One of the most spontaneous and fun moments that occurs at film fest is when an audience member reveals, usually during a post-screening Q&A with the director, that they have some personal connection to the film everyone just watched. A talking head that was interviewed in the film is a relative of the audience member, the viewer used to live in the very house the movie was filmed in, etc. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s always a treat. So it was especially enjoyable to witness multiple personal connections crop up at Friday’s screening of Lee Storey’s “Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story.”

“Smile ‘Til It Hurts” is an at turns hilarious and heartwrenching documentary about Up With People, a non-profit educational group founded in 1968 that features a young performing cast traveling the world singing for international communities. Relegated to the butt of pop culture jokes today, the group in its heyday was a powerfully influential organization backed by political and corporate interests. Storey carefully and thoroughly examines the group’s origins and rise to fame, thoughtfully intercutting the testimonies of former cast members with archival footage and interviews with founders and board members. She successfully pulls off the tricky balancing act of honoring the original good intentions of the organization and the happy memories of its cast with more critical examinations of its funding and operations. (Read more about Lee Storey and “Smile ‘Til It Hurts” in our TCFF Filmmaker Spotlight on the blog here.)

I went in to the film expecting a hard-hitting expose on Up with People, but I walked away with a much more profound and nuanced experience. I was moved, sometimes to tears, by the stories of cast members, particularly an African-American woman who recalled being put up with a racist white family in Mississippi on tour when she was 18, and who swayed the husband – in the act of lifting a shotgun and aiming it at her – from killing her by singing an Up with People song. There was also a heartbreaking interview with two married cast members who had met in the group decades ago and planned to spend their lives together in the organization, but who were suddenly and completely cut off from Up with People when they married without first seeking the permission of the group’s leader (!).

The emotions continued after the screening, when Storey took the stage for an audience Q&A. There was one actual former Uppie, as the cast members are affectionately called, in the audience, who loved the film. Another woman’s voice cracked as she talked about the years her family spent being a host home for touring Up with People cast members and how happy that time was for her. Audience questions ranged from the humorous to the serious, and Storey handled them all with intelligent forthrightness and dry wit. For those who saw the screening, or have had their interest piqued in Up with People, you’ll be happy to know the story doesn’t have to end with the film. In fact, you can have your very own Up with People experience! Cast members are still being accepted today for 6-month stints with the group, and as Storey wryly points out, it’ll only cost you a low “$14,250 for the privilege.” So bust out those piggy banks, film festers!

Later Friday night, I joined the flow of revelers exiting films and making their way to the Filmmakers Party in the Wade Trim Parking Lot on Park Street. It’s hard to pick a favorite among the TCFF parties – how do you choose amongst your children? – but if I had to go Sophie and attend only one, the Filmmakers Party would be it. It’s mid-fest, so you tend to maximize attendees (both filmmakers and filmgoers); it’s on Friday night, so the evening already feels festive; and it dwells in the relaxed emotional land between awkward introductions (Opening Night Party) and misty-eyed, last-night-of-camp goodbyes (Closing Night Party). Friday was as busy as I’ve ever seen Filmmakers Party get, with doc directors rubbing elbows with shorts directors and actors swapping business cards and our camera crew bustling around interviewing festival guests and attendees (see some of these interviews in Friday’s video recap here). It was both a fitting close to the official work week and a great kickoff to the festival weekend. Only two more days of TCFF left, folks!

Photo courtesy of Gary L. Howe