The twelfth in the long running and thoroughly indispensable Projections series offers conclusive proof that the franchise is still going strong. Projections No.1, edited, as is each successive entry, with aplomb by director John Boorman and Walter Donohue of Faber and Faber, helped define the series as a serious forum for film-makers, attracting interesting and esoteric contributions from film figures of all disciplines: writing, directing, producing, acting, cinematography and editing. Previous contributors of note have included Hal Hartley, Sam Fuller, Walter Murch, Jimmy Stewart and Steven Soderbergh, to name but five. Each issue takes as its locus a pertinent subject, issue or as with Projections 7, a figure, such as Martin Scorsese. Perhaps most closely resembling Projections 8 in scope and subject matter, (that particularly edition asking international film critics to debate the contemporary value of film criticism), the latest installment concerns itself with film-makers on film schools; it's characteristically incisive and illuminating fare.
John Boorman's intelligent, well-thought introduction sets out the book's stall very nicely, as does Fraser MacDonald's introductory essay. A concise explanation of the value and evolution of film schools in terms of their national and international import and the changes, institutional and otherwise that have affected their being, Boorman and MacDonald also allude to their relationship to the production of talent and to their contribution to the industry in terms of putting into practice new ways of exploring the medium. To this end, the book's chapter on Digital Cinema, in which Richard Linklater discusses his recent Waking Life (2001) should be amongst the book's most pressing, asking the question what role, if any, do film school's have in this new tactile, digital era. Instead it is little more than a rather unsatisfactory collection of drawings from the film. Still, at lest they're left blank so those readers with the inclination are able to colour them in.
From the opening chapter, UK and European Film Schools, several prominent figures submit themselves to a lengthy interview conducted by MacDonald, himself a graduate from the National Film and Television School. In each instance, MacDonald’s questions, probings and insights elicit candid and revealing responses from, amongst others, film directors (Damien O’Donnell, East is East (2000) and Lyn Ramsay, Ratcatcher (2000)); Tutors (Dick Ross); Screenwriters (Simon Moore, The Quick and the Dead (1995) and the original television version of Traffik) and Roger Crittenden, the Director of Curriculum at the National Film and Television School. The interview with the producer Michelle Camarda (This Year's Love (1999) and Wonderland (2000)) is perhaps the most instructive in regard to both understanding the multi-tasking role of a producer and in providing a first hand account of the potential benefits of attending film school. Similarly, Ben Gibson, who has a vast amount of experience in the industry as a distributor, programmer and BFI Head of Production, brings lucidity and a degree of outspokenness to his explanation of his role as the Director of the London International Film School. Bullish about the survival of film school’s amidst the emergence of the Internet and increasingly dominant, do-it-yourself digital technology, Gibson is also honest enough to admit that the film school experience is not suited to the needs of everyone. Macdonald's own lengthy diary entries concerning his attempts at juggling a part-time projectionist job, impending marriage and his attempts to pull a graduation film together are erudite, unassuming and extremely funny. If there is a minor flaw to this first section, one could point to a UK bias, but one shouldn’t criticise the book for knowing its market.
In US Film Schools, prefaced with an equally knowledgeable piece that provides essential foregrounding by Oren Moverman (who assumes interview duties for this section), an American perspective is sought. Writer-director Lodge Kerrigan (Clean, Shaven (1993) and Claire Dolan (2000)) is characteristically pensive and intelligent, as is editor Jay Rabinowitz, Jim Jarmusch's longtime collaborator. Perhaps most interestingly, the dialogue with Rabinowitz leads to an interesting debate as to what structurally constitutes the term 'film school'. Fans of Hal Hartley will be pleased to see the involvement of his regular DoP Michael Spiller who proves himself to be a companionable raconteur and an intelligent historian of the cinematographer's art.
Best of all the participants however is Danny Fisher, a producer and graduate of Harpur College and a former student of the legendary Nicholas Ray. Fisher provides a moving reminiscence of his time studying under Ray and his subsequent work with Ray on the prophetic We Can't Go Home Again (1976). The chapter also tantalisingly reveals Fisher's plans for a feature film about the lifer of Ray, provisionally titled Interrupted. Approaching the US section of the book I initially expected to find less of interest, but in fact it acted to contextualise the film school situation in the UK, revealing pertinent details regarding state funding and institutional and creative sensibilities.
Projections 12 also includes profile/interviews with Walter Salles, Pawel Pawlikowski, François Ozon and Bruno Dumont, four acclaimed contemporary directors (it's interesting to learn those that did and did not attend film school) with contrasting styles and approaches to the art of direction) and new fiction from Ethan Hawke. Wim Wenders' poetic tribute to the late Henri Alakan acts as a fitting conclusion to a varied, esoteric collection that really should find a place amongst the collection of any self-respecting cineaste or anyone contemplating attending film school.
Reviewed by Jason Wood
