Moving image review (1988]-)

Special Events: Alan Berliner Reception and Screening On August 24, in its ongoing effort to promote independent filmmaking, NHF welcomed Alan Berliner to the Alamo for a screening of two of his works, Intimate Stranger and Nobody's Business. Where many documentary filmmakers look to politics, history, or sweeping social issues for subject matter, Berliner examines American family life — including his own. In his first feature, The Family Album (1986), Berliner meticulously pieced together found home movies and audio to trace family life from infancy to old age. Berliner looked closer to home for die subject of Intimate Stranger. It profiles his maternal grandfather, an EgyptianJewish textile merchant who loomed large in the lives of international business colleagues, but, as the tide indicates, remained a remote and mysterious figure in his family's eyes. Nobody's Business, Berliner's latest, depicts his father, a retired sportswear manufacturer who retains a vital spark and orneriness despite having entered what one reviewer calls "a brokenhearted, reclusive old age." The work won this years International Film Critics Association Award at die Berlin International Film Festival. Intimate and Ironic "What Alan does, which no other documentary filmmaker that I've seen does, is to be intimate and ironic at the same time," said Peter Davis, a Castine resident, author and himself an Academy Award-winning filmmaker (Hearts and Minds). Speaking to the Bangor Daily News, Davis continued, "This is an amazing and magical trick that novelists do, but diat nonfiction writers and nonfiction filmmakers can't manage." Davis, who has known Berliner since 1993, welcomed about 60 people to a pre-screening party for the New Yorker and his wife, Anya, at his home. Photographer Patrisha McLean and author Deborah Joy Corey were Davis' co-hosts. "Alan is really unassuming, really open, and no New York attitude," says McLean. "He seemed really pleased to be there." A secondary goal for die event was to introduce NHF to Castine, and most of those attending the Berliner event are now new members and supporters. Despite acoustic problems in the theater, where sound-absorbing materials have yet to be installed and the sound is still a litde "live," Berliner and his films were a solid hit. Enthusiastic Audience "It was a very responsive audience," Davis reports. Viewers ranged in age from the teens to the 80s; the latter group included one particularly discerning member, writer Samuel Taylor, whose credits include the screenplay for Vertigo and both die stage play and original screenplay for Sabrina. "He told me how enthusiastic he was," Davis says, adding, "The non-professional crowd, which of course was most people, thought diese were two terrific films." The intermission and the Q&A session that followed the films revealed the provocative power of Berliner's work. "Everybody was talking a lot, because his movies were so insightful," McLean says. "They were personal to him, but they brought up different issues with everybody. It caused a lot of conversation and comments, so it was really stimulating." "People were just captivated by these lives he was exploring," says Corey. "He has an unusual approach, an ability to get under the skin." In particular, Nobody's Business seemed to touch many viewers. Corey told Berliner how lucky he is to have such a father. "It's so rare to have that ability to be completely frank in a father-son or father-daughter relationship," she says. "I think that's a gift." H The Family Album, on videocassette, may be borrowed free of charge by Northeast Historic Film members through NHF's Reference by Mail service. Thanks to Alan Berliner. Milestone Film and Video, 212 865-7449, distributes Alan Berliner's work. Peter Davis, far right, and Alan Berliner, seated, with guests at the August reception in Castine, Maine. 17