Where Is TRACS Heading?

By Hal McClure

Our unique niche in the travel documentary film field has arrived at a crucial point in its long history. The question: Where are we heading?

One road continues to take us through the same bleak scenery—falling attendance at fewer venues with the rolls of Filmmakers and Presenters thinning proportionately.

The alternate path, however, leads into new 21^st century territory—barely explored by us so far—one filled with new freshly minted films with fresh ideas shown in high definition and occasionally in 3D. These films would be presented not only at our regular theaters but also on the internet, YouTube, the Travel Adventure Cinema Society and Travel Adventure Cinema magazine web sites. (See Jefferson Westwood’s compelling article elsewhere in this issue of TAC.) Lackluster and boring films need not apply.

The Chicago Showcase and Convention may be our last chance to save the organization and to point it into a new and more meaningful direction. Here are some thoughts members might consider:

Open Our Membership: I have always believed that TRACS membership should be open to our audiences. This public membership would follow National Geographic Society’s example: Subscribing magazine members do not have voting rights. A committee could explore this fully.

Our Showcase Future: Our annual Showcase certainly needs more show-business hype, more glamour. I’ve always thought they should be open to the general public on at least one night, with several of our film artists showing hour-long segments. Corporate sponsorship for this or for the entire Showcase might be explored.

Artists should also have their current films uploaded on at least one web site—TRACS, YouTube or their own—for quick access by Presenters.

Showcase Location: Where should we meet every year? Some members want to continue alternating between East and West, while others prefer something permanent. It seems to me the latter would be more desirable if we were to recruit corporate or foundation sponsorship.

Chicago,I believe,  is our last chance folks. It’s decision time.

Bob DeLoss' new book.

New Author Bob DeLoss

Filmmaker Bob DeLoss has just written his first book, Travels With Mr. D, a memoir about his early school, his career as a broadcaster— including  covering  Nikita Khrushchev’s 1959 visit to Iowa.

The book is filled with human interest, anecdotes of filming in the Amazon and Africa, and how he got started taking student tour groups across the country and around the world.

Our personable Mister D, if you didn’t know, is a man of many talents and I am looking forward to reviewing his book for TAC.

Sister Cities International

Can Work for Our Field

Attention travel doc filmmakers—and agents: If you want to add different kind of show-dates to your schedule you might explore the popular Sister Cities concept that is widespread here and abroad.

I mean the pairing of one American city with one overseas—usually one of the same general size. This is a well-organized project sponsored by the non-profit Sister Cities International, a “citizen diplomacy network” based in Washington, D.C..

One of our filmmakers, Robin D. Williams, recently showed his film, Biblical Treasures of Turkey, in Long Beach, California, a sister city of Izmir, Turkey. A hefty part of Robin’s film takes place near the city of Izmir, on Turkey’s beautiful Aegean coast.

The Izmir-Long Beach Sister Cities Association sponsored the film at one of Long Beach’s movie art houses.

The show was well received by the American and Turkish audience As usual, Robin was at his personable best and answered questions for an hour after the show.

You can see the publicity on Robin’s showi  in Long Beach at http://www.izmirlb.org/. Information on the SCI is at http://www.sister-cities.org