JUNE 4TH @ IFC CENTER IN NYC

JUNE 11TH @ STARZ FILMCENTER IN DENVER, CO

This Thursday, October 1, CONVENTION will be the opening night film at the Camden International Film Festival in Camden, Maine.  Previewing that screening, the Portland Phoenix’ Christopher Gray interviews director AJ Schnack and has some very nice things to say about the film:

Convention, the opening-night feature at the fifth annual Camden International Film Festival, is a logistical triumph that chronicles a logistical triumph. AJ Schnack, the director of the Kurt Cobain documentary About a Son and lone writer at the leading documentary-industry blog All These Wonderful Things, organized a group of nine filmmakers to capture the breadth of the August 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Collectively, they shot 90 hours of footage in the days before and during the event, which Schnack (who directed, produced, and edited the film, along with filming some of it) whittled down to a breathless, thrilling 95 minutes.

The film comes to Maine (the October 1 screening at the Camden Opera House is a New England premiere) at an awkward moment. Culminating in Barack Obama’s stirring acceptance speech at Invesco Field and concerned with the organizational chaos of the convention at the ground level, Convention summons up feelings of optimism and patriotism that are in short supply at the moment, as scaremongering and partisanship have reclaimed the national stage.

Schnack’s film, though, transcends worries about the timeliness of its subject matter. Focusing on a disparate band of Denver citizens with varying roles — figures from the mayor’s office, a green reporter at the Denver Post, a life-long political activist — Schnack twists the chaos of an unpredictable four days in Denver into a brilliantly edited, eloquent feat of choreography. Schnack and his co-producer/editor Nathan Truesdell will be in Camden on October 1 to speak after the 7 pm show.

From Mark Olsen’s article on June 22:

Once the team was in place in Denver with cameras in hand, Schnack simply had to turn it loose. Maintaining communications was sometimes tricky, as phone service around the convention center could be spotty due to the volume of calls being made in the area. Often the camera crews had to make their own decisions about where to go and who to follow.

“It was something in theory I liked,” said Schnack of allowing each camera person to use his or her own sensibility to inform what they were shooting. “In practice I liked it even more. . . . You needed people who were actually filmmakers, who could make decisions.”

A title card near the beginning of “Convention” credits 11 people with making the film, and that nod to the optimistic idealism of collective action — what a group of people working together can achieve — is the theme both in front of and behind the camera.

Although the film ends with Barack Obama’s speech accepting his party’s nomination, the emotional climax of the movie comes during a speech given by city workers Chantal Unfug and Katherine Archuletta to a group of departing interns. It’s a seemingly small moment that takes on greater significance, as Schnack explained.

“It’s the spirit of the film, both the characters in the film and behind the scenes, the notion of ‘We can do this. Let’s all get together, and together we can make something awesome.”

The first reviews from CONVENTION are starting to come in after the World Premiere at Silverdocs and leading up to the West Coast Premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival:

Variety, Eddie Cockrell:

“By placing Denver’s administrative process of organizing and running the 2008 Democratic confab ahead of the event’s political content, AJ Schnack’s “Convention” becomes a bipartisan, upbeat celebration of democracy’s delicate membrane and can-do spirit…

Helmer’s central strategy — and it is an inspired one — is to emulate in tone and flow of the groundbreaking work of early nonfiction pioneers Robert Drew (a personal hero), Albert and David Maysles, DA Pennebaker and Ricky Leacock. Thus, with the exception of sparingly used talking heads, “Convention” flows seamlessly among the various hotbeds of activity during the convention’s tumultuous four days…

Crews indeed prove they’re down for whatever, as intimate, seemingly effortless footage abounds of the unfolding dramas and Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s climactic acceptance at Denver’s football stadium. Rooting interest in the participants is sustained by Schnack’s smart decision to reidentify participants throughout the film.”

LA Weekly, Aaron Hillis:

“CRITIC’S PICK.  Convention is an unintentionally ironic title, considering both this film and AJ Schnack’s last — the poetic, quasi-installation KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON  — illustrate the director’s proclivity for challenging the standards of nonfiction filmmaking. Not that this witty, sharp-eyed and effortlessly entertaining portrait of the city of Denver during the 2008 Democratic National Convention is so far removed from the vérité purism of Robert Drew or D.A. Pennebaker (if Frederick Wiseman had made the film, it would still be called Convention). But Schnack’s curious instinct is to remove the presidential and backstage politics entirely, instead focusing on the frenzied microcosm of cogs who often remain invisible if they’re doing their jobs well. From the tireless deputy city liaison whose mobility depends on learning from Mayor Hickenlooper how to drive his scooter and the poor Denver Post staffer who suffers a breakdown while facing impossible deadlines to the disorganized organizers who march their overreaching entitlement up and down the streets before hilariously getting trapped in a dead end, the film sees the logistics behind democracy in action. The eclectic Americana soundtrack is aces, as is Schnack’s formal rigor (the seamless multicamera shoot was helmed by a handful of notable documentarians, including My Country, My Country’s Laura Poitras and They Killed Sister Dorothy’s Daniel Junge . “I wonder if he’s nervous,” someone mumbles as Obama’s motorcade arrives, a delightfully appropriate query in a film about every person’s vital role in shaping society.”

Washington Times, Sonny Bunch:

“The centerpiece screening at Silverdocs 2009 was tonight’s world premiere of “Convention,” a collaborative effort from eight different documentarians to cover every aspect of the 2008 Democratic convention. A massive undertaking, the crew shot 90 hours of footage during their time in Denver, from a week beforehand all the way through President Obama’s acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium.

The documentary is a riveting piece of work, especially for anyone with an interest in national politics, protest culture, and the state of local newspapers. The filmmakers, assembled by A.J. Schnack, endeavored to capture the story from every angle — as Mr. Schnack said before the screening, the movie reminds him of “Back to the Future Part II” because in that film you get to see what happened in the first movie from a different perspective. “Convention” is like rewatching the Democratic convention from the street level, the command level, and the convention-floor level…

As a member of the press, I was most drawn to the press level view and the tribulations of cub reporter Allison Sherry, who was thrown from the schools beat to the Hillary Clinton beat with only a few weeks warning. Asking her to compete with the national press corps was like asking a kid from the Single A to pitch for the New York Yankees in the World Series. It’s poignant and sad and a reminder that this thing we call journalism isn’t all that easy.

The rest of the documentary is no less gripping. The moves and countermoves by the protesters and city planners are intriguing, and the protesters offer some comic relief with their multitude of causes and miniscule numbers. And, of course, the sense of history is almost palpable as Barack Obama takes to the stage and accepts the nomination for presidency. All in all “Convention’s” a wonderful film.”

Less than five days until its World Premiere at the AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival, the Politico has an article previewing CONVENTION.  An excerpt:

“It’s been nine months since the Democratic National Convention in Denver, but (Silverdocs) is set to bring back all the memories with the world premiere of “Convention,” a new documentary on the four-day bonanza…

Director AJ Schnack weaves together footage from more than a half dozen film-makers to offer a ground-level view of local-government and protest organization planning meetings, and of the security-operations center with television monitors focused in on every block around the Pepsi Center to keep tabs on those protests.”