AIFF documentaries sport local impact
First came "The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering," a sweet little book, written by local author Sharon Mehdi, which tells the tale of a growing number of women, residents of a small town, many of them grandmothers, who come together and stand silently for peace. The locals begin to take notice, some watching through the window of the Beever Brothers Café.
As it turns out, these silent few (at least a few in the beginning) begin to cause more than a ripple in town, many folks asking, "What are they doing?" A small girl speaks up, saying, "They're saving the world." And so they were, in their own quiet, immutable way, and what was a mere ripple became a cresting wave as grandmothers worldwide stepped forward and stood for peace. And on that day, that one singular day, there was no fighting anywhere in the world.
At the conclusion of the tale, Mehdi annexed a brief narrative, an epilogue of sorts, explaining her circuitous and serendipitous journey that led to the publication of the book. And it is this very personal account which was used to frame the documentary, "We're Saving the World," which will be screened at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Mehdi, it turns out, came to Ashland, rented a cottage for one year, determined to write a nonfiction book. She unexpectedly found herself seated in the café above Bloomsbury Book Store one afternoon, surrounded by well-thumbed newspapers, her coffee cup nearby. Guided by an unfamiliar muse, she took out a pen, found a small white paper napkin, and wrote the first words of what would soon be "The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering."
As the film begins, the screen is filled with a remarkable quotation by Helen Keller: "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
People who were touched by the simple story and its profound message are interviewed and wanted to be sure that the tale of the grandmothers found an ever wider audience are interviewed. We see a class of 5th graders in Grants Pass, after reading the story, decide to send copies of the book to all the governors in the United States. And of course, there is Sharon Mehdi, who is only one, hugging the children, and sharing her remarkable journey.
"A Controversy of Art" is a wonderfully succinct film which captures the tension that is ever present between art and the eye of the beholder.
In the summer of 2006, 15-year-old Dillon McCord painted a mural on his family's garage door in an Ashland subdivision. As the film explains, Dillon had entered a "Cricket" magazine contest and this was his entry. The painting, larger than life, is a riot of colors, parrots and Macaws. What's not to like?
Well, as Dillon soon learns, there are property values and C.C.& Rs (meaning restrictions on public art in neighborhoods which are also associations). And so Dillon's garage door sparked a debate about art and conformity, followed by a solution which, while not completely satisfactory to the artist, was a compromise that avoided the mural being painted over in exactly the same color as the rest of the neighborhood.
