MATINEE FILM FESTIVAL January 27 2008 at 3pm Featuring ALCATRAZ REUNION
Question and Answer Highlights of ALCATRAZ REUNION after its showing at the WILDsound Matinee Film Festival.
HOSTED by Wes Berger with Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker JOHN PAGET in attendance answering questions after the screening
WILDsound Matinee Film Festivals are held every month at Toronto's National Film Board Cinema (150 John Street in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto).
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WILDsound is proud to announce the premiere showing of ALCATRAZ RENUNION on Sunday afternoon at 3pm on January 27th Don't miss this fantastic film!
Calling All Cons! With the 70th anniversary of Alcatraz penitentiary fast approaching, National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell is calling all cons, inviting every known ex-Alcatraz inmate - and their former cellhouse guards - back to the Rock for an Alcatraz Alumni Gathering.
Determined to capture the story of this most unlikely of reunions, director JOHN PAGET travels the continent in search of any surviving ex-prisoners of Alcatraz. They were America's most dangerous public enemies - but who and where are they now?Against the backdrop of these colorful characters and their imminent rendezvous, 'Alcatraz Reunion' traces the history of the iconic island, and its mysterious transformation from notorious prison to tourist mecca.
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Unlike other film festivals, the central idea of WILDsound Feedback Film Festivals is to give audience members a chance to share their comments and criticisms with the filmmakers in a moderated forum right after the screening, and to let filmmakers respond. BUT IT'S YOU THE AUDIENCE WHO ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS OF THIS EVENT.
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CLICK HERE and read the Article from the San Francisco Chronicle of this Documentary
I heard that an Alcatraz Park Ranger was organizing an 'alumni' reunion on the 70th anniversary of Alcatraz prison, and I wondered: would ex-convicts and ex-guards actually return to the island and revisit the darkest time of their life...and if so why? But even before meeting any of the characters I was intrigued by the story of the island itself: In its heyday, it was the worst place in the world, hell on earth, the ultimate punishment. Had it really become a place of learning, reflection and reconciliation?
I thought perhaps the story of The Rock could serve as a positive parable for our world: A place that seems hopelessly dark and evil can be changed and reinvented.
However, as I spent time in the prison buildings and with the people who suffered there, this 'transformation' storyline became a little less cut and dry. For some Alcatraz is transformed, or it was the impetus for personal transformation ? and for others, what happened there can never be redeemed or reconciled: it will always be evil and the whole island should be destroyed and sunk into the bay. As one ex-con (Armando Mendoza) puts it in the film: "Leave it to the seagulls - let them fill it up with shit, because that's all that was ever there, was shit."
Whatever the ex-inmates thought about it, the grave tone of their memories seemed to stand in stark contrast to the almost Disneyland feeling of the Alcatraz tourist experience - the crowds, the excitement, the souvenirs. Through the juxtaposition of tourist scenes with profiles and recollections of actual ex-cons, I hope to create some dissonance for the viewer and perhaps raise some questions.
The final line of the film is a conundrum for me. On the one hand, the ex-con, John Dekker, cannot show sincere remorse for his crime without making light of it by joking that he'd do it all over again. But rather than feel outraged by this, it is kind of a happy ending: because right or wrong I think we sympathize with his character, and his mischievous sense of humor represents a sort of twisted triumph: the ex-con gets the last laugh.
However, as I spent time in the prison buildings and with the people who suffered there, this 'transformation' storyline became a little less cut and dry. For some Alcatraz is transformed, or it was the impetus for personal transformation ? and for others, what happened there can never be redeemed or reconciled: it will always be evil and the whole island should be destroyed and sunk into the bay. As one ex-con (Armando Mendoza) puts it in the film: "Leave it to the seagulls - let them fill it up with shit, because that's all that was ever there, was shit."
