08/05/2007

Reflecting on real life and movies

By Kathy Gibbons
Features editor
kgibbons@
record-eagle.com

Read Kathy's past columns here

One of the things I have liked about the Traverse City Film Festival since the beginning is the convivialty of it all.

It seems to bring the community together. There's Ross Biederman, whose WTCM-AM talk radio with its decidedly conservative and yes, even anti-Michael Moore topics, donating luxurious space in Radio Centre for the Film Festival box office and store this year. There are people of all political persuasions in line waiting to see films, together, chatting about movies.

So it was that several recent incidents made me think yet again of how that can only be a good thing.

Take the following comment someone tried to post on Jodee Taylor's Record-Eagle Film Festival blog.

"I cannot imagine attending any program or event that is featuring the traitor to our country Moore as a participant or sponsor. This is just one more reason NOT to go to Traverse City which is already full of the self annointed (sic) and aging gray haired pony tailed hippies, butch haired women and other liberal types.”

Then last spring I noticed a motel sign, with big letters, "AMERICAN OWNED.” I was puzzled. Aren't they all American owned, unless they're part of some international conglomerate?

Seeing the sign still like that last week, puzzled again, I called the owner to ask about it. He said it's "just a marketing thing,” that he wanted to write "AMERICAN & PROUD” but didn't have enough lines or letters, though there was in fact an empty line on the bottom. He also said it's gotten him a lot of customers.

I remembered hearing about a hard-working family of ethnic origin operating a motel somewhere right in that area some time ago. If they were still there, I wondered what they might think about that sign. So I started calling a few motels nearby.

At one, the owner, in a strong foreign accent, said he was aware of the sign but didn't want to talk about it. He said his business is fine. While he's not a citizen, he's a permanent resident and expects to obtain citizenship within two years.

Then a friend and I went out for a drink after seeing "The Wiz” at the Dennos Museum. A bar crawl brought a long string of people in shortly after we arrived.

At one point, our waiter, a nice young man, stopped to vent. He'd had to cut off a couple guys on the bar crawl because they were too drunk and in retaliation, one had called him a "faggot.” He was upset.

Shortly after, as the drunk guys were leaving, they screamed back at our waiter, in front of us and everyone else in earshot, again, "faggot.”

I guess, as we enjoy the Traverse City Film Festival and all of the different windows into the world that it has to offer, my hope would be that it helps spread enlightenment. On the other hand, my guess is the people who need it the most probably wouldn't think so.

Reach Kathy Gibbons at kgibbons@record-eagle.com