Baldwin Focuses On Independent Films

   Independent filmmaking - the lodestone of the forthcoming Hamp tons International Film Festival - has a champion in Alec Baldwin, the actor and Amagansett resident.

   Mr. Baldwin will host a cable television series about the politics of independent filmmaking, including the difficulty of finding a venue for controversial work, called "Raw Footage." Along with the documentary filmmaker Mark Mori, an Academy Award nominee, Mr. Baldwin is also the executive producer of the series, which will begin airing this month.

   "I am a fan of independent films, particularly documentary films . . .," Mr. Baldwin said last week in a telephone interview. "Their films are some of the best films being made . . . unbelievably important."

Modern-Day Politics

   The series is sponsored by the Independent Film Channel. Its first segment will feature R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor, whose new documentary, "A Perfect Candidate," looks at the 1994 Virginia Senate race between Lt. Col. Oliver North and Senator Charles Robb.

   The two filmmakers will be interviewed and clips will be shown of their new film, as well as of Mr. Van Taylor's "Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest" and "The War Room," a look behind the scenes of the 1992 Clinton campaign, which was produced by Mr. Cutler and directed by D.A. Pennebaker of Sag Harbor and New York City.

   The first segment will be shown on IFC Monday at 10 p.m., and on Bravo, which operates IFC, on Friday, Oct. 11, at 11 p.m. Bravo is offered on Cablevision, the South Fork's cable service, but IFC is not. Cablevision owns both cable channels.

Focus On Fringe

   The idea to do "Raw Footage," Mr. Baldwin said, came from his and Mr. Mori's recognition that independent films, especially those tackling social issues from a liberal perspective, had little luck finding wide distribution or even air time on public television.

   The Reagan and Bush Administrations, Mr. Baldwin asserted, had stacked the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with conservatives. "There were various filmmakers and films who couldn't get access to PBS" as a result, the actor, who is on the board of directors of the New York City-based Creative Coalition, said.

   Thus, "Raw Footage" will highlight films that otherwise have not enjoyed mainstream viewing, as well as their creators and the problems they face both in making their films and in trying to get them seen. Mr. Baldwin said he and Mr. Mori will not feature filmmakers who do have wide distribution in movie theaters; rather, they will concentrate "more on the fringe."

Featured Filmmakers

   The filmmakers so far scheduled for interviews have made documentaries which appear to have a liberal social or political agenda, Mr. Baldwin acknowledged. Conservative documentary filmmakers can get exposure more easily because "they already own their own networks and have their own outlets on television," he said.

   "Most of the people doing the critical thinking just happen to be liberal," added Mr. Baldwin, who has often battled over social and political issues through The Star's letters-to-the-editor section with William Addeo, a conservative Montauk resident who has dubbed himself "The Last American."

   One filmmaker to be featured in the "Raw Footage" series is Freida Lee Mock, of the Academy Award-winning "Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision," whose cinematographer, Don Lenzer, lives in Amagansett. Steven Cantor's "Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann," which was produced by Mr. Mori, Barbara Trent's "Panama Deception," and Robert Richter's "School of Assassins," also will be shown.

   Mr. Baldwin said the series would eventually include narrative-filmmakers, and that "down the road we hope the IFC will license the films and show them in their entirety." He added that "the power of television" would allow these films to reach millions of viewers.

   The quality of movies made in American studios had plummeted, he said, adding that motion pictures were made now "with the quickness of television," and that the former distinction between motion pictures, in which more time and thought were invested, and movies made for television "is now obliterated."

   "Just take a look at what kind of films are being made today in the studios," Mr. Baldwin said. "Why are these people who are very bright," he asked about independent filmmakers, not interested in doing "mainstream work?"

   Mr. Baldwin and his wife, the actress Kim Basinger, last winter filmed a documentary for Turner Broadcasting about a program which reintroduced macaws into the Peruvian rain forest. Titled "Black Market Birds" and directed by Robert Drew, it will premiere Wednesday on TBS at 9 p.m.

   Mr. Baldwin is currently shooting "Book Worm" with Anthony Hopkins in the Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.