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One man, four cats and a dream of film festivals
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
If it’s true that all professions influence their practitioner’s style, posture and gait, then it can safely be said that Justin Nathanson could not have been taken for anything but an independent filmmaker as he opened the door of his James Island home.
Clad in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, with bare feet and tussled hair, he held a cluster of DVDs under one arm. With the other, he introduced with a wave what turned out to be one of the four cats he jokingly refers to as the “staff” of his nonprofit film and festival company.
“That’s Bonnie,” he said, moving into the converted bedroom that serves as the production office of the upcoming inaugural Charleston Documentary Film Festival.
In short order, the other three cats, Clyde, Tallulah and Butters, appeared and took up residence at Nathanson’s feet. They seemed to know it was show time as Nathanson began showing a trailer he had been editing for the festival.
“This is a great scene,” he said as images of an impending environmental disaster crossed an oversized computer screen. As he spoke, Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” boomed in what sounded like movie theater-perfect Dolby sound.
“I can’t tell you how exciting all this is,” he said, nodding with approval as the screen faded to black. “From humble beginnings, hopefully great things come.”
As executive director of ChasDOC Inc., Nathanson’s unassuming, friendly manner belies a burning ambition to have a lasting cinematic impact on his adopted hometown.
One vehicle for achieving that goal is the inaugural Charleston Documentary Film Festival—ChasDOC for short—which will begin with a kick-off party at Noisette on Oct. 5. The event includes three days of film presentations at The American Theater in downtown Charleston and will conclude with a combined party/film showing on Folly Beach on Oct. 8.
Nathanson also has committed the nonprofit to supporting local filmmakers year-round through an entity called the ChasDOC Film Society.
Currently in production of its first film, “There’s No Place Like Home,” the society hopes to produce four feature documentaries a year, all with local filmmakers treating local issues. Its second film, “Water is Life,” scheduled for release in March 2007, chronicles a month-long kayak expedition through the watershed of South Carolina.
“While documentaries from all over will be featured at the festival, what we really want to focus on is the South Carolina filmmaker,” Nathanson said. “I really believe there’s a tremendous amount of talent here that’s just waiting to be recognized.”
A director and editor by trade, Nathanson came to the Lowcountry last year to work on “Palmetto Pointe,” the short-lived television drama focusing on the lives of six high school friends on the verge of heading off to college.
Although the show made a splash locally, with its characters popping up at the College of Charleston, Folly Beach and Riley Park, it folded after filming just seven of an anticipated 17 episodes.
Nathanson declines to discuss the show in any detail other than to say those who worked on it were “a very talented group.” But it quickly became evident that the graduate of New York’s prestigious School of Visual Arts got hooked on Charleston long before the production ended.
“Given all that Charleston has going for it, the decision to stay was easy; the question was what to do next,” he said as he sat before a computer table surrounded by stacks of independent films, festival tickets and promotional material.
ChasDOC’s mission is to educate the community on how to produce award-winning documentary films and videos on issues of concern in correlation with environmental and human rights groups.
“The thing about working in television is you do what you do—your day job, the reality shows, the game shows and so on—and then you have those projects that really speak to your heart,” Nathanson said. “In my case, relocating to Charleston gave me a real opportunity to combine my skills with my passion for social responsibility.”
Mindful of Charleston’s long-held traditions of natural and historic preservation, Nathanson said ChasDOC will screen documentary films and cinematic shorts addressing a wide variety of environmental and ecological issues in films such as “Plagues and Pleasure of the Salton Sea” and “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.” Films treating local, regional and international environmental concerns will also be showcased, he said.
Of course, before any of this could be done, Nathanson first had to learn how to put on a festival, something that’s not included in the film school’s curriculum.
“Basically, I called up every executive director of a film festival I could think of and asked questions of them until they hung up on me,” Nathanson said. “Literally, I asked hundreds of questions, and what I couldn’t glean before the receiver rang down, I researched over the Internet.”
He also began to reach out to filmmakers, persuading them to provide their work for the festival.
The group’s first big coup was securing the rights to a sneak preview of former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming thriller, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and showing the film to an audience of nearly 200 at the Terrace Theater on James Island.
Since then he’s been assembling a group of 25 to 30 volunteers to work on the film festival and has put together a board of directors that includes Nancy Cregg, membership director of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, and Cara White, head of public relations for the Independent Television Service, to help guide the nonprofit organization.
But he’s finding that the hardest thing is explaining to people exactly what it is he hopes to accomplish by establishing a film festival.
“I find that while people are wonderfully supportive in Charleston, there’s also a strong curiosity factor,” he said. “People realize you’re trying to create something that hasn’t existed here before.”
To the filmmaker, the festival represents a chance to showcase the work, not just of directors but of everyone involved in the filmmaking process and, hopefully, to inspire members of the audience to get involved in creating their own films.
“It’s a great place to learn the craft,” he said. “At the same time, it’s a great opportunity to network with people who might be able to help you bring a film idea to fruition. I’d love it if this festival became a springboard to the region’s goal of becoming a center of film and television production.”
Next year, Nathanson would like to showcase as many as 150 films in conjunction with workshops and seminars on film and filmmaking, he said.
Tickets to this year’s festival are $6 per film, or $45 for an all-access festival pass, including admission to the opening and closing parties. The Saturday and Sunday night screenings are free and open to the public. For further information, visit www.chasdoc.org or call (843) 277-0485.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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