Moved to Tears

Jed Dietz, director of the festival, has always insisted that local filmmakers do not get priority to have their films entered. I'll accept that. But there are several local filmmakers who are good enough to get their work in -- even featured. Matt Porterfield, Ramona Diaz and Kurt Kolaja all have had films here in past years and screened works in progress this afternoon.

At opening night, local artists included Eric Dyer ("The Bellows March") and Julia Kim Smith ("Grand Teton"). Their two very different films moved me tremendously. Dyer's animated work in progress was 5 minutes, but it was something that spoke to me instantly -- it made me think of the tragedy of war. Another friend saw it as a metaphor for conformity. Dyer's mix of digital photography and zoetrope is mesmerizing. In the photo (right), Dyer holds up the sculpture used to make the film. But all of that visual virtuosity wouldn't keep my attention for even five minutes without the meaning it evokes.

As for Smith's movie, this is the first time I can remember being moved to tears by a short. Also 5 minutes, and so deceptively simple that it appears like nothing more than a lucky break. Smith had sought, on a return family trip to the Grand Teton National Park 25 years later, to recreate a family photo of her mother, sister and herself.

"We thought, 'Why don't we take a picture in the same spot?' " Smith said. And so she figured she would set up her digital video camera on a tripod, too, just to document the whole thing.

But as mother and daughters stood there to pose, and a grandson wandered in and out, Smith's Korean-born mother began crying. Smith appears a bit thrown off, but also moved, knowing her mother and father's struggles to escape the Korean War and make a new life in the United States. You can hear more about Smith's story from a WYPR broadcast today of The Signal.

"When I saw the footage, I decided I would turn the film into a tribute to my family," Smith said. Yes, it was a lucky break, but Smith was able to recognize what she had captured, and the universal impact on anyone who has lived through hardship -- in Mrs. Kim's case, war and the death of two sons.

Smith replaced the ambient sound with a moving rendition of "America," which spares us what might have been distracting audio and puts the focus on these three women, particularly the strong one in the middle. Happy Mother's Day to Mrs. Kim.