Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Films Set In Seattle And Shot In Vancouver, B.C. Have Got To Go!

Ah, another SIFF opening.

You never know how you’re going to be treated as press on Opening Night. In the old days I was told they didn’t give out comp tickets. Though one year when they said that I was nonetheless mailed a pair of tickets that arrived on the Saturday after opening night. Then they began showing the opening night film at the press launch and you crashed the party. Then they made it a little more formal and you RSVP’d to attend the party. A few years ago they started giving you tickets to opening night again. It had become sort of necessary, since they last year (and this year) they didn’t screen the opening night film at the press launch.

Well, this year select press got tickets. I took Kay Ray, filmmaker/producer, who has a great film on women in jazz called Lady Be Good that she’s finishing up. We found free parking pretty handily. Ticket collection was relatively smooth. And we got to wait in the pass-holder line.

We were kept waiting though; I later heard it was because they were waiting for Charlize Theron to arrive. There was a red carpet leading up the steps to McCaw Hall, and a “photo pit” area where the celebs presumably posed for the paparazzi. But regular attendees didn’t go on the red carpet; you went alongside it. Perhaps I should’ve mingled over in that area to what whoever were considered celebs appear. But, oh well. You'll have to read about that elsewhere.

Got in, got seats, got drinks. Watched people coming in; that’s always fun, you don’t have to come to them, they come to you. Only one place serving drinks, apparently; bad planning (it’s not like that at the opera). Read on another blog Eddie Vedder was seen. I didn’t see him. Watched people at the VIP enclosure. One man stood inside at a table eating his snacks, all alone. I remarked how sad that looked. “See, money can’t buy you love or happiness,” said Irene, who’d joined us in line.

We were eventually bing-bonged to go in the theater. Very full house. People sitting upstairs too. I was told they cut back on press tickets, though I’d have thought in McCaw there’d be plenty of room. Then during the opening remarks I heard the night was a fundraiser. Perhaps that was why. They flashed the sponsors on the screen throughout, instead of having them read off. That worked better, though I wonder why there’s the need to do it at all; sponsors are listed in the programs and there’s “sign-age,” as they like to call it, all around. They closed the curtains to bring out the director and stars; couldn’t have them in front of a screen flashing sponsor names! Stuart Townsend seemed like a nice enough guy, he and other guys were dressed down in hipster fashion; a tie, with the shirt untucked. Then they started the film…but first showed a few more commercials (first time that’s happened at opening?). Not just the little promo films they put together plugging SIFF, we got a couple other ads. So the 7 pm start time was actually 7:45.

Then the movie! Battle In Seattle. Some of it was shot in Seattle, but most of it was shot in Vancouver, B.C., so it was fun trying figuring out which scenes were shot where. The film follows different characters during WTO. The problem is that they’re pretty stock characters and plot developments are obvious from the get go. The cute young activists; they’ll be getting together (check). A pregnant woman (that’s Charlize) in the riot zone? That’s not going to work out well (check). It was funny seeing the mayor being so largely ineffectual. And there was hissing when Howard Schultz’s mug came on the screen. The dialogue was pretty trite in places, as when Charlize’s friend assures her, re. her pregnancy, “You’ve just signed up for the adventure of your lives!” Ulp. If it wasn’t opening night, I suspect people might have laughed. Really, the best part was seeing the archive footage of the event and remembering what it all really meant. And at least most times there was a progressive statement from one of the characters people cheered. That was heartening. My recommendation: if you’re interested, you can safely wait for this to come out on video.

There was a Q&A after, and then a press conference after that. I skipped them, as I wanted to get to the party. I heard later the Q&A was rather lame, with few good answers. One woman told me she always found the Q&A’s “embarrassing.” I said I usually enjoyed them and she couldn’t believe it. Don’t know about the press conference. The party was again next door at the Exhib Hall. You came out to a line of volunteers telling you where to go; it was reminiscent of seeing the lines of police in the film. Got some food, but had actually eaten before and so wasn’t that hungry. Some chicken on a slab of bread, Rueben sandwiches, something Asian. Only one place where food was as well, resulting in a line that ran the length of the venue. Again, bad planning. But it didn’t seem to run out this year. My friends kept going back to get Ruebens. They even got some that were actually hot; tasted much better.

It was then I made the discovery…the drinks were not free. This is how I’ve always recommended buying a ticket to opening/closing, because of the free drinks. A new era has begun, I’m afraid. Even the VIPs didn’t get off; if you were a VIP, you got two drink tickets (as a VIP said to me on explaining the system, “What the fuck is that?”). And apparently, there are VIPs but some VIPs are more equal than others. If you were the super special VIP who paid extra, you did get free drinks and a bag of goodies. I met some men w/them, but they hadn’t dug through them yet so I don’t know what they contained; one pulled out a t-shirt that read, appropriately, “Envy.”

We went upstairs by the VIP area, as Kay and her friend wanted to look for people they knew there, one friend eventually came out to chat. A server actually leaned over to let us have some of the VIP food. Then a cordon of volunteers came over to keep people from getting too close (again, an unintentional reflection of the “us vs. them” subtext of the film). It looked pretty crowded, and the venue’s main advantage (shorter lines) didn’t mean as much if the drinks weren’t free. On the hoi polloi side, you could also get chocolates and cake.

Most people gave the movie the thumbs down, though I met two who “loved” it. One woman said she’d rather they made it a documentary. I pointed out it was better than The Notebook. Though now I wonder. Really, if it hadn’t been set in Seattle, would anyone have been interested?

They’d passed out jars of fennel salt, and there were also bags with Stella Artois glasses in them. Did not see as many folks now as I had before, but photog Steve said, jokingly I thought, he was off to take pics of people leaving because there was no free alcohol. Certainly it wasn’t as crowded inside as it had been last year. And just not as fun. Alcohol really is the great social icebreaker. I heard someone joking about bringing their own next time, and at $7 a cocktail that’s not a bad idea…