From the Heartland. The 12 Dogs of Christmas — the most “ family-friendly film” I’ve ever made — was the Featured Special Event opening weekend at the Heartland Film Festival. The film sold out one hour after tickets went on sale. The reaction to the film was delight, enthusiasm and tender emotions. I like to think it had a little “heart.”

Young stars of the film hosted a two-hour party for the hundreds of children who flocked to the screening with their moms and dads. A day earlier they spent the morning visiting kids at Riley Children’s Hospital. As I write this article, Dagny and I are guests of the Heartland Film Festival. It is a grand event.

This immersion in the Heartland Film Festival has left me with one overpowering impression. Indianapolis is a LONG way from Hollywood and there is a huge “forgotten” audience that openly embraces faith in God and the traditional values we hold so dear. The log line and mission statement of the festival say it all.

Heartland Film Festival
Truly Moving Pictures
TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR
FILMMAKERS WHOSE WORK EXPLORES
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
BY ARTISTICALLY EXPRESSING
HOPE AND RESPECT FOR
THE POSITIVE VALUES OF LIFE.

Hollywood must be on the other side of the world. What is it the audience wants from a movie anyway? Producer, Lawrence Turman, (Producer’s Hall of Fame and Endowed Chair at USC ‘s Peter Stark Producing Program) suggests that,  “audiences are hungering for genuine, accessible emotion.” [i] [i] When asked what they want most from a movie a majority of moviegoers responded, “To get emotionally involved. To laugh. To cry. To feel something.”

Out of Touch

Hollywood Studios have whole departments dedicated to the development of motion pictures. Readers pore over books, scripts and treatments. Executives endure myriad pitches in their search for a few “commercial” movies to “green-light” and eventually produce. One studio evaluated over 50,000 scripts to come up with the 12 movies that actually got made. Most of us are baffled why this exhaustive machine continues to miss the mark on film after film after film.

A Fox opinion poll reported that 70% of the audience feels, “Hollywood is out of touch with their values.” Little wonder that the Heartland Film Festival is gaining significant stature with its focus on “hope” and “positive values.”

There were 700 movies produced last year. “Some of them so bad,” quipped Jack Valenti, former czar of the Motion Picture Association of America, “that you had to subpoena the audience to get them in the theater.” Less than 300 will have the distribution necessary to qualify them for Academy Award consideration.

How many of these movies made it to “a theater near you”? How many movies did you see this year? How many “really good movies” do you remember? How many reflected “hope” and “positive values”? How many moved you emotionally, spiritually or touched your heart?

Escape

Of course not everyone wants a “meaningful emotional experience” when they go to the movies. I should know. My wife is one of them. Her reasons are difficult to contest. They may even sound familiar. “I raised eight children,” Dagny explains. “Every day has been a dramatic emotional experience. I am involved in the lives of our 24 grandchildren. I am running a non-profit educational foundation and a private school with 250 additional children that I consider ‘my own.’ I go to movies to escape from a busy, challenging and complicated life laden with un-ending drama and real emotions. Why would I want to go to a movie to be emotionally drained over a crisis in the life of some fictional character with whom I have no real relationship?”

She’s got a point. Her argument certainly justifies the abundance of  “mindless entertainment” flowing out of Hollywood.  (If you presume that I go to a lot of movies by myself or watch them alone in our home theater, you’re right.)

Movies in theaters endure in spite of home theater and DVD because they allow us to escape into another world and disappear from our realities for two hours in the dark. But even my wife — who closes her eyes in James Bond movies — must confess that the films she remembers and the ones that make a difference are the ones that crack the shell and grip the heart for better or for worse. The ones that make us laugh and cry and feel.

The Illusive Emotion Called “Heart”

There are many levels of humor and dimensions of pathos. Human beings are capable of myriad emotions. Being here at Heartland Film Festival I am fascinated — as you may guess — by that illusive emotion called “heart.” A lump in the throat. A tear in the eyes. A strenuous effort to keep from sobbing out loud in a public place. Thank goodness for the dark.

They may call it by its other names but everyone making movies knows about “heart”… or should. “Heart” comes in many subtle shades. Movies with “heart” are always better than movies without it.

You know what I’m talking about. Who of us has not sat through a two-hour movie with big stars, dazzling special effects, incomprehensible computer graphic images, non-stop action, a car / truck / plane / motorcycle / boat chase with classic Hollywood “one-up-man-ship,” great music, incredible digital sound, painstaking makeup, innovative costumes, spectacular sets and locations, startling cinematography and impact editing… and felt absolutely nothing? 

Don’t get me wrong. These films — most often masquerading as “Summer Blockbusters” — can be great fun and “successful” but too often fail to engage us emotionally. Too few of them have “heart.” Thank goodness you can buy popcorn with extra butter and get a free refill.

These popcorn crunchers have spawned a curious vernacular of euphemisms to describe the experience: Mindless entertainment. Eye-candy. Total escapism. Awesome effects. Wall to wall action. (The movies my wife likes to watch) More pointed critics say, “a waste of time and money.” Not always but sometimes. Did you see Stealth? Cat Woman? Day After Tomorrow? Or my all time favorite movie to hate, Battlefield Earth?

Why do so many of these “big movies” fail to engage us? Why is there so little empathy or emotional connection? Characters come and go. Someone dies. So what? We never believe. We never engage. We are observers not participants.

The people who make these films are creative even brilliant. Budget is not an issue. They have access to everything but come up with movies with nothing — at least nothing that reaches our hearts.

Art vs. Commerce

Larry Turman puts a finger on the problem in his terrific new book So You Want To Be a Producer explaining it thus. “Quality writing is number three on the list of two things the studios are looking for.”  After 40 movies, Turman understands that the business of Hollywood is business and the business is international. Over half the revenue from films comes from markets outside the United States. “Since the major studios want to be all things to all people around the globe, art and commerce are too often mutually exclusive.” [ii] [ii] Perhaps Hollywood desperately needs a dialogue with its core audience. (I’m working on that. More to come)

The Heartland Film Festival — Truly Moving Pictures — is a timely reminder that while art and commerce may be “mutually exclusive,” neither needs to exclude that magic emotional something called “heart.” Remember the lyrics from that great song by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross in Damn Yankees? “You’ve Got To Have Heart. All you really need is heart. Miles and miles and miles of heart.”

The finest filmmakers get it. In the hands of a genius like Peter Jackson the abundant box of cinematic toys — however spectacular — are only used to help tell the story. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy has become a milestone in film history and is arguably the most spectacular and successful film(s) of all time. But Peter Jackson brilliant trilogy did not become an enduring masterpiece on the legends of Tolkien or the dazzling effects alone. He made us care about a place that doesn’t exist and people who never were. Peter Jackson understands “heart.” There was a special exhibit featuring Lord of the Rings at The Heartland Film Festival.

Making Movies Matter

For me “heart” is the emotion that makes movies matter. I am a huge fan of the Heartland Film Festival with their “Truly Moving Pictures.” I cheer their courageous search and support of movies that express hope and positive values. It has been an extraordinary four days attending movies that inspire, elevate and enlighten us while leaving us enchanted and entertained.

In subsequent articles I will share more about some of these extraordinary films. There is one I must name now. I am adding it to the list of 100 Films to See Before You Die. It is called Earthling. It defies classification but is called a feature length documentary. Glorious.

Most of the films at Heartland are independent films created outside the system. Many are movies that Hollywood would never make it possible for you to see. Some of the best films made are movies that you will never even hear about. (I am also working on that as well. More to Come.)

I confess my hopeless prejudice of course. I love movies. I love making them. I love watching them and I love talking about them. Needles to say. I love Mormonism more. Faith in Jesus Christ. The remarkable events of the Restoration. The Legacy of Faith and our Focus on Family. The reconciliation of these otherwise conflicted passions is only possible with movies that move me. Movies with “heart.”

Whatever the genre. However the story is told.  Whoever the characters may be. When the elements combine in ways that resonate with heart and spirit who I am and what I do are for that moment in accord.  What I believe compels me to make films with “heart.” Who I am drives my quest for stories that put a lump in my throat, a tear in my eye and makes me feel good again.

A Crisis in Hollywood

A month ago I spent a three-day weekend in Marina Del Rey with legendary screenwriting guru and teacher Robert McKee. Bob told me, ”There is a crisis in Hollywood. It is a crisis of content. The stories are not about anything. It is trivial superficial content.” Robert McKee is an aged oak tree in the Hollywood forest. He has been there. Done that. He knows whereof he speaks.

What is “Heart?”

What is “heart” anyway? What is it about films like Hoosiers, Rudy, Remember the Titans and The Rookie that engages us emotionally and makes us feel good?  What ingredients combine — from time to time in selected scenes from many films — to bring a lump to our throat and a tear to our eye? Or leave us sobbing when the movie ends?

“Heart” is more than the warm fuzzy feeling so easily wrenched from a maudlin manipulation of predictable vulnerabilities. It is best when it is real. It is real when it reflects — if only for a moment — the best of human character. It resonates when it reflects eternal truths.

“Heart” can be found in some surprising places. You anticipate “heart” in a romantic comedy like Just Like Heaven — a delightful film, by the way — and you get it. Consider, however, the closing scenes from The Man as an unexpected example. This is a mixed-genre movie. At one level it is light-hearted, perfectly cast with a brilliant script and terrific dialogue. It also includes action, violence, drugs death and mayhem.

On the whole the movie would not qualify as having “heart.”  But who expected the touching emotions of the final goodbye between the completely conflicted and wonderfully complex main characters? (Played by Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy.) The film found its “heart” in that moment and for me the experience ascended to a higher more satisfying level. It was unfortunately minimized by one too many “gags” immediately thereafter but that is a discussion for another day. (Please beware. The Man is rated PG-13 but some may find the language and inferences offensive. Meridian readers should not mistake this example as a recommendation.)

A War of Values

There is a war of values raging in the world. We know from whence it comes. Most do not. When Hollywood blockbusters assault your senses with dazzling images and 7.1 digital surround — but leave you dispassionate and uninvolved — it is not because they don’t want to slam their fist into your bosom and grip your heart. It is because they don’t know how. I believe some filmmakers who are brilliant at entertaining our senses but leave us emotionally uninvolved are crippled by the absence of traditional values in their personal lives. They really don’t get it. They would never understand what’s going on at the Heartland Film Festival.

Of Hollywood McKee quipped, “That awful smell is not the smog; it is just the stench of all those rotten scripts that have been written.”

Unless you happen to live in Indianapolis or embrace an unreasonable appreciation for independent films, you may not have heard of the Heartland Film Festival and Truly Moving Pictures. You may be surprise to learn that there are 650 film festivals in the United States (1900 world-wide). Among the most prominent of course is Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah. Having been to both it is irresistible to make a comparative comment in passing.

The Heartland Film Festival was founded in 1989. Its goal, “To recognize and honor filmmakers whose work explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Their festival opened Friday night with a screening of Dreamer. [iii] [iii]

The Sundance Film Festival was founded in 1985, when the Utah/USA Festival was taken over by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. Its emphasis was independent films. Sundance became prominent in 1989 when a twisted little film called Sex, Lies, and Videotape spiraled from the festival onto the movie screens of America. From that R-rated turning point Sundance emerged as “the cultural barometer for the state of American film and its tenuous balance of art and commerce.”

Of Sundance Film Festival outspoken guru, Robert McKee, said, “Outside of Hollywood there is a formal crisis with the American Independents. Indies cannot tell stories worth — [expletive deleted]. I dare you to go to the Sundance festival and watch 3-4 films a day. Dreadful, “socially significant films”. Gays coming out of closets. Who gives a — (expletive deleted)? They tell their stories in the most flawed dreadful way. The telling is so awful.”

Little wonder Dagny and I feel so at home in Indiana at the Heartland Film Festival. Little wonder we have so enjoyed watching Truly Moving Pictures. You need never wonder why we opted not to throw our G-rated family film into the festering broth of “socially significant films” that want to register on the “cultural barometer of American Films.”  It is right that we find our gentle little family film, The 12 Dogs of Christmas, as The Special Event in a festival that celebrates films that express hope and positive values.

There is real “heart” in the Truly Moving Pictures of the Heartland Film Festival. And it feels good.

Many have asked so here it is.  The 12 Dogs of Christmas is being released on DVD November 1st. Wall Mart is doing a huge promotion or you can go to the website at www.12dogsofchristmas.com. [You can read more about the making of the film on Meridian here.]