Reporter's Notebook Records Jabberwocky Journey Through the Toronto Film Festival

By TOM DUNLOP

On the night of Sept. 6, five campers and six counselors from Vineyard Haven's Camp Jabberwocky set out in two vans from the Sherborn farm of Tom and Sheila Urmston. The group was bound for Toronto, where a movie they had made, How's Your News?, was to be shown along with 248 other feature films at one of the best-known film festivals in the world.

In the movie, the campers form a television news team that crosses the United States, interviewing people along the way about their lives. The hook, as Hollywood people would put it, is that the campers are beset by a number of disabilities, some of them quite profound.

Bobby Bird, 46, has Down's syndrome and speaks a language of his own invention; Sean Costello, 35, also has Down's syndrome; Susan Harrington, 35, is mildly retarded and legally blind; Larry Perry, 58, has severe spastic cerebral palsy and talks with enormous difficulty, and Ronnie Simonsen, 43, is mildly retarded and has cerebral palsy. (Ronnie is deeply interested in soap operas and stars of television shows from the 1970s - especially Chad Everett, who played Dr. Joe Gannon on Medical Center. Though this is no handicap, it plays a big part in his life.)

Notes from the 26th annual Toronto International Film Festival, Jabberwocky division:

*

Buffalo, N.Y., Sept. 7: The How's Your News? van is a 1973 Dodge Xplorer 224 painted blue, black and white, with the legend How's Your News? written backward on the hood, like an ambulance's, albeit with the apostrophe inserted into the wrong word. It looks like something just back from Woodstock, and the young and mostly long-haired counselors are worried about what the Canadian border guards across the Niagara River will think.

The lead van is waved through the Fort Erie checkpoint with only a notation of the license plate. The How's Your News? van forces the guard to do a bit of a two-step when it accidentally climbs up onto the concrete platform of the checkpoint.

*

Midtown Quality Hotel, Bloor street, Toronto: The crew fills the lobby as film director Arthur Bradford learns that the hotel has assigned the team rooms with only one bed. "I couldn't have been more clear," he says to the clerk. "You can see these people have all sorts of disabilities . . . ." Despite the heavy bookings due to the festival, rooms are switched and separate beds are found.

Reid Rosefelt, president of Magic Lantern in New York, arrives with his team of publicists for the movie. They hand out posters featuring Sean Costello standing in front of an American flag, holding a microphone, and the tag line, "A New Kind of News Team Interviews America." There are boxes of stickers and T-shirts to be handed out to the audience after the two screenings, and reams of clippings about, and reviews of, the film.

Ronnie Simonsen asks the publicists what celebrities they've met. Having seen the movie, they're ready for this line of inquiry: Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts, David Lynch, they tell him cheerfully. "Who's David Lynch?" Ronnie asks. Then a bolt from the blue: Mr. Lynch is a director whose new movie, Mulholland Drive, features Chad Everett, the rock upon whom Ronnie has built his church of famous television stars. Although Mulholland Drive is screening at the festival, Mr. Everett unfortunately will not be here to see it.

Susan Harrington, who works as a receptionist for the Department of Mental Retardation, has written a report about the movie and festival for the department newsletter ("Hello, my name is Susan Harrington, and I certainly have a lot of news to share. I can also tell you that, all of this news is very good. . . "). She has brought 300 copies to distribute to the people of Toronto.

*

Opening night dinner at the Via Oliveto restaurant is hosted by Laura Heller of HBO, which has bought the film and will screen it in New York in October and on cable in the spring. Ronnie asks what celebrities she knows. She lists a few and says that she's just met Monica Lewinsky. "Do you want to know about her?" she asks Ronnie. He looks down at his soup. "No, no, no," he says quietly. "I really don't."

John Pierson of Grainy Pictures, an executive producer of the film, makes a toast, as does director Bradford and each of the campers. Bobby Bird's is nearly the longest, filled with phonemes that sound like "shuh" and "amalaba." If you watch his hands as he talks, take in the solemnity of his bearing and look at the intensity in his eyes, it is possible to get meaning out of it.

Chad Urmston, a counselor and the film's musical director, reports that during nap time that afternoon, Sean Costello couldn't sleep. "He couldn't stop laughing, he was so was psyched."

*

The Varsity 8 cinemas, midtown: The team is led up to the second floor of a mall, down a side hallway, through the press and industry gate, and behind the box office, where hundreds of people are lined up along velvet barricades. "Is that really for our movie?" Arthur asks, as the team is led through the doors to the theatre. "They roped off the rows! Oh, wow!" someone says in the dark. This didn't happen at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex., where the movie played in the spring.

The audience is let in. Arthur's father Peter settles into his seat. He is asked how he feels. "A mixture of pride and astonishment," he says, looking across the crowd.

As the lights dim, Larry begins to groan with happiness over what's about to happen. The first laughs happen in the early moments of the movie, as Ronnie shows the audience his five autographed pictures of Chad Everett. "I got so excited," he says of the day they arrived. "I was dancing. I couldn't concentrate on General Hospital, I was so excited about getting the pictures."

The movie receives a standing ovation when it's all over, and the audience of 400 whistles and cheers as the campers climb or are lifted onto the stage. "What's awesome," says a festival official, "is that Toronto audiences are so known for being subdued, mellow and non-participatory."

*

At a question-and-answer session, the team is asked if they plan to make any more road trips. "That we don't know," Susan says. "But, I mean, this is an accomplishment that we've done, and I also brought with me a report I just wrote about How's Your News? for a newsletter for work, so I'll be circulating that around."

*

A woman in the audience: "I'd like to thank all five reporters, but Ronnie, I have something very exciting to tell you."

Ronnie: "What?"

Woman: "I have met Chad Everett."

Ronnie is surprisingly calm, perhaps even a bit skeptical. "Oh, yeah, where?"

Woman: "I'll tell you. It was in Culver City, California. I was working for a doctor - "

Ronnie: "Okay."

Woman: " - and he was coming in for a checkup. I had to set him up for his checkup."

Ronnie: "What was the matter with him? Is he all right?"

Woman: "He was fine. A little personal rash."

Ronnie: "Was he nice about it?"

Woman: "He was great, and very handsome. He was a lovely man."

*

Sean is asked if he expected so many people to show up at the theatre, to laugh, to applaud, to stay afterward, to ask so many questions, to ask for autographs on the CDs of the soundtrack.

"Yes," he says.

*

The audience is led through a verse of the How's Your News? theme song, a catchy little ditty that sounds like something the Beatles horsed around with between recordings for Let It Be:

Hey, How's Your News? Would you like to sing our tune?

Would you like to chase your blues away?

Put on your dancing shoes, and tell us How's Your News?

Soon we'll be coming through, it's true.

Gather your friends with you, and switch on the tube,

You don't need an excuse, How's Your News?

*

Bobby is handed a scrap of paper by an audience member, whose message is written in block printing: "THAT WAS THE BEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN."

*

At breakfast on Saturday morning, Arthur reads reviews to the team: " [A] captivating and delightful and truly daring documentary." Then: "How's Your News? is a liberating and perspective-altering documentary." When he begins to read a third review, "This movie is the worst movie I've ever seen," he is shouted down by the gallery.

*

The team encounters its first celebrity when it passes Debra Winger in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel. Because she hasn't starred in any soaps or 1970s-era television, Ronnie must be told that the actress starred in several films and was nominated for an Academy Award for An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment. Frantically, he tugs at her hand, asks for his autograph book and his camera. He wants her address so he can write to her and ask for a signed photograph. After she moves away, he says, "I met Debra Winger. Can I call my mother?"

It's clear that things are getting just a bit out of hand for the Four Seasons. Susan is handing out her newsletters to everyone in the lobby, sometimes interrupting conversations in the process. Ronnie's embrace of Ms. Winger has drawn the attention of a tall man in a black suit who looks a little like Bert from Sesame Street. He comes over and asks where the team is staying, and politely requests that no more fliers be given out, and no more celebrities be corralled. He smiles at these people, he is friendly, but he won't leave the group until it departs.

*

Traveling on foot back to the hotel, about half the group sees a motorcycle strike a car, with the rider flying over the roof and landing on his back. Will Halby, a counselor and EMT, is regarded as something of a hero for sprinting across the street to help, but the aura of gallantry fades when someone else notes that he left Larry Perry in the intersection, rolling slowly backward in his wheelchair toward Yonge street.

*

On Sunday morning, Ronnie meets actor Steve Martin outside the front doors of the Inter-Continental Hotel. "I was just, like, calm. I shook his hand. I said, ‘I'm Ronnie Simonsen, I'm from How's Your News?, and we did a movie, and I would love to have a picture.'" Chad Urmston reports that Mr. Martin said, "You set up the camera, and we'll take the picture." Ronnie: "It was a very light conversation. It wasn't like a long conversation, like I did with Debra Winger or that girl from Felicity - what's her name. At least he posed for me, and that's the important thing. I was calm about it and he was calm.... We got him just as he was coming out of the hotel. He said, ‘Good luck with my movie.'"

*

After the good reports from the first screening, the follow-up screening at the Royal Ontario Museum sells out in advance. When the battered How's Your News? van pulls up, the campers descend to applause rippling up and down the line of people hoping for rush tickets - some of whom have been waiting for two hours.

*

Question and answer session: Susan is asked how she felt when the audience laughed during her rendition of Respect, sung in a video booth in Las Vegas: "I can honestly tell you," says Susan, "that when I did that – when I sang Respect – and I heard the audience react to that, I, like, was laughing with them and inside I'm going, like, ‘Yes! I nailed it!'" The audience laughs and claps.

Sean: "I just wanted to say that making the film [you've just] seen, [there was] a real feeling that you liked it and you enjoyed it."

Bobby (forcefully): "~~~."

Arthur: "Ron, she wanted to know if you felt respected."

Ronnie: "Who wants to know that?"

The woman: "I asked that."

Ronnie: "Yes, ma'am. You stand up. Go ahead. Ask it again."

The woman (standing, now a bit cowed): "I was wondering when the audience was laughing if you thought the same parts were funny and if you felt respected during this showing."

Ronnie: "Oh. Oh. Oh, sure. I felt very respected. Anybody else? C'mon."

*

Breakfast, Monday morning: Chad comes downstairs to report that a radio station, The Edge 102, has been on the air talking about the concert the campers and counselors will be staging at Lee's Palace, a famous rock club just down the street. "Wow," says somebody. "That's pretty amazing."

There is a pause. Everyone looks at each other.

"We've got to practice."

*

Room 620, about 15 minutes later: The team has gathered to write a How's Your News? song. With Chad they work out the chord changes and breaks for an anthem of thanks called Toronto, Ontario. "So, Sue," says Chad, "what we're going to do is - whatever lyrics you want to say, right? Here's the tune." Arthur leans in to her. "It's about Toronto," he reminds her. She begins:

This is something that we're proud of

We're folks from Camp Jabberwocky

We have various disabilities

But we made it and we're proud to be here.

"Nice, Sue," says Chad. "Now, everyone - half a step down. Try it again, Sue, and then Ron's going to come in." Rocking in his seat, hissing, huffing, clicking his teeth together in impatience, Ron sings:

In Canada, Toronto, they're very nice to us today

She was a nice la-day!

Debbie Winger! Debbie Winger! She's the star!

To-ron-to, On-tar-io! To-ron-to! To-ron-to!

Sue diligently tries to write down the lyrics as they are conjured.

Bobby is asked to sing his song. He stands at attention, looking solemn. It's a bluegrassy tune. His lyrics run back and forth between "Ehhhhh!" and "Uhhhhh!" He shifts from foot to foot. He crouches. They time a break around an "Uhhhhh!" They ask him to sing softly. He tries it, but then gets louder.

*

Todd Anthony of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel asks Ronnie and Sue if they have learned anything about themselves from the trip across America. Ronnie takes a long pause. "Um. I wanted to make a movie, and I got a chance to do it, and I want to do more of it." Susan: "Well, I learned that we've become very well known in Toronto and everywhere that we've been to. This trip, I've brought hundreds of copies of a report that I had written for a newsletter article. I brought 300 copies, and they're all gone."

*

At Lee's Palace at 10:30 Monday night, Sue, Ronnie, Bobby, Sean and Larry stand on a stage where Blind Melon, Yoko Ono, the Goo-Goo Dolls and Oasis have all played. As the team sings songs to a crowd of about 200 people, a friend shouts to Doug Stone, a producer of the film, that for all its history, this club has never seen a band like this one. "Except when The Shaggs came!" he shouts back.

Sean is famous for his dance solos during the annual camp musicals, and does one here - pirouetting, fragging and knee-sliding to the percussive clapping and cheering of the audience.

Chad announces that for its finale, the group will perform a song it wrote that very morning, a song of thanks to the city. The long, chanting chorus ("To-ron-to, On-tar-io!") prompts the crowd to move to the dance floor as people wave their arms and sing along lustily. "This isn't like us," one participant confides to a reporter about the nationalistic pride of Canadians.

At 1:30 in the morning, the crew boards the How's Your News? van. "I'm real proud of you guys," says Arthur. "Let's go back to the hotel and go to sleep. We did this before, guys. We went to bed at this time and got up at 7:30."

*

Tuesday morning, Sept. 11: The team awakens in a new and brutal world. Susan sees the pictures on television but wants to talk about what's happened at the festival. Ronnie says a little sadly, "I guess the soaps won't be on today." Bobby seems to think the pictures are both spectacular and funny, like a movie, and it takes a while to make the campers understand that what they are seeing is real. And that though it is real, and no one knows why it has happened, everyone in the How's Your News? team is safe.

Because the U.S. border is closed, the campers and counselors spend what would have been a day on the road back to Sherborn sleeping and watching television in the Quality Hotel.

The border opens that night. The vans load up and head south. On the way home, the How's Your News? CD plays over and over again.

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