The Circuit

by Joe Leydon
Veteran character actor Robert Davi ("The Goonies," "Licence to Kill") thought the hard part was behind him when he wrapped shooting on "The Dukes," his debut effort as a feature director. He didn't fully appreciate how many hurdles he'd have to clear until he was just another indie filmmaker jockeying for position on the festival circuit.

Davi now admits he was "naïve" about the whole process of submission, expectation and rejection before he started shipping out DVDs of "The Dukes," his feel-good ensemble dramedy about former members of a '50s doo-wop group (including Davi and co-star Chazz Palminteri) who turn to crime to fund their comeback.

"The movie wasn't completely finished in time for Sundance," Davi says, "so I understood them passing on it. But some of these other festivals... Oh, man. I mean, I really believe they look at these DVDs for about 30 seconds, and then fast-forward to somewhere else on the disc, for the whole course of the thing. And then they reject it."

He was especially stung by the turndown he received from Austin's SXSW festival: "They were very curt. I mean, let me put it this way: There was no simpatico for the filmmaker." Rejections by other festivals, including Toronto and Nashville, were less scarcely less disappointing.

"What I find with a lot of the larger festivals is, the fix is really in," Davi says. "I mean, I don't know if that's true or not, but that seems to be my experience.

"And what I learned is that it's not about the film, really. It's about the sales rep or the agency that's involved with the film from the beginning, that positions that film in those major festivals. Or, there's a studio involved. So that the truly independent film will - even it's terrific - get one of the most difficult... Well, it isn't on merit alone."

"'The Dukes' is a totally independent film. And the fact that we got into Rome without having any of that other stuff, that kind of shows you how good it is."

After showcasing at festivals in Houston, Newport Beach and Palm Beach, "The Duke" was screened this week at the Rome Film Festival -- "Right alongside the movies by Coppola and Redford," Davi proudly notes (pictured with Peter Bogdanovich).

"The people running the Rome Festival, they absolutely responded to the picture. The right person, or the right people, saw it. Piera Detassis, who's the editor of Ciak, the major film magazine in Italy, saw the film and became a champion of it. And that's what it takes sometimes." 

Don't misunderstand: Davi isn't bitter. (Well, OK: That's his story, and he's sticking to it.) He thinks he may be close to landing a theatrical distributor for "The Dukes." He claims he'll put his festival-circuit experiences to good use on his next project, a feature he's currently scripting.

And, no kidding, he actually has sympathy for the festival gatekeepers who labor to separate wheat from chaff.

"Some of these festivals, I'm sure, are getting around 5,000 submissions every year. Their guys probably bring home a couple dozen films in a paper bag, and then watch them over a weekend.

"But, you know, who the hell can watch all that?"


Read Joe Leydon's Variety review of "The Dukes" here.