Clearcut post-screening report

I doubt very  much I will be involved in another public screening of Clearcut, but I am happy to report that Sunday's screening was at least on par with the Cinematheque screening of last year: possibly better. For reasons unclear to me, the audience at the Cinematheque had been more contentious, challenging things like the decision made to shift the focus from issues of mercury poisoning, which is the problem that informs Arthur's anger in the novel, to logging, which was done for purely cinematic reasons (you can reap more drama, visually, from a falling tree that from polluted water). Maybe they have a point, but it's not actually an interesting question to me, since the film is the film and coulda-woulda-shouldas don't really matter very much; whereas the discussion on Sunday, especially, though brief, focused more on issues of the film's "spiritual" dimension and on more interesting questions like cultural appropriation. And regardless of the short conversation that got held, you got the feeling that people were simply more appreciative of the film, saw it for what it was, and were moved by the story. The audience chuckled along with Graham Greene's funnier lines, made sounds of horrified protest at the debarking, and seemed totally engaged by Shane Harvey's insights into the making and the meaning of the film (and by his Clearcut crew jacket!). 

There were also things Shane and I noticed that we hadn't caught before, though we've seen the film countless times. For example, in the second sweatlodge scene, we both (on separate nights) realized that at one point Greene empties a cigarette into the fire for smudging purposes. I'm no stranger to the sacred use of tobacco, in fact, but somehow we had both missed this detail previously.

Shane also pointed out director Ryszard Bugajski's cameo in the film. He plays a cop, surveying the conflict with the loggers, briefly dominating the screen. I had never twigged that it was him before. 

And Shane gave me a piece of costume from the film: a leather band that Greene wore around his left wrist, which I intuitively asked, before the Friday screening, to have put around my left wrist. I'm not sure I'm worthy but it was a moving gesture indeed.

But numbers were disappointing. I thought that maybe this time, with Orange Shirt Day fast approaching, Graham Greene's recent death, and any added buzz generated by my past Cinematheque screening and/ or Straight article, that the film would finally get the full house it so abundantly deserves. It was not to be. Some of the people who came were colleagues and friends of mine, so I'm very glad for that, but the numbers really were not that great: maybe 30 the first night, 50 the second? 

Whatever. The film is out there  now on blu-ray. Shane, Graham, and Ryszard all get to talk about it on the superb compliment of extras. You can even see it on Tubi. I feel like my work with this film is done.

Sure does hold up, though. I enjoyed it both nights -- especially Graham Greene's performance. Thanks to Shane Harvey and Tom Charity for making these screenings so worthwhile, even despite disappointing numbers. 

And that's all I have left to say about Clearcut.