Mid-Life Achievement Award Honoree: Hilary Brougher

Mid-Life Achievement Award Honoree: Hilary Brougher

Hilary Brougher came to MIFF in its first year with her first feature, The Sticky Fingers of Time. In the 21 years since then, as American independent filmmaking has gone from being something seemingly edgy and exciting to something too often falsely trendy, Hilary has fulfilled the meaning of the word “independent” and the promise of that movement. Her films are her own—she is the one who has both written and directed them, and they feature universally terrific performances from a wide variety of actors both famous and less so. Sometimes her films are playful; sometimes they are quite intensely serious—and they often mix the two. Her latest film, just completed this year, South Mountain, is a triumph like the others, a movie with a modest surface and a towering interior. Lucky are the students whom she teaches as Chair of the Film Division at Columbia University’s School of the Arts; they learn not just the technical aspects of great filmmaking, but the soul of what that term really means. It’s a true joy to welcome Hilary Brougher back to MIFF for the fourth time, and to honor her with a richly deserved Mid-Life Achievement Award.

South Mountain

USA—2019—DCP—82 Minutes

In English Director, Screenplay: Hilary Brougher

Producers: Susan A. Stover, Maria Roenblum, Kristin Frost

Cast: Talia Balsam, Macaulee Cassaday, Scott Cohen, Violet Rea, Guthrie Mass Print courtesy: Hilary Brougher

Hilary Brougher returns with her wondrous latest, a meditation on a particular sort of love that grows in the wreckage of broken things. Lila (Talia Balsam) is an artist and teacher who has built a modest rural paradise in New York’s Catskill Mountains with her writer/husband, Edgar (Scott Cohen). The two have been married for two decades. When Edgar unexpectedly announces the birth of a child with another woman, Lila tests her bonds to her best friend Gigi and begins a friendship with a younger man. All is changing, or so it seems. Set in the lush span of a single summer, the film is a portrait of a woman at a moment of loss and reconfiguration. Something new is being birthed—perhaps.

Sponsored by Joel and Alice Johnson

Stephanie Daley

USA—2006—DCP—92 Minutes

In English Director, Screenplay: Hilary Brougher

Producers: Jen Roskind, Samara Koffler, Lynette Howell, Sean Costello

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Amber Tamblyn, Timothy Hutton, Melissa Leo

Print courtesy: Hilary Brougher

Hilary Brougher’s terrific second feature is a potent film with a potent cast indeed, toplined by Tilda Swinton, Amber Tamblyn, and Timothy Hutton. When 16 year old Stephanie Daley (Tamblyn) faces murder charges in connection with the death of her newborn, pregnant forensic psychologist Lydie Crane (Swinton) is tapped to unravel the truth. The teen claims to have been unaware of her pregnancy, but as their sessions intensify, Stephanie’s state of denial and Lydie’s fears regarding her own pregnancy leads to a revelation that will change them both. “The facts in this case are well known....This case is not about facts,” says Lydie. “It’s about what we believe.” What Brougher has made here is a mystery with no easy solution, and no easy answers.

Sponsored by Patricia Clark

Sunday, July 14, 6:30 p.m., WOH

Friday, July 19, 3:15 p.m., RR2

Saturday, July 13, 6:30 p.m., RR1

Thursday, July 18, 3:30 p.m., WOH

The Sticky Fingers of Time

USA—1997—Digital Projection—82 Minutes

In English Director, Screenplay: Hilary Brougher

Producers: Isen Robbins, Susan A. Stover, Jean Castelli

Cast: Terumi Matthews, Nicole Zaray, James Urbaniak, Belinda Becker

Print courtesy: Hilary Brougher

The year is 1998. The Maine International Film Festival opens its proverbial doors. Among the programs: a selection of films from the independent film production company Good Machine; films by exciting, distinctive young filmmakers making their debut or second films, directors like Hal Hartley (Trust), Todd Haynes (who was to go on to get an Oscar nomination for Far From Heaven), Ang Lee (who was to win two, for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi), and Hilary Brougher, who came to the fest with The Sticky Fingers of Time. When Tucker Harding, a writer of hard-boiled fiction, steps out to buy coffee one day in 1953, she finds herself mysteriously transported to 1997. Wandering confused through New York’s East Village, she meets Drew, a desperately depressed woman to whom Tucker finds herself deeply attracted. They soon realize they are both “time freaks”—souls who are able to live time out of order. Tucker and Drew join forces to unravel the mystery of Tucker’s impending murder in the ’50s. Their efforts are confounded by femme fatale Ophelia and homme fatal Isaac.

Sponsored by The Phillips-Sandys

Monday, July 15, 3:30 p.m., WOH