Festival Circuit

TABLOID (Errol Morris, USA)

OK......even for someone who is internet-connected, it is still impossible for me to be physically in more than one place at any given time (please work on that, Steve Jobs.....). As I am sitting typing this at the Montreal World Film Festival, simultaneous events are happening around the world at a pace that is dizzying indeed.

Montreal is hot and humid, which is perhaps the weather I could be expect if I was attending that other major international film festival of the moment.....in Venice. Communiques, press releases, requests for interviews and, that most prized posession of all, party invitations are coming fast and furious from the Lido........and I just smile and enjoy the excitement from a comfortable distance. If only I was able to physically transport myself from Montreal to Venice back to Montreal, in order to catch that particular film or be fabulous at that particular soiree....that would be neat in the extreme.

And as long as we are teletransporting, how about a few hours in the Canadian Rockies, where the Telluride Film Festival begins today. The Festival, which falls over the Labor Day Weekend, our official end of summer, is unique in that it does not announce in advance its program roster. However, details are now spilling out about the films that will be showcased, including a very strong contingent of documentaries.

Documentary films are all the buzz in Telluride. Veteran director Errol Morris will unveil his latest, TABLOID, with Ken Burns presenting his baseball doc THE TENTH INNING and Werner Herzog offering his latest, HAPPY PEOPLE. Also on tap are A LETTER TO ELIA (Kazan, that is) by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones. Tributes will be paid to a rich roster including English actor Colin Firth, Austrian director Peter Weir and Italian diva Claudia Cardinale.

OK, so Montreal for breakfast, Venice for lunch and Telluride for dinner.....not a bad way to spend the day. Microsoft, Google, Apple.....this is your latest assignment. Allow me to attend three different festivals at the same time, so that I won't miss out on a thing. And next week, can you do the same for Toronto, Martha's Vineyard and New York. I'll be waiting by the phone for your call.....

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Circuit Editor