Filmmaker captures spirit of fiddle fest

By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:43 AM PDT

Greg Lehman (right) and his assistant, Weiser High School student Clint Bellon (left), set up film equipment in Weiser Monday. Lehman, a New York native, is filming a documentary about the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival.

Weiser - If a film is like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces to Gary Lehman’s documentary would tie together family, music, landscape and tradition as the New York filmmaker takes on the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival.

Lehman — a former taxi driver, bartender and Wall Street municipal bond trader — first traveled to Weiser in the 1970s as an itinerant street performer. In 2004, he returned to the fiddle festival, this time to capture its spirit on film, a move partially driven by the events of Sept. 11.

“I think it made me realize that the amount of time you have on the planet is limited, and that’s an important realization for someone,” he said. “It took me some time to find what I wanted to do next, and this project came at the right moment and for the right reasons. I don’t regret a minute of it.”

On top of off-season trips, this week marks Lehman’s fourth visit to the festival.

“What I’m trying to do is capture the whole story of Weiser, through the words and the music and the experience of the people who play the music, the people who organize the festival and the people who volunteer,” he said. “The film is how do you weave this together so that the otherwise noninterested audience gets involved with the story.”

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The project’s two biggest challenges are crafting the documentary story and the music itself, Lehman said.

“The music is relatively obscure,” he said. “You don’t hear it on the radio. You don’t see it on television. It’s not in the popular media, so non-practitioners come and they find this music that seems very accomplished and fascinating to watch but sometimes is a bit of an overload for someone not accustomed to it. What I’ve tried to do is to go to these different musicians and get them to explain what the music is and how it works. What distinguishes one fiddle player from the next. If I am successful at that, then the music should become more accessible to new audiences.”

Lehman has also attended festivals in Washington, Texas, Oregon, Nashville, Tenn., and eastern Idaho and said another goal of his project is for festivals nationwide to use his film to explain the culture of fiddling to get people more involved.

Weiser audiences will have a chance to see some of that extra footage during next year’s festival when Lehman will present a series of film clips.

“It’s funny. Each year I thought, ‘oh, I’ve got what I need and want,’” he said. “I would then look at the footage and work through it, and as I worked through it, I got a much better understanding of the subject matter. The more work I did, the richer that understanding became. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle with a lot of pieces of sky. You let the footage lead you. It’s good to have a goal, not necessarily a plan. You have to be super flexible. I’ve got approximately 300 hours of footage. By definition, more than 298 hours will not end up in the film.”

The excerpts will allow fiddlers to see themselves on video and give Lehman an idea of the audience reaction as he marches into the next steps: finding an editor and putting the puzzle together.

“Most independent filmmakers take between three and seven years to compile their projects from start to finish. I’m at three years now, and if I can be finished before seven years, I’ll be happy,” he said. “Then, I can see nothing better for my life than to travel around to fiddle festivals and show the movie.”

For more information on Lehman or his project, or to join the mailing list, visit www.weiserfilms.com.