Prince Edward Island international Film Festival 2009

Frank Borzage, Director traces the life and career of Frank Borzage, pulling together long-lost footage from the earliest stages of his career all the way through his establishment as a Hollywood icon. Although Borzage had a vibrant and impressive career as a director, today he has been forgotten. While his contemporaries are remembered in history books and taught in film courses, Borzage is overlooked by academia. That is not to say that his films are not worthy of study, and a few modern filmmakers are self-proclaimed Borzage fans- including Allison Anders and Martin Scorcese. Because his films have not been distributed or aired, there has been no avenue for film lovers to discover his work. Frank Borzage, Director takes the viewer on a journey from the real American West to Hollywood as they watch Frank Borzage grow up alongside film, making the transition from silent shorts to silent features to sound. Born to Italian-Austrian immigrants in 1894, Borzage was forced to drop out of school and work with his father in construction as a young boy. He also worked in the silver mines of Utah as a child, but despite his rough start in life, never stopped dreaming of an artist's life. He ran away and joined a traveling theater troupe as an actor. Later he moved to California, to work in the new and exciting movie picture industry.Frank Borzage, Director features his first and earliest film roles as well as his directorial debut, The Pitch of Chance. Borzage started directing for the American Film Company in Santa Barbara, California, at the very green age of 21. In the beginning, he both acted and directed in his films. Borzage was obviously not afraid of challenges. It was here that he shot his first feature film, Land O'Lizards, and here that he met his first wife, actress Lorena 'Rena' Rogers. The films he made in Santa Barbara show that the director was already finding his own voice and picking themes that would reappear in his work for the next thirty years. Throughout his career, Borzage moved from studio to studio, working for all Big Five studios as well as smaller ones. His breakthrough film that put him on the map of well-known directors was Humoresque, directed for William Randolph Heart. He worked with some of the most popular actors and actresses of his time as well. Norma Talmadge, Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable are among some of the people he not only directed in his pictures but had lasting relationships with that went beyond the set. Often he returned to work with the same actors in multiple films, and he was known as an 'actor's director': a director who knew exactly to get a good performance from an actor in a way that made them feel comfortable on set. It also didn't hurt that Borzage films offered interesting roles. Borzage's favorite characters come from ordinary backgrounds but have extraordinary stories. The main characters in his first film were a happy go lucky gambler, a couple who spent their nights at a saloon and days living in sin, and a dance hall girl. His first blockbuster, Humoresque, starred poor Jewish immigrants living in the New York ghetto. The common thread throughout all Borzage's stories is love. Borzage, if remembered at all, is known as a director of romantic melodramas. The truth, however, is that regardless of the genre, Borzage placed love at the heart of his stories. Love between parents and their children, platonic love between friends, and yes, romantic love is what transforms his characters. The documentary assembles clips from Borzage's films, interviews with prominent directors and scholars and behind-the-scenes photos from his career to give audiences an up-close-and-personal look at Borzage's life. You'll get to watch him act in his very first role in Thomas Ince's On The Switchtower, see photos of Borzage and Janet Gaynor behind the scenes of 7th Heaven, hear from modern directors influenced by his work and listen to his widow Juanita Moss tell about the kind of man her husband was. So don't miss out on this opportunity to discover for yourself- who was Frank Borzage?