rakontur blog

“No” means “go”:

4/20/2002

The Florida Film Festival encountered unexpected controversy Tuesday, when a legal representative of Artisan Entertainment allegedly faxed festival staffers a 23-page “cease and desist” order mandating that they not screen the documentary Raw Deal: A Question of Consent, which was scheduled to be shown that night at the Colonial Promenade.

The order was the latest development in a battle that began when Artisan acquired the film at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, then elected not to distribute it. Co-producers Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben (also the film’s director) have announced plans to self-distribute the picture to 12 major markets next fall, with a progressive rollout to follow.

The Promenade screening went on as announced, but not before the festival’s publicity department spread word of the attempted ban to local media outlets. The result? The closest thing to a sellout I’ve seen at this secondary venue since the 10-day festival began last Friday.

Rumors flew that an Artisan representative had been dispatched to the screening, and that the nervous Corben would watch the film from the projection booth, then leave immediately with the print. That didn’t happen. Instead, the director stayed for an extensive Q&A in which he discussed the genesis of the documentary — a highly graphic investigation of a rape charge levied against a University of Florida fraternity — and made clear his contempt for Artisan as a business entity. The company, Corben said, had not paid his moviemaking team a dime, and was trying to stand in the way of a film it had no intention of releasing.

“Faustian, it is,” Corben said. He announced that he’s writing a book about the situation, then went on to name-check other filmmakers who have allegedly been screwed over by Artisan. Absent from his list: Haxan Films, whose Mike Monello had introduced the screening.

Even without the last-minute brouhaha, Corben would have been an ideal festival guest. Part stand-up comic and part provocateur (with a light dusting of game-show host), he kept the program humming with penetrating observations and boffo oneliners. The festival screening, he said, had brought the film closer to Gainesville than it had ever been:

“There may be some familiar faces in the audience,” he joked.

A few times, Corben’s melodramatic, motormouth rap threatened to undermine the integrity of his presentation. The more someone resembles Danny Bonaduce, the harder it is for me to give him the okey-doke. But I was impressed by his obvious, genuine interest in the wildly divergent opinions “Raw Deal” engendered, and by his ability to withstand even the most heated criticism. One woman filmmaker in the audience accused him of manipulating his footage for dramatic effect (which sounds a lot like the definition of cinema to me), and a male heckler alleged a spiritual kinship between Corben and the fraternity’s accused rapists. The director took it all in stride, remaining in the Promenade parking lot long past midnight to chew the fat with anyone who wanted to talk about “Raw Deal” and what it might mean.

Experiences like this are the reason we have film festivals in the first place. Of all the terms that were tossed around Tuesday — “rape,” “manipulation,” “offensiveness” — I was glad that the words “cease and desist” ultimately held the least sway.