Profiles

Mary Blackwood, Division of Sponsored Programs

	Mary Blackwood founded the Landlocked Film Festival in 2007. The Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City serves as the festival's flagship venue. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

As a child, while her family was living in South America, Mary Blackwood would watch American movies on a cheap screen in a conference room in a U.S. Embassy. For one sucre (about five cents in terms of American currency) Blackwood found herself entering a mesmerizing world.

“Whatever I was holding in my lap would end up on the floor, and I wouldn’t notice,” Blackwood says. “I was so engrossed in the movie.”

In 2007, Blackwood channeled that passion into the Landlocked Film Festival, a celebration of independent movies and an exploration of the crafts of filmmaking and scriptwriting. It has become an August tradition in downtown Iowa City, with the historic Englert Theatre serving as its flagship venue. This year's festival will be held Aug. 27–30.

Blackwood, who works as a contracts administrator in the University of Iowa Division of Sponsored Programs, took a break from preparations for this year’s fest to talk with fyi about the festival’s rapid growth, the state of the film industry in Iowa, and what it was like to watch American films dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles.

What prompted the creation of the Landlocked Film Festival?

For about eight years now I’ve wanted to have a comprehensive film festival in Iowa City—a fest that shows all types of films and offers learning experiences such as workshops. Iowa City is the perfect place for a destination film festival. We have a walkable downtown with lots of hotel rooms and great restaurants. We have the Englert and several other excellent screening facilities.

It started with ICDOCS, a festival I cofounded with friends. After two years I bowed out of ICDOCS—I learned an enormous amount about documentaries through that festival, but still wanted to have a festival that included narrative films. Other people in town also were interested, but it took awhile because the Englert Theatre—which is the ideal flagship for a film fest—wasn’t ready to screen movies until about three years ago. We launched Landlocked in 2007, screening 67 films and videos in competition and offering workshops.

Is there a typical sort of film at Landlocked, or should attendees expect the unexpected?

The beauty of a competitive independent festival is the incredible variety of entries. We have two-minute animated films and two-hour documentaries. Some are very artsy, some are hilarious, some literally have brought us to tears. Many of the topics that are handled are unlike anything seen in the major entertainment business or mass media. While you will see some Hollywood actors in some of the movies we show, you will also see hundreds of new faces.

What are the challenges in developing a film festival, especially one that saw a big jump in attendance in year two?

The first year allowed us to set in place many of the procedures we would use in future years. Furthermore, after a successful first year, we knew that filmmakers would send us their movies, and that many of those movies would surprise us by being innovative, exciting, beautiful—in other words, well worth sharing with an audience.

The biggest challenge was to take the lessons we’d learned the hard way from year one and improve the event in year two. We were smarter about the times of day we showed films, which venues we used, how many times entries were screened, and how we advertised the festival to a wider public.

We had an estimated 1,500 attendees in 2007. In 2008, we had around 3,500 attendees and nearly 9,000 total movie viewings.

What are you looking forward to in 2009?

We are hoping to double attendance once again. As the festival’s reputation grows, we are getting more audience members from around Iowa and even the neighboring states. Out-of-staters are coming back because they loved last year’s fest so much.

This year, we are working hard to attract UI students. This past winter, we collaborated with the Campus Activities Board and the Bijou Theater to show some student work from last year’s festival during the Midnight Movie events. The students in the audience loved the Landlocked films! We have some new movies that students will love, and we have UI students helping us to get the word out to other students.

How many people work to put on the festival?

About 25 people work throughout the year; during the festival that number grows to 45 because we need volunteers at each of our venues—the Englert, the Iowa City Public Library, the Sheraton, and hotelVetro. Our organization is stronger than ever this year, having brought on nearly two dozen new people.

Putting on Landlocked is an enormous amount of work and a true labor of love, but the reason I keep going is that I love seeing the films that people make.

What else about the festival do you find rewarding?

Seeing people leave a theater with smiles on their faces, talking excitedly about the film they just saw. Having filmmakers come from New York or Florida or Minnesota to watch their films with an audience and then speak with the audience afterward.

What Landlocked films have you enjoyed the most?

I’m a big fan of narrative films and I love something that makes me laugh. Stomp! Shout! Scream! from the first year remains a favorite. I also adore and have watched numerous times short films like Rick Speed: Private Shrink, The Story of Bubbleboy, Jean Shorts, and 24 Frames.

Do you have any unique memories of going to see movies?

When I was a child, our family lived for a few years in South America. Occasionally we’d go to a local theater in Quito or Bogotá and see an American movie that would be dubbed in Spanish and then have English subtitles. That was quite amusing.

What are some of your favorite movies?

As a kid, I thought The Wizard of Oz was about my parents because my mother (whose name is Dorothy) was from Lincoln, Neb., and my father was from a tiny Kansas town. I have so many favorites, but a few of the top are Forbidden Planet, Aliens, Stagecoach, Detour, Lawrence of Arabia, Impromptu, and The Hudsucker Proxy.

Do you see the film industry in Iowa evolving/changing? Is there untapped potential out there?

No question about it—moviemaking is in bloom all around Iowa. The tax incentives from the Iowa Film Promotion Act definitely brought in dozens of productions, and even some homegrown filmmakers have been hard at work. These productions have been putting money back into the economy. It’s a great time for an Iowan to say, “Can I work in movies?” Yes, you can. You have to pursue it actively, but it is definitely happening and you can get involved.

What sort of work do you do at the University?

I’m a contracts administrator in the Division of Sponsored Programs, which means that I review contracts for research performed by our faculty. On behalf of the University, I negotiate favorable contract terms with pharmaceutical and medical device companies as well as with foundations and other educational institutions. During the school year, I also am a professional consultant at the Hanson Center for Technical Communication in the College of Engineering. I get to work with engineering students, helping them to develop their critical writing skills. Some of them have become volunteers at Landlocked.

What brought you to the University, and what do you like best about working here?

After living in San Diego for 18 years, where I worked in human resources at the University of California, San Diego, I came to Iowa City to be closer to my mother and my sisters. The academic workplace is wonderful because one is immersed in an atmosphere of continued erudition and scholarship. Public universities are also magnets for cultural events, and they tend to have a very open, tolerant, and diverse culture. The University of Iowa and Iowa City are a great team, providing a cultural oasis in the heartland.

What do you like to do outside of work (besides watch films, of course)?

Write, both fiction and nonfiction. While I’ve written stories and movie scripts for a long time, recently I tried creative nonfiction and have found that it’s rewarding. I love researching a topic, and I love trying to write it in my own voice.

by Christopher Clair

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