With homemade napalm, a Catholic priest leading a band of Vietnam War protesters in Catonsville stole and set fire to hundreds of draft board records.
Experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs examines the explosive 1968 act in her documentary “Investigation of a Flame.”
“[The Catonsville event] is something all Baltimoreans should be proud of. It was international. If you say ?Catonsville? to anyone who knows about protest movements, they know what happened there,” Sachs said.
The filmmaker selected moments from “Investigation” and three other of her films focused on war zones to show tonight during her lecture “I Am Not a War Photographer” at the Creative Alliance?s film festival. Bosnia and the Middle East are among the war-ravaged countries Sachs explores in her films and discusses.
Throughout “I Am Not a War Photographer,” Sachs displays her unorthodox approach to film ? a personal-essay style. She includes abstract images to create metaphors about cultures at the heart of violent conflicts. The filmmaker also creates shifts in film texture with a variety of visual effects. She uses 16mm film and digital video as well as color and black-and-white footage.
Sachs and other artists showing their work at the film festival “have a single vision like a painter or a writer,” said Kristen Anchor, director of Creative Alliance MovieMakers. Unlike Hollywood directors who oversee big-budget movies and expansive crews, “these filmmakers use film as a form of personal expression,” she explained.
“What?s interesting about the festival is that all the filmmakers look at themselves as filmmakers, not directors. Each one is very involved in the whole process, and that?s why I?m really exited. It?s not about constructing a hierarchy or delegating responsibility,” Sachs said.
She feels her documentaries are successful when then they “make audiences question what they took for granted or reexamine their whole belief system.” She said she “wants to give audiences an artistic and intellectual charge.”
After the screening, the artist will field questions from the audience about her unconventional work.
“I think there?s a growing interest in more experimental work,” Anchor said. “Maybe it?s because people watch crazy stuff on YouTube or are getting tired of crime shows on TV. They want more work off the beaten path.”
?I Am Not a War Photographer?
Independent Visions: Solo Cinema
» Where: Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore
» When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18
Festival continues through Jan. 20
» Cost: $8, $5 for members and students
» More information: creativealliance.org
