Published: Friday, September 5, 2008 4:40 AM CDT
EASTON The Talbot County Free Library in Easton will hold its Brown Bag Lecture Series with podiatrist Dr. Todd Albrecht at noon Thursday, Sept. 18. The lecture will provide a sneak preview of the Chesapeake Film Festival to be held Sept. 19 to 21 in Easton.

Albrecht will describe the various films and events taking place at the festival. He will also discuss goals and objectives of the festival, how tickets can be purchased and what to expect at the screenings. Albrecht will show a few trailers included in the festival as well.

Albrecht resides and works in a private practice in Easton.Bring a lunch. Coffee and sweets provided. Call 410-822-1626.

New Line Cinema's "Appaloosa," a Western starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger and Jeremy Irons, will close the festival Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Avalon Theatre. Directed by Harris and adapted from a Robert B. Parker novel by Harris and Robert Knott, the movie is set in the Old West territory of New Mexico and tells the story of two friends and lawmen (Harris and Mortensen) hired to police a dangerous town run by a ruthless rancher (Irons). A young widow (Zellweger) arrives and further complicates matters.

Knott, who also served as a producer and appears in the film, played one of the lead roles in "Swimmers," a film shot locally by the festival's artistic director, Doug Sadler.

Sadler worked with Harris in 2002 at the Sundance Institute and, through him, met Knott. Sadler became friends with Knott and later cast him in "Swimmers."

They have stayed in touch since then, often discussing their current projects. Sadler said he read a couple drafts of Knott's "Appaloosa" script and first broached the idea of bringing the movie to the Chesapeake Film Festival about a month ago. Knott approached Warner Bros., the film's distributor, which approved the request.

Knott, who spent several weeks in the area filming "Swimmers" in 2003 and returned for its May 2005 screenings at the Avalon, will attend the festival's closing night festivities. The screening starts at 7 p.m., with the "Festival Round-Up BBQ" preceding it at 5 p.m.

"We're excited to have it and have Robert coming," Sadler said. "We think it's going to be a fun way to end the festival."

Reached by phone Friday in Toronto, where "Appaloosa" was set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Knott said he is excited to return to the Eastern Shore.

"It's one of my favorite places on the planet," he said.

Knott said Harris, a longtime friend, picked up the novel "Appaloosa," which is part of a Western trilogy by Parker, best known for the "Spenser" detective novels, while on a "horseriding adventure in Ireland."

"He read a couple chapters and fell in love," Knott said.

Harris and Knott, who had been looking for a project to work on together for some time, both felt the novel was worth their time and energy, so they acquired the rights and went to work on the screenplay, Knott said.

Then came the "adventure of making the film," which can be arduous process, he said. But, filming in Santa Fe, N.M., and Austin, Texas, "we had a hell of a good time. I think we have a very fine film," Knott said.

"Appaloosa" opens Sept. 19 in New York and Los Angeles, and Oct. 3 nationwide.

As previously announced, the Chesapeake Film Festival opens Friday, Sept. 19, with Universal Pictures' "Flash of Genius," which tells the story of former Mid-Shore resident Robert Kearns and his long legal battle against the automakers he accused of stealing his invention, the intermittent windshield wiper.

"Flash of Genius" also is premiering in Toronto before opening Oct. 3 in theaters nationwide.

Greg Kinnear stars as Kearns, while Lauren Graham splays his wife, Phyllis. The cast also includes Alan Alda and Dermot Mulroney.

Director Marc Abraham, who has produced such films as "Children of Men," "The Hurricane" and "Air Force One," will attend the screening, along with Kearns' son, Tim Kearns, who serves as an Oxford commissioner.

The opening night event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a gala at the Tidewater Inn and the screening set for 8 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre. Tickets are $75 for the gala and preferred seating at the screening, and $25 for the movie only. Reservations are required.

In addition to opening and closing night, the festival will feature a full lineup of film screenings including features, shorts, documentaries and classics Saturday, Sept. 20, and Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Avalon, Academy Art Museum and Historical Society of Talbot County. A full schedule and descriptions of the films are available online at www.chesapeakefilmfestival.org. Tickets are available for the entire festival (advance purchase required), packs of three films and individual screenings. For more information, visit the festival's Web site or call the Talbot County Office of Tourism at 410-770-8000.

The first Chesapeake Film Festival is the answer to a film buff's prayers, or just any old fan of Hollywood. The festival will take place at three venues in Easton from Friday to Sunday.

Movies range from everything to big box office old Westerns to small, independent documentaries. There are even a few Pixar shorts thrown in for good measure. Whatever the taste, there is something to satisfy it at the film festival.

And for those who like to support local talent, there is even an entry from nearby Crumpton. Kurt Kolaja will show "Charlie Obert's Barn," a 65-minute look at a family coming to terms with changing times and how to save a piece of their history. What makes this film so unique is that the family in question is Kolaja's Charlie Obert was his grandfather and the barn, and the farm it sat on in Pennsylvania is where Kolaja's mother grew up.

When Kolaja's uncle Milo decided to sell the farm, no one in the family was interested in taking over, so Kolaja asked the new owners if he could take the barn and turn it into a house.

"I didn't start thinking, 'I'm going to document this thing.' I started out taking stills to maybe frame a picture later and hang it on my wall. It just escalated from there," Kolaja said on Monday.

With the help of his family, and a handy carpenter named Gary, Kolaja recorded the dismantling of a barn in Pennsylvania and the construction of a house in Maryland.

"Shooting the film was the most difficult because there was nobody else," Kolaja said. "Shooting it was convoluted. I would literally set up the camera, say 'yup that looks right,' and then start sanding boards or something."

And because Kolaja shot the movie on 65mm film, which is very expensive and hard to come by in this age of digital photography, not wasting any film time was key.

"There would be times when I would be shooting thinking 'man this is six seconds of film, hurry up.'"

The movie not only documents the transformation of the barn, but also the process and fear that goes into any big construction project.

"When the frame was up, man that was nauseating, but the only way out was that way," Kolaja said about completing the house. "That was awful, just awful."

Through the construction dust and debris, viewers will also be able to see the relationships that make up Kolaja's family, which to him is what the movie is really about.

"I like to think that (the movie) is about life. I would think that a lot of people could find people with whom they could attach themselves to in this film."

He doesn't have any pretensions about what people will get out of his movie, "they can get what they care to get out of it," he said, "but it is interesting what different folks see in it."

"I've seen people laugh hysterically and I've seen people sob. I've seen a lot of stiff, straight-spined farmers stand behind their wives with pursed lips and their molars tied together.

"He thinks that the movie touches such a core in people because "we're not that removed from an agrarian background. Many people still have within their memory ... that farm they grew up on, whether it was grandma's or grandpa's or an uncle's. People really do have an attachment to the small American farm."

Even though his film is in the festival, Kolaja wants people to come for the experience.

"It's fun, it's enjoyable and you'll have an opportunity to see films you wouldn't be able to see somewhere else," he said. "And you get the opportunity to talk to people who have had a hand in making the film. Go see it ("Charlie Obert's Barn"), take in the film festival and have a good time."

"Charlie Obert's Barn" will be showing at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Academy Art Museum, Easton.For a complete schedule of movies and ticket information, visit www.chesapeakefilmfestival.com.

"Our mission is to entertain, educate, inspire, enrich," said Doug Sadler, the festival's artistic director. "If you look at what we're offering and the people we're bringing in, I feel we have totally met our goal this year."

The slate of films includes premieres of major Hollywood studio movies (in addition to Friday's "Flash of Genius" screening, New Line Cinema's Western "Appaloosa" starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen closes the festival tonight); issue-driven documentaries such as "I.O.U.S.A.," which examines the national debt, and "At the Death House Door," which focuses on the death penalty; work of local residents, including "The White Pony," written by Laura Ambler of Easton, and "Charlie Obert's Barn," a documentary by Kurt Kolaja of Queen Anne's County; screenings of classics "The Best Man" (1964) starring Henry Fonda, followed by a political panel, and William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" (1959) enhanced with live effects provided by ArtHouse Live; and more.

Guests have included filmmakers, subjects of the films and others.

"We've gotten very lucky this year," Sadler said. "There's no way to look at it other than that."

For "Flash of Genius," the guests were director Marc Abraham, Tim Kearns and Bob Kearns Jr. The Kearns are the sons of Dr. Robert Kearns, inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper and the movie's main character.

With Greg Kinnear as Dr. Kearns and Lauren Graham as his wife Phyllis, the film tells the story of Kearns' legal fight against the automakers he accused of stealing his patents for the wipers. He eventually prevailed in court and won millions. He later moved to the Mid-Shore.

Tim Kearns lives in Oxford, where he serves as a town commissioner.

"I didn't realize he was so important in this area," Abraham said of Tim during a question-andanswer session after the screening. "I'm going to start treating him a little nicer in case I get a ticket on the way back to Baltimore."

Abraham, a longtime Hollywood producer making his directorial debut with "Flash of Genius," thanked the festival committee for the invitation to the festival, which gave him the opportunity to catch up with some of the Kearns family. "They've been so helpful throughout the film and so supportive."

Though Dr. Kearns died in 2005, before work on the movie began in earnest, Abraham said he had several conversations with Dr. Kearns during the project's development. In their first talk, Dr. Kearns asked, "'How do I know you're not going to take this story and turn it into a story about how Ford and GM were the heroes?'" Abraham recalled. "I said, 'Well with all due respect, Bob, that's not much of a story.'"

The film is not about windshield wipers or Ford, GM or any other car manufacturer but a man and his family's fight against injustice.

"The notion of what will this movie mean was a good topic of conversation many times" among the family," Tim Kearns said. "My father was very proud that the movie would be made," even though he was paranoid that his story would be buried.

Bob Kearns said the family is appreciative of the manner in which Abraham told the story.

Abraham said he, Kinnear and the Kearns family all understood Dr. Kearns was not a saint.

"I believe that about all of us," the director said. "We all have our foibles, we all have our warts, we all have our sides of us that are not necessarily the most perfect sides and I felt that for a story to be true about (Dr. Kearns), we had to be able to portray those as well.

"I've always given credit to (the Kearns). They never ever didn't understand that. This is a family that was not about 'let's make a movie and make our dad just perfect.'"

Bob Kearns said Kinnear's performance "is dead-on. It's uncanny."

Prior to the screening, Hannah Byron, assistant secretary for tourism, film and the arts in Maryland, read a proclamation from Gov. Martin O'Malley naming Friday "Chesapeake Film Festival Day" in the state. She also recognized Debbi Dodson, Talbot County tourism director and one of the festival's organizers. "She really is one of the best tourism directors in the state of Maryland," Byron said.

Sen. Richard Colburn, R-37-Mid-Shore, read a Senate resolution, and Delegates Jeannie Haddaway, R-37B-Talbot, and Addie Eckardt, R-37B-Dorchester, presented a House resolution, both offering congratulations on the festival."

This has been a year and a half of people dreaming about having a film festival, lots and lots of ideas," said Marie U'Ren, the festival's director. "We discovered that there are really a lot of people here who are connected to film and interested in film."

"The goal is to bring the community alive," said Sadler. "Film can do that by encouraging conversation and dialogue and by engaging all elements of a community."

The festival continues today, with screenings at the Avalon Theatre and Academy Art Museum in Easton and the Steamboat Building of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels. For more information, visit the festival's Web site at www.chesapeakefilmfestival.com.

"My mom says I make too many R-rated movies," Moore, an Easton native, said last weekend at a presentation of The People Speak during the Chesapeake Film Festival.About a year ago, "I had just made this horror movie, I was getting tired of killing teenagers and I thought I needed to do something that feels a little better," he said.

The seed for The People Speak was planted more than a decade ago in Good Will Hunting. In one scene, Will (Matt Damon) advises his therapist, Sean (Robin Williams), that he should read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States if he wants to read a real history book.

The book, originally published in 1980, has sold more than a million copies.

"It was sort of groundbreaking because it told American history from the point of view of everyday people and people who weren't in power and people who were alive at these great moments in history," Moore said. "It sort of made you think, what is everyday people's role in history?"

Moore brought with him to the festival two excerpts from the film, running about 30 minutes. The pieces feature actors, including Viggo Mortensen, David Strathairn, Kerry Washington, Marisa Tomei and Josh Brolin, and musicians such as John Legend performing dramatic readings of letters, testimony and historical documents.

The goal, Moore said, is to encourage people to think for themselves and stand up for what they think is right."

Our idea is to just remind people that thinking for yourself and deciding that something is wrong and it needs to be fixed is as American as anything else," he said.

Moore said there will be a 90-minute film to take to film festivals, colleges and possibly theaters. The People Speak likely will air on TV next year as a miniseries, though the details are still being negotiated.

"We don't want it to come out until after the election because it's not really about voting," Moore said. "It's about sort of keeping the leaders honest and no matter who's president, that's going to be an important role for the people."

Making The People Speak has been a 10-year process. So why is now the time to finally see it through?"Part of it was where I was in my head," Moore said. "I had been doing these movies for money and I particularly made a couple horror movies, and I was just sick of it."

"I just said, 'You know what? It's time to do this. Let's go out and just start shooting it.' And we did. And now I have to go find a job for money again."

That's what Moore enjoys about being an independent producer."I find projects, I fall in love with them and I do the best I can to get them made."

He has done exactly that with The People Speak and his passion for the project is obvious when he speaks about it.

"I was just at a place in my life where it was time to do this project."

Published: Thursday, September 25, 2008 6:35 AM CDT
This past weekend in Talbot County was exceptional, with the First Chesapeake Film Festival offered to anyone who enjoys a wide selection of outstanding films. I saw three wonderful films with interesting story lines and no foul language. What a treat! All three were documentaries with compelling stories. Another special aspect of each film was having people directly involved in the film's production on hand to discuss it and answer questions.Thursday, I attended the library's free brown-bag lecture with Dr. Todd Albrecht giving an enthusiastic description of each film and showing "trailers" of two of the films. It was a good foretaste of what was to come during the weekend and in deciding which of the 20 films to view.Kudos go to Deborah Dodson of the Talbot County Tourism Office, Marie U'Ren, outstanding volunteer, and Doug Sadler, local filmmaker, for their extensive efforts in orchestrating this exciting film festival for us to enjoy. Of course, there are many volunteers who have given hours of service to this well-organized event. Many thanks to all who had a part in bringing yet another enjoyable cultural event to Talbot County!JACQUELINE DIANICH, Royal Oak