From Real to Reel

HARVARD SQUARE, you're no Hollywood. Mass. Ave. is certainly not Sunset Boulevard; The Harvard Square Theater can't boast the same "Avenue of Stars" outside of Mann's Chinese Theater. And while star-watching might be rewarding at Wolfgang Puck's chic L.A. restaurant, Spago, it won't yield successful results at The Tasty.

This is, of course, New England--a region known more for its philosophers and educators than its starlets and agents.

But it's not that bookish Cantabrigians have sacred away filmmakers. On the contrary, it has its own thriving community of independent filmmakers and small production companies who are attracted by the City's intellectual environment.

"[Cambridge] has a long tradition of interesting work [in film]," says Robert G. Gardner, senior lecturer on visual studies at Harvard. "There's an atmosphere here which is compatible to people who want to do something serious, something thoughtful," he says.

"In a way, it's the antithesis of Hollywood," he adds.

Jonathon P. Schwartz, director of Interlock Media Associates, points to more reasons for filmmakers affinity for Cambridge. The city is "quasi-left, progressive, alternative, somewhat tolerant," he says.

FILMMAKERS in this area are less likely to have 'entertainment' as a goal, says Gardner. "They are exploring a medium, expressing ideas," he says.

In fact, Cambridge might well serve as the headquarters of a particular kind of filmmaking, Gardner says.

"Instead of it begin like New York, which is the painting capital of the world, of Milan, which is the opera capital of the world, maybe Cambridge is the nonfiction filmmaking capital of the world," he says.

Christopher C. Schmidt, who owns Zerkelo productions on Fayerweather St., agrees that Cambridge is an important filmmaking center. "It could be the diversity, or the intelligentsia," he says.

And the city's diversity is integral to these filmmakers art, many say.

"When you come here, you're not straved for sources,' says Gardner. "It's a good place to just pick up on a whole lot of interesting people and ideas, who often turn out to be helpful in collaboration."

"Greater Boston is certainly one of the strongest communities for filmmaking that I know of its very impressive," says Anne-Marie Stein, executive director of the Boston Film/Video Foundation.

Stein, who has sat on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) says she has always been very pleased with the high calibre of work submitted to the NEA by Boston filmmakers.

"I've been very proud to be from Boston, when you see the quality of the work submitted," she says.

But others are not so quick to call Cambridge a mecca for all American documentary filmmakers. Labelling Cambridge the 'non-fiction film capital of the world' might be "a bit excessive, says Richard Lewis, a producer at Chedd-Angier, a public television production company based in Watertown. He describes the city's importance in more moderate terms, suggesting that "the nonfiction film capital of [Route] 128" might be a more appropriate moniker for the city.

BEYOND CAMBRIDGE'S character, however, are more specific explanations for the high concentration of writers, directors and producers of both personal and documentary films.

Many area filmmakers appreciate the abundance of work opportunities in Cambridge-- opportunities which some say do not exist in New York or Los Angeles.

"There's quite a bit more documentary film making here than in New York," says Schwartz. "And quantum degrees more than in L.A."

"I think it's certainly better here than in New York or L.A.," agrees Lewis. "There's just more work here." And, he adds, "If you're in L.A., its sort of embarrassing to go in and say you're a documentary filmmaker."

"This is Boston's little niche," he says. "No features are internally generated. There's nothing except us documentary types."

Many producers mention the proximity of WGBH, a major public television broadcasting company in Allston. WGBH provided a lot of work for free-lance filmmakers in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, says Schwartz. Independent filmmakers following the "pattern," he says, would work as freelancers at WGBH, leave to pursue their own projects, and them return to the company. Much of the freelancing "pool" at WGBH was made up of Cantabrigians, he says.

"[WGBH] provides work for a lot of us," says Robert Whittlesey, a co-partner in the Allston-based Documentary Guild. "They help support filmmakers in town."

In fact, Chedd-Angier was formed by the former science editor and the former executive producer of "Nova," produced by WGBH.

The company continues to work closely with WGBH, according to Lewis. They are currently working on a series co-produced with WGBH and the BBC, "The Secret of Life," as well as various "Nova" programs.

ANOTHER INFLUENCE which helped established Cambridge as a filmmaking center was an "old guard" of filmmakers, said Schwartz. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, "the old boys' club of cinema verite and anthropological filmmakers" made forms of documentaries which tried to be as realistic as possible, often even acknowledging the presence of the filmmaker, he says. This group included Gardner, who used to be an anthropologist, John Marshall, and Ricky Leacock.

Stein, too, says that a "school of film makers" influenced the Boston-Cambridge area. Leacock and Ed Pinkus, both at MIT, "taught a lot of people who sub sequently taught at Harvard."

Though some speak of a "community" of filmmakers today, Whittlesey says that the group is actually not that cohesive. "Most of the people I know tend to be very independent of each other," he says. "Most don't need or rely on people other than their own staff. Everybody kind of does their own thing."

CAMBRIDGE'S COLLEGES and universities also help make it a filmmaker's paradise, many producers say.

Cambridge is "a tremendous research community that you wouldn't have any were else," says Lewis. The proximity of Harvard and MIT makes his job easier, he says. "We don't have to fly anywhere. You just jump in a van, and you've got your Nobel Prize winner," he says. "That's a huge advantage in science film makings."

While not all film makers say that Harvard itself has had an impact on their work, the University has supported students' education in the field, says Gardner.

"About 30 years ago, Harvard committed itself to supporting work in this area, and experimentation in this area," he says.

And the Harvard Film Archives in the Carpenter Center remains an important promoter of independent film, says Vlada K. Petric, curator of Harvard Film Archives and senior lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies.

"One of the main goals of Harvard Film Archives is to promote and show those films that are not created with the intention to entertain the audience and make money, but to reveal, in a truly artistic way, various aspects of human experience, the society in which we live, and the media which influences us," says Petric.

The Harvard Film Archives is currently screening 70 films from the "Film Makers' Cooperative," the largest distributor of independent cinema, says Petric. "Some of the films in this series are made by the filmmakers that work in the Film Department at Harvard University."

Just as the College is an institution that fosters intellectual discussion, Cambridge also provides its own wealth of ideas that serve filmmakers well.

"Cambridge is full of ideas," says Gardner. "It's an environment in which thinking and talking goes on about subjects which affect not only Cambridge but the world."

And that "thinking and talking" is just what filmmakers seek. "Out of that discourse," says Gardner, "has come an opportunity for people to work in a variety of media, including film."

There is one more bonus for filmmakers living in Cambridge and the greater Boston area, according to Schwartz. The Charles River not only makes Cambridge a decent place to live and maintain a studio, Schwartz says, but also creates some tranquility in the hectic life of a producer.

"Filmmaking is a tense business. It's good to run in the morning," he says.