Roger
Ebert first attended the Telluride Film festival in 1980, during a
period in which it was small and humble. Writing about its transformation from
the vantage point of more than two decades later, Roger said: “The
festival … has added so many state-of-the-art theaters … that it feels
like the most happening art movie town in America.”

This
year’s festival, which again ran over Labor Day weekend, offered an
emotional and powerful reminder that Roger remains a palpable and deep
presence at a festival that was one of his favorites. It is just one of
the many ways Roger’s legacy to film culture and critical discourse on
the movies is greater than ever.

Roger
is gone, but blessedly he was everywhere for these four days in
Colorado. In “99 Homes,” his searing indictment of criminal self-dealing
governing the American housing crisis and its role in the subsequent
economic collapse, director Ramin Bahrani dedicated his movie to Roger.
This was, significantly, not at the end of a long crawl of other
technical credits. It came right at the top, just after the major
possessive credits. Bahrani emphasized Roger’s importance to his life
and career.

Following
the film’s screening at the Galaxy Theater on Labor Day morning, the
great German director Werner Herzog moderated a discussion with Bahrani,
providing a chance for two quite different men and artists who were
linked by their connection, personally and artistically, with Roger.
After Roger lost his battle with cancer in April of last year, the
festival’s top two directors, Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy, formally
dedicated part of last year’s 40th edition to Roger.

Last
year also saw the formal opening of the Werner Herzog Theater, a
beautiful 650-seat theater built to satisfy the festival’s explosive
growth. A major donation, made anonymously in recognition of Roger,
helped subsidize its construction.

Roger
was closely identified with the festival. For many people who had never
been there, Roger was their gateway. Unlike Cannes or Sundance,
Telluride has never been an emphatic destination for critics for a
variety of logistical and practical factors, principally its proximity
to Toronto, where the vast majority of critics and entertainment press
decamp. Roger sang Telluride’s praises often, and the love was certainly
reciprocated.

In
one of the most gracious acts of top programmers Huntsinger and Luddy this year,
they organized several screenings of “Life Itself,” Steve James’ highly
prized documentary adaptation of Roger’s memoir. Even though the film
has been in commercial release since July, the festival provided a
tribute screening, at the Abel Gance Open Air Theater on the Thursday
night before the festival’s official start. The screening launched this
year’s festival.

“Roger
was a man of habit,” James said. “When he found something he enjoyed
doing, he did it every year. Cannes was that way, and I think Telluride
was that way.”

The
deep communal connection and love affair with movies created its own
utopia, Roger liked to say. From that festival dispatch of 2005, Roger
said: “Local hotels and ski lodges double their prices for the festival,
but moviegoers share lodgings and sleeping bags and everyone seems
reasonably cheerful because the films are so good and it’s fun just to
stand in line with people who are as interested in movies as you are.”

People arrived that Thursday night to secure the best location. Colorado Avenue is the Telluride equivalent
of Main Street, bisecting the town and serving as the major nexus of
the festival. The Abel Gance Theater slopes down off Colorado Avenue. In
tribute to Roger, people walking around the street that night were
quiet and respectful.

The
response at Telluride mirrored that of pretty much every other festival
the film has shown. Several people, leaving the park, offered short,
succinct responses to the film. “I thought it was a beautiful love
story,” a woman from Oakland said. Her friend, who was from Chicago,
called the movie touching and beautiful. “My husband died from cancer,
so I could relate to a lot of the film,” she said.

“What
was really cool about Julie and Tom is they wanted to find a way to
include the film in the festival even though it’s many months past its
premiere so they could share it with people who got to Telluride and
really loved Roger,” James said.

On the opening Friday
of the festival’s official screenings, approximately 50 students from
the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of California,
Santa Barbara, many of them either journalism or film students, watched
the film at the Nugget Theater. Ken Burns, the celebrated maker of
historical documentaries and on the festival’s Board of Governors,
talked about Roger and the film with James and Chaz Ebert.

During
their time at the festival, the students watch films and attend
seminars and discussions with other visiting filmmakers. The students
comprised the inaugural class of the newly endowed program called the
Roger Ebert University Seminars.”

“It’s
an amazing experience to see this as my first Telluride film,” one
student said afterward. “I didn’t really know that much about Roger
Ebert, and it was amazing to find out and have the honor of meeting his
wife, Ken Burns and Steve James.”

Interacting
with the students in the Roger Ebert University Seminars program was
especially gratifying, according to Chaz. “They were so perceptive and
appreciative of everything, and their professors seemed equally
engaged,” Chaz said.

“When
a student named Lael Siler asked the question after seeing the movie
about whether I have felt that ‘wind of peace,’ in other parts of my
life since Roger’s death, I knew this was a class well on its way to
that path of empathy that Roger so often spoke about.”

In
one of the most quiet and lyrical moments of “Life Itself,” in the
final third of the movie, James works in a mosaic of photographs of
Roger at work. One of them is Roger, pensive, reading a newspaper and
sitting on a park bench. The undated photo was taken at Telluride. In
his opening night remarks, James thanked the festival for showing the
film. He talked about a movie as a series of love affairs, Roger’s
passion for journalism, Chicago, cinema, and of course, Chaz. “Those
kids were greatly impressed and really moved by the film,” James said.

The
filmmaker was continually intercepted by the students through the
course of the festival. “The movie ended up meaning something to them,”
James said. “I don’t know how many of them knew about Roger going in,
but they came out feeling something.”

Telluride
exists, Roger said, to “see films that can be seen nowhere else—and
might, for that matter, never be seen anywhere again.” Telluride’s
official program widely quotes Roger’s famous remark that the festival
is like “Cannes died and went to heaven.” Telluride runs by in a breeze.
Roger always made sure its meaning and value endured. The festival paid
that warmth and generosity back with a vengeance.

Patrick Z. McGavin

Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago-based writer and critic. His film writing has appeared in the British magazine Empire, Stop Smiling, Time Out Chicago, Cineaste and LA Weekly. He also maintains the film blog, http://lightsensitive.typepad.com/light-sensitive.

Leave a comment

subscribe icon

The best movie reviews, in your inbox