Last weekend, the 20th annual Sierra Storytelling Festival came and went, but it mingled with my moviegoer heart. The yearly event at the North Columbia Cultural Center - 15 miles outside Nevada City - only lasts a weekend, but it helps to ground me as I feed my routine devotion to movies week in and week out.
Movies are about chemistry and magic. They are the compression and expansion of reality, the compression and expansion of imagination, the visual impact, the visceral impact, the acting and the personalities doing the acting. There is the craft. There is the art. Movies are another place and time in the here and now. They are more than all this including, one is pushed to think, as many special effects as possible.
Most often, most fundamentally, most satisfyingly, a movie is about the story. Tell me a story. Movies get pretty fancy, juiced with tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, although sometimes they remain disarmingly unadorned.
Being entertained and charmed and taught by a series of Festival storytellers standing alone on stage with barely a prop or a costume, I'm reminded of how much the story is the thing. Whatever other energy is layered on me, the story is really the start and the finish and the getting there.
Consider going to the movies the next few times, whether they're steeped in special effects or not, and when it's over, ask yourself, "Did I like the story?" Not, "Did I like the movie?" or "Am I glad that I saw this movie?" - although those are good questions, too. Check with yourself on how you care about the story.
For a year, every time I go to the movies, I'm going to ask myself if I liked the story, at least until it's time to head for the hills to experience the 21st annual Sierra Storytelling Festival.