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PROVINCETOWN GUIDE
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| DIRECTORY |
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Provincetown :: Thursday, September 2nd 2010
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Contestants at Ryan Landry's Showgirls. |
Lights! Camera! Provincetown!
Provincetown Stars in Five Films
By Stephen Desroches of Provincetown Magazine
June 17th, 2009
Provincetown’s unique character and gorgeous landscape make it an obvious choice for a film’s backdrop. Films like Reds and The Thomas Crowne Affair used the town for a variety of scenes. Recent sightings of Richard Dreyfuss and camera crews on Bradford Street are evidence that the town is still an attractive co-star for films. But the town itself is the subject of films, as well. The Provincetown International Film Festival will show five films with specific local ties this year.
| Provincetown is always ready for its close up, and these selections of films cast a wide angle on the town on the tip. |
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ShowGirls - Provincetown, MA takes a look at what some consider to be the heart of the wonderfully wild soul of Provincetown, the freewheeling weekly “talent” show hosted by Ryan Landry. Directed by C. Fitz, the documentary follows the vaudeville-like show over the summer of 2007 as contestants compete each week for the $500 cash prize and the ultimate title of “Showgirl of the Year.”
“The first time I saw Showgirls was one Memorial Day when all my friends who had seen it before took me and I was like, ‘What is this crazy Showgirls thing’,” says C. Fitz, a Boston-born, Los Angeles based producer and filmmaker. “Afterwards I thought, ‘this is beyond crazy, beyond amazing’.”
Fitz decided that Showgirls needed to be documented and introduced to the world.
“All kinds of people are coming to see this film,” says Fitz of the audiences around the country at a variety of film festivals. “Everybody loves it. They love to see a unique part of Provincetown. It’s what people love about the town.”
While Showgirls raises a lot of questions, and eyebrows, the double-shot of Provincetown scheduled for a special screening of Ptown Diaries and Norma Holt: Stop, Look, Think addresses why the town is so special. Ptown Diaries, directed by Joseph Mantegna, chronicles the town’s history from the Pilgrims’ arrival to present day, a journey which includes the founding of the art colony, the birth of American theater, the establishment of the Portuguese and gay and lesbian communities, and the fishing and tourism industries. The film features interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and resident Michael Cunningham, Broadway performer and jazz musician Lea Delaria, and the late Norman Mailer.
Prior to the screening, a video short by Elizabeth McLean entitled Norma Holt: Stop, Look, Think – Travel Stories From A Career In Photography will be shown. The half-hour video features an interview with 90-year-old Norma Holt, world traveler and celebrated photographer, who created the art installation “They Also Faced The Sea,” visible from MacMillan Wharf.
Another short piece with local ties is Provincetown-native Casey Clark’s Kink, Inc., which is included in the Shorts 3: Cause and Effect Program in the Festival. In the 27-minute film, a broke young couple decides to convert their basement into an S & M dungeon to raise cash quick, but find that the sexual adventure reignites their love for one another in the process.
Last, but certainly not least, is The Hunt for Moby Dick, a fascinating British film directed by Adam Low, which examines Herman Melville’s epic novel. Filmed over four years, the documentary goes from Southampton to the former whaling ports of New Bedford and Nantucket, as well as Provincetown, and then to the Azores for a spectacular conclusion. The film, via a deep look at the story of Moby Dick and the life of Melville, shows the important role the whale played in Western culture. Written and presented by Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale and a member of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies where he assists with the Humpback Identification Program, the film takes a daring and unique look at Captain Ahab’s obsessive relationship with the white whale as it relates to our modern day society.
“Traveling in the footsteps of Ishmael/Melville was revealing,” says Hoare via e-mail from his home in England. “ It made me see New England in a new way - a place of sometimes brutal history. One of the things that working on the film, and my book, Leviathan or, The Whale, has done has been to focus my attention on the way human history and natural history seemed destined to clash.”
Upon its broadcast on the BBC, The Hunt for Moby Dick received a huge response. And Provincetown’s history as a whaling center, and then as the birthplace of the whale watching industry, proved to be an inspiration for Hoare.
“I first came to Provincetown in 2001, invited here by John Waters,” says Hoare. “Only on my last day in town that trip did I go out on a whale watch. That day changed my life. I kept on coming back to Provincetown, obsessively watching whales. John joked to me, ‘You spend more time with whales than you do people’. Then he said, ‘Why not write a book about it?’ So I did. Then came The Hunt for Moby Dick. It was very much part of the same process - attempting to explain my personal obsession with whales - one which I know many Provincetowners understand, if not share themselves!”
Provincetown is always ready for its close up, and these selections of films cast a wide angle on the town on the tip.
“ShowGirls Provincetown MA” will be shown Thursday, June 18th at Noon & at 10 p.m. at the Art House, and also at 7 p.m. at the Provincetown Theater on Sunday, June 21st. “Ptown Diaries” will be shown, preceded by “Norma Holt: Stop, Look, Think – Travel Stories From A Career In Photography “ on Sunday, June 21st at the Provincetown Theater at 11:30 a.m. only. “Kink, Inc.” will show in the Shorts 3: Cause and Effect Program at 2 pm on Thursday, June 18th, and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 21st, at Vixen. “The Hunt for Moby Dick” shows at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 20th only, at the Provincetown Theater.
For venues, tickets, and more information, stop by the Provincetown International Film Festival box office at the Aquarium Mall (209 Commercial St.), call 508.487.FILM, or visit www.ptownfilmfest.org. This year’s Film Festival features these films with local ties The Hunt for Moby Dick; Showgirls-Provincetown, MA; Kink, Inc.; Norma Holt: Stop, Look, Think; and Ptown Diaries. Please visit provincetownmagazine.net for more info and stories.
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