A Conversation with Filmmaker, Ron Craig

Filmmaker Ron Craig moved to Portland, Oregon as a child of less than a year old, so he considers himself a native Oregonian. He has a long history of involvement in both the artistic and educational communities of Portland, including serving as contributing artist and associate editor of Spectrum Magazine of the Arts, working with the Portland Community for UNICEF and serving as a board member of the North Portland History Project. As a young Boy Scout, Ron first became aware of the Lewis and Clark story and found it compelling. It was not until later that he discovered that there was an African American member of the expedition. Ron was widowed in 1994 after twenty-two years with his companion and wife, Cynthia. Partly as a result of this life-changing experience, Ron has dedicated himself to telling the story of hidden heroes of history through his production company, Filmworks Northwest.

Ron has started a second endeavor, Astoria Productions. As its Executive Director, it is in its third year of producing the Astoria International Film Festival (AIFF). For more information go to www.goaiff.com. Ron is also involved in co-production of two documentaries with Oregon Public Broadcasting: The Undiscovered Explorer: Imagining York, an award-winning radio documentary featuring noted actor Danny Glover as narrator; and Searching for York, a television documentary aired on the series Oregon Experience. For more information go to www.OPB.org. Ron has also co-authored a children’s book on York that will be published by National Geographic Children’s Book Division.

But his journey about York really started when he was a young man in a Portland, OR Boy Scout troop. He pondered, “Who is that black man standing next to Clark?”

I had a similar experience when I attended John Muir Jr. High School my interest in York is personal and it can be traced back to my middle school years. My house with the big maple tree in the front yard was on the edge of a busy industrial corridor that I traversed daily on my way to John Muir Jr. High School in Los Angeles. Looking up at its leafy branches—my green space, it almost hid the large blank cement block of a building with a hurricane fence encircling its yard across the street. For ten blocks, I walked past a gritty corridor that included a salvage metal yard, textile factory, two muffler repair shops, and two blocks of an urban dairy, no cows, just big shiny two-trailer milk trucks all located across the street from a series of train tracks that ran parallel to the avenue to reach John Muir Jr. High, named for the conservationist who advocated the preservation of stretches of wilderness areas. At school, I remember singing songs that celebrated the life of John Muir and I imagined trekking high up into the mountains to trees that rose from the ground like cathedral spires and stopping along frosty rippling streams whose waters sparkled in the sunlight and whose sound soothed my soul, transporting me and giving me a sense of wonder and freedom of going beyond the boundaries of my neighborhood in South Los Angeles with a sense of discovery and exploration--beyond what any teachers at John Muir Jr. High School or any other school had envisioned for me. I imagine that, during the Corps of Discovery, York experienced a similar glimpse of freedom, a sense that he could be more, chart his own path, and redefine himself beyond his circumstances as a slave to William Clark. My knowledge of John Muir the conservationist, led me to investigate the life works of lithographer and painter of the western landscape, Grafton Tyler Brown. With this shared sense of wonder that grew from our childhood experiences, I decided to have a conversation with Ron Craig, not so much about York but his creative and entrepreneurial spirit to take the initiative to make York’s story known to a wider public. I also wanted to learn how Ron’s work on York merged with his development of the Astoria (yes, Astoria, home of those young “explorers” The Goonies) Film Festival.

LLC: I know that you started working on York in 1999 and from there, how did you develop the Astoria Film Festival.

RC: Well the Astoria Film Festival has been a long time dream of mine to produce a) a film festival because as a younger man I noticed some film festivals around country wanted to know how they were developed plus Astoria had such a historic point in the state of Oregon because it was incorporated in 1811 and we were able to get the old Liberty Theater there which is a 1924 historic vaudeville theater. At the same time it’s one of these legacies where I wanted to be able to assist other filmmakers as far as having an opportunity to showcase their work whether it’s national, international, or cultural alliances to be able to--to be able to establish forum for other filmmakers and I’m having a lot of fun. It was kind of a road to doing an African American film festival, of which we’re doing our inaugural event the second week in November of this year and with Astoria we are in our third year producing that. So, the whole idea was to put a film festival together with the ultimate goal of doing an African American film festival here in Portland.

LLC: So would you be directing both film festivals?

RC: Absolutely, we’d be doing both of the film festivals.

LLC: Tell me about the Astoria Film Festival, I know that it takes place in mid-October.

RC: It’s October 16-17 and 18, 2009 and what we try to do is we try to have stories about indigenous people, that’s in our mission statement and it’s one of the aspects of the festival because Native Americans occupied that area so much longer than the white settlements coming in there or the Eurocentric settlements coming in that area so I didn’t want to take away from the indigenous people who had been there so the idea was that we wanted to highlight the stories of indigenous people from the area and at the same time to be able to establish a platform where young filmmakers to come and learn from people who are established because we actually have seminars and really more in depth question and answer sessions that are actually off-site from the theater. So a lot of times you’ll have a film and it will run for thirty minutes or maybe forty minutes and then you’ll have question and answer sessions right there in the theater so what we try to do is to get people out of the theater in a more relaxed atmosphere so they can actually talk to the filmmakers and the writers and videographers and find out their artistic course, how they got there, what their creative process is. I think that’s very important especially for younger people to find out what it is that motivates people to do this so they know that they’re not alone out here as a starving artist.

LLC: So the educational component is very strong? You aren’t just showing films but you’re really into the process.

RC: No, this is definitely a platform for education.

LLC: This is the third year, and so you started off as a platform for looking at the indigenous population and you don’t want to abandon that theme so where do we see that in what you’re planning for this year? Are there films by indigenous peoples? Is that a focus in terms of the filmmaker or the production itself or is that a theme that others have attached to?

RC: Well, let me clarify it. It’s more or less an element. I definitely don’t want to force the issue but having that open because I’ll be very frank with you we have not had very many entries that have dealt with that but at the same time, I wanted to be able to open that door for it to be there because once as I said, once again it’s about this country and American history and the people who have contributed to it and I think they should have a voice too. It’s kind of lopsided as far as [the stories of] indigenous people, women, and minorities. They have been ignored and that’s been a mistake by some of the people in control before have made and I definitely want to correct that and make the option available for people to be able to participate.

LLC: So, it’s indigenous people countrywide, so Hawai’ians and so forth and it’s not just centered on the Pacific Northwest.

RC: No, not at all.

LLC: So with that in mind how do you have specific themes, what’s the process, how do filmmakers get their films screened at your festival? Who selects…is there a selection panel, is it you, do they submit, is it by invitation, how does that happen?

RC: They can visit our website and fill out a submission form. We review everything but we try to keep things open. We try to keep things open and we welcome young filmmakers and videographers to submit but we also screen hundreds of films and videos and invite people to submit.

LLC: I know that Indiekids is participating this year with films for children. Do you show many animation shorts for adults?

RC: Most of Indiekids is animation for children and we haven’t drawn in animators for the adult audience yet. We’d definitely like to have animators submit their works.

LLC: Do you ever visit YouTube looking for films or videos that you might want to show?

RC: YouTube is such a new venue, and with people uploading 24 hrs a day, it is just overwhelming. We have a small staff of four and we cannot spend hours upon hours on YouTube. I can go find filmmakers at other sources. In years to come things at YouTube will be sorted out and then perhaps it will be a viable place for us to locate films or videos.

LLC: I know, I did a brief piece on ODCAP on YouTube and it was incredible how much time it took me to scan the videos. I wanted to see what people of African descent were doing in video and I found some interesting things but it was just too overwhelming for me. I would have had to have an assistant to help me wade through all of the films and videos. Now, I just solicit recommendations from others—it’s the time factor.

LLC: I’m finally getting more contributions on ODCAP from people of African descent from outside of the US; although my emphasis is on the African and Black diasporas, I also show artists who are non-black because I don’t want to lock myself into a corner. Are there any films related to the African or Black diaspora that I should highlight here?

RC: I mentioned the first African American Film Festival in Portland November 13, 14, and 15, 2009 and during that festival we will be honoring people who have gone before in films like “Guess Whose Coming to Dinner.” We will have four theatres over a three night run. This film was pretty much a social commentary at the time it opened in theaters and at the time, I didn’t realize that an edited version playing down South as opposed to what we were seeing up North. The second film is “Superfly” and we will show some of the older films like “Cabin in the Sky” but at the same time I’m looking for contemporary African American films and will start this area with Spike Lee’s, “She’s Gotta Have It,” which was a first film like that for some time. All will have educational platforms that highlight how you have to have patience and must say [your artistic] course.

LLC: Will you have matinees as well as showings at night?

RC: Probably a matinees and nightly showings because we are planning to show eight films at four different theaters during the three day festival.

LLC: What do you want to see happen with this festival?

LLC: I want to use it as a learning tool to bring in academics like Darryl (Milner, historian at Portland State University). He is working with me at PSU; I want to showcase younger filmmakers around country, this can draw them into Portland and help me to those filmmakers and audiences in Portland who I haven’t been able to engage. There hasn’t been a forum for these African American filmmakers to showcase their work.

LLC: What are your upcoming film projects?

RC: I’m starting to work on Lili'uokalani, the last queen of Honolulu Hawai’i and hoping to work with the French government on putting that together. I’ve been looking at it for ten years and now there may be some interest. Plus President Obama has roots there. The Hawai’ian indigenous people really got the shaft there. Also, the York film that we did with OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) is getting word out about York. We’re screening the film, not under the banner of African American history because I don’t want to be compartmentalized—I don’t want people to say give us a call next February. With that said, I am especially interested in screening York at the Black colleges [Historical Black Colleges and Universities], the guy was born in Virginia and lived in Kentucky, and with me it is part of my legacy to them my nieces and nephews to being able to put this guy out there. When I did “Who is that Black Man Standing Next to Clark”—I was a gypsy just going around paying for the film with money from my own pocket.

I’ve always been an advocate of telling the histories and my frustration with Black people here in Portland has always been getting the word out there to them, getting them engaged, but got my shoes laced up and I’m doing it, I’m lecturing a lot because one of those things that I must leave a cultural footprint.

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