Films are the stars at documentary fest
It's all about doing what you love, not about getting rich.
Massachusetts musician Roger Salloom started making music again, after 20 years, because it's what he does.
And Chris Sautter decided that the story of ''America's best unknown songwriter" needed to be told, even if it was not likely to become a Hollywood blockbuster.
''So Glad I Made It," the film Sautter made, is the Saturday night headliner at this weekend's Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival in Newburyport. Eighteen features and shorter films will be shown at the Firehouse Arts Center and the Screening Room. There will be filmmaker Q&As, a party, and even a premiere. But no limos, paparazzi, or red carpet. The Northern Lights festival exists simply because Michelle Fino and a friend, Hailey Klein, love documentaries.
''I think it started with 'In Search Of' when I was a kid," Fino said. ''We watched the National
Why nonfiction instead of Hollywood thrills? ''I always learn something when I watch documentaries," Fino said, ''whether about myself or the subject."
Documentaries are also much cheaper to make than fiction films. So even low-budget documentaries that never get wide distribution can still be exciting, thought-provoking films. ''That's why the festival works," Fino said.
Close to a thousand tickets were sold last year, she said, ''and I'd love to double it." Films range from Friday night's premiere, ''The Peace Patriots," about New England antiwar activists, to Sunday's closing film, ''My American Family," about an Italian clan that goes to its family reunion in Kansas City.
Sautter's ''So Glad I Made It" tells the story of Northampton's Salloom and his ill-starred career, tracking his attempt to get back into the business after a two-decade hiatus. It's a witty, close-focus portrait of an idiosyncratic artist and, well, if you've never heard of Salloom, then you know how it ends.
The film has been making the festival rounds for a year, gathering awards and good press. But it has no theatrical distribution, and Sautter says he's sold only a few hundred copies of this, his second film, on DVD. He has yet to break even.
''I was aware that when you do a story about somebody that's obscure that there will be some limitations on who might be interested in it," Sautter said. ''But I felt a good story is a good story, and I loved the music, so that's why I went ahead with it."
In Newburyport on Saturday night, the filmmaker and the musician will answer questions from the audience and Salloom will pick up his guitar and play a song or three. Then audience and filmmakers will all troop around the corner to a restaurant for a party.
But this isn't your glamour puss kind of festival. Just ask the festival's 30 or so volunteers, who meet Wednesday nights in the Aloft ad agency's conference room. This is a pizza-boxes-on-the-floor, everybody-pitch-in-and-fold-those-brochures kind of deal.
''Last year there was an animal rights film, and I had met some of the people involved with the film," said Chris Paglia of the Byfield section of Newbury. ''And, I said to my girlfriend, 'Did you know this movie would be playing at a film festival in Newburyport?' 'No.' 'Did you know there was a film festival in Newburyport?' 'No.' So I volunteered."
Others had different motivations. ''I live diagonally across from [Michelle]," Larry Nile said, ''and if I didn't come I wouldn't be able to show my face."
Klein worked in film on the production side for years. Fino gradually fell under the spell of documentaries as a fan -- she took a class, made a pilgrimage to Sundance in 2001, and organized a monthly film series at the Firehouse. And then in 2003, the two friends had an idea.
''We said 'Wouldn't it be fun to have a film festival in Newburyport?' It was that simple," Fino said. ''We were probably having coffee just like this, you know, where the brilliant ideas come from."
They signed on Newburyport-based Aloft honcho Matt Bowen, who helped land TD Banknorth as the festival's financial sponsor and put his firm's creative staff at the festival's service. Both arrangements are in place for the 2005 festival.
This year Klein has shifted to a role as one of the festival judges and will host a panel discussion. Nine screeners helped narrow down 215 submissions to the 18 films that will be shown. A couple of dozen more volunteers have taken on tasks ranging from marketing to filmmaker wrangling. Fino praises the volunteers, but the wreath of All-Access passes draped over the passenger seat of her car and the trunk full of posters make clear who's holding it all together.
''Honestly, I figured out pretty quick this year that I just have to go task by task, day by day," Fino said. ''I can't look toward the event yet. If I do that, that's what wakes me up at night. Not about attendance or anything, just 'Will the projectors run?' "
At last year's festival, a technical glitch left 60 people staring at a blank screen.
''Those things are going to happen at the best fests anywhere, but those are the kinds of things that get me," she said.
If all goes well, late Sunday afternoon the judges will hand out honors for best feature, best short, and a New England filmmaker award, and Fino will be tabulating votes for the audience's choice.
But the judges had best be careful. In his other life as a political consultant, Sautter is co-author of ''The Recount Primer."
The Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival begins at 8 p.m. Friday. Both venues are on State Street in Newburyport, a short walk apart. Tickets range from $5 for daytime screenings to $15 for Saturday night's ''So Glad I Made It" event. For details, see www.northernlightsfilmfestival.com. 
