Risky Business

Ojai gets "Dangerous" for tenth annual film fest
Art & Culture feature, 10/28/09

The measure of this year’s Ojai Film Festival (re-christened this year as the Ojai-Ventura International Film Festival) is one of decades: the decade represented in the auspicious occasion of the festival’s 10th anniversary, the five-plus decades of cinematic excellence of festival honorees Peter Graves and Haskell Wexler, and the four decades that have passed since the events that inspired this year’s centerpiece film The Most Dangerous Man in America.

In the last case, while four decades have ensued, in some cases little seems to have changed, as evinced in the parallels to be drawn between doctrines of Vietnam-style counter-insurgency and contemporary policy in Afghanistan, and the so-called war on terror.

The Most Dangerous Man in America tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a Rand Corporation and State Department insider who became privy to the top-secret report known as The Pentagon Papers — the 7,000 page straight dope on the debacle of Vietnam — and, in a stunning act of patriotism and self sacrifice, leaked the document to the New York Times. The ensuing firestorm landed Ellsberg in court, helped topple the Nixon presidency, and directly contributed to the end of the Vietnam War.

Though over the years many vied for the right to tell the story, in either narrative or documentary form, Ellsberg’s example of courage and patriotism at last fell to veteran documentarians Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, filmmakers with deep track records in dealing with risk, conscience, dissent and revelation.

Between the compelling story and the filmmakers’ riveting style, the film found a natural home with the Ojai-Ventura fest, in which the documentary has long waxed ascendant. “We’re an apolitical film festival,” notes festival chairman David Shor, “and yes, Daniel’s got an agenda right now with regard to Afghanistan — but this was an important milestone in history, regardless of what side anyone’s on, or their feelings about what went down and how it went down. We believe it’s an important film to screen.”

Before the film unspools in the Ojai fest, it has a date with destiny, screening this month on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. “I would hope, and really think that there’s a real chance,” Ellsberg notes, “that someone in the CIA or the Pentagon could look at that and say, ‘I can do more than I have been doing, in a situation which I know where the country is being misled, and can even have an effect.”

It’s heady stuff for cinema, an art that is so frequently relegated to pop fluff and flights of fancy. Honored for lifetime achievement this year, legendary leading man Peter Graves confesses an affinity for the more challenging fare of the documentary. “There are so many other festivals in the world that rely too much on the more frivolous kind of film” he notes. “After Mission: Impossible, I participated in three television projects, all documentaries. I have a great feeling about documentary film.”

As with all great documentaries, the film offers a mirror to its audience, by its example posing questions for every thinking viewer, on themes of personal commitment, the nature of patriotism, the cost of freedom and the responsibility of participating fully in a representative democracy. “The reason we’re so pleased with this film is that we believe it can have an impact and inspire truth-telling and acts of courage,” explains Patricia Ellsberg, who played her part in history at her husband’s side. “To speak out where wrongdoing is happening and being covered up. That’s the pleasure of it — it’s not just that it’s nice to have a film that shows the history and shows Dan in an inspiring light. It’s the message.”

The Most Dangerous Man in America is scheduled to kick-off the festival in Ojai at its premiere Thursday, to be followed directly by a Q and A with the Ellsbergs. As in previous years, the premiere event is free to the public, screened at dusk on the recreational field of the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, which also hosts the fest’s second annual Celebrity Golf Tournament, headed up by Malcolm McDowell. “I think we’re the only festival to have a celebrity golf tournament as its opening salvo,” notes Shor. “It worked out great last year. Malcolm is just wonderful in terms of organizing the whole thing, and has a great time doing it.”

New to the fest this year, as suggested by the name change, is the expansion toward Ventura, as the festival adds the campus of the Brooks Institute of Photography to its venues and events schedule, a natural alliance between film festival and film school. Shor explains, “Our Brooks alliance has turned out to be great; it’s mutually beneficial, they’re into it and we’re into it, and we’re looking forward to a long association with them.” The entire student film program will be screened on campus, with a new BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award and a $60,000 Panavision camera package up for grabs for the top film.

With this year’s slate expanded from last year’s 55 films to this year’s 62, plus special screenings of Airplane! to honor Peter Graves along with Haskell Wexler’s Who Needs Sleep, Q and A sessions with filmmakers and cast of those films, a second screening of The Most Dangerous Man in America and Q and A sessions with the compelling filmmakers and players, the 10th anniversary of the Ojai-Ventura International Film Festival promises to deliver something for everyone. From everyday cinephiles to students of history and political scientists of every stripe, in a world that asks only that we get out and live, perhaps missing the events would construe the most dangerous choice of all.