Oldenburg International Film Festival's website
Next to Bremen lies the wealthy German city of Oldenburg. Not so small, but quite modest for a festival city all the same. The population is around 160 000. A film festival is organised there, now in its 15th year. From the beginning, the festival director has been the sympathetic and personable Torsten Neumann. As a matter of fact, I got to know him 10 years ago in New York, where we met at a mutual film director friend’s house. That time Torsten cooked us German traditional food for hours, which, despite all the persistent and dilligent work that was put into it, was just as everyday and boring as the German bratwurst. I was now invited to Oldenburg for the first time, and had higher expectations of the festival than of Torsten’s cooking.
Festival director Torsten Neumann, deep in contemplation
Oldenburg International Film Festival uses the film magazine Variety’s slogan when advertising themselves: “The European Sundance festival”. The festival is very sympathetic indeed, and a family-spirited event where many festival guests return again and again – like into a yearly family meeting. The festival focuses mainly on independent fiction films. This time the programme includes five documentary films, one of which is Shadow of the Holy Book. The festival is also our German premiere, which makes the situation interesting. Especially when German companies are heavily featured in the film.
Oldenburg has invested in shepherding and entertaining the festival guests in an exemplary fashion. There are festivals where the guest is like a lone wolf, wandering in the Bermuda triangle between the cinema, hotel and the local bar, trying to find potential fellows. But Oldenburg functions in differently. The guests are taken from one place to another in Audi (one of the event’s main sponsors) cars, there are parties and festivities every night, as well as meetings over lunch and dinner. It is clearly important for Torsten that the festival guests and audience enjoy themselves, so the wine keeps flowing and parties go on until morning, which makes it hard to adapt to the rhythm the following day… whew.
The marketing and locations of the documentary film screenings aren’t exactly top notch compared to the fiction films, but more careful and cautionary. Despite the small audiences, both screenings of our film generate interesting discussions with the audience afterwards. No-one comes forward or turns out to be a representative of Siemens, DaimlerChrysler or Zeppelin, but these things usually come to light later, so we’ll see whether the film’s visit to Germany will rejuvenate the activities of the German companies’ propaganda departments.
The festival honoured two filmmakers, James Toback and Michael Wadleigh, in the form of tribute and lifetime achievement awards. Michael Wadleigh, director of the legendary Woodstock, was a refreshing choice, and I was taken by how Oldenburg summed up his career and, through that, his significant “political-spiritual” influences, spanning generations.
Michael Wadleigh with the Oscar-nominated actor Seymour Cassel. Halonen in between the two
Michael, in his filmmaking years, got fed up with Hollywood's “calculative” nature. Several of his plans for political films fell through at the last minute and then the years went by. After Woodstock’s success he got to direct only one feature-length Hollywood fiction, Wolfen, starring Albert Finney, in 1981. Finally Michael packed his bags and retired to the Welsh countryside with his family, where they run a farm. Simultaneously he has developed and actioned some large-scale training and multimedia projects. The plans for these projects are grand, and the aims lofty: “if you want change, you need to have the courage to think big”. Thinking big, at least of themselves, are some of the American debutante-actors visiting the festival. Contacts are made, glasses are raised and dreams of Hollywood’s red carpets are in the air while pacing the red carpets in Oldenburg. Big ideas, however, often require depth and content – if you’re aiming for staying power and effectiveness. Michael has both of these. For this reason, the meeting left a very positive impression. Oldenburg also thinks big, at least in some modest sense, in its small and sympathetic form.
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