By Dinah Cardin
Tonight, catch the hilarious and creepy SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY in the main theater at 9 p.m. We got to discuss the film with producer Bari Pearlman and find out why she has come back to us again this year.
Q: What did you like about the festival last year?
A: Over the years, I have attended 30+ festivals all around the world with my various films. And I have found that it is really the smaller regional festivals – where it seems like the whole town knows about the festival and rallies to support it – that are the most rewarding to participate in as a filmmaker.
Meeting local cinephiles who enthusiastically want to watch and absorb your work and talk to you about it afterwards is priceless, and something that particularly we who make smaller independent films rarely get a chance to do.
Joe Cultrera, who is himself a filmmaker, and his staff, know that, and provide for it wonderfully. Last year, my film DAUGHTERS OF WISDOM was screened at the festival, and the Sergottis who own Treasures Over Time sponsored my screening. I got the chance to walk through Salem and visit them in their store. That was very meaningful, and something special about the Salem Film Festival.
Q: What did you like about the City of Salem?
A: I really enjoyed Salem for it’s walk-ability (I was quite teased by the festival staff when I asked questions about parking!) and its seaside charm. And you’ve got to love the witches. Also, my first film, MAH-JONGG: THE TILES THAT BIND has played numerous times at the PEM, though I’ve never been able to attend the screenings. So getting the chance to make a pilgrimage there was great. This year, I hope to cover the House of the Seven Gables.
Q: The film you brought last year — Daughters of Wisdom — is so different from the one you’re bringing this year. How do you think the experience will be different?
A: Making DAUGHTERS OF WISDOM, a film about a group of exemplary women in Tibet, was a remarkable experience for me as a filmmaker, and sharing with audiences was a very personal and heartfelt experience. For SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY, I am its producer, and it was really the director Lee Storey’s work from the heart.
That said, I met Lee and ended up working on the film because I used to sing “Up With People” in my elementary school chorus, and remembered them well, so there was still a personal connection for me. It is a film with a much different tone, but still, as in all the film work I direct or produce, it hovers around the question of who we are as human beings and how we find meaning in the world. And how we form communities.
In all the screenings of the film that we’ve had so far, that seems to be where the discussion goes. So the differences I guess are just stylistic — there are more upbeat song and dance numbers in this one!
