Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Vermont director
to screen film

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Filmmaker John O’Brien is a Vermonter through and through. When he realized all his elderly neighbors were dying off, he decided something must be done. A trilogy of small town Americana films followed, the final one being the charming "Nosey Parker." O’Brien is bringing his film to the Magic Lantern in Ketchum for a screening Thursday, April 15, at 7 p.m. A question and answer period follows the screening.

John O'Brien

During the day, O’Brien will be discussing filmmaking at The Community School in Sun Valley.

Talking about his movies is something O’Brien naturally does often. He wrote, cast, directed and edited "Nosey Parker." And, now, he’s self-distributing the film. "That’s a job in itself," he said recently by telephone.

Think (early) Woody Allen without a studio. These are men literally in love with their hometowns who have cast non-professional friends in their highly personal films.

O’Brien said one of the most commonly asked questions at these Q&A sessions is "Does Vermont always look that way in fall?"

"Nosey Parker" and the two films preceding it in the trilogy—"Vermont is for Lovers" and "Man with A Plan"— show off the state’s gorgeous natural attributes, especially the intense displays of fall foliage.

Of course, the movie is really about the wonderful folks who inhabit the small town of Tunbridge, and the changing of the social environment. Sadly, several of those folks, Fred Tuttle and George Lyford among them, have since died. One of the other neighbors he featured was turning 96 the day we spoke.

"It really captures small town America at the turn of the century," O’Brien said. "The point was to document the times and try to do it in an entertaining way."

He realized that there was this great oral history about to disappear. His first film, "Vermont is for Lovers," went over well until Vincent Canby of The New York Times panned it when it showed at the renowned New Directors/New Films festival, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, for emerging or not-yet-established filmmakers from around the world.

"He thought the real Vermonters were fake," O’Brien said ruefully. "It had lots of promise but after he panned it, the film had no chance. He’s dead now, I had nothing to do with it."

Though he continues to build a Northeast following for "Nosey Parkerm" he also takes it on the road to smaller towns out west such as Port Townsend, Wash, where it won best feature film at the film festival. He’s also been to Ashland, Ore., and, now, Ketchum.

Maintaining his independent status is important to the young filmmaker. Though he was a Political Science major at Harvard, he took a documentary film class and was hooked, but not with Hollywood in mind. "It was enough to get me started," he said. However, despite good reviews for his films and press resulting from film festival screenings, it’s a tough business.

"There are really only about five or six independent directors making fiction films now. They end up being snatched up by Hollywood or giving up and becoming realtors or something," O’Brien said. "We need a dialogue going on in this country to focus attention on that. There’re certain movies that should be made without stars or that play to the lowest common denominator."

Also, art houses have been disappearing as large corporate multiplexes dominate, making it difficult to find a venue for true indies. With so few places to show these films, there’s a "pecking order," O’Brien explained. Quasi independent films like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," with Jim Carrey, that are distributed by large studios come first, then good foreign films and then independent regional films. Even so, O’Brien is committed to continuing the work.

His new project is to be a comedy with high school students on environmental issues. "I realized I should make a movie that has a marketing edge," O’Brien laughed. "My idea is to make a movie that is not for the converted, a comedy as activism."

His trip to Ketchum is not a lengthy one. It’s imperative he return soon to Vermont.

"My lambs are coming, I’ve got to get back." This statement makes me imagine Francis Ford Coppola announcing, ‘I have to get back, my grapes must be picked.’

Besides being an artist, a sheep farmer and a debate coach for two high schools in his area, O’Brien is Tunbridge’s Justice of the Peace.

About the sheep that are featured in several scenes in "Nosey Parker," he said, "Everybody loves sheep." (Yes, I told him about the Trailing of the Sheep event here in October).

"All the things I do are starting to come together."

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