MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
|
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME
Monday, April 23, 2012
THE 55TH SAN FRANCISCO
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - Night Four
Rory Kennedy Celebrates Her Indefatigable Mother
Filmmaker Rory Kennedy during a low-light Q&A on Sunday night after her
documentary "Ethel" screened at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco at
the city's 55th International Film Festival.
Omar P.L. Moore
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Monday,
April 23,
2012
SAN FRANCISCO
Power outages. Delays. Fire alarms. None of these was
going to prevent Rory Kennedy from screening her new documentary "Ethel" here at
the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. "Ethel" purely and plainly celebrates Ethel
Kennedy, 84, the mother of the documentary filmmaker. The youngest Kennedy
and eleventh child of the matriarch unveiled "Ethel" for the first time in
California. She was met with a warm reception.
Shot for HBO, "Ethel" chronicles a pillar of strength and dignity in its title
subject, the steady, graceful and charismatic hand through crises and some
pivotal world events which her husband Robert and cousin Jack were central to.
The present-day Ms. Kennedy is a picture of mischief and selflessness in her
daughter's documentary, bristling at the notion of introspection and candidly
expressing herself in a deeply moving film. Family members opine about
their childhood and the energetic mother who has shown them all so much.
"Ethel" is a rich, passionate assessment of history, a changing America and a
political family whose ideals are unchanged. The documentary shows a
family invariably tainted by tragedy, though not surprisingly the scandalous
episodes do not make their way into Ms. Kennedy's film.
The youngest Kennedy spoke to a patient audience who warmed to her and "Ethel".
Ethel Kennedy was born Ethel Skakel into a family of unpredictable, adventurous
individualists, the patriarch Skakel a self-made conservative Republican
businessman. "Ethel" makes light of the political differences between the
Kennedys, staunch Democrats, and the Skakels.
Much of the film's footage is archival and shot by other filmmakers for their
own documentaries on this quasi-royal family, one more maligned than the British
royal family. There are remarkable home videos, many seen by the public
for the very first time.
"A lot of the Skakel footage has never been seen before, and that took a lot of
pursuit to find where the original footage was. One of my mother's best
friends was Art Buchwald, and he always had a video camera with him. So we
went through his attic. There were lots of friends and family who sent us
photographs," Ms. Kennedy explained.
"Ethel" has its world premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival and will
air on HBO in October.
A man in this San Francisco audience asked, "are the Skakels still Republicans?"
"We don't ask them too much but some of them have come around. We're still
working on it," Ms. Kennedy replied.
The 55th San Francisco
International Film Festival runs through May 3.
Prior report:
Barbara Kopple
sounds alarm bells in San Francisco
COPYRIGHT 2012. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
FOLLOW
MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
| PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME