country and the problems when you don’t communicate.” The film, written and directed by Matt Ross (actor in Big Love and Silicon Valley), opens in wild Oregon forest where Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) is training his six children in survival techniques and the deepest philosophical underpinnings of literature and government away from the failures of the American education system and our money driven society. When the clan must re-enter mainstream culture for their mother’s funeral, all must face the reality of their upbringing and make a decision about whether to assimilate or stay isolated. As the African proverb so famously touted by Hillary Clinton proclaims, does it indeed take a village to raise a child? Ross, who’s mother was involved in creating alternative communities during his childhood, explores American parenting from a position of deep understanding and ultimately shows us the complexity of this issue through intellectual humor and dramatic scenes. He told I&S that his role had really been to manage “this moving thing” in an effort to combine creative approaches into a collaborative project, something that was clearly seen through excellent performances by both adult and child alike.

Parenting takes on a different meaning in All We Had, Katie Holmes’s directorial debut and Best Lounge Feature winner. Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek and Pieces of April) is Rita, a young mother fallen on hard times with her 15 year old daughter Ruthie. As the pair escape yet another of Rita’s failed relationships, they make their way across the country by sleeping in their car and stealing food, eventually landing in a small Northeastern town where they work to make a stable life for themselves. The film depicts the difficulties Americans are still facing after the recession and the bonds of family and friends that ensue. With Rita’s dependence on men for financial support and the humanizing portrayal of transgender people in Eve Lindley’s character Peter Pam, the film also asks what it is to be a woman in this country, especially during times of intense hardship and vulnerability. All We Had challenges anyone who denies the economic realities that we live in today and spotlights the resilience, strength, and community so central to our survival.

The idea of the “safety net” is also addressed in the Special Jury Award winning documentary God Knows Where I Am which chronicles the story of Linda Bishop whose mental illness eventually leads to her death by starvation in a vacant farmhouse just feet away from safety. Brothers Todd and Jedd Wider took four years to make this beautiful film which tells Linda’s story so compassionately. Shots of the farmhouse were used to visually recreate Linda’s desires, fears, desperation, and hope and context was provided through interviews with her family and excerpts from her diary, which was read with incredible expression by the talented Lori Singer. The Wider brothers were looking to tell a story about the homeless and mentally ill in America and said that they have heard countless comments about homelessness being out of control in every major city in America. God Knows Where I Am is a call to improve mental health care and broaden support for the most struggling Americans, a population which continues to expand as a result of our stilted economic reality.

In a more optimistic vein, Burn Your Maps starring Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air and The Conjuring) and young Jacob Tremblay (Room) shows how, even when the world feels confining and hopeless, it’s possible to overcome despair by expanding your perspective and exploring the unknown. The pair play a mother and son who travel to Asia after Tremblay’s character becomes convinced that he is not an American but actually a Mongolian goat herder. By indulging her son in his feelings and rejecting the Western approach of medication and therapy, Farmiga’s character is able to relieve some of her own depression after the death of her baby girl. Juxtaposed by the methodical and straight-edged character of Tremblay’s father, an Indian immigrant who accompanies the family as a documentarian, and a New York born Puerto Rican now living in Mongolia, the film explores the tension between identity based on where we are born and the person we feel we are in our hearts. The film was shot in the gorgeous mountains of Alberta where there is currently the largest resettlement of Mongolians outside of their native land and casted actors from this very population. Director Jordan Roberts focused on the experiences of his characters and says, “for a long time I tried to be smart [in making films] but I made this movie intuitively.” For him, the film is about a family realizing that the story they’ve been telling themselves about their own lives has actually been hurting them and preventing them from finding peace. Burn Your Maps asks viewers to see identity beyond the one ascribed to us by location at birth and to instead see ourselves as global citizens unrestrained by geography.

Americans’ understanding of Cuban identity is expanded in Ron Chapman’s The Forbidden Shore which documents some of the country’s biggest modern musicians. Scenes of powerful performances and recordings are interspersed with the musicians’ own words about their music and Cuba’s history and future, and video of street scenes and sunsets helps to feed our curiosity about the country we have been restricted from for so long. The film’s main message, that the US embargo has kept Cuban artists from sharing their unique talents and cultural identities with the world, was expressed throughout the film almost to the point of redundancy. The film seemed to have missed an opportunity to really delve deeply into the lives and complexities of the featured artists, many of whom made the trip to Napa for the film’s premiere and gave an absolutely incredible live performance.

To cap off the festival, the premiere of Alan Kropf’s Pisco Punch on Sunday night was a representation of everything so special about the nearly weeklong event. Stunning visuals, rich context, and appearances by key players in the Pisco industry made this documentary about the history and future of the little-known alcohol thoroughly enjoyable. Bay Area natives could delight in the pivotal role San Francisco has and will play in this spirit and in the connection the city enjoys with the Ica region of Peru where Pisco is made. Kropf described his approach to the film as “my voice, [producer] Mathew’s eyes, and [Pisco distiller] Diego’s voice.” He admitted that the film had only been finished the night before and cheers were heard throughout the viewing from the many Peruvians involved that came to see the premiere. At the end, Kropf asked the audience to join him in chanting three “hip hip hoorays” to send vibes to Peru, a task we all happily joined in on.

Readmore: 2016 Napa Valley Film Festival’s Full List of Awards

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