AFI Dallas: Keeping Dallas Pretentious?

Have you heard of those T-Shirts that say "Keep Dallas Pretentious"? It's supposed to be a play on the Austin motto ("Keep Austin Weird"). People around Dallas or who know a little bit about it kind of get a little chuckle; sure, we all know Dallas can be pretentious, that's just how we are down here. The trendy, beautiful people won't think it's uncool to go hog-wild during the Mavericks games, they're all pumped full of plastic, and they've always got their dainty drink in one hand and a tiny sense of entitlement in the other. I believe the first time I heard the phrase "Keep Dallas Pretentious" was in reference to last year's first annual AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

I only attended one screening during last year's inaugural fest, and that was of David Lynch's Inland Empire (with the director himself at the showing. Oh yeah, last year's AFI Dallas? That's where this Lynch Classic came from). After a week and a half of screenings, events, and parties, AFI Dallas 2008 ended Sunday; I was only able to attend one day, but at the risk of being assumptive, I've got some thoughts -- positive and negative.

The Price to Pay

I hadn't planned on on attending AFI Dallas this year because, first, the festival just didn't seem to interest me that much, and second, because I didn't have the kind of dough necessary to really make a week of it. Looking at the pricing of the passes for the festival, they seem to be getting pretty ambitious.

I know, I haven't been to a terrible amount of film festivals, but a $500 pass feels a little steep to me when you consider that it's a festival in its infant stages, and has very little street cred from what I can tell. I guess the goal of Target and the other sponsors is to say to Dallas, "Look, we're expensive and slick; that means you have to show up!" And sure, people are showing up; the crowd that wants to feel "indie" and "artsy" (me), the beautiful, trendy, wealthy people of Dallas, and of course, the old wealthy people. They're all hoping that AFI Dallas will become an "event," something that could take over the town and bring some big names to Big D.

I don't see it happening. Not anytime soon at least.

Why? Well, to begin with, Dallas is too big. It's not a huge city, and it's not a very eventful or busy one either, yet even still, Dallas has more going on, and other than the occasional radio sponsorship, I didn't see a huge promotional push for the festival. Some fests, you see posters all over the town, at the venues, the bars, the hot spots -- everywhere you look, there are filmmakers pushing their films. Dallas is more concerned with looking clean, modern, and slick, so you see none of this. It ends up taking some of the personality away from the event, and as a result, AFI feels like an "Oh yeah, that's going on" kind of thing. Again, I'm sure this is due to the fact that the festival is very young, but I'm not sure if things like the aggressive pricing is going to work in establishing this as a "premiere" festival without promoting why we should be attending in the first place.

At the end of the day, I think it's going to be a really long time before people start getting excited about traveling across the country to attend AFI Dallas the way they do for Toronto, Sundance, SXSW, and NYFF.

Things to Do, Places to Be

Maybe it's because I go to these theaters on a fairly regular basis, but many of AFI Dallas's venues don't feel like they could or should be housing a film festival. I mean, I won't count it too harshly against them, because I've noticed that in other festivals as well; you have what you have, and you make it work. The fest is spread out between venues and theaters from the Magnolia and the Inwood to Victory Park Plaza and the Meyerson. Some of these venues are fantastic and some are not so much. I will say that the Magnolia feels too small and too cramped to house a big event, but the Angelika is a perfect venue; it's by plenty of shops, it's spacious and airy, and has some room outside for interviews and a little bit of the glitz.

However, the AMC Northpark 15 may be one of the poorest choices to screen films and have "red carpet" events. Why? Because it's a theater in a mall. Yes, it's a trendy, wealthy mall, but I had to walk through Macy's to go see my movie; what is that about? Yes, the theater is very nice and roomy and well-kept. But when I'm trying to experience a festival, do I want to be trekking across a mall to get to the screening, avoiding a barrage of high schoolers? I hate malls, and I think using a mall theater for a film festival is pretty tacky.

I will say that there are some events at AFI Dallas that I haven't experienced, but sound just way too cool. Screenings at Victory Park (the plaza outside the American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars) sound like they would be a lot of fun: outdoor showings of classic films on very big HD screens. There are also special event screenings at the Meyerson featuring a live performace of the film's score by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Last year I attended a performance/screening of Battleship Potemkin; This year they're performing for The Wizard of Oz. If AFI can really develop and push unique events such as these, I do think the festival can start to make a name for itself, at least around this area.

Hopefully the festival will also develop its panels. Right now, they are more of an afterthought. I wouldn't have known that they actually had information panels if it wasn't for an extremely brief advertisement during the pre-movie rotation. I personally go to festivals for the films, and would choose a film over a panel 9 times out of 10, but I also realize that there can be some very valuable information in those panels, and if the right guests are booked, they can draw some significant crowds.

Pre-Movie Movies

One sign that the festival might be taking itself and its ambitions a little too seriously is the way that it handled its introduction videos. Before each film, we're treated to two clips: one from Target and another from AFI Dallas. Target's video involves the target logo floating through a waterfall...and then some sort of flower or plant blooms and grows...but it's made out of some sort of red glass...and then there are silhouetted dancers in the plants...and then the clip seemingly starts over, then ends. It's supposed to be artsy and "abstract" but after it's done, everyone in the theater sits in the "Okay...what was that?" silence. I've heard that Target's campaign for the arts is actually doing some pretty good things, and I can understand them wanting to push that angle; to show the artsy crowd that Target is down with that too. But it just ends up feeling like they tried too hard.

The AFI Dallas clip was much more successful, though not entirely. It's essentially a stylized CG sequence that showcases the festival's venues and sponsors. For those who know the area, it's cool to see computer models of the very theaters we are visiting. It's all very well done, and my only beef really is that the music and the way it's put together makes it feel like it's trying to be a little too epic. It's a film festival -- no world's fate is hanging in the balances, so let's tone it down a tad.

Personality Goes a Long Way

The other night I went to the Studio Movie Grill in Dallas for the first time. Like theaters such as the Alamo Drafthouse, it's a venue where you order food before and during the film and it's brought to your seat. It was a good experience (and plenty of good eating) but something about it confirmed a suspicion I had been having about the Dallas filmgoing scene. Let's say I compare Studio Movie Grill to the Alamo Drafthouse. Dallas's theater is a much nicer facility with fancier chairs, fancier tables, and fancier methods of food delivery.

And yet, I prefer the Alamo. Why? Because while the methods may be less technological, and it's not as slick of a place as SMG, it has more personality. And that's something I've noticed about AFI Dallas and sometimes the entire Dallas movie scene: sometimes they're so concerned with being clean and slick that as a result, they start to lack any sort of personality. Keeping with the Austin comparison: walk the streets and venues of Austin during SXSW and you'll see layers of posters on top of each other advertising the upcoming screenings. Dallas during AFI? As I mentioned, I didn't see a single poster or ad taped onto a window, shop, or even in the theater lobbies. It makes the festival lack a certain buzz and excitement that comes from seeing people being passionate about getting their films exposed.

I look forward to the day that AFI Dallas becomes less concerned with being trendy, clean, and important, and decides to let its hair down for once.