Reel Life

By David Maurer

Published: November 30, 2008

During his lifelong love affair with motion pictures, Richard Herskowitz has witnessed some pretty disturbing things in theaters.

Black militants standing with their fists thrust in the air through the entire screening of the 1966 film “The Battle of Algiers.” People shouting at the screen as they were leaving a theater midway through a showing of Jean-Luc Godard’s often shocking “Le Weekend.”

But on opening night of the 16th Virginia Film Festival, Oct. 23, 2003, Herskowitz entered the University of Virginia’s Culbreth Theatre expecting a real calamity. As the director of the festival, he was the guy who would bear the responsibility for what was shaping up to be a thoroughly dreadful encounter.

Herskowitz recently recalled the night while reminiscing about memorable moments during his 15 years as executive and artistic director of the festival. Having recently seen the festival through its 21st

edition, Herskowitz is leaving to teach and to design exhibitions for the film studies program at the University of Oregon. He also has taken on the duties of curator for a new festival for the Cinema Arts Society of Houston.

But back in 2003, for Virginia’s money-themed festival, Herskowitz had scored big by getting the great Hollywood screenwriter Frank Pierson to introduce and talk about his movie “Dog Day Afternoon” at the opening event.

Pierson had won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay about a real-life bank robbery gone sour. Herskowitz also had invited John S. “Sir Dog” Wojtowicz, the real bank robber on whom the movie was based.

“For me, the quintessential film festival event was the opening of ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ ” Herskowitz said, his eyes momentarily widening at the thought of it. “The nightmare for me was that I had discovered after inviting Wojtowicz that he was known to have a grudge against Pierson for having implied in the movie that he had ratted on his partner.

“Apparently it had almost gotten him killed in prison. The two had never met before, and Frank, after agreeing to come, said he didn’t know how Sir Dog felt about him.

“It was too late to rescind the invitation.

“I remember shuddering and thinking as Sir Dog was going up on stage, ‘He is going to let loose on Frank in front of the entire audience.’ But instead he said, ‘Everybody in this audience should be so lucky as to have their life story written by Frank Pierson.’

“Then they met and embraced on stage. That was just an unbelievable memory.”

Before coming to UVa in 1994, Herskowitz had been the executive director of the Film Society and Media Center at Cornell University for 12 years. Its centerpiece was Cornell Cinema, which showed hundreds of films a year.

“A lot of campus film societies faded in the late 1970s and ’80s,” Herskowitz said. “Some of that had to do with video coming along, and people being able to watch classic films at home.

“Film festivals seemed to be taking over from film societies, which had been the place to exhibit and see alternative foreign classics and independent movies. Then this job at UVa popped up with the film festival, and it was unique for a number of reasons.

“The emphasis was on discussion, with more speakers than films being shown. The mix of classics, premieres and experimental documentaries all woven into this collage with a central theme is unique as well. And I like being around university campuses, so all those things really appealed to me.”

When Herskowitz became the director of the film festival in 1994, it was on the cusp of big changes.

When it was founded in 1988 it was called the Virginia Festival of American Film.

The name was changed to the Virginia Film Festival in 1996. That year proved to be a major crossroad in its history.

“When I arrived at UVa the festival had a staff of six and a budget of more than $600,000,” Herskowitz said. “What I found out soon after I came here was that it was kind of a runaway locomotive, and it was hemorrhaging money. By 1996 it was really on the ropes.

“The university was losing significant money on it, the state had pulled out its support and private support was going away. But a lot of people, including faculty and board members, wanted to keep it going, and because of my experience at Cornell, I thought I could run the festival at half the cost and with half the staff.

“Ultimately, the university said if I could do it with one-third the staff and cost, and I was willing to start teaching for them, they would give me a two-year probation period to see if I could keep it going.

“I accepted, and from then on, I’d say to people we were like the Wizard of Oz. We were creating a massive spectacle with almost nobody behind the curtain.”

Herskowitz made it work. A few years ago, the festival’s deficit was repaid to the university. Rita McClenny, director of the Virginia Film Office, said his contributions to the university, community and the filmmaking industry in the state have been significant.

“From the point of view of the Virginia Film Office, the festival has been a great partner in fostering and encouraging filmmakers to have a wonderful time in Virginia,” said McClenny, who has held her post since 1991.

“In that partnership we’ve actually have had filmmakers come back to produce and make movies in Virginia. In a broader sense, what Richard has done is help foster the power, appreciation, scholarship and discussion of films.

“Under his guidance the festival evolved from a festival of American films to a festival that centered itself around a four-day discussion on a theme. In a very smart, elegant and deep way, Richard explored 15 themes during the course of his tenure. We’ll build from here, but certainly the legacy he created will be remembered.”

Herskowitz said the greatest challenge he faced as director was getting top-rank movie stars to show up every year to add glitz and prestige to the event. When he first arrived, he couldn’t understand the “enormous anxiety” swirling around the festival office concerning which movie stars they were going to get.

“During my time at Cornell Cinema, we brought in one movie star, Christopher Reeve, and he was a Cornell graduate,” Herskowitz said. “Here, because of the festival’s early years bringing in Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, Sidney Poitier and on and on, it was just expected.

“The Daily Progress reporter would drive me crazy. All he would say was, ‘Who is your star?’ I would say we’re bringing in Andre Gregory from ‘My Dinner With Andre.’ And we have Roger Ebert coming and we’ve got Griffin Dunne the actor.

“And he would say, ‘But really, who is your star?’ It was like everybody was thinking, ‘Who is this new guy, and what happened to the film festival?’ ”

Herskowitz’s realization of the importance of landing established stars didn’t make it any easier to do. As the number of film festivals have increased, and other dynamics have come into play, it has gotten even more difficult.

The outgoing director said that because of a variety of complicated reasons, the nature of film financing has changed during the last couple years. One result of that is a much shorter time span between a picture getting financial backing and going into production.

Because of this, actors want to remain flexible and often won’t commit to attending festivals until the last minute. Although Herskowitz thinks attracting big stars every year is an “unreasonable expectation,” he has a good track record at doing it.

“I learned how to get stars, and it’s like a military campaign,” Herskowitz said. “It’s extremely carefully plotted and strategized.

“I don’t think I have ever written to a star’s publicist to ask if their star could come. It’s hopeless. You have to have connections to them, and that’s where my very well-connected advisory board came in.

“An example is when Jason Robards came. When he was in California shooting a film, producer Marc Abraham would be there telling him, ‘You’ve got to come to the Virginia Film Festival. It’s the best. I’m on the board.’

“Then Robards would fly back to New York, where he lived, and there would be Lewis Allen, also on our board, telling him he had to come. When Robards got here, he told me he had felt completely cornered, and he was.”

Another way Herskowitz attracted big stars was by featuring films done by their family members. This ploy resulted in the showing of some terrific documentaries, such as “Children in America’s Schools” written, directed and produced by Jeffrey Hayden, husband of actress Eva Marie Saint, who was a guest in 1996.

“It turned out to be a fantastic documentary,” Herskowitz said of Hayden’s film. “We had a panel discussion with a lot of teachers. It’s still one of my best memories of the film festival, because the teachers in the audience felt so validated by that movie.

“Part of the reason Vanessa Redgrave came here all the way from England was because we were showing her son’s film, ‘Fever.’ My favorite response to an invitation came from her.

“She called me at my office and said, ‘Is this Richard? Vanessa Redgrave. What a lovely invitation you sent me. Of course, I would be honored to come.’ ”

Thrilled, Herskowitz asked the famous star if she would like him to make arrangements with her publicist.

“Of course not,” Redgrave answered. “Here is my telephone number and e-mail address.”

Redgrave remained as available and genuine throughout the 2005 festival. At the opening night gala she was one of the last to leave, graciously making time for everyone, especially students.

Sigourney Weaver was another superstar who charmed, and was charmed, by the local citizenry. After one event she walked up and down the Downtown Mall chatting with people and signing autographs.

Another person Herskowitz said he came to greatly admire was Ebert. For a number of years the respected film critic conducted wildly popular shot-by-shot workshops in which he would dissect famous films.

“I didn’t take him [Ebert] seriously before I came here,” Herskowitz admitted. “I thought he was a fairly superficial reviewer based on a television show. I’ve since confessed to being a snob in that way.

“Hearing him do his shot-by-shot workshops resulted in having my own teaching really be improved by following his model. And I came to realize that he scaled himself to television.

“The range of his intellect is so huge that he came to film festivals like ours in order to ventilate and exercise his intellect. We were the beneficiaries of that.”

During his watch Herskowitz was the beneficiary of moments that almost stopped his heart as well as made it soar. He leaves with vivid memories of a forgiving bank robber, films arriving an hour before screening time and manically rushing about to provide subtitles for a foreign film that arrived without them.

The man who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and fell in love with motion pictures weathered it all. As he moves on to the next chapter in his life, he feels both sadness and excitement.

“There’s certainly sadness about leaving,” Herskowitz said. “This was a great chapter in my life, and I’ve made many close friends here.

“But overall, I’m very excited, because I’ve landed a fantastic position at the University of Oregon. And the Houston job is allowing me to indulge my tastes and preference for avant-garde filmmaking and experimental media.

“So I feel like I’m moving to the next stage. But I’m very grateful for having had the opportunity to meet so many actors and filmmakers I’ve long admired. And getting the stars has been fun and exciting.

“But I do think what has attracted so many filmmakers and talents to the festival has been an appreciation for the substance of the programming and the incredible intelligence of the audiences. The festival has earned its reputation for having the richest discussions of any film festival.”