What are Your Favorite Films?
For the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival we encourage you to Find Your New Favorite Movie! As we approach the festival we’ve started a new series on our site where we ask some Phoenix Film Festival filmmaker alumni about some of their favorite movies.
Larry King called Arizona’s Joe Arpaio the “P.T. Barnum of Sheriffs”; Variety’s Dennis Harvey lauded Randy Murray’s award winning documentary, The Joe Show, “an equally entertaining … and infuriating overview of a very American self-made phenomenon whose means of enforcing the law often seem to trample upon it. This vivid warts-and-all portrait has good potential to attract niche home-turf theatrical (distribution), and broadcast sales in other select territories.”
Randy directed and co-produced The Joe Show, tagged as a documentary about “the world’s most famous and entertaining law enforcement officer,” and the film snagged the Copper Wing Award for Best Documentary at PFF 2014.
This week, Randy shares some of his favorite films with us.
What is your …
- Favorite Comedy
I have so many favorite comedies it is hard to pick just one. Being There is so wonderful in it’s ability to make gags work in a structure that very well may be the funniest story I have ever seen in a theater. Anything that Mel Brooks did could be classified as the funniest film ever, but The Producers is very special to me. As a film buff you have to love watching an accountant named Bloom bloom into a con-artist.
- Favorite Drama
This is like asking an alcoholic for his favorite wine … (it’s) the one you are pouring. If forced, I would try to pick between The Godfather (you can pick the roman numeral) and They Shoot Horses Don’t They. Up until I saw They Shoot Horses I thought movies were about movie stars. When I saw that film I knew that movies could be about real people, and that they could touch my life. I was just never the same person after seeing that movie.
- Favorite Documentary
Dear Zachary (a film by 2012 PFF Copper Wing Feature Film winner Kurt Kuenne, who won that year for Shuffle). As real as it gets and well told.
- Favorite film you saw on the circuit
Elaine Strich: Shoot Me. The power of that woman’s personality and venerability was totally engaging.
- Favorite film that you think most people have never seen, but should?
Funny, but with the exception of The Godfather, all the films I have listed here are mostly overlooked.
Do you have a favorite film poster?
Got to be Jaws or The Silence of the Lambs. Simple designs that just make you want to see the films.
The Joe Show enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the US, aired on Discovery ID, and is now available on iTunes, Google Play and many other outlets. Randy says that Internationally the film is opening in theaters all across Canada this year, and will be at the Luxembourg City Film Festival in early March.
– Laurie Smith
