When your children become teenagers, it’s hard to let go of the kids they once were. At the opening-night screening in early March of this year’s Tumbleweeds Film Festival in downtown Salt Lake City, my youngest, Katy, now a sassy 15-year-old, snuggled up against me as we watched “Into the Who Knows!” Ten-year-old Thomas is sent by his parents to summer camp, where he struggles to say goodbye to his imaginary best friend, Felix the fox.
After I turned off my phone, with its daily feed of political, environmental and social chaos, I discovered a film that offers a valuable lesson: Part of growing up is leaving behind places of comfort and refuge. The film also celebrated qualities that should be intrinsic to any childhood, namely innocence, friendship and valuing diversity. Those, perhaps unfashionable, lessons are why Tumbleweeds remains for my family one of the true cultural treasures of the Beehive State.
My two girls grew up during Tumbleweeds’ seven years. When they were little we would try see as many of the films over the three-day weekends as we could. Now I’m grateful if they will accompany me to even a few of the titles so I can still glimpse the kernel of their childhood that allows them to appreciate the filmic magic on display.
Utah Film Center Programming Director Patrick Hubley is the heart and brains behind Tumbleweeds. His belief in the “power of cinema and the moving image to introduce new ideas, change minds and encourage empathy” underpins the festival and its 16 movies, which come from as far afield as Brazil, Cuba, China, Norway and Germany. In today’s world of gun-filled drama and CGI-drenched, three-hour superhero epics, Tumbleweeds showcased 90-minute stories about the importance of friendships, the difficulties of growing up, the strength our families give us, the love of adventure, the beauty of nature and, most of all, why we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to grow up.
In his opening-night speech, Hubley noted that “Into the Who Knows!” was a sadly rare find, namely an American independent film for and about children. That he struggles each year to find homegrown films to screen alongside his basket of culturally diverse international films made for children tells its own story. It’s a tale not only about the state of American cinema, but also about how we, as a society, place little importance in cherishing childhood.
Many of the films touch on difficult topics such as bullying, poverty, illness and loss, reminding us as adults that we have a responsibility to help our children acquire the necessary emotional skills to deal with trauma, while not forgetting that children can find joy in everyday things even while they nurse their dreams.
That mix of social realities and a child’s odyssey to self-realization is perfectly defined in Cuban-made “Esteban.” The 2016 film movingly follows a 9-year-old boy and his single mother struggling to survive in modern-day Havana, illegally selling beauty products on the street. Novice actor Reynaldo Guanche soulfully essays one child’s determination to fulfill his dream of playing a piano, in the face of his family’s stringent poverty and his guilt-plagued piano’s teacher terminal illness.
But while I champion such gems, this year’s standout film drew more from fantasy than reality. The unconventional Swedish gem “Up in the Sky” is about 8-year-old Pottan, abandoned by her too-busy-parents at a recycling plant they mistake for a pony camp. Pottan joins a mix of puppet-characters and actors preparing to launch a rocket ship that takes her and them into outer space. It quirkily stirs the heart and the imagination, leaving you to revel in its childlike playfulness at the silly absurdities of the adult world, and the wonder it finds in a little girl’s faith in others and herself.
Hubley plans to launch a Tumbleweeds streaming service, surely a welcome development in his continuing campaign to remind the child in all of us of the value of innocence, imagination and cultural diversity.
Patricia Quijano Dark
Patricia Quijano Dark, Salt Lake City, is an editor and translator who has worked in the United States, Great Britain and Argentina. She was born in New York and is a graduate of Columbia University.