PORT TOWNSEND — Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville will be the special guest at September’s Port Townsend Film Festival.
“We are tremendously excited that Morgan is joining us this year,” said Janette Force, film festival executive director.
“He represents everything the festival stands for — creativity, originality and pushing the boundaries of film.”
Neville will be honored at the Sept. 15-17 Port Townsend Film Festival.
D.D. Wigley of Port Townsend guessed the name of this year’s special guest and is the winner of the Guess the Guest contest, in which three clues to the guest’s identity were provided.
Full festival pass
Wigley won a $220 full festival pass, which includes unlimited films and dinner on Taylor Street on Sept. 15. Wigley also will meet Neville, Force said.
Neville, 49, won the 2013 Oscar for Best Documentary Film for “20 Feet From Stardom.” The film follows the journey of four outstanding women who worked as backup singers behind some of America’s biggest stars.
His following film, “The Music of Strangers,” is an account of cellist Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble that features top musicians from throughout the world playing instruments little heard in western music.
Both films will be screened at this year’s festival, which will showcase the work of more than 100 independent filmmakers, with question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers following most films, Force said.
Films will be screened in eight theatres in Port Townsend’s walkable National Historic District. Filmmaker round-table discussions are planned Saturday and Sunday mornings in the Pope Marine Park Building.
Neville’s “The Music of Strangers” will be screened in the 250-seat American Legion Hall, 209 Monroe St., at 6:30 p.m., Sept. 15. Neville will attend for a question-and-answer session.
Documentary to be shown
His documentary, “20 Feet From Stardom” will be screened Sept. 16 as the evening outdoor movie at 7:30 p.m. on Taylor Street.
Neville will be involved with the introduction of the film, which will be presented free and open to the public.
Neville also will talk with Port Townsend High School students in a program at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the auditorium of the school at 1500 Van Ness St. The presentation will be open to the public, Force said.
Neville told film festival organizers that he has never been to Port Townsend but has heard good things about the annual festival and has wanted to attend for some time.
“I’ve heard this festival is a real gem,” he told Force.
“At festivals you get to interact with people who are true film fans. There’s something about the engagement and the energy that I love. The best festivals have a magical air about them, where real life stops and everyone comes together.
“Meeting strangers, film fans and other filmmakers is one of the great rewards of being a filmmaker.”
Neville, after 2014’s John Sayles, is only the second director to be honored as a special guest during the festival’s 18-year history, Force said.
A documentary filmmaker, Neville has produced, directed or written more than 50 films, including “Keith Richards: Under the Influence” and “Troubadours.”
He has been nominated for five Grammy awards for his films, “Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied,” “Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story” and “Johnny Cash’s America.”
“Making a film about music is the ticket to making any kind of film that you want,” he said.
“It can be about cultural politics like ‘Music of Strangers’ or how we value craftsmen and artists, in a film like ‘20 Feet.’
“Calling something a ‘music film’ is an umbrella title that doesn’t do justice to how many places you can take yourself.”
Neville said the role of the documentary filmmaker is “to impose limits and prune the chaos of real life into a understandable narrative.”
During his 25-year career Neville has seen a welcome evolution in documentary films.
“When I started, people felt the same way about documentary films as they would about school field trips to a museum,” he said.
“It’s good for you, but you are not necessarily looking forward to it. It’s changed in so many different ways. There are a lot of really exciting films made as documentaries, which are pushing more boundaries than on the narrative side.
“We are not at the end of that process. The technique of telling real stories in interesting ways is a long way from being spent.”
For information and passes, see www.ptfilmfest.com.
