Documentaries Feature Circus Life at Sarasota Film Festival

Two films featured at the Sarasota Film Festival this week are better to be shown under the big top. 

World Circus and a Venice-made short Character Face—A Clown College Fantasy will show at the Sarasota Film Festival at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, April 13 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20. The nine-minute Character Face short will play before World Circus at each showing. Tickets cost $12.50, which includes both pieces.

Character Face

Character Face tells the story of Nancy Osborn Berman, who graduated from Clown College in Venice and returned to the abandoned Venice Arena remembering her time there, as well as wanting to save the structure. 

"Hopefully this film will have helpful information to people so that we can recreate that building," Berman told Patch. "The Venice Arena is a landmark to Venice and we're losing it right now. It's very heartfelt for us. That's where my life started—in that building." 

The short is directed by Nic Beery, a former Ringling Bros. circus clown. 

Venice city officials haven't received any solid offers to save and redevelop the building and are contemplating demolishing it perhaps even partially demolishing and remodeling it, the Herald-Tribune reports. 

Berman is excited to have the short film shown in Sarasota. 

"To have the film right here is amazing and heartfelt," she said. "We were very honored to be part of that film."

World Circus

Patch talked to Angela Snow in 2012 about World Circus as she was raising funds for the movie featuring interviews with Feld Entertainment, the folks who run the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, she told Patch in February 2012: 

"To me it was obviously crucial to interview Ringling because they're a quintessential American circus," Snow said. "You can't have a circus film without him."

Feld provided a historical perspective to the film, Snow said, about how the circus was the entertainment in American and how it's changed over time with technology.

But circus is revered in Europe, or as Feld told Snow, circus is "made up of an international city."

In Europe, Snow said, a circus show can commonly fill a 5,000 seat venue.  

"In the U.S., circus went from Ringling and being a big spectacle and entertainment to a side show, freak show, carnie stereotype and Cirque du Soleil came along" and changed that perception," Snow said.

Snow traveled to Europe to follow the Fratellini Academy, Cirque d'hiver and other companies as she was tasked at college to create a documentary with a travel element. 

The Montreal-based circus centered on acrobatics and theatrics changed how North Americans thought of circus, she said.

"A lot of people think of Cirque outside of circus — it's Cirque and it's not circus," she said. "Cirque du Soleil and Ringling belong in the same chunk of circus, both are just different types."

Now, the film is finally complete and is in front of a Sarasota audience. 

"As an official selection at the Sarasota Film Festival, it feels like an extra honor to be accepted with the opportunity to share with the community of circus that exists in Sarasota," Snow told Patch via e-mail. "It seems like the epicenter of US circus in many ways and I hope the film not only opens people's eyes to the international world that exists, but also reminds and gives many veterans and those in this circus world an inside look that they don't always get to see, especially behind the curtain at the Monte Carlo Festival. As well as pay tribute to the art this Sarasota community loves." 

Snow doesn't have a distributor for the film yet, but she is receiving offers and is keen on finding the right fit for European distribution.

"Post-film festival circuit I hope to solidify TV distribution, online deals, and get DVDs available for sale so more of bigger worldwide audience can see the film!" Snow said. "I'll also be looking to do traveling with the film to collaborate with circus events, festivals, and educational groups for screenings of the film. In January, 2014 corresponding to the 38th Monte Carlo Circus Festival, plans are underway for a theatrical screening of the film in Monte Carlo."

World Circus

Showings: 6:15 p.m. Saturday, April 13 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20

Tickets: $12.50

Genre:  Documentary Feature

Runtime: 63 minutes

Cast: Troupe Yakubov, Martin Lacey Jr., Cirque du Soleil, Alegria Russian Bar Act, Roland & Petra Duss, Rob Torres

Director: Angela Snow

Cinematographer: Ian Issitt

Worldcircusculturemovie.com

Character Face—A Clown College Fantasy

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 9 minutes

Cast: Nancy Osborn Berman, Chuck "Chuck-O" Sidlow, Jonathan "Mitch" Freddes

Director and Cinematographer: Nic Beery