The Jean Seberg International Film Festival

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I have always adored Jean Seberg, and I thought I would post this information from the Orpheum Theater website in Marshalltown, Iowa, about the Jean Seberg International Film Festival.This year they have some special international guests, and the topics sound interesting. They obviously will involve some discussion of the FBI harassment/blacklisting of Jean Seberg that was reported to John Ehrlichman, Richard Kleindienst and John Mitchell during the Nixon years as part of the COINTELPRO investigation. The Orpheum also hold the Donna Reed Film Festival as Reed was originally from Marshalltown.

 

10/4/12

London journalist Cedric Pulford bringing Paris Tributes to Seberg Festival this November
 
MARSHALLTOWN – The Second Annual 2012 Jean Seberg International Film Festival will feature one of London’s most experienced and critically acclaimed journalists, with his career spanning decades. After broad experience as a staffer on major newspapers in Britain and the United States, Cedric Pulford worked around the world for more than three decades as a journalism educator and successful freelance journalist before becoming an author. As a special guest of the festival, he will share his knowledge and first-hand experience from working with Jean Seberg in the late 1950s.
 
Pulford will be the presenter at Symposium I: Jean Seberg: International Icon, on Saturday November 10, at 11 am in the Orpheum Theater Center Movie House. His journey with Jean began when they first met in 1959 in Paris. Jean Seberg had always wanted to become a journalist. As the student Editor at Oxford University, Pulford invited her to write for his magazine, Oxford Opinion. The resulting article, published in 1959, foreshadowed the writer she might have become. Her article will be on display in the Black Box Seberg Exhibit.
 
This month, Pulford went to Paris to interview Aki Lehman, Jean’s former roommate. Ms. Lehman was happy to record a tribute to Jean, which will be played during the Symposium. Festival guests will also hear a tribute Pulford recorded in his interview with Mylene Demongeot, Jean’s co-star in Bonjour Tristesse who went on to become a revered French film star. Pulford will be bringing back his interviews with these women to share with everyone at this year’s festival.
 
“It is extraordinary that this year we will hear the voices from Paris in Marshalltown, Iowa,” states Festival organizer, Pip Gordon. “Mr. Pulford is bringing with him interviews never published or heard before so this will be a premiere event and a wonderful opportunity for us to hear from those who worked with and knew Jean for all those years in Paris as an artist, a humanitarian and at heart, a Marshalltown girl. We can also never underestimate what this will mean to Jean’s family who will also hear those voices for the first time.”
 
Pulford was a staffer on four national newspapers in Britain including the Guardian of Manchester and London and the Sunday Telegraph. Between 1968 and 1971 he was with the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, at the same time taking a master’s degree in political science at Case Western Reserve University. Since turning freelance in 1978, he has combined UK-based journalism with education and training projects for journalists around the world. The sights and sounds of exotic places from Nigeria to Nepal, Trinidad to Thailand, Borneo to Zambia are captured in his latest book, Journalism My Way: An Offbeat Life in the Media (2013).
 
Pulford’s other books include two journalism textbooks and a history of two traditional kingdoms in Uganda inspired by his African experiences (Two Kingdoms of Uganda). He is a committed environmentalist who wrote Air Madness: Road’s Mistakes Repeated as a warning of the social costs of automobile mania and binge flying.
 
The journalist turned author currently resides in rural Northamptonshire in the English Midlands. Pulford retains the happiest memories of his encounter with Jean Seberg. He was much moved to find the Oxford Opinion episode appearing almost five decades later in Jean’s latest biography (Garry McGee’s Breathless, 2007).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (m048 -- 10/18/2011)

Jean Seberg International Film Festival is Nov. 10-13

MARSHALLTOWN – The Jean Seberg International Film Festival Nov. 10-13, 2011, at the Orpheum Theater Center in Marshalltown is about more than honoring a world-renowned actress who happens to be from Marshalltown, Iowa. And the event will go way deeper than showing several Seberg films and putting some photos and artifacts on display.

For event organizers, the Festival has become about telling the compelling story of a talented actress who’s European following rivals that of Marilyn Monroe, and who’s heart for social justice (before social justice was “popular”) touched the lives of many but eventually led to an FBI smear campaign to destroy her reputation. It’s about talent and truth, courage and consequences, remembering and healing.

And it will be held in the same (recently renovated) hometown theater where Jean Seberg grew up watching her own idols on the big screen.

“Jean Seberg is a film legend in more ways than one, born and raised in Marshalltown, Iowa,” explains Pip Gordon, Director of the Orpheum Theater Center. “This event is about honoring Jean Seberg’s roots, her work, her causes, and her legacy. There are family members, friends, community members, fans and associates of Jean Seberg who have spent many months dreaming and planning for this event, and thanks to their shared involvement and efforts this will be a very memorable occasion.”

The Festival begins on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 7 pm with a Red Carpet Event hosted by the Orpheum Theater Guild, followed by opening ceremonies at 7:15 and the showing of St. Joan at 7:30; the day will end with an After Party in the Orpheum’s Black Box Theater.

On Friday, Nov. 11, there will be a unique symposium from 4 to 5:30 pm with Marshalltown native and film historian David Hinton, PhD., University of Tennessee, and “St. Jean” website author Jude Rawlins of London. Also on Friday, the Exhibit Hall will be open from 10 am to 10 pm, and the Orpheum will be showing Bonjour Tristesse (11 am and 2 pm) and Paint Your Wagon (7 pm). Two Friday Road Tours, highlighting nine Marshalltown sites near and dear to the life of Jean Seberg, will be offered at 11 am and 2 pm.

Events on Saturday, Nov. 12, include showings of Breathless (11 am and 2 pm) and Lilith (8 pm), plus a 4 to 5:30 pm symposium with author Garry McGee and film makers Tammy and Kelly Rundell of FourthWall Films. Road Tours will be offered at 11 am and 2 pm, and the Exhibit Hall will be open from 10 am to 10 pm.

On Sunday, Nov. 13 (Jean Seberg’s birth date), the Orpheum will show In The French Style (11 am) and Airport (2:15 pm, preceded by closing remarks from event organizers). The Exhibit Hall will be open from 10 am to 5 pm.

Additional information about special projects, performances, guests and events at the Jean Seberg International Film Festival will be released over the next two weeks, but Gordon has announced that the Orpheum Theater Center plans to create a permanent home for memorabilia honoring Jean Seberg’s accomplishments.

The Jean Seberg International Film Festival is made possible by a generous grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation, Wellmark of Des Moines, Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center, and Iowa Valley Community College District. Ticket reservations and additional information can be found on the Orpheum Theater Center website at http://www.OrpheumCenter.com.  

Nov. 11 Symposium puts the “international” in Jean Seberg International Film Festival

MARSHALLTOWN – The Jean Seberg International Film Festival is Nov. 10-13 at the Orpheum Theater Center, and part of the “international” in that special event will be a unique symposium on Friday night with Marshalltown native and film historian David Hinton, PhD., University of Tennessee, and “Saint Jean” website author Jude Rawlins of London, England.

The first of two symposia as part of the Jean Seberg International Film Festival, the event with Hinton and Rawlins will be Friday, Nov. 11, from 4 to 5:30 pm.; tickets are available at the Orpheum Theater Center.

“Although Jean Seberg is certainly known and appreciated locally, I sometimes find that local residents don’t know the scope of her international fame and popularity,” explains Pip Gordon, Orpheum Theater Center director and event organizer. “Our symposium on Nov. 11 will be fabulous and fascinating, bringing together a historian who knew Jean Seberg in his youth, and a Jean Seberg author who’s considered one of the foremost experts in the world on her life and career. The discussion will provide unique glimpses of Jean Seberg that are both personal and professional, widely known and also little known. Participants will certainly come away from the event with a new or renewed appreciation of our hometown heroine.”

David Hinton, PhD., is a film historian currently on staff at the University of Tennessee. He was also David Seberg’s (Jean’s youngest brother, now deceased) neighbor in Marshalltown. Hinton will discuss the Jean Seberg legacy and her ongoing impact on the world, especially in Europe. He maintains that she’s an enigma who lives on in time, but who was always an ambassador for her hometown and Iowa. His talk will provide a context for the international film icon who started out in life as a “Marshalltown girl.”

Jude Rawlins of London is the author of the Saint Jean website (http://www.saintjean.co.uk/) and is considered to be “the bastion of all things Jean Seberg.” Rawlins is famous in his own rite for his work in the fields of album discography (as vocalist and songwriter for Angelhead andSubterraneans, as well as being a solo artist) and filmography (as writer/director/actor). He is the author of four books and has been involved in countless musical productions.

Rawlins began the Saint Jean website in 1999 and has received information from Seberg fans worldwide, keeping her legend alive well beyond her death in 1979. Never having been to Marshalltown, he’ll not only shed light on the actress and her career but also glean many stories, photos and resources to complement the Saint Jean website.

The Jean Seberg International Film Festival is made possible by a generous grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation, Wellmark of Des Moines, Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center, and Iowa Valley Community College District. Ticket reservations and additional information can be found on the Orpheum Theater Center website at http://www.OrpheumCenter.com.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (o060 -- 11/3/2011)

Nov. 12 Symposium puts “the story behind the story” in Jean Seberg Festival

MARSHALLTOWN – The Jean Seberg International Film Festival is Nov. 10-13 at the Orpheum Theater Center, and there will be lots to see, do and learn about Jean Seberg during the event. There will be a special opportunity for participants to hear “the story behind the story” about Seberg on Saturday when filmmaker and author Garry McGee and filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle offer their insights.

McGee authored “Jean Seberg: Breathless” and co-authored “Neutralized: the FBI vs. Jean Seberg.” The Rundles, who operate Fourth Wall Films in Moline, IL, are currently collaborating with McGee on the production of a documentary of Jean Seberg’s life. They plan to show a 2-minute teaser of the documentary, “Movie Star,” and a 12-minute Seberg biographical featurette.

The second of two symposia as part of the Jean Seberg International Film Festival, the event with McGee and the Rundles, will be Saturday, Nov. 12, from 4 to 5:30 pm.; tickets are $15, available at the Orpheum Theater Center. The symposium will be moderated by Associate Professor Nancy Adams, MCC social science faculty.

“These people are more than familiar with Jean Seberg and her story … they’ve immersed themselves in it,” says Pip Gordon, Orpheum Theater Center Director. It’s their life’s work, and there’s no one better to share with our audience ‘the story behind the story’ of Jean Seberg. I promise you, it’s a very compelling story and these filmmakers will really deliver for our audience.”

The producer-director-writer of “Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg” is award-winning filmmaker and author Garry McGee. He was born and raised in Iowa and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University. He lived in Los Angeles, where he worked for United Artists Communications and for New World Entertainment.
McGee’s documentary film, “The Last Wright” (produced with Lucille Carra) received several humanities awards, as well as grants from The Principal Financial Group Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The one-hour film about Frank Lloyd Wright's last standing hotel, the Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, IA, includes archival and newly produced footage on location in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, New York and Japan. “The Last Wright” was awarded the Best Documentary honor at the 2008 Iowa Motion Picture Association Awards, and McGee received an Emmy nomination for writing. The film has screened throughout the U.S. and on Iowa Public Television.

Award-winning documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle, through their independent production company “Fourth Wall Films,” released “Villisca: Living with a Mystery”in 2004 about Iowa’s worst unsolved mass homicide, and the film went on to qualify for the 2005 Academy Award competition following a 14-month, 60-city limited theatrical release. The murder mystery was an official selection and award-winner at several film festivals, released nationally on DVD, and broadcast on Midwestern PBS stations. 

Their next film, “Lost Nation: The Ioway,” which explores the story of the nearly forgotten Ioway Tribe,enjoyed a limited theatrical release of 107 screenings, won several top awards at film festivals, garnered a Telly Award, was released nationally on DVD and was broadcast on Midwestern PBS stations. 

The Rundles premiered their award-winning documentary “Country School: One Room – One Nation”at the State Historical Building in Des Moines in November 2010.  "Country School" recently won a Best Documentary award at the 2011 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival and the Rundles also received a special award from Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area. The citation included both "Country School" and "Lost Nation: The Ioway" and read, in part, "The Rundles have been uncovering stories that are nearly forgotten and preserving stories that are soon to be gone. Their work connects us to Iowa's early inhabitants and farmers, and brings light to how one room built one nation." The "Country School" film has also received an award for artistry and scholarship from the Country School Association of America, as well as positive media reviews. The film is currently in limited theatrical release with a national DVD release this fall and PBS broadcasts slated for 2012.

The Rundles are currently co-producing “Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg” with McGee; the documentary is expected to be released in 2012.

The Jean Seberg International Film Festival is made possible by a generous grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation, Wellmark of Des Moines, Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center, Marshalltown Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Iowa Valley Community College District. Ticket reservations and additional information can be found on the Orpheum Theater Center website at http://www.OrpheumCenter.com.