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T h e C reati v e A llia n ce bri n g s u s t h e n e x t g e n eratio n o f D I Y f ilmma k er s
Dallas Shelby is a great name.
It is a name that seems to have been lifted straight from celluloid—a name that seems to belong to film. And in fact, it does. Dallas Shelby is a filmmaker, one of many, among natives and transplants from around the country, converging inside the borders of Baltimore’s independent film and video community. It is a community with a long and scrappy tradition. Budgets aren’t big, but that’s not always a problem when tenacity, audacity, and the Creative Alliance are involved. The Creative Alliance, one of Baltimore’s biggest neighborhood advocates and Highlandtown’s artistic jewel, has been bringing filmmaking to the masses since 1999. It began when a group of Baltimore filmmakers approached them about offering the same support and resources already given to area visual artists. The nonprofit answered with Creative Alliance MovieMakers (CAmm). The program provides a “multipronged” approach according to Megan Hamilton, program director and co-founder of the Creative Alliance. CAmm offers salon screenings, film and video equipment rentals, classes and workshops—everything from editing and sound design to fundraising—as well as a venue to view locally made films. On the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m., CAmm’s free salon screenings bring filmmakers together to critique each other’s work and to mingle. “It’s not just about encouraging people to make the work and screen it,” Hamilton says. “It’s about encouraging everybody that’s making the work to know the other people that are making the work, to see if there are fruitful connections.” But it is the annual CAmm Slamm that really brings folks together. Now in its fourth year, the weekend long film festival has taken on legendary stature. In a caffeine-driven, speed-trap dodging, frenzied 48 hours—beginning Friday evening—filmmakers jump into the ring against one another, in friendly competition, to see who can make the best ten-minute video. After the smoke has cleared, these frazzled, bleary-eyed artists come together on Sunday night with their guerilla films for a screening that’s open to the public. The audience votes for the best film and three are awarded prizes. (The next CAmm Slamm will be held September 23 to 25.) The Creative Alliance also offers artists a residency program. Enter Dallas Shelby, originally from Arkansas, who moved here four years ago. “I spent some time talking to local artists,” Shelby says, “and everything about the city seemed to be something I wanted to be a part of.” As a CAmm artist-in-residence for the past year, he took his film Not Another Tolkien Movie to the New York Independent Film Festival in May 2004. “Baltimore has a thriving indie film community,” Shelby says. It should be no surprise that Baltimore is a nest for such fertile filmmaking. John Waters was one of the early pioneers of the “do it yourself ” style. Kristen Anchor, director of CAmm says, “In terms of industry and in terms of just ‘do it yourself ’ filmmakers, there’s a ton of stuff going on and they feed off of each other very well.” photograph of Dallas Shelby by Karen Patterson
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urbanite
april 05