'FancyDancing' co-star speaks at movie house
Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WATERVILLE — During the 10 days of the Maine International Film Festival, Railroad Road Cinema played a key role in bringing in filmmakers and actors to discuss their works, an element that brought another dimension to the movie experience.
The film festival ended a month ago, but this Friday and Saturday, the opportunity to go beyond the film returns when Railroad Square shows "The Business of Fancydancing."
In this case, actress Michelle St. John, one of the movie's co-stars, will be on hand to talk about her role in the motion picture at three separate screenings — 7 p.m. Friday, 2:40 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday.
Unlike the film festival, however, there is no corporate sponsorship to pay for the cost of such an added attraction.
"It is not something we can do very often," said Ken Eisen, one of Railroad Square's owners, "because the economics of it really don't work."
But economics has never been the focus of Eisen and the others who founded the fine arts cinema on the fringes of downtown.
While business is business and art is art, Railroad Square has always been a blend of the two, with the emphasis on the artistic side.
That means the operators don't operate with a bottom line mind set. On the contrary, Eisen and company see a greater mission that makes monetary losses acceptable at times.
The mission, Eisen said, is to provide people with an experience that they otherwise would be unable to find in central Maine.
"It is a way of making the experience much more vital and alive," he said. "And it gives the audience an entry way into (a film) that makes the experience much less passive in nature."
Eisen, who teaches film appreciation at the college level, talks of the transporting power of the medium, as well as the fact that an ensemble of artists — from directors to actors to screenwriters — make that medium possible.
"The Business of Fancydancing" actually was one of the more than 90 movies shown at the Maine International Film Festival.
"A lot of people put off seeing the film at that time because we sort of put out word that we would be bringing it back," Eisen said.
Eisen had hoped to bring in Sherman Alexie, the director of "The Business of Fancydancing," during the film festival, but the logistics could not be worked out.
The Friday and Saturday screenings, then, rank as an enhanced version of a movie that already has garnered numerous film festival awards since it opened in May in Seattle.
And for Eisen, St. John's scheduled appearance — she is flying in from Toronto — brings back some of the excitement and energy generated by the film festival in a much less taxing dose.
Colin Hickey — 861-9205 chickey@centralmaine.com