Lights, camera, film festival
Marylhurst to celebrate Oregon cinema, May 1-10
Shirley Skidmore, left, and Jenn Marron have recently included putting on a film festival among their duties at Marylhurst University.
CLIFF NEWELL / Lake Oswego Review
Bette Davis with eyes wide open and in full strut.
Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Susan Hayward and rodeos.
A little-seen silent classic by master filmmaker F.W. Murnau.
Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in rowboats.
All of these movie wonders and more will be featured in Marylhurst University’s first film festival on May 1 to 10, titled the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Fest.
“I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” said Marylhurst’s Jennifer Marron, film festival manager.
Yet somehow everything seemed to line up for this event to happen. The most important thing was adjunct professor Dennis Nyback deciding to have his vast 7,000-film collection be archived at Marylhurst.
In addition, not only is 2009 the sesquicentennial year for Oregon, it is also the sesquicentennial year for the Sisters of the Holy Names coming to this state and transforming education.
“We started with two days,” said Shirley Skidmore, marketing and communications director for Marylhurst. “It grew to 10.”
A couple days simply were not enough to contain all of the good things the Marylhurst film fest had to offer, and everything shown will have an Oregon connection.
Bette Davis is in top form in Marked Woman, a Warner Brothers classic from 1937 in which she played a night club hostess defended by district attorney Humphrey Bogart.
City Girl is a 1930 film that is gaining classic status because of Murneau, pantheon director of Nosferatu, Sunrise and Tabu. It will be accompanied by a score written by Marylhurst’s music department chairman John Paul and performed by a quartet of local musicians.
Then there is 1952’s The Lusty Men, with a cast full of big stars and directed by cult favorite Nick Ray. Men don’t get any more lusty than Mitchum and Ryan, especially when the electrifying Hayward is around.
“I’m looking forward to seeing real rodeo footage of the Pendleton Roundup as it was shot on location in 1952,” said Clarin Cromwell, Marylhurst’s media relations and advertising manager. “I’ve heard this rare Western is one of Ray’s best movies.”
While the classics are the most eye-catching items, the film festival offers a highly diverse selection of film, including animation by Bill Plympton, a documentary by Penny Allen on the Iraq War, and a student film competition called “The Gold Coyote,” featuring 50 entries, which will conclude the festival on May 10. The winning student filmmaker will receive a $1,000 prize.
However, one of the films will certainly not be shown at any other cinema fest. That is the collection of home movies by the Sisters of the Holy Names, founders of Marylhurst University. Some movies show these literally flying nuns happily coming off an airplane, while others show them rowing rowboats in full nun regalia on Oswego Lake. The films go back to the 1940s and have been preserved on DVD by Sister Carol Strawn.
“The Heritage Center has great archives,” said Skidmore. “That was one reason we wanted to screen them. The other is we wanted to honor the Sisters on their 150th anniversary.”
In honoring movies, Oregon and the Sisters, Skidmore and Marron say they want the film festival to open the community to Marylhurst University.
“I think we’ve put together an incredible lineup,” Marron said.
The Marylhurst film festival will be honoring Klamath Falls native James Ivory, who teamed with the late Ismail Merchant to make some of the most honored films of the past 30 years.
Ivory will be present at the fest’s opening night on Friday, May 1, when he will appear on stage with director Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Mike Rich, other native Oregonians who have gone on to achieve great success in the motion picture field. The event will be held at the Mission Theater at 1624 N.W. Glisan in Portland, starting at 5:30 p.m.
All other festival events will be held on the Marylhurst campus, starting on Saturday night with an opening party. Special guests will include Ivory and Plympton.
For tickets, the schedule and more information about the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Fest, go to the festival Web site at www.mufilmfest.com or call (503- 534-4028.
Marylhurst University is located at 17600 Pacific Highway, between Lake Oswego and West Linn on Highway 43.