SIFF Part 6: "Garrison Keillor"

On Thursday night we attended the 7:00 world premiere screening of "Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes" at the Egyptian Theater. (It's listed in the SIFF program as "The Man on the Radio in the Red Tennis Shoes," but at the screening, director Peter Rosen and screenwriter Sara Lukinson said that when they showed Keillor the title, he thought it was great but asked them to get rid of the word "tennis." I guess the shoes he wears are a different kind of athletic shoe. Writers are picky that way about details.)

The film was made for the PBS "American Masters" series, and so was essentially a love letter to Keillor and "A Prairie Home Companion." What was interesting (if sometimes frustrating) is that the film made no attempt to delve into Keillor's life story, his childhood, etc. The focus was all on his work with "A Prairie Home Companion," and all we know about the man is what he tells us in his stories, which may be true, exaggerated for comic effect, or completely made up. The director explained after the film that this is really a part of who Keillor is, and they intentionally tried to preserve this sense of enigma about him. "We didn't want to do the Ken Burns thing, and zoom and pan around on family photos," Rosen said. Given the aims of the filmmakers and the nature of the subject matter, it was probably a good approach. I guess we'll have to wait until later for the exposé and the critical study.

Keillor did say something I liked. I'll have to paraphrase, but it went something like this: "When you tell lies about a place like Lake Wobegon, you become obsessed with the accuracy of your lies. You think that if you can just get your lies all correct, down to the very last detail, then one day you will be picked up, and transported, and set down in this wonderful place that you've told all these lies about." I think that tells us a lot about what he's up to in "A Prairie Home Companion."

My post on last night's screening of "Alexander Nevsky" will have to wait; right now we have to run to the Pacific Place Cinema for the 11:00 screening of "Fairytale of Kathmandu."