The Port Townsend Film Festival announced June 29 Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville as its special guest during the three-day festival, Sept. 15-17, in downtown Port Townsend.
“We are tremendously excited that Morgan is joining us this year,” said PTFF Executive Director Janette Force. “He represents everything the festival stands for — creativity, originality and pushing the boundaries of film.”
Neville, 49, won the 2013 Oscar for Best Documentary Film for “20 Feet From Stardom.” The film follows the journey of four outstanding women who worked as backup singers behind some of America’s biggest stars.
His following film, “The Music of Strangers,” is a lively account of cellist Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble that features top musicians from throughout the world playing instruments little heard in western music.
Both films will be screened at this year’s festival. “The Music of Strangers” will be screened in the 250-seat American Legion Hall with Neville attending for Q&A. “20 Feet From Stardom” will be screened, Saturday, Sept. 16, as the evening outdoor movie on Taylor Street and is open to the public.
Neville said that he has never been to Port Townsend but has heard good things about the annual festival and has wanted to attend for some time.
“I’ve heard this festival is a real gem,” he said. “At festivals you get to interact with people who are true film fans. There’s something about the engagement and the energy that I love. The best festivals have a magical air about them, where real life stops and everyone comes together,” he said.
“Meeting strangers, film fans and other filmmakers is one of the great rewards of being a filmmaker.”
Neville, after 2014’s John Sayles, is only the second director to be honored as a special guest during the festival’s 18-year history.
A documentary filmmaker, Neville has produced, directed or written over 50 films, including “Keith Richards: Under the Influence” and “Troubadours.” He also has been nominated for five Grammys for his films, “Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied,” “Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story,” and “Johnny Cash’s America.”
“Making a film about music is the ticket to making any kind of film that you want,” he said. “It can be about cultural politics like ‘Music of Strangers’ or how we value craftsmen and artists, in a film like ‘20 Feet.’ Calling something a ‘music film’ is an umbrella title that doesn’t do justice to how many places you can take yourself.”
Neville said the role of the documentary filmmaker is “to impose limits and prune the chaos of real life into a understandable narrative.”
During his 25-year career Neville has seen a welcome evolution in documentary films.
“When I started, people felt the same way about documentary films as they would about school field trips to a museum,” he said. “It’s good for you, but you are not necessarily looking forward to it. It’s changed in so many different ways. There are a lot of really exciting films made as documentaries, which are pushing more boundaries than on the narrative side.
“We are not at the end of that process. The technique of telling real stories in interesting ways is a long way from being spent.”
The Port Townsend Film Festival will showcase the work of over 100 independent filmmakers, with Q&A with filmmakers following most films, Friday-Sunday, Sept. 15-18.
Films are screened in eight theaters in Port Townsend’s walkable National Historic District. Quick bites and espresso are available on the city’s downtown brick courtyard, cocktails at the Festival Bar on the Dock and intimate filmmaker roundtable discussions Saturday and Sunday mornings in the Pope Marine Park Building. For information and passes, visit www.ptfilmfest.com.
