River Valley sends two to Sundance

By SANDY LONG

UPPER DELAWARE REGION — It is said there are many ways up the mountain. For two residents of the Upper Delaware, that couldn’t be more true, particularly when the pinnacle of that path is the Sundance Film Festival, where the work of local filmmakers Zac Stuart-Pontier and Josh Fox will see its world premiere between January 21 and 31.

Zac Stuart-Pontier: “Catfish”

Zac Stuart-Pontier, 26, was born in Honesdale, PA, grew up in Narrowsburg, NY and currently lives in New York City.

He is the editor and co-producer of the film “Catfish,” a feature-length documentary directed and produced by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost.

The film features Nev, a 24-year-old NYC photographer, who is contacted on Facebook by Abby, an eight-year-old girl who asks permission to paint one of his photographs. When she sends him her remarkable painting, Nev begins an online friendship with Abby and her family, eventually falling in love with her older sister, Megan. When Nev and his friends uncover some startling revelations about Megan, they set off on a road trip to find out the truth.

Stuart-Pontier began work on the film in the fall of 2008 and came on when the filming had just been finished. “There were hundreds of hours of footage and it took us about six months to get a proper rough cut together,” he said. “We spent the next year or so working out a structure and trimming it down.

“We submitted a rough cut to Sundance so when we found out we got in, things really kicked into high gear. We have been working very hard for the past few months to finish it on time.”

Of his role, Stuart-Pontier said, “Being the editor of a documentary is a lot like writing with someone else’s words. There is no script, and the structure must be found. It all must come out of the footage that already exists. I really like it because it is a lot like working through a puzzle.”

Stuart-Pontier got his first camera in high school. “Before that I always wanted to be an actor, but I found that it was more fun to be able to put together the movies myself,” he said. He attended film school at NYU, where he decided not to make a senior thesis film and to concentrate on editing. He has been working as a freelance film editor since.

“Right out of school, I was fortunate enough to get a job as the editor on a feature documentary called ‘Beautiful Darling,’” he said. “At the same time, I was working on music videos and commercials to pay the bills.”

Through a friend, Stuart-Pontier met Joost and Schulman, who own a small production company called Supermarché. He has worked with them on various projects for the past two years.

“Henry called me on the way back from the road trip that became the crux of “Catfish.” I really enjoy working with both of them, was shocked at the story he was telling me and was very excited to get my hands on the footage,” he said. “‘Catfish’ is a touching, relevant story with a good message. I am honored and excited that Sundance decided to give it an audience.”

Beyond Sundance, the young filmmaker has several other projects coming out. “Beautiful Darling” is premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in February and “Opus Jazz,” a Jerome Robbins-adapted ballet (co-directed by Joost and production designed by Schulman), is premiering on PBS in March.

Josh Fox: “Gasland”

Josh Fox, 37, was born in New York City and has spent most of his life in Milanville, PA, which he continues to call home.

Fox is the director of “Gasland,” which will premiere in the U.S. Documentary competition at Sundance. Born under the working title “Rage of Nature,” and with an undeniable sense of the urgency that title implies, Fox’s film has blazed its way to Sundance on the heels of a cross-country odyssey tracing “toxic streams, dying livestock, flammable sinks and weakening health among rural citizens on the front lines of the natural gas drilling craze.”

Fox traveled to Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, western Pennsylvania and more to interview people living near gas wells. Returning home, Fox followed activists on the East Coast working to stop the drilling. “The documentary moves from a simple story about a man trying to protect his home to a much larger understanding of the USA as a nation in jeopardy of irrevocably polluting its water systems and land,” according to its website.

In documenting the story of gas, Fox estimates he has traveled more than 10,000 miles by car, plane, train and on foot. All of it is intended to get the word out, as fast and far as possible. “There is an enormous urgency to this project,” said Fox. “We’ve been trying to get this stuff to people as quickly as possible.

“Sundance was always our aim. It’s the biggest platform for something like this. The film was not complete when we sent it to Sundance, but they accepted it without it being finished. I think they realize it’s a very important issue. And it is. It seems like a local issue with debatable points. But it’s actually a national issue that is not debatable. The threats to water, air and health are real and the film puts this into perspective.”

Fox learned of the acceptance just before Thanksgiving. “It’s enormously galvanizing to get into Sundance,” he said. “The film has been a race against time from the beginning. And the deadlines help you race.”

In February, “Gasland” will headline as the opening night film during The Thin Line Film Festival in Denton, TX and will be shown at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, MT. In March, it will open at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC.

“We’re feeling like things are going very well and we’re hoping to have it in theaters to be aired for as wide a release as possible, while retaining its use as a teaching tool to be shown on college campuses and to community groups and more. I’d like to see it shown at the Callicoon Theater and the theater in Honesdale,” added Fox.

“We’ve been inundated with calls from across the country asking to show the film,” said Fox. “It gives a perspective that’s of critical importance.” Visit www.waterunderattack.com to learn more.