• Son of Rambow
• For the Bible Tells Me So
• Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
• King of California
• Snow Angels

The film summaries are from the much more attractive and usefully-designed Unofficially Sundance site.

from Consolation Champs

Watching Sundance from Afar

http://www.consolationchamps.com/archives/film/tiff/

As well, I’ve covered the Hot Docs documentary film festival since 2004. Those reviews are here:

http://www.consolationchamps.com/archives/film/hot_docs/

from Consolation Champs

TIFF Review Archives

In a Soldier’s Footsteps (Denmark, 2005, Director: Mette Zeruneith, 89 minutes): Truth really is stranger than fiction. When we first meet Steven Ndugga in 1999, he’s a personable and articulate refugee living in Denmark who approaches the filmmakers wanting to have his story told. A former child soldier, he escaped Uganda with his life, but lost his wife and son. Years later, during the filming of this documentary, he receives information that his son is still alive, and is in fact now a child soldier himself. After Steven returns to Uganda to find his son, he disappears. Over the next five years, he reappears and then disappears again, and the story just keeps getting stranger. Like a Graham Greene novel, the film finds the truth elusive, but it makes a fascinating tale.

Article about the film on the Danish Film Institute web site

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

In a Soldier’s Footsteps

Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (USA/UK, 2006, Director: Paul Crowder and John Downer, 97 minutes): The North American Soccer League was struggling along through the 1970s until the New York Cosmos, owned by Warner Communications head Steve Ross, decided to bring superstar Pele to the Big Apple. Suddenly, attendance was up, and the Cosmos started winning. Continuing the formula by bringing some European stars over, the Cosmos won several league titles over the next few years. In the process, the once-moribund NASL expanded quickly to 24 teams. Unfortunately, the resulting dilution of talent, and the inability of smaller-market clubs to pay the huge salaries demanded by European or Latin American stars, meant that the league soon imploded.

The film tells the story with humour and verve, and it’s hard not to be a little bit nostalgic for the days when 70,000 people would crowd into Giants stadium to watch “the other football.” But ultimately, the Cosmos’ strategy was short-sighted. Building an audience for soccer in North America was going to take time, and the free-spending style of Ross and the Cosmos attracted only fairweather fans, who would melt away as soon as the team stopped winning. Other franchises couldn’t attract enough fans in the first place, and the league suffered as a result.

It was interesting that the director admitted afterwards that he is a huge fan of Chelsea Football Club in the English Premiership. Chelsea are following a similar strategy at the moment, with the seemingly endless billions of owner Roman Abramovich funding the construction of another superteam. So far, they’ve won back to back titles in England, but to the detriment of the league, according to many observers. Without a salary cap, the English Premier League drains talent away from the rest of the world, and Chelsea are the richest club of all. This concentration of talent makes the game less competitive in the long term, and while it may attract a few new fans, they’re not the sort of fans who will stick around if and when the team starts losing.

Many of the American innovations brought to the game by the NASL have made it into the game in the rest of the world. For example, penalty shootouts to decide games tied after regulation time. This will always be unpopular with football purists, but for the casual fan, it certainly adds excitement to the game. Other gimmicks weren’t so successful, thankfully. Who wants to see cheerleaders at a football match?

The only flaw in the film was the absence of any present-day interviews with Pele or Johan Cruyff (who played for the Los Angeles Aztecs and Washington Diplomats franchises), though I believe numerous attempts were made to obtain their participation. The director Paul Crowder promised lots of fun stuff in the DVD extras, including their attempts to get Pele on board.

An interesting article on the editing of the film

Official site of the New York Cosmos

Wikipedia entry on the New York Cosmos

Information on the NASL from the National Soccer Hall of Fame

The American Soccer History Archives

The NASL Alumni Association arranged a reunion for more than 60 former players in September 2005.

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos

Fuck (USA, 2006, Director: Steve Anderson, 93 minutes): The premise was promising. A film that would take a look at this most offensive of words, from both a liberal and conservative perspective. But despite the many talking heads, the film ultimately doesn’t say much. Except “fuck”. More than 600 times.

This was an entertaining film, but ultimately not an enlightening one, and that frustrated me. Despite the presence of both “liberals” (Hunter S. Thompson, Drew Carey, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher) and conservatives (Alan Keyes, Pat Boone, Michael Medved, “Miss Manners”), the film definitely skewed to the anti-censorship camp. And that’s too bad, because although I’m not pro-censorship, there were definitely issues that could have and should have been explored. Instead, all of the conservatives came across as a little bit loony. As well, the film takes a tangent into the area of pornography, with porn stars Ron Jeremy and Tera Patrick on board to remind us that fuck means “to have sex.” And then to show us. This seemed a bit gratuitous to me.

The truth is that people use the f-bomb because it is transgressive. And at the same time, it’s becoming less and less transgressive all the time as it permeates our culture. Despite the presence of several academics, nobody talked about why we use language this way, and what happens when it loses this sort of power. Pat Boone briefly talked about how rap lyrics debase women, but nobody responded to that. Since another film I saw this week (Beyond Beats) took that issue on without coming across as pro-censorship, this failure to address an important issue seemed glaring to me. Especially since the overwhelming majority of the portrayals we saw in this film were of men using the word to threaten or belittle or dismiss someone else. I’m not an uptight joyless conservative, but I do think the film could still have been fun while addressing some real language and cultural issues.

The most interesting thing in the film for me was when Janeane Garofalo admitted that the HBO program “Deadwood” had too many f-words for her, that she found it excessive. To me, that was something that needed further explanation, and I wanted to hear what the other “liberals” thought about it as well. After fighting for free speech, and winning, then what? Certainly the comedians would hit a dry patch. All of the comedy bits were from the 1960s to the 1980s, which I thought was telling. It’s just not as shocking anymore when everybody says it. Drew Carey joked at the end, “When’s the cunt movie coming out?” which tells you that he gets it.

The director himself said after the film that even he’s not necessarily promoting the idea that people should be able to say fuck on network television or radio, but that he thinks the discussion is important. It’s just too bad that that didn’t come across so well in the finished film.

Visit the film’s web site

(7/10)

EYE Weekly: ** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

Fuck

The World According To Sesame Street (USA, 2005, Director: LInda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins, 105 minutes): Sesame Street has proved to be a very successful American export, now being seen in more than 120 countries. This film looks at the very unique process of establishing co-productions with local educators, producers and puppeteers, focussing on two challenging locations: Kosovo and Bangladesh.

By far the most time is spent on the Bangladeshi production, and the real star of the film is Sesame Workshop producer Nadia Zylstra, who began her job three weeks before filming began. We follow this very excitable South African woman as she begins the process of defining what the program will look like in Bangladesh. The film shows us the nuts and bolts of how the production comes together, and some of the challenges involved when dealing with local opposition and delays.

I enjoyed the film and found it very inspiring, but I think it missed a chance to dig a bit deeper into the issue of what some audience members called “cultural imperialism.” Though they’re very careful to “partner” with local people, the Sesame Street organization is still American and fuelled by American values and definitions of success. Some of the questions surrounding the “export” of an American model would have been very interesting to explore.

Reading his review after I wrote mine, I discovered that The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell agrees with me.

(8/10)

NOW Toronto: NNNN (out of 5) (review)
EYE Weekly: *** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

The World According To Sesame Street

HIs Big White Self (UK, 2006, Director: Nick Broomfield, 94 minutes): I’m a bit sheepish to admit that this is the first Nick Broomfield documentary that I’ve seen. From what I’ve heard, Broomfield was one of the first documentary filmmakers to insert himself into the narrative, and like Michael Moore, he can sometimes be more of a distraction than necessary.

This film is a companion piece to his 1991 film The Leader, His Driver, and the Driver’s Wife, which was a portrait of South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche. It would be a good idea to see that film first, I think, since this film refers to many events from the earlier film. In the 1990s, after the collapse of apartheid, Terreblanche’s group, the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (the Afrikaans acronym is AWB), was responsible for a rash of bombings that killed several people. His followers also violently disrupted gatherings of the ANC and other political opponents, and eventually, Terreblanche faced prison time for some of these crimes (as well as for some more personal misdeeds, like assault and attempted murder). Ridiculously, he serves only three years in prison, and Broomfield returns in 2004 just as he is being released, hoping to interview him again.

As a side note, in the first film, he never sits for a formal interview and Broomfield is reduced to chasing him around trying to provoke confrontations. In the same vein, this time Terreblanche refuses to meet the film crew for an interview (and in fact is prohibited from conducting political interviews as part of his parole), so Broomfield ends up disguising himself and pretending to be seeking an interview regarding a book of poetry Terreblanche has coming out. While these scenes are both funny and tense, it means the “interview” itself is pretty devoid of meaningful statements from The Leader.

Most of the interesting interviews are with the Driver of the first film, J.P. Meyer. An affable man now into his sixties, J.P. seems to really like Broomfield. But just when the audience is warming to him, he spouts some racist nonsense. Men like Meyer are pitiable even in their hatred. Desperate to hold onto their white privilege, and cloaking it in religious language, they’re now growing old as bitter men.

Terreblanche is a fascinating character. A fiery orator who has based much of his movement and mannerisms on the German National Socialist (Nazi) Party, he constantly paints himself as a victim, and even though mellower now, is still convinced that his cause is right.

The film was hugely enjoyable but slighly flawed for two reasons. First, it really can’t be judged apart from the first film, which I haven’t seen (and which doesn’t appear to be widely available; it’s not even on DVD here in North America). Secondly, Broomfield’s discomfort is played mostly for laughs. The AWB at the zenith of its power had half a million members out of a white population of four million. Even with some of their cartoonish fascist posturing, they were a dangerous and violent group. Even though Broomfield speaks of receiving death threats after the first film, you don’t get the sense of danger in this one. Perhaps the AWB’s power really has disappeared. But when you see how little has changed in some parts of the countryside, you’re left feeling not so sure.

Visit the director’s web site

More on the film from England’s Channel 4

Transcript of a webchat conducted after the film aired on England’s Channel 4

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

His Big White Self

Darkon (USA, 2006, Director: Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, 89 minutes): An immersive film about an immersive hobby. Darkon shines a light into the little-known world of Live Action Role Playing. Darkon is a fantasy world where groups of people gather every two weekends and fight real battles over imaginary land. Dressed in armor and armed with foam swords and shields, they do battle as an escape from their everyday lives. While there are plenty of laughs in the film, they’re never at the expense of the people who play the game, who turn out to be regular folks searching for a little excitement in their lives. People play to let off steam, to connect with the big themes of good and evil, honour and bravery, loyalty and betrayal. One of the recurring themes is that people in today’s world feel pretty powerless. They’re part of a society that tells them what to do and how to do it. In Darkon, many of these individuals feel in control of their lives for the very first time, and while it can seem a little bit sad, they’re having a blast.

Unavoidably, real life seeps into the game, and people’s characters are often informed by the things shaping them in their lives outside the game. When stay-at-home dad Skip Lipman (or Bannor of Laconia, as he’s known in the game) decides to lead other small nations in a revolt against the imperialistic nation of Mordom, it’s hard not to see him avenging his own exclusion from the family business by an older brother. And it comes as no real surprise to learn that Mordom‘s arrogant leader, Keldar (Kenyon Wells), is actually in management at his company.

Some of the best scenes in the film are the battle scenes. Though often looking like something out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they’re shot with mock epic seriousness, with the players reciting lines of awkard Arthurian prose. With the addition of a stirring score swelling behind them, the battles actually look pretty exciting.

Though I’ve never participated in a Live Action Role Playing game, I was an avid RPG (role-playing games) buff for several of my teenage years. I feel like I have some level of understanding for the subculture, and it provides a much-needed community for people who often feel outside the mainstream. The film preserves their dignity while still allowing us to laugh a little. After all, it’s a game. And it’s play. And play is supposed to be fun.

Visit the film’s web site

Visit the site of the Darkon Wargaming Club

(10/10)

EYE Weekly: **** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

Darkon

They Chose China (Canada, 2005, Director: Shui-Bo Wang, 52 minutes): An utterly compelling look at a forgotten group of US prisoners of war who refused to be repatriated to the United States after the Korean War. At the time, these 20-odd soldiers were branded “turncoats and traitors’ by red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy. In archival films, we see them making statements against Senator McCarthy and the current political climate in America, and although many of these archival films seem to have been created for propaganda reasons by the Chinese, the men claim that they were never mistreated in the prisoner-of-war camps. In fact, we see them organizing games and sports, even an “Inter-Camp Olympics”! Of course, having these men stay in China was a huge propoganda coup and they were quickly sent for “education” on the history of socialism and the Chinese Communist Party. Despite that, some stayed and even married in China. Gradually, most of the men returned to the United States, where they faced courts martial and scorn from the media and public.

It was a strange and almost forgotten episode in the Cold War and there is still a lot of ambiguity about what really motivated the men to stay. At the time, the American media speculated that they had been brainwashed (like in The Manchurian Candidate), but it didn’t appear that simple. It was just as clear that when the men returned home, the media used them in its own sort of propaganda war. One man’s interview with Mike Wallace was painful to watch, as Wallace continued to use the term “turncoat and traitor” over and over again. They were very different times.

The director’s voice over, in Chinese-accented English, was sometimes a little difficult to follow, but he did make clear that he considered these men heroes for trying to build bridges between enemies, and I’d tend to agree with that sentiment, even with so many questions left unanswered.

More information on the film from the National Film Board of Canada

(8/10)

EYE Weekly: *** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

They Chose China

Raised To Be Heroes (Canada, 2005, Director: Jack Silberman, 53 minutes): A portrait of several “refuseniks,” Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories, this film revealed a side of Israeli society that we rarely get to see on the nightly news. Not exactly pacifists, these men simply think that their role in the Israeli Defence Forces is to defend Israel, and that what they’re being asked to do has nothing to do with that role. In fact, many of them say they are being asked to commit war crimes against civilians on a regular basis, and so they have decided to face the consequences of disobeying their orders. For many of them, it involves long stretches in military prisons, but as one reserve officer said, he felt his 21 days in military prison did more to serve his country than all his years of obeying his superiors.

The film skilfully weaved bits of Israel’s history into the narrative so we got a bit of context for the men’s protests, and although it’s dangerous to simplify the political situation in the Middle East, for these men, their decision reflects their real conviction that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza are morally wrong. Unfortunately, the director was ill and couldn’t attend the screening, so while there was a short Q&A, I think it could have been more interesting had the director been in attendance. The film did bring up important issues surrounding the (potential) conflicts between duty and morality.

More information on the film from the National Film Board of Canada

(9/10)

EYE Weekly: *** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

Raised To Be Heroes

Runners High (USA, 2006, Directors: Justine Jacob and Alan D. Da Silva, 85 minutes): I am a total sucker for the inspirational sports doc, and every year I seem to gush about at least one of them. But even though this follows a tried-and-true formula, I never cease to be amazed at what teenagers can do when they’re motivated and given a little help from some caring adults.

The film tells the story of four teens involved in a program called Students Run Oakland, which recruits “at-risk” high-schoolers to join a four-month training program to run the Los Angeles Marathon. There’s a lot of sweat and tough love and in the end, no real surprises, but I still felt a huge rush of emotion watching these kids actually make it to Los Angeles to join 25,000 other runners. And I wasn’t alone. The audience burst into spontaneous applause several times near the end of the film. There was some great use of sound; for instance, after all the hoopla at the start of the marathon, when the runners are out there at mile 18 or something, all they can hear are the sounds of their shoes hitting the pavement, their laboured breathing, and the pounding of their hearts. I haven’t run a full marathon, but have run a lot of shorter races, and this felt true to my experience. Running is monotonous, it’s lonely, but when you accomplish something, there really is a “runner’s high.”

Visit the film’s web site

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

Runners High

Beyond Beats: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs In On Manhood In Hip-Hop Culture (USA, 2006, Director: Byron Hurt, 62 minutes): Byron Hurt is a former college quarterback and a huge hip-hop fan. But after he begins a job as a college counselor conducting programs for men about violence against women, he begins to look at his beloved music in a new light. This film is a record of his attempt to understand why hip-hop is so obsessed with images of violence, misogyny and homophobia. Hurt uses the metaphor of a box to describe the narrow image of masculinity in which black men are trapped, and he backs this up with numerous interviews with academics, hip-hop artists, and fans. Also interesting (and actually hilarious) are his deconstructions of rap videos, which are filled with the same ridiculous cliches repeated again and again.

I applaud him for trying to take on so many controversial issues in rap music, but it was discouraging to see so many people unwilling or unable to engage him on these subjects. When he brings up the issue of homophobia with Busta Rhymes, for instance, the rapper gets up and leaves. An executive from BET refuses to answer his questions, and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons gives him only evasive answers. All in all, it’s clear that most people don’t see these issues as problems, especially when rap music is making them all so much money.

The only flaw in this film is that it was too short. I’d love to see a longer version, or even better, a longer series about these issues where the filmmaker could pursue some answers over an extended period. Gadflies like Byron Hurt will need to be patient if they want to see anything change, and I hope that he can document the process even more comprehensively. It’s definitely worth watching.

Visit the director’s web site

(9/10)

NOW Toronto: NNN (out of 5) (review)
EYE Weekly: ***** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

Beyond Beats: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs In On Manhood In Hip-Hop Culture

Heavy Metal Jr. (Scotland, 2005, Director: Chris Waitt, 24 minutes): Hatred are a heavy metal band from Scotland. And they’re all under 13 years old. This hilarious film follows the band as they prepare for their first ever live performance. In the weeks before their show, their bassist quits, and they have to write some original songs to perform. One of the best parts of the film was watching their manager (the drummer’s father) show them some showbiz moves of his own. Along the way, we get some insight into band dynamics that wouldn’t seem out of place in a film like This Is Spinal Tap, except with parents as stand-ins for managers and girlfriends.

By the end, though, I was really pulling for the lads, and watching them perform their three original songs (including a catchy little ditty entitled “Satan Rocks”) in front of an audience of pensioners and teenyboppers dressed in pink was actually heartwarming. The sight of them signing autographs afterward just reinforced for me why all boys get into rock bands anyway: for the chicks.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Heavy Metal Jr.

The Railroad All Stars (Spain, 2006, Director: Chema Rodriguez, 91 minutes): The film tells the story of an unlikely soccer team made up of Guatemalan prostitutes, formed to draw attention to the constant harassment and violence they suffer. Although this sounds desperately sad, the film was filled with moments of humour and even joy. Shot on a tiny budget, the actual soccer scenes were hard to watch, both for the jerky camera movements and the necessity of watching subtitles. But this film was filled with memorable characters, from Marina, the one-eyed ex-prostitute alcoholic and her devoted husband, to Valeria, the beauty with the gang member boyfriend in prison for murder.

La Linea is the railway line that runs through their poor neighbourhood, and so they name their team Estrellas de la Linea and begin taking on teams all over the country, including a team of female police officers. The whole idea of these women forming a unified group is remarkable in itself, since the very nature of their work makes them rivals with each other. And indeed the team and its political program is short-lived, but we do get a sense that many of these women want to change their lives.

Unfortunately, the situation in Guatemala remains bad, with violence against women (especially prostitutes) continuing to rise. The hope for real change is dim, but at least in the lives of these particular women, we see some rays of light.

PDF and link to story from The Global Game from November 2004

NPR story from January 2005 on the team

(8/10)

NOW Toronto: NNN (out of 5) (review)
EYE Weekly: *** (out of 5) (review)

from Consolation Champs

The Railroad All Stars

The Hot Docs 2006 Poster (photography by Rannie Turingan)

I think this is my third year attending the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. I like it because in comparison to the huge Toronto International Film Festival, it’s cheap, accessible, ego-free and consciousness-expanding. So once again, I’m off to see a bunch of real-life true stories (beware the following links: they’re to popup pages that have no navigation back to the Hot Docs site):

• The Railroad All Stars
• Beyond Beats: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs In On Manhood In Hip-Hop Culture
• Heavy Metal Jr.
• Runners High
• Raised To Be Heroes
• They Chose China
• Darkon
• His Big White Self
• The World According To Sesame Street
• F*ck
• Shadow Company
• Once In A Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
• In A Soldier’s Footsteps

The festival takes place from April 28-May 7, and right in the middle of that is the huge wine tasting that I help organize every year. I am a crazy person.

You might notice that I’ve picked a couple of sports documentaries, two about soccer and one about running. In addition to those, in anticipation of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the Goethe Institut is screening a series of films whose subject is soccer (football). In Toronto, they’re screening on Mondays during April and May, and I’m going to try to make it to a few of those as well. Good times.

P.S. I feel compelled to note that fellow GTABloggers Brett Lamb and Rannie Turingan are involved in Hot Docs as well. Brett seems to be in charge of all the print advertising, and this year, he recruited Rannie to take some great photos of directors that ended up on the poster. Excellent work, guys!

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs 2006

Lost Children (Germany/Uganda, 2005, Directors: Ali Samadi Ahadi, Oliver Stoltz, 98 minutes): All three of the films I saw today were about “children in peril” but none were more horrifying than this one. Northern Uganda has been caught up in civil war for almost twenty years. The rebels of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” make it their primary tactic to kidnap children from local villages, forcing them to fight in their army. Children as young as 8 are taught to kill with guns and knives, and those who don’t share in the atrocities are killed themselves, often by other conscripted children.

Catholic relief agency Caritas is running a reintegration centre for those children who manage to escape the rebel army. It is a formidable challenge. Often the children have physical injuries, either sustained in battle or in their harrowing escapes. The mental damage is much harder to repair. They often have nightmares, and are terrified of being reabducted. Their families are suspicious of them, and are also afraid of being targetted again by the rebels. In these circumstances, the social workers and doctors at the centre have their hands full.

We meet Jennifer, 14, who spent five years with the Lord’s Resistance Army, fighting government troops and terrorizing civilians, all the while being raped regularly as a commander’s concubine. And Opio, just 8 years old, describing how he bashed in a man’s skull with a rifle butt. Then there is sensitive Kelama, 13, who was forced to kill a woman in front of her child and who now can’t stop dreaming about her. All these children have a long road ahead of them, first reintegrating with their families and communities, and then hoping that the rebels don’t return for them.

It’s difficult to “rate” films like this, because they don’t really function as pieces of art. Instead, they fulfill another aspect of the documentary’s role, that of bearing witness. In that sense, this film is a clear-eyed look at some of the most horrifying crimes against children ever perpetrated. By making children do their killing for them, the so-called “Lord’s Resistance Army” have killed the childhoods of these children. As they piece together the shreds of their humanity, they are no longer children. What they will become is a mystery.

Information on helping the children here.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Lost Children

The filmmakers were working with UNICEF to document conditions in support of an overhaul of the juvenile justice system in the Philippines. The law has been ready since 1997, but getting any action from politicians has taken this long. There are signs that it might not be too much longer before children this young are spared the horrors of an adult prison. Unfortunately, it’s too late for those who have become hardened by their prison experience and end up back on the street to sniff glue and get into trouble with the law again.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Bunso (The Youngest)

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Xiara’s Song

The Swenkas (Denmark, 2004, Director: Jeppe Rønde, 72 minutes): This film was really unlike any other documentary I’ve ever seen. The Swenkas are a group of about 20 Zulu men who gather each weekend to “swank”: they dress up in fancy suits and jewellery and compete before a judge to see who is the most stylish. Sort of a “Lord of the Bling” (ooh, couldn’t resist!). But it’s more than just fun for them. Swanking represents self-respect, and these men emphasize certain values such as cleanliness and sobriety. It’s as if the old adage “Clothes make the man” has come to life. Even though some may think these men are spending far too much money on their clothes, it seems to have given them the pride they need to be successful in life. Certainly no one in their families complains. Besides, sometimes they compete for large sums of money (or even, now and then, a cow.)

The reason the film stands out is the way it has been crafted. Director Rønde uses the framing device of a fictional narrator, an old Zulu vagabond who tells us a bit about the group, but also sets up the dramatic arc of the story: the leader of the Swenkas has just died, and his son is grieving and thinking about abandoning the group. This storyline gives the film the feeling of a fictional film, and at times it’s hard to believe that the whole thing isn’t carefully scripted.

The director explained afterwards that he never told the participants what to say, but that since Zulu culture is built around storytelling and the Swenkas were all used to performing, each participant had no trouble “performing” in the film. But they really were working through a difficult time in the life of their group.

The result is a beautifully shot, and even more beautifully edited film that feels more like a fable. The recurring themes are hope and the relationship between fathers and sons. The director actually told us that this film is the second in a trilogy about faith, hope and love, and I found myself really eager to see the other films. A standard documentary approach, with interviews and such, would have made an interesting film. Jeppe Rønde’s unorthodox approach has given us a transcendent one.

More information on the film here.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Swenkas

We meet a few Japanese men who have taken things to an extreme, with one man showing off his collection of over forty love dolls in an apartment he rents especially for them. A few people found some of this stuff disturbing and a number of them walked out, but I think these extreme cases are only heralding the way our society may be headed. As dolls and computer software become more sophisticated, how many people will leave behind any attempt at human interaction whatsoever? It’s a bit creepy to consider, and the film conveyed that feeling very effectively.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

A Perfect Fake

We also get to meet a few of the customers, including Janie, who is having her beloved Jack Russell terrier freeze-dried, and Benoit, a former big-game hunter with an entire house full of trophies, including a giraffe, a tiger and a lion.

While it’s vaguely interesting to muse on the reasons people want trophies like these, it was more interesting to me to see how taxidermy involves elements of both craftsmanship and artistry, and the film is most compelling when letting us watch these guys work. While the tone is by no means serious, it also doesn’t condescend, and I think the filmmaker hits just the right balance between amusement and respect.

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Lifelike

Competitive sports is a deeply complicated arena for young people, and the film expresses some of the ambiguities very clearly. All three young women make very clear that they are in gymnastics to pursue their own dreams and that they’re not under pressure from parents or coaches to do anything that they don’t want for themselves. But we also see coaches who are so caught up in the competition that they ignore clear signs of injury. By the time the Olympics have come and gone, none of the three seem happy, although they all made the team. Each girl came out of the experience damaged, either physically (poor Kristin undergoes the first of many surgeries for a stress fracture before the documentarian’s camera) or emotionally (Alyssa seems bitter about the whole experience, while Morgan can’t seem to string a sentence together without choking up.)

It’s hard to watch people’s dreams die, but before we start pointing the finger at “the horrible sports industry”, we have to remember that these girls chose to put themselves into competition. All of them were not only talented, but driven enough to reach the highest levels of their sport. Were they not athletic, they’d have had their hopes dashed in other endeavours, I think.

The process of realizing that our dreams are not always attainable is a painful milestone on the way to adulthood, and though it is hard to watch it unfold in front of a camera, I came away with a real respect and affection for these young people. One odd thing about the film (and this may have been deliberate on the part of the director) is that we don’t see any other aspects of the gymnasts’ lives. We see a very small part of their family lives, but nothing about school, nothing about their friendships. It’s as if they only really exist in the gym. While that may seem to be true, it’s not really true, and so I think the director uses it to heighten the tension. Later in the film we finally get to see the girls dressed in street clothes, and it’s a dramatic change.

I’m sure more than a few people will see this film as an indictment of youth sports, but I think that’s too simplistic. Athletic competition is just one more area where eager and idealistic children are forged into slightly cynical adults. That’s not a bad thing, but it can be difficult to watch. I found myself cringing watching the network footage of the competition, since I knew the injuries that each gymnast was so carefully trying to hide from the judges.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Gymnast

Filming over a period of several years at a series of family gatherings, David slowly begins to realize that he needs to come out to his family members. For someone who has always hidden behind the camera, this is difficult, and this film doesn’t always succeed for that reason. We have an awkward gay Orthox Jewish man’s own coming-out home movies, and it doesn’t necessarily make the most coherent film. But we certainly get a glimpse of a large and complicated web of familial relationships and the incredible machine-like pressure on David to conform. That he summons the courage to actually confront this unruly brood is pretty amazing. And family being family, things are never as bad (nor as good) as they sometimes first appear.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

Say Amen

Not so for poor Yudith, who seeks to live openly. Her rabbi tells her that her behaviour is wrong, flat out. Still, she wants to have a religious ceremony to celebrate her commitment to Tal, her lover. Her brother and sister are supportive and the ceremony is attended by many friends, but Yudith still cries because her mother and rabbi father would not come.

A sensitive look into the lives of women under enormous pressure to keep very silent about their sexuality. Many are devoted mothers of large families, and will not risk exposure for fear of the social consequences their children and husbands will face. The spiritual tensions involved in remaining religious in these circumstances are also hinted at, though are not as fully explored as I would have liked.

More information on the film here.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Keep Not Silent (Ortho-Dykes)

Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge (Canada/USA, 2004, Director: Stephen Marshall, 84 minutes): Most of the documentaries produced about the Iraq war (and also, for that matter, the Vietnam War) have really been about ourselves. Our motives, our politics, our guilt. What Stephen Marshall has done in Battleground is let us see the war from the perspective of ordinary Iraqis. This is even more remarkable when it’s noted that Marshall, one of the founders of the Guerrilla News Network, admits that much of his previous work was “agitprop”, slanted and polemical. That this film, shot over three weeks in late 2003, is so balanced is thanks in part to a little bit of serendipity.

On the plane to Jordan, Marshall sits next to Farhan (or “Frank” as he now calls himself), a beefy Iraqi-American on his way back to try to find the family he left behind after the first Iraq war. Heeding the encouragement of the first President Bush after Iraq’s army had been pushed out of Kuwait, Farhan joined other Shia Muslims in rising up against the regime of Saddam Hussein. But when Saddam began airstrikes against the rebels, the Americans did nothing, and 100,000 Iraqis perished. Farhan was lucky. He was shot and tortured, but managed to get out of the country with the help of some American soldiers. Fearful of reprisals against his family, he spent 13 years in America without making contact and now he’s returning, not knowing even if any of his family are left alive. This storyline alone would have made a compelling and heartbreaking film, but Marshall weaves Farhan’s story throughout the film, including several tearfully joyous reunions.

There is also Raed Jarrar, an engineer (and incidentally, one of Iraq’s most famous bloggers) monitoring the presence of depleted uranium in American shells used against Iraqi targets. With his Geiger counter, he goes from place to place trying to warn people away from areas of contamination, but with little success. Poor Iraqis melt down the shells and tank wrecks to sell for scrap iron. Contaminated scrap iron.

Then there is the female translator who longs for a return to the days of Saddam, arguing with the Egyptian businessman who thinks the American defeat of Iraq will help it join other “losers” like Germany and Japan into developing into an economic powerhouse. And the American tank commander who cynically predicts that the war isn’t about democracy or oil, but about geopolitical strategic interests, “over the next fifty to a hundred years.”

One thing stood about all the Iraqis in the film. Like any other culture, and especially one with thousands of years of history, the Iraqis are a very proud people. The worst thing about the current occupation is that it is humiliating for the Iraqis. First they were humiliated by Saddam, and now by the Americans. This is something that the American army doesn’t seem to understand yet, how powerful this feeling is, especially when it becomes a rallying point for the insurgency. Even though there are lots of political, ethnic and religious factions in the country, they may yet unite around a shared sense of humiliation, and then things could get even uglier.

All in all, this was a riveting journey into a war zone. And instead of focussing on the explosions, as our simple-minded media have been doing, the film feeds the hunger of viewers like me to see real Iraqis, living their lives under such incredible pressures. There are all kinds of opinions, from full support of the Americans to outright hostility, but people are eager to speak their minds. One of the film’s most moving moments came near the end, when a man said (in my rough paraphrase), “The Iraqis are not the enemies of America. America should stop creating enemies for itself and instead create friends. You can never feel safe in the world if you don’t create friends instead of enemies.” I only hope this film helps even a little bit.

Watch the trailer for the film here.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge

A Decent Factory (Finland/France, 2004, Director: Thomas Balmès, 79 minutes): In this documentary, Finnish cellphone giant Nokia sends its recently hired Ethics and Environmental Specialist to China to audit one of its suppliers’ factories. But instead of a manifesto on the dangers of outsourcing and globalization, we get a much smaller film about cultural differences. Well, it’s not exactly that simple, either. I guess this one just didn’t catch fire for me the way I thought it would. Sure, the Finns find labour law violations. But in the presence of the factory’s European management, they tend to focus on small things (some chemicals are stored near the toilets) and gloss over the bigger issues (not a single employee at the factory has signed a contract). The truth is that the entire Chinese manufacturing sector operates by very different rules than the Europeans are used to. I looked forward to hearing the auditors interview the mostly-female employees of the factory, but when they do, they discover the sort of complaints made by factory workers everywhere: their superiors insult them, the cafeteria food is bad. The truth is that none of them actually complain about the low wages, or the forced overtime or mandatory deductions for food and accomodation. It seems like they are content to live in single-sex company dormitories. Things that seem to horrify the progressive Finns don’t seem to faze most of the Chinese.

So, at least by focussing in so tightly on one factory, I think it’s impossible to look at the bigger issues involved in globalization and the migration of jobs overseas. Many of the issues seem to involve more than just economics. There is a lot of cultural disconnection going on as well.

That’s not to say I’m an apologist for unfair labour practices. There are widespread problems with almost all of China’s factories, hinted at by the film. Most factories keep at least two sets of books; one to show the government and auditors like Nokia’s, and one more accurate set. And the issue of government corruption is not even mentioned.

So, even though the film failed to address these issues in a larger context, it was still an enlightening visit to a place where most of the world’s manufacturing will be done in the future, if it’s not already being done there now.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

A Decent Factory

Beneath the Stars (Sweden/South Africa, 2004, Directors: Titti Johnson and Helgi Felixson, 105 minutes): The film follows Frieda Darvel, one of Cape Town’s many street kids, as she pursues her dream of leaving the streets for a singing career. At the beginning, things look bright. Frieda has been selected for South Africa’s “Popstars” TV show, and makes quite an impression on the nation. But all the offers of help (apartment, voice lessons, recording contracts) come to nothing and pretty soon, Frieda is back on the street, sniffing glue with her boyfriend. Though there is a sort of family for Frieda here, there is no future. Many people try to help her, but we’re left feeling uneasy when one of her early backers secures funding for a “reality show” on homeless teens, and when it falls through, simply disappears. In fact, I felt uneasy a lot of the time watching the film, because if people recognize Frieda at all, they immediately demand that she sing for them. Although she clearly loves to sing, it becomes obvious that for many she is just a performing animal and they have no real interest in her as a person. The line between helping her and using her was even a bit fuzzy when I began to think about the filmmakers. That is, until the story took a bit of a twist.

After being invisible for the first two thirds of the film, suddenly directors Johnson and Felixson quite literally enter the frame and invite Frieda to come back with them to Sweden for three months. A reluctant Frieda finally agrees and it is in Sweden where she is finally able to kick drugs and make a real commitment to staying off the street.

She returns to South Africa with some trepidation, but at the film’s end, she is living in Cape Town and beginning to create an independent life for herself.

The film is generally quite effective with the exception of a couple of things. I thought the middle dragged a lot, with far too much footage of sleeping street kids. The misery of their lives was well apparent by this point in the film and it slowed the pace down unnecessarily. Secondly, due to the episodic structure, the film felt a bit disjointed in a few places. We see Frieda with different hairstyles in successive scenes and it makes it unclear how much time has passed. All in all, a powerful film and one that shows that that the personal involvement of the filmmakers is not always a bad thing. The film reminded me a little of Born Into Brothels in that respect.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Beneath the Stars

(6/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Cross and Bones

The Education of Shelby Knox (USA, 2005, Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, 76 minutes): This film follows the life of 15-year-old Shelby Knox, a teen living in conservative Lubbock, Texas. Though from a conservative Christian Republican family, Shelby is a feisty and compassionate campaigner for sex education in the public school system, feeling that their “abstinence-only” policy is ignoring the obvious, including higher than average rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The film follows her over a period of three years, as she begins to question the easy answers offered by her church, her school, and her community. She works with a city-funded group, the Lubbock Youth Commission, but when local politicians force the group to tone down its activism, she quits and begins working with a group of gay teens to help them start a Gay Straight Alliance group at school. Despite the fact that Shelby herself has pledged to remain a virgin until marriage, she recognizes that not everyone in her community wants (or in the case of the gay students, is able) to make the same choice. This film is a balanced and compassionate look at one young woman’s political and spiritual awakening. In light of the currently raging culture wars, it’s a must-see for people on all sides of these issues.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Education of Shelby Knox

• The Education of Shelby Knox
• The Cross and Bones
• Beneath the Stars
• A Decent Factory
• Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge
• Keep Not Silent (Ortho-Dykes) / Say Amen
• Gymnast
• Lifelike / A Perfect Fake
• The Swenkas
• Xiara’s Song / Bunso – The Youngest
• Lost Children

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs 2005

Putin’s Mama (Netherlands, Director: Ineke Smits) — Vera is an incredibly sharp 77-year old who’s convinced that the son she sent to live with her parents at age 10 has grown up to become Russia’s president. She is so heartfelt in her wish for him to come and visit, and her story seems so plausible, that by the end, I was convinced. So rather than this being a story about a possible crackpot, it became for me a fascinating character study of a strong Russian woman who married a Georgian and “became a peasant.” The village life is richly portrayed and I found myself wondering along with Vera why Vladimir doesn’t come to visit his mama in this colourful place. (9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs Wednesday

Army of One (Canada, Director: Sarah Goodman) — Canadian Sarah Goodman was living in New York around the time of 9/11, and noticed the long lineups at army recruiting centres after the tragedy. In this too-short film, she follows three volunteers for more than two years, through basic training and beyond. Of the three, only one is still in the army (and the director informed us at the screening that now-Sergeant Miller has returned home safely from Iraq). We follow the three as they try to find a purpose in their lives, one that the army promises but fails to deliver. The film ends a bit abruptly. I would have loved to see even more. It brought back my own brief experiences in the Canadian military, and sharpened the deep ambivalence I have about the way the army molds people to do a job nobody wants to talk about. There are a lot of good people in the military, and a lot of good things. But there are also many things that aren’t talked about in the recruiting centres, and this film uncovers and lays them bare. (9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs Tuesday

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs Monday

I saw four films this weekend:

• Slasher (US, Director: John Landis) — This film follows Michael “Slasher” Bennett, a sort of used-car supersalesman who’s brought in to struggling dealerships to “slash” prices in special weekend sales. He boasts of selling 200 cars once in four days. He brings in his DJ pal, as well as a “mercenary” salesman just to turn up the heat on the dealership’s guys. He hires pretty girls to “register” customers to win prizes, including an $88 car. His legendary skills only go so far in economically depressed Memphis, where his crusade only manages to sell 35 cars on Memorial Day weekend. This was enjoyable, but bogged down when the sale started to turn sour. (7/10)
• The Take (Canada/Argentina, Director: Avi Lewis) — Directed and written by Canada’s royal couple of the left, Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (author of the bestselling No Logo), The Take is a fascinating look at what happens when the unemployed decide to take matters into their own hands. After Argentina’s spectacular economic collapse in 2001, many factories simply locked their doors and fired their workers. Rather than see the bankrupt businesses sell off all the equipment for pennies on the dollar, the workers have begun reclaiming the factories, first occupying them and then restarting production, without the bosses. Lewis and Klein made the film after their anti-globalization message met with the question: “What would you replace globalized capitalism with?” Though the film doesn’t attempt to portray the “occupied factory” movement as the answer for every situation, it raises interesting questions in an emotionally engaging way. (10/10)
• The Ritchie Boys (Germany/Canada, Director: Christian Bauer) — This film tells the story of a group of Jewish refugees who enlisted in the US Army during WWII and were recruited for a special intelligence unit and sent back to Nazi Germany, where they worked mostly as interrogators of POWs. Their story makes for a fascinating and moving film. Surprisingly, it’s also full of humour and fond memories. (10/10)
• Super Size Me (US, Director: Morgan Spurlock) — I’d wanted to see this since I’d heard about it at SXSW, where it was screened in March. Director Morgan Spurlock, inspired by a court case involving two obese teens who attempted to sue McDonald’s for their health problems, decides to live for a month on nothing but McDonald’s food. He intersperses footage of his daily “meals” with interviews with health care professionals, lobbyists for the food industry, educators, even a former Surgeon General. The film has been criticized by some as a bit of a stunt. Of course, eating fast food for thirty days isn’t going to be good for you. (Boy, see the film and you’ll see how much of an understatement that is!). But Spurlock uses his stunt as a way to raise some good questions about personal as well as corporate responsibility. This film makes a good companion piece to Eric Schlosser’s excellent book Fast Food Nation. A harrowing, and yet entertaining, experience. And it’s opening theatrically on May 7. Check out the film’s web site, too. (10/10)

So, a great start. I’ve got six more films to see in the next week, plus a few more to choose. I’ll try to say something about each one.

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs 2004