Hot Docs 2010 Wrap-Up

The 17th annual Hot Docs Film Festival ended a little over a week ago and it had my name all over it...

The Audience Award didn't quite go to "A Small Act" like I had guessed/hoped it would, but the film still made the Top Ten in the voting and there doesn't seem to be much to complain about - I saw 6 of the 10 and they all belong. As for the 4 I missed (including winner "Thunder Soul" which I had really wanted to see), I've heard nothing but excellent reviews.


Hot Docs Audience Awards

1. THUNDER SOUL (Mark Landsman; USA)
2. A DRUMMER’S DREAM (John Walker; Canada)
3. MY LIFE WITH CARLOS (German Berger; Chile , Spain , Germany)
4. AUTUMN GOLD (Jan Tenhaven; Austria , Germany)
5. LEAVE THEM LAUGHING (John Zaritsky; Canada , USA)
6. RUSH: BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE (Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn; Canada)
7. LISTEN TO THIS (Juan Baquero; Canada)
8. A SMALL ACT (Jennifer Arnold; USA)
9. WASTE LAND (Lucy Walker; UK , Brazil)
10. MARWENCOL (Jeff Malmberg; USA)


Fourth place finisher in balloting, "Autumn Gold" also won the Filmmakers Award – a new award this year for which Hot Docs invites attending filmmakers with official selections in the 2010 Festival to vote for their favourite film.

Some final words on the fest:

• Favourite film - A bumper crop this year - how do I choose from "A Small Act", "Marwencol", "The Kids Grow Up", "Space Tourists" and "Waste Land"? Well, I guess I have to go with the one that kept me grinning the whole way through: "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage". Yes, I'm that biased.
  
  
• Most inspiring film - "A Small Act". Particularly since I was lucky enough to see it at a screening that had both director Jennifer Armstrong and the film's central character Chris Mburu present.
  
  
• Overall best film - "Waste Land". An amazing conglomeration of numerous emotions.
  
  
• Recurring theme #1 - The act of being creative: "The Socalled Movie", "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage", "Candyman: The David Klein Story", "Waste Land", "We Don't Care About Music Anyway", "A Drummer's Dream".
  
  
• Film that tugged at my heartstrings the most - "The Kids Grow Up" is where I'll be in about 9-10 years. I know I'm not ready for it yet. I don't know if I'll ever be.
  
  
• Strangest cinematic moment - "Disco And Atomic War" and "General Orders No. 9" both had their fair share, but "We Don't Care About Music Anyway" was chock full of odd moments: Why is that guy wandering around an abandoned building with a cello? What is that sound coming from the guitar being played by the woman in the bikini? What is that guy who looks like a ghost from "Ju-On: The Grudge" doing in those strobe lights?
  
  
• Recurring theme #2 - Dealing with adversity: "Grace, Milly, Lucy - Child Soldiers", "Leave The Laughing", "Marwencol", "Waste Land".
  
  
• Slackjawed surprise - "talhotblond" reveals information at a rate that keeps you wondering. "Life With Murder" also delivers a kick to the gut.
  
  
• Most beautiful images - "Space Tourists" had numerous moments of beauty - particularly anything from the International Space Station. The works of art by Vik Muniz in "Waste Land".
  
  
• Recurring theme #3 - Obsession: "talhotblond", "Soundtracker", "The Mirror", "Marwencol".
  
  
• Moment that brought bile into your mouth - "Grace, Milly, Lucy - Child Soldiers" leaves you angry that humanity can even conceive of such things.
  
  
• Most disappointing film - "Eyes Wide Open - Exploring Today's South America". I guess I wanted to leave knowing more - perhaps not a fair expectation given the complexity of the history of that continent.
  
  
• Recurring theme #4 - What colour is the sky in your world?: "AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story", "The Peddler", "The Invention Of Dr. Nakamats", "Eat The Kimono".

Hot Docs 2010 - "The Invention Of Dr. Nakamats"

Dr. NakaMats claims he sleeps at most 4 hours a night. What's keeping him up? Well, he might claim it's because his armchair "Cerebrex" invention helps refresh him during the day, but he really just doesn't have the time. With 3357 inventions under his belt (over three times more than that underachiever Thomas Edison), more in development, speaking engagements (he claims he is one of the 12 most expensive speakers in the world), TV guest appearances, Sumo wrestling and an 80th birthday party to plan, he just can't afford to waste time sleeping. Fortunately, he also claims that he will live to be 144 years old, so he's got that going for him too. Dr. NakaMats runs through his list of accomplishments: he claims to have invented the floppy disk, the Love Jet ("over 10000 women tested"), a motor that runs on cosmic energy and heat, a water fueled bicycle and scads of other gadgets and concepts - that sure is an awful lot of claiming for one man...

So what is the amazing invention mentioned in the title of the film? It appears that it's actually Dr. NakaMats himself. His real name is Yoshiro Nakamatsu and he does indeed possess a creative mind that has helped him hold the record for most number of patents. But do they all actually work? If the only proof that something works is the inventor telling you it works ("I invented this glass table. It cannot be broken."), is that enough? When you listen to him describe the awesome powers that his Brain Drink provides him or how his Love Jet is enabling the women of Japan to get more out of sex (and therefore solve the nation's biggest problem - declining population growth), you get the feeling it's more about selling himself than the products. As a matter of fact, there is not a single solitary thing Dr. NakaMats says in the entire film that isn't about him. His main goal for his birthday party is that the hotel convention room he is booking be renamed after him. He explains to the poor, beaten down hotel employee that he could lose face in front of all his guests if the room name isn't changed and that the employee should fight harder for his request. If it doesn't get approved by the hotel boss than that boss should be fired. Dr. NakaMats, after all, deserves respect.




Director and visual artist Kaspar Astrud Schroder has put together an amazingly entertaining portrait of this nationwide celebrity. You can see some of Schroder's visual arts background coming out in the look of the film - in particular the fast motion cityscapes and terrific and very original titles - but he also brings a light touch to show NakaMats as combination snake oil salesman and beloved entity. The jaunty plucked violin score that underlies each of the good doctor's invention descriptions certainly adds some skepticism to the proceedings, but you might already be a bit wary when he talks about his method of selecting a quality camera by smelling them individually. Then again, he has won the Ig Nobel Prize. No, not the Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobel Prize. In this case it was for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed over the past 34 years - a strategy which has enabled him to determine the 55 components of his special elixir for his health.

His wife seems on board with the recognition he receives (and demands) and is equally concerned about the proper respect owed to him. His children? Well, if the enforced "Take 2" of their presentation to him of his birthday gift and one of the most awkward father-daughter hugs on record are of any indication, they may have a different perspective. His mother is on board though - he speaks with her daily and even gets ideas from her for new inventions. The fact that she's been dead for some time now doesn't seem to have really impacted her input. He also gives much credit to his Underwater Invention Method which enables him to get maximum brain power (by getting "as close to death as possible") while capturing the ideas as soon as they pop up. Perhaps that's where he got the idea for his greatest invention of all - Himself.

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #6

AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story (2010 - Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas) - Like many people (at least two thirds of the audience at the screening of this film for example), I missed out on Bill Hicks' entire career while he was alive. My introduction to him was via the liner notes to the album "Aenima" (1996) by the band Tool which was dedicated to him and released shortly after his death by pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. Hicks was the type of stand up comedian who had opinions - strong opinions - and he built up a dedicated following who appreciated his philosophies. He railed against what he saw as injustice, the mediocre, the irrational and the plain stupid. The documentary traces his arc from a teenage school clown through his early stand-up performances in Houston (where he was too young to legally be admitted to the club) and then on to the larger clubs, TV appearances and wider recognition at comedy festivals (the Montreal Just For Laughs fest was a big turning point for him) and in Europe (particularly England). The documentary mostly tells his story through old clips as well as many photos that were used in a sort of animated collage form. You don't actually see the talking heads of the people from his life (who do much of the narration) until the last 10-15 minutes of the film. Some people weren't enamored with this approach, but I felt it really focused the story on Hicks. Whether you agree with his stance on the wide range of topics he covered (and there is bound to be something he did or said to offend most people), he had razor sharp timing, cutting barbs and many insights. Anyone who can deliver a comedy routine and use it to encourage the use of logical thinking in our children is OK by me.




A Drummer's Dream (2010 - John Walker) - The drummer's dream of the title is initially wrapped around the idea that Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr had of bringing together some of the best drummers in the world to a remote summer camp to teach and inspire other student drummers. So for a whole week, in Northern Ontario, Al-Khabyyr gets to hang out with Dennis Chambers, Kenwood Dennard, Horacio “El-Negro” Hernadez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Mangini and Raul Rekow (people who have played with Santana, Miles Davis, Tito Puente and many others) and realize his dream. As it turns out, his dream was shared by many others too...The students have the time of their lives learning at the feet of these experienced musicians, the pros themselves find the camp to be a revelation and the audience in the theatre are treated to some astounding drumming. As many tricks as they show off (Mangini's incredibly fast rolls, the multiple different time signatures being played at once, Dennard's voice/drum/keyboard mix, etc.), these guys never lose sight of the musicality of what they are doing. Their passion for what they do is contagious and it makes you wish you had attended the camp yourself.




Sona, The Other Myself (2010 - Yang Yonghi) - Director Yang is the daughter of South Koreans who were brought to Japan under colonial rule and managed to keep their identity through strong pressure to assimilate. As she and her three older brothers grew up, her father began to look to North Korea as the fatherland and when the boys were of age (14, 16 and 18), they were sent to live there while she stayed behind with her parents. During her many trips to see her relatives in North Korea, she began to document the life of her niece Sona as she grows up in this isolated society. Yang and her parents have been sending care packages to their family on a very regular basis (which included food, hygiene products and even medication for her one brother's depression) while the government preaches singular devotion to its leader and a message of being a just society. Restrictions start creeping in, though, and soon the packages have to become smaller, they must watch pro-government celebrations before even being allowed to see their relatives and eventually Yang even gets barred from returning (her previous film "Dear Pyongyang" was not appreciated by those in charge). Her access blocked to her growing niece, Yang is left to wonder how she will develop cut off from the rest of the world - will she become headstrong like her aunt or fall into line like her father and uncles and their wives? North Korea continues to be a fascinating part of the planet, so any glimpses of it are always welcome.




Eyes Wide Open - Exploring Today's South America (2010 - Gonzalo Arijon) - Starting about ten years ago in South America there seemed to be a trend of electing fresh, new leaders to combat the "old school" regimes on the continent. Arijon bounces between some of the major countries in the region to track whatever progress may have occurred over the past few years, but delivers an unfortunately dry and scattershot film. Even with its obvious political slant and bias, it's actually somewhat refreshing to see a very different view of the political landscape in the region. Using Eduardo Galeano's book "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" as a main source, the film postulates that these new leaders were combating decades of economic exploitation by European and U.S. interests. In the past decade Bolivia has nationalized its hydro-carbon resources and Argentina has turned around an economic collapse, whereas Brazil has question marks all around it due to accusations that its new leader is now working within the system instead of against it. It's hard to find some footing if you aren't already familiar with the history of the area, though, and what is provided is not given enough context or shown in an engaging manner. Also, I couldn't help seeing the agenda of the doc get somewhat in the way of providing a clear view of what lies ahead for the individual countries. Having said all that, I wouldn't mind seeing it again with a bit more knowledge of some of the political history. The topic is and should be of great interest to all.




The Peddler (2010 - Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich) - Daniel Burmeister lives from job to job peddling his wares. He moves from one village to the next offering his services to the locals in exchange for food, board and whatever else is available. He typically has little trouble in convincing the village leaders that what he provides is valuable, so he seems to manage even though his car is falling apart bit by bit and he typically has to improvise each and every time. His service? In the standard month long engagement, he produces, directs, films and edits a feature length movie starring the townspeople and screens it for them. He reuses scripts and essentially continues to remake the same stories over and over again, but every town has its own issues so he's always ready to tackle something new. For the people who live there (the film focuses on one single project in a village from start to end), it's a chance to be up on screen as part of a record of their community. Burmeister faces lots of challenges every day, but getting people to help and volunteer to be in the movie isn't typically one of them. The final product is pretty much what you would expect, but the joy it brings the people involved is worth the price of admission.

Hot Docs 2010 - "Marwencol"

After spending 40 days in a coma - the result of a brutal beating outside a bar - Mark Hogancamp woke up. He woke up a different person, though, with significant brain damage and a great deal of memory loss. He now needed to somehow build a new life and get on track, but he just wasn't sure how to do that since professional therapy was too expensive. But at least he wasn't drinking anymore. If there's anything good that came from his hospital stay it's that he no longer had a taste for alcohol. It just doesn't appeal to him now, whereas previously, it was the focus of his life. He states that he hasn't had a girlfriend in over 9 years - 5 of those have been since the incident and the other 4 before it were because he was always drunk.

There is something else good that came from all this though - his art. Or should I say, his therapy. In order to focus his imagination and help regain some control of the nerves in his hands, Mark has built an entire 1/16 scale replica of a WWII Belgium town in his backyard. It comes complete with vehicles, soldiers, a bar and, of course, 27 Barbies. The characters in his village have elaborate stories worked out for them on a daily basis and it all gets documented in hundreds of photos. These individual storylines play out fights, love affairs, suspicious behaviour and a whole lot of staged catfights between the Barbies. It's his imagination after all, so he can use it however he sees fit. He's trying to practice it every day after having it almost stolen from him years ago.




Jeff Malmberg's debut directorial effort is a remarkable experience and entertaining to boot. Like Hogancamp's own photos of these miniature characters, the film brings us right into a world completely alien to most of us. The dedication Hogancamp has to his daily work is impressive to say the least. The jeep his soldier characters use accompanies Mark on his long walks in order to get real wear and tear on it - he's actually put (scale-wise) thousands of miles on it so that it looks realistic in the pictures. New characters have backstories and old ones take turns moving to the fore of a day's events. Many of the new characters are named after and even slightly resemble Mark's real friends and acquaintances. Malmberg uses these dolls to help introduce the real people he talks to and this small connection between the two worlds helps us get a better understanding of how Mark's obsession is actually slowly helping to heal him.

He still has plenty of anger to work out and Marwencol can sometimes be a violent place. Though the British, American and German soldiers all seem to get along there, unwanted visitors can show up unexpectedly. Death and mayhem aren't strangers to the confines of the town, but his anger comes out in many different ways. Mark admits that the staged wedding for his alter ego inside Marwencol is much better remembered by him than his actual wedding many years ago - you can't help but wonder how he feels when he looks at pictures of his ex-wife and has no recollection of a life with her (though he does note that she was pretty good looking). He even incorporates a time machine (built from an old VCR) into his stories so that he at least has some way of going back in the past. While Mark uses these scenes and photos to work things out, several of them made the pages of a small art magazine and before he knew it, he was displaying them in an art gallery in New York City. The photos are truly quite amazing (especially when blown up to real life size), but "what if your therapy became art?". There's no easy answer to that question, but "Marwencol" sure gives us some insight into one fascinating individual's experience with it.

Hot Docs 2010 - "Waste Land"

"It's where everything not good goes - including people."

The Jardim Gramacho landfill outside of Rio De Janeiro is the largest in the world in terms of the volume of refuse received to it on a daily basis. It's rolling hills of garbage give the ground the consistency of Jell-o as hundreds of "pickers" walk through it every day to collect recyclables for money. 200 tons of recycling a day get removed by these people, many of whom live in the slums just outside the dump. Though for some they can make a "decent" wage ($20-25 a day), it looks like a horrible life. The people we meet though - the pickers - are wonderful, delightful and full of life.

Lucy Walker's film "Waste Land", though, begins in a completely different realm than this landfill. Things start in New York City, as we follow Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz. His tools of the trade are mostly non-traditional items which he uses to create pictures that he then photographs. Thread, wire, chocolate syrup, caviar, diamonds, pigments and sugar are some of the objects he has used for his work (his photos of the pictures he has created from sugar are stunning) - not looking like much on close inspection, but becoming something beautiful at larger distances. Similar to how his hometown of Sao Paolo is described...

Given this, it's not much of a stretch to imagine him wanting to work with garbage. This idea (and the film) quickly move beyond just a simple document of his latest series of works though. Once the decision to go to Jardim Gramacho is taken, it doesn't take long for them to meet some of the pickers. His approach is to take photos of some of his new acquaintances, project them on the floor and them fill them in with a variety of recycling material pulled from the landfill before the final photo is taken.




It's a pretty fascinating project and the final works are lovely - especially when viewed from above the large warehouse floor where they are built. However, the focus of the film, and the most interesting sections, are about the people who make their livings at Jardim Gramacho. Muniz himself is absent off screen for a good chunk of the film and, even though he is a very engaging and intelligent artist, isn't really missed at all. Not when you get a chance to meet: a young man named Tiao who can compare Machiavelli's "The Prince" - a book he found in the dump - to Rio and who is the President of the Association of Pickers (a group he formed for workers rights), an 18 year-old mother of two named Suelem who is proud of her honest work because it isn't prostitution and the strong-willed and restaurant-trained cook Irma who makes the meals for many of the pickers from what can be found in the new loads of garbage constantly streaming in.

Each of these people (and several others) are open, friendly and willing to help Muniz with his endeavour. You might even think that they are happy with their lives, but as they get a taste of the fuller set of possibilities that exist outside of the landfill you can see they don't want to go back. They are proud of their work, but they want more out of life. Walker's camera follows each character in order for us to see their current lives close up and hear about how they managed to end up here. Strangely enough, even though a focus point of the film is the largest landfill in the world, there's a great deal of beauty throughout the film - Muniz's artwork, the gorgeous skies over Jardim Gramacho and the faces (real, photographed and drawn out of garbage) of the characters. This mix of art with the many different stories and angles makes for a truly superb film (winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at 2010 Sundance).

A final coda to the documentary gives updates on all the main people we meet - some stories happy and some unfortunately not. To have these intelligent, beautiful people stagnate in a place like this is really the biggest waste of all.

Hot Docs 2010 - "The Kids Grow Up"

Director Doug Block ("51 Birch Street") is an obsessive documentarian. He seems to have endless footage of his daughter throughout her life - following her around, asking her questions - and continues to add to the archives as she prepares to leave for university. She's becoming less and less thrilled with the idea, but he just can't seem to stop. His little girl isn't just moving on to another chapter of her life...She's leaving. And he's not quite ready for that.

Can any parent really be ready for that though? I guess you can prepare and come to an understanding of your nest emptying out, but can you really be ready? In order to explore that question (and attempt to work it through for himself), Block uses his old footage of his daughter (starting around age 4) with its snippets of long conversattions about what she wants to be when she grows up and intersperses it within current day chats and other "home movie" moments. His daughter Lucy (now 17) is working her way through the last year of high school, spends more time with her friends, has found a boyfriend and doesn't quite want to spend as much time in front of the camera as she used to. Block persists though.




If it sounds like Block is being a bit selfish and might end up pushing his daughter a bit further away from him during her last months, you'd be right. But the film is such an honest document of his take on fatherhood, his experiences with his daughter and his hopes for her, that you can't blame the guy. He wants to preserve these last little bits of time with her and he wants to understand her. He provides us with a portrait of a young girl growing into a woman and its lovely to see the little unique characteristics that remain over time and others that have been suppressed or even completely shed. Though just about the entire film is from Block's viewpoint behind the camera across the last decade and a half (with a few snippets of him being filmed by others), it's never boring. Each flashback to the younger versions of Lucy helps us see the current day one to a greater extent.

Block's wife is much more practical about their child's imminent departure. She challenges him on why he's doing this in the first place and provides sage advice for how to handle his remaining time with Lucy. However, she faces her own hurdles about half way through the film in an unexpected turn of events. Block seems to handle the changes with his wife much more easily than those with his daughter. As a parent, he seems to stumble along - just like pretty much every other parent I know - and eventually finds his way. Lucy isn't the only one who is growing up here as indicated by the plural term in the film's title.

The emotion of the film is well-earned, though I admit that being a parent myself probably boosted it somewhat. You simply cannot help but imagine yourself in Block's own situation. You'll find yourself dropping in your own child's old home movies while putting together your own history. At some point I'll be in Block's shoes as my own son gets older and I can't wait to see what he'll become over the next few years. But I'm also not in a rush...

Hot Docs 2010 - Industry Awards

As Hot Docs 2010 winds down (today is the last day of screenings), the various different jury-decided awards have been presented. The Audience Award will be revealed tomorrow, so I'm still rooting for my prediction. In the mean time, here are the other big award winners of the festival:




Best International Feature Award - A FILM UNFINISHED (Yael Hersonski)

Based on found footage of a Nazi propaganda film about Jewish life in the Warsaw Ghetto. The jury's statement: "Yael Hersonski’s film is a profound exploration of the testimonial value of the cinematic image, based on found footage of a Nazi propaganda film shot in a Warsaw Ghetto. This is a film for the ages." The award includes a $10000 prize.

Special Jury Prize (International Feature) - THE OATH (Laura Poitras)

The film is a portrait of Abu Jandal, a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. The jury's statement: "Filmmaker Laura Poitras has made a daring and unique film about a complex character, Bin Laden’s driver, as well as the United States government’s case against his brother who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, which challenges our preconceived notions about radical Islam. The jury salutes the personal and artistic risk that the filmmaker has taken in dealing with this controversial subject matter." The award includes a $5000 prize.

Best Canadian Feature Award - IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY (Shelley Saywell)

For some, the "family honour" is so important that they would resort to killing a member of their own family in order to preserve it. Saywell's film looks at this unconscionable crime (particularly in the case of the murders of young girls) in North America. The jury's statement: "The best Canadian feature offers an intimate take on the challenges of immigration for young people, and generational conflicts that can go terribly wrong. We were all moved by the young teenage Muslim women struggling to figure out their own identities, caught between two opposing worlds, to whom it gave voice. It is an effective and intense contribution to an important discussion that needs to be explored further, we look forward to hearing more voices of young Muslim men as well." The award includes a $15000 prize.

Special Jury Prize (Canadian Feature) - LEAVE THEM LAUGHING (John Zaritsky)

A document of Carla Zilbersmith's battle with Lou Gehrig's disease, how she and her son cope with it and how they strive to make the most out of her remaining days. The jury's statement: "The Special Jury Prize goes to a film about an unimaginably horrifying disease that draws us in rather than making us turn away. The subject is someone approaching death, but the film is about how to live. We admire it most for bringing us into an intimate relationship between a mother and son without feeling voyeuristic or manipulative." The award includes a $10000 prize.

Other awards presented:

Best Mid-Length Documentary Award - I SHOT MY LOVE (Tomer Haymann)

Best Short Documentary Award - TUSSILAGO (Jonas Odell)

HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award - Jeff Malmberg (director of MARWENCOL)

documentary's Don Haig Award (for emerging Canadian documentary filmmakers) - Philip Lyall and Nimisha Mukerji (directors of 65_REDROSES)

Lindalee Tracey Award (for emerging Canadian filmmaker with a passionate point of view , a strong sense of social justice and a sense of humour) - Ayanie Mohamed of Toronto

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #5

Kings Of Pastry (2010 - Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker) - How does a film about 16 of the world's best pastry chefs competing in their version of the Olympics as filmed by famed doc directors Pennebaker and Hegedus end up being a disappointment? Not bad mind you, just not as good as it really should have been. Like many of these types of documentaries, we follow a few of the participants before and during the event to get a better idea of who they are and to build some tension for us and create some stakes. At least that's the idea in theory. Here it only half works...The three chefs we follow all seem like talented nice guys who deserve to win, but we never got a chance to really understand who they are, why they are doing this or even to see how they make their creations. We get to see some of the end results - some of the sugar sculptures and statues are truly works of art - and maybe even salivate a bit, but I never felt a strong connection to any of the participants (except perhaps for one "Oh no!" moment). Nor did I ever really get an idea of what distinguishes one chef from another. Given the subject, I should probably finish by saying something like "a nice snack, but not a very filling one...".




Candyman: The David Klein Story (2010 - Costa Botes) - Jelly Belly jelly beans are one of the most popular candies in the world. Their wide variety of flavours, bright colours and intense taste are wrapped up in tiny little sizes perfect for munching. Because of this popularity, the owners of the rights to the candy are quite wealthy. It's just a shame that the inventor isn't as well. David Klein is that inventor and due to circumstances and an overly generous nature, he gave up the rights many years ago - for a decent amount of money, true, but nothing close to what it was really worth. The best parts of the film show the inner workings of a candy factory, some of Klein's other candy inventions and a wealth of really awkward 70s talk show footage (the Mike Douglas footage alone is cringeworthy), but the character piece focusing on Klein is somewhat lacking. I couldn't quite put my finger on why though. Klein seems an affable person, goes out of his way to help others, loves to put smiles on kids' faces and is still a very creative person, but his ambivalence to really trying to do anything further with his life is aggravating. So I can't blame the film itself, just the person at the centre of it.




We Don't Care About Music Anyway (2009 - Cedric Dupire, Gaspard Kuentz) - It is readily apparent early on in Cedric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz's "We Don't Care About Music Anyway" that none of its subjects really care about music. At least not from the point of view of creating something for your iPod or stereo system. The subjects are all artists who have a desire to create sound. There's no melody in their creations, not a great deal of structure and only occasionally could you say there was rhythm. It's frankly not even enjoyable to hear. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting though. The film is essentially a series of performance clips (either with a live audience or staged for the camera) interspersed with Tokyo city scenes and black and white sections of the entire group discussing their methods and approaches to this type of art. They bandy about sentences such as "Conformity is defined by a social consensus" and "Japanese have a poor notion of happiness", so these are not people that are content to settle into the "norm". They want to break apart the standard conception of what you can do with an instrument, what an instrument really is and how sound affects most people. Does a cello have to be played by pulling a bow across its strings? Does the tone arm of a record player have to have a needle connected to it to generate a signal to be amplified? Do you really need to know how to play an instrument at all in order to create something with it? Not according to this group. It's the approach each member takes that I find the most interesting. The results are the kind of experimental work that I have found that I don't enjoy as standalone pieces, but that I'm glad exists. Within context, it can provide either an interesting message or a completely new way of looking at something that will reap benefits further down the road.

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #4

talhotblond (2010 - Barbara Schroeder) - It's all in the telling. A good story can be turned into a great one if you tell it with all the proper beats, hold back little bits of information and then drop in some surprises. That's the strategy in this telling of a bizarre internet love triangle of two co-workers becoming rivals for the affections of a girl with the screen name "talhotblond". One of the two men isn't exactly what he describes himself to be online and as the truth comes out, tragedy ensues. There's some interesting questions raised by the film regarding the veracity of the internet, the culpability of those who hide behind false identities and how we look at privacy. Some of those questions could even be raised about the film itself in how it handles the story. Perhaps, but it sure doesn't stop this from being a gripping, surprising and ultimately very sad story.




Soundtracker (2010 - Nicholas Sherman) - Tracking down sounds is indeed exactly what Gordon Hempton does. He's finding it harder and harder to do, though, with the proliferation of technology spreading into National Parks and supposedly untouched areas. Nearby highways, construction areas and jet planes contaminate the voices of nature and leave places of complete quiet or simple natural sounds to become fewer and farther between. So Hempton searches for them. His obsessive nature shows its light towards the back half of this slow-paced, but overall lovely contemplative look at how we're slowly but surely drowning out Mother Nature.




General Orders No. 9 (2010 - Bob Persons) - A quite beautiful pictorial essay on what director Bob Persons sees as a lost portion of his culture and his own history. Though occasionally bogged down by a dry and unhumourous narrator, the beauty of Georgia's rivers and natural settings makes up for much of it. As do the stark, grey images of the city. There's no attempt to remain unbiased by the film in assessing the worth of our urban centres - it's clear that the big city is not favoured here. It sometimes works against the message of the film, but if taken simply as the instantiation of the random thoughts of someone who sees their idyllic world disappearing, it is sometimes very effective. It's also terribly unique in its approach by using little bits of black and white animation along with droning background music to complement the gorgeous photography. The message is muddled, but I greatly appreciated the effort at bringing a different spin on the personal documentary essay film.

Remaining Hot Doc screenings of "Soundtracker":

Sunday May 9th at 4:00PM - Innis Town Hall

Hot Docs 2010 - "A Small Act"

I'm pretty sure I just saw the Audience Award winner of Hot Docs 2010. If I was a betting man, I'd plop a nice chunk of change down on "A Small Act" coming out on top after all the votes have been cast. Sure the Rush documentary has the built-in fan base and is a ton of fun (and it just won the Tribeca Audience Award), but Jennifer Arnold's latest (a finalist for the Grand Jury Award at Sundance) is warm, triumphant, hopeful and inspiring without ever being the slightest bit mawkish or sappy. It's basic premise is that anyone can make the world a better place - if not on a grand scale, at least by making a difference to individual people - one small act at a time.

The main through line of the film is the story of three young Africans from a small village in Kenya. They are all smart and have loads of potential, but their families lack the funds necessary to put them into high school. Without some form of assistance, they will likely get sucked into the cycle of poverty so many have before. This is where the Hilde Back Educational Fund comes into play. It has been set up by a former resident of the same village to help those students who show promise, but lack the financial station to pay for their early education. Chris Mburu heads the fund and simply wants to pass along the same type of act of kindness that was provided to him when he was of the same age and couldn't afford schooling. It came from a middle age Holocaust survivor who had fled to Sweden and was looking to give something back and help someone just like she had been helped after leaving her home country. Her donations (to the tune of about $15 a month) gave Chris the chance to acquire an education. And that he did. After attending Nairobi University, he went to Harvard, became a lawyer and now works at the United Nations as a human rights attorney specializing in areas like genocide. He never forgot that small gesture from a woman he had never met, so he named a new educational fund after her.

Though the current storylines all take place in 2007, the film backtracks a bit to cover the creation and launch of the Hilde Back Educational Fund. Chris invites and meets for the first time his benefactor and it begins a relationship that continues to this day. Hilde is just as sweet and loveable as you would hope her to be and her interview segments are scattered within the rest of the film to complement Chris' own view of how we can all contribute towards changing injustices and inequalities. As if by design, all these issues and points of view are highlighted and brought into sharp focus when Chris and his board of directors try to make their final decisions as to who will be the recipients of the scholarships - right during the unrest that followed the late 2007 elections in Kenya. Without education, Chris says earlier in the film, people are essentially ripe for exploitation. Given the ethnic violence that erupts, you'd be hard pressed to argue the point with Chris.

Arnold has a sure hand with the pace of the film and never loses sight of the storyline while also juggling these many issues and side trips to Sweden (to see Hilde) and Switzerland (where Chris works at the U.N.). The three children in Kenya (Kimani, Ruth and Caroline) are all studying for the KCPE National tests which run for 3 days and determine whether students are allowed to move along to high school. Those children with the highest scores on the test and valid financial need will be considered for the final 10 spots for the scholarship. Kimani, Ruth and Caroline certainly have the financial need - Caroline's parents don't even own land and can barely afford lamp oil for her to study in the evenings. These are lively, intelligent and determined kids whose entire families are essentially depending on them to continue their education. Not everyone can be helped, but Chris wants to at least start somewhere.

The day before my screening of the film there was an article in the Toronto Star about a philanthropist who spent a year donating his time to various agencies. He claims that "fewer than 25 per cent of Canadians with salaries above $80,000 donate to charity". I don't know how accurate that stat is or whether it includes non-monetary contributions (time, article donations, etc.), but if that remaining percentage could see this film, perhaps it might inspire them to contribute in some way of their own accord. You can't help but wonder what even just a few additional small acts might do.

Hot Doc screenings of "A Small Act":

Wednesday May 5th at 4:15PM - Isabel Bader Theatre

Sunday May 9th at 9:15PM - Bloor Cinema

Hot Docs 2010 - "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage"

The two images here are apropos for a discussion of the latest musical documentary by the team that brought us "Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey" and "Iron Maiden: Flight 666". In this almost 2 hour journey through the 35 year recording career of Rush, we see how their sense of humour really shines through. Whether it’s appearing in the film “I Love You Man” (bottom photo), making a rare TV appearance on “The Colbert Report” or looking back at their old publicity shots and admitting they didn’t know much about fashion, the trio enjoy not taking themselves too seriously. I had a great big smile on my face the entire length of this film – from the early live footage with drummer John Rutsey to the closing credits dinner between the three bandmates. Granted, my bias is showing. I love this band. They meant a great deal to me as a teenager and still do to this day. It’s actually a good thing that there is currently an embargo on full reviews (until the theatrical premiere on June 10th) because I’m not sure I can quite express my genuine feelings about the film yet…

If you are a fan of the band, you will adore this film. There is a veritable plethora of old film and photos that I would expect even the most hardcore fan has not seen (including a scene from an old Allan King documentary entitled Come On Children with a very young Alex Lifeson telling his parents he doesn’t want to finish school). For those who aren’t big fans, there is still a great deal to like since the band’s story arc is always engaging, the incorporation of the many photos and graphics is extremely well done and the various testimonials of other musicians are very entertaining. And the music is, if I may be allowed a small fanboy moment, awesome.

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #3

Leave Them Laughing (2010 - John Zaritsky) - Carla Zilbersmith has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) and is slowly, but ever so surely, breaking down. The motor neurons that control her muscle movement are shutting down and gradually her ability to walk and talk is being constricted. It's a horrible disease. So why does she laugh so much? It's part of the determination that she and her teenage son have to make the most of the life she has left and its a contagious feeling that spreads to those around her (the title of the film is a pretty accurate statement). The film bounces us between footage of Carla before she was diagnosed (as a performer, singer, comedian and story teller, there's plenty available) and through different stages of the progression of the disease. There's ups and downs - her final singing performance and her son's moments of depression late in the film are particularly heartbreaking - but her spirit shines through.




The Mirror (2010 - David Christensen) - In a valley in the Italian Alps lies the small village of Viganella. It's scenic, attracts a certain amount of tourists in the summer and has people who appreciate a quiet life. It's otherwise unremarkable - except that for about 2 months of the year it receives no direct sunlight because it sits in the shadow of the mountains. Of further note is the grand plan its mayor has to increase tourism: install a large mirror high on the hillside to bounce sunlight into the town during those dark months. The film moves at what I expect is the same pace as that of the town itself. It saunters through the gradual process of building and placing the mirror while we casually meet some of the denizens. Though we get some semblance of a slice of the life in a quiet mountain village, it doesn't amount to much more than simply being quite lovely at times.




Space Tourists (2010 - Christian Frei) - One of my favourites of the screeners I've watched so far, Frei's film is actually several different stories wrapped up into a whole that is greater than its individual pieces. The film centers around Anousheh Ansari who is an engineer, businesswoman and a space tourist. Her wealth has enabled her not only to sponsor the Ansari X-prize (for privately-funded space travel), but to pay $20 million to hitch a ride with a couple of Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station. The footage from space is glorious, but the tale also touches on the run down status of the once mighty Russian space program, the farmers who make industrious use of the rockets that fall back to Earth and the preparations being made by the next tourist. In some ways it's just as slow paced as "The Mirror" (above), but each section is compelling and pulls you along for the ride. Even better is how they all tie together. Fun fact: the metal salvaged from fallen rockets and sold to China may currently be in use as aluminum foil wrapped around leftovers in your fridge. Now that's a global economy.

Hot Doc screenings of "Leave Them Laughing":

Thursday May 6th at 9:15PM - Isabel Bader Theatre

Saturday May 8th at 3:15PM - Bloor Cinema

Hot Doc screenings of "The Mirror":

Monday May 3rd at 7:30PM - Royal Cinema

Wednesday May 5th at 11:00AM - ROM

Hot Doc screenings of "Space Tourists":

Wednesday May 5th at 7:00PM - Isabel Bader Theatre

Thursday May 6th at 1:45PM - Cumberland 2

Hot Docs 2010 - "Eat The Kimono"

Hanayagi Genshu certainly is an interesting woman. She's a dancer, singer, storyteller, political activist, feminist and even a former inmate. She travels throughout Japan to perform her convention bending dances and make speeches to stir up those she feels have been wronged or held back. "The world will get a little bit better if the oppressed speak out. You musn't be silent". Throughout the hour long "Eat The Kimono" (another film in the Hot Docs 2010 retrospective series of Kim Longinotto's career), the controversial Genshu's voice is at the centre of every scene. Other people chime in occasionally, but the filmmakers focus exclusively on Genshu and what she has to say. The result allows her message to be heard unfiltered, but also allows the viewer to make up their own minds about Genshu herself.

She's not immediately likeable. Our introduction to her is through old news footage of her arrest (for stabbing a dance teacher). As she is being led off by police officers, she shows a strong disregard for what she has done by telling the camera that she will be alright and flashing a peace sign - an odd choice after committing a violent crime. She tends to dominate conversations and, even when dealing with her causes, usually brings the topic around to herself. She never hesitates to mention her struggles growing up as the child of travelling performers, how poor they were and how she was bullied and called names. This led to her current fights against prejudice, discrimination and the pyramid system (ie. class structures) and she uses these stories of her childhood in many of her songs and dances. It's also the reason why she served those 8 months in prison for knifing the dance teacher. Looking back on the incident, she relates that the instructor was talentless but held the position because of her level on the pyramid. She stabbed her because "We have suffered, I want you to know our pain". She also claims that the police made a much bigger deal over the situation than was warranted: "I just cut her neck a little bit".





Though possibly slightly delusional, Genshu still manages to get her message across very clearly. Her methods seem to be very effective with her audience as they listen with rapt attention and appear to be very moved by her words. She may generalize a lot, but it's easy to understand how a crowd can be swayed by her pronouncements that "Weak people are getting stronger" and "If it's done to you, do it back". Of course, not everyone is a fan. When she makes statements that Emperor Hirohito has killed more people than Hitler and yet the country still celebrates his birthday, you take her word for it that the far right wing have threatened her. She's also not shy about bringing up other dark corners of Japan's history. She talks about Japan's treatment of Koreans - how many were enslaved and brought to Japan, denied care after Hiroshima (preferential treatment was given to Japanese people) and now get deported back to Korea. She focuses on the patriarchal society of the country as well by stating that men can't commit to love and always look down on women. Instead of always making the sacrifices, she encourages women to break free:

"The kimono comes from Japan's feudal past. It traps women. My art is expressing freedom, even though I'm restricted...You musn't be eaten by the kimono...You must eat the kimono, gobble it up."

Genshu uses the kimono a great deal in her lovely dances which fortunately are showcased several times in the film. There's an economy of movement that seems to capture many of her repeated themes of being restricted, struggling against the system and then fighting back via any means necessary. Longinotto and her collaborator Claire Hunt have used a typical cinema verite approach to Gensu's story and managed a difficult feat - allowing a controversial person to clearly get across their message without it being obscured by the personality. Even with all her generalizations, self-serving speeches and questionable methods, the larger message about searching out enforced inequalities in society and helping to eradicate them is still conveyed. You don't have to like her to get her point.

Hot Doc screening of "Eat The Kimono" (with "Shinjuku Boys"):

Saturday May 1st at 11:30AM - The ROM Theatre

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #2 (the NFB edition)

I love the NFB. Have I mentioned that before? Oh, wait, yes I have.

All 3 of the films below are NFB contributions to Hot Docs:




The "Socalled" Movie (2010 - Garry Beitel) - Funk, Rap and Klezmer. An obvious combination of musical styles right? No? Well, Josh Dolgin thought they were and so he began to experiment and create songs using these styles as touch points. In his younger days, he called himself "Heavy J" in order to fit in with the scene. It never really took hold, though, and people started to call him "The So-called Heavy J". After awhile, that last part dropped off and he became "Socalled". Through 18 or so short sections (some a few minutes, some closer to 10-15), we watch Josh create, perform and talk about his art. My favourite portion has to be his meeting and NY concert with Fred Wesley - former trombonist and leader of James Brown's band - where they bust out some serious funk. I get the feeling Dolgin is a spiritual kin to Glen Hansard (from the film "Once") who proclaimed "Make art! Make art!" at the Oscars a few years ago. That's just what Dolgin does on a daily basis.




Flawed (2010 - Andrea Dorfman) - Possibly the most charming film I've seen this year - and it's all of 12 minutes long. Comprised solely of a stationary camera positioned above a drawing table, director Dorfman relates a tale of meeting a man and their correspondence using homemade postcards. As the story progresses, we see examples of these watercoloured postcards being made (via timelapsed photos) while the narrator muses on self-esteem and being comfortable with yourself. The drawings are lovely, the message spot-on and the tone, well, charming...




Namrata (2010 - Shazia Javed) - Namrata looks at herself in a mirror while wearing, for the first time since her wedding day, a gorgeous red sari. Her emotions are mixed though. She talks about how optimistic things were at the time as she was presented an arranged marriage to a North American-raised Indian man and promised wide open possibilities. Unfortunately, that's not quite how it turned out. He soon turned out to be very restrictive, controlling and abusive (even recruiting his sister and mother to hold her down as he beat her). Namrata tells her tale very simply and, aside from the usage of the mirror to reflect her mixed feelings, the film is shot very simply too. Within its compact 9 minutes, it builds this horrific environment that Namrata was stuck in and then resolves it with a smile-inducing answer to the question of "so what did she do?". Simple, but effective (and also a bit depressing that men like this still exist in our society).

Hot Doc screenings of "The "Socalled" Movie":

Sunday May 2nd at 9:15PM - Bloor Cinema

Tuesday May 4th at 11:30AM - ROM Theatre

Hot Doc screenings of "Flawed" (precedes the feature "Small Wonders"):

Friday April 30th at 9:30PM - Cumberland 2

Sunday May 2nd at 5:00PM - Innis Town Hall

Hot Doc screenings of "Namrata" (precedes the feature "In The Name Of The Family"):

Saturday May 1st at 7:00PM - Royal Cinema

Sunday May 9th at 6:45PM - Isabel Bader Theatre

Hot Docs 2010 - Podcasting Preview

The Mad Hatter over at The Dark Of The Matinee has threatened to invite me on one of his podcasts for a few months now. I thought they were just idle threats, but no...he went and did it.

So for 45 minutes or so, we preview Hot Docs 2010 and discuss documentary films in general. Well, it's actually about 35 minutes or so - the first 10 are Hatter's general opening questions to warm me up. So if you can make it through 10 minutes of my blathering, you'll get to the meat of the podcast. We discuss the films were most excited about seeing, the ones we've already seen and some general thoughts about the current state of documentary film. And, of course, you'll hear again of my love for Rush.

I kinda like the way it turned out. In other words, I don't sound completely uninformed. You can listen to it below, from my sidebar, listen or download from here or find any/all of Hatter's Matineecast previous episodes here or on iTunes. Just start with mine first...

Hot Docs 2010 - Short Cuts #1

This will be the first in a set of posts where I'll try to give some capsule reviews and previews for several of the films that will be showing at Hot Docs starting this Thursday. There's no way I'll be able to provide full reviews of all the screeners and theatrical films I'll be seeing, but given the high quality of the films I've caught so far, I felt I needed to talk about as many as I could beforehand.



Dish: Women, Waitressing & The Art Of Service (2010 - Maya Gallus) - Via interviews with several women working as waitresses in Toronto, Montreal, Paris and Tokyo, "Dish" provides a wide variety of views regarding the role a waitress plays in providing service as well as how, for some, it can also be a vocation. It's a physically demanding and mentally draining profession, but whether these women are working at truck stops, topless restaurants, Maid Cafes (you have to see these places to believe 'em) or top end French establishments, they all approach their work with a strong sense of humour and dedication. Where the film gets even more interesting is how it contrasts some of the different views of service in North America, Europe and Japan - it's generalizing of course, due to the small sample size, but still pretty revealing. Along with the interesting and likeable people Gallus has found as her subjects, it all makes for very entertaining viewing.




Disco And Atomic War (2010 - Jaak Kilmi) - J.R. Ewing was a busy guy. Along with his oil business, womanizing and constant scheming, he apparently had a big hand in toppling the former Soviet Union. At least that's the angle that Jaak Kilmi takes in his free-ranging and slightly scattershot look at growing up in Estonia - a region esconced within the USSR, but within reach of the television signals coming from Finland. These were signals that contained more and more American style content as time went on. Through old home movies, recreations, current-day interviews, stock footage and lots of episodes of "Dallas", we see how the eager denizens in Estonia soaked up these shows, spread the word (and videos) to other parts of the country and went to great lengths to acquire the TV signals (pharmacies would sellout of thermometers when plans for mercury antennas were circulated). It gets a bit jumbled at times, but is still a lot of fun and paints a picture of rebellion against overbearing control.




Freetime Machos (2010 - Mika Ronkainen) - Though Finland may have had a role in breaking apart the mighty Soviet Union, they have some weak spots too. Like, say, on the rugby field. Ronkainen's film purports to be about the third worst team in the world (as they are fourth in their six team league), but it's much more about what roles men take on in their lives as seen through the eyes of two friends on the team. One is single with a girlfriend away for months at a stretch while the other has 5 kids and another on the way. Their ups, downs, disagreements and filthy jokes are documented while we see them limp through their 8 game season with a British coach just trying to keep it all together.

Hot Doc screenings of "Dish: Women, Waitressing & The Art Of Service":

Friday April 30th at 9:15PM - Bloor Cinema

Saturday May 8th at 1:30PM - Royal Cinema

Sunday May 9th at 6:30PM - Bloor Cinema

Hot Doc screenings of "Disco And Atomic War":

Friday April 30th at 9:15PM - ROM Theatre

Saturday May 1st at 2:00PM - Cumberland 2

Hot Doc screenings of "Freetime Machos":

Wednesday May 5th at 6:30PM - Cumberland 3

Saturday May 8th at 6:45PM - Royal Cinema

Hot Docs 2010 - "Life With Murder"

In 1998 Leslie and Brian Jenkins lost their 18 year-old daughter to a gunman who put 5 bullets into her while she sat in her basement. It wasn't long afterwards that they also lost their 20 year-old son - though this time it was to life in prison for the murder of his younger sister. How do you possibly cope with a situation like that?

If you're Leslie and Brian, you hang on to the last shreds of your family. For most of a decade, Mason Jenkins stands firm behind his wild story of a gang-style slaying of his sibling even though there's not a single piece of evidence to support it. His parents, for their part, stand firm behind him. They continue to pay him regular visits and refuse to believe that he could have killed his loving sister. However, they admit that he had his troubles (scrapes with the law, fights, thefts) and was a completely different child than the widely-loved younger Jennifer. Indeed, he had just been released from prison on Christmas Eve of 1997 - a mere two weeks or so before the murder.




Through old news footage, police videotape, home movies and recent interviews with Leslie, Brian, Mason and various other people involved with the case, director John Kastner builds a unique portrait of the Jenkins family. Sometimes awkward and not always compelling, but definitely unique. While Leslie seems to be reasonably grounded and able to speak coherently about the past and the present, Mason jumbles numerous staccato fragments together and Brian comes across as a completely broken man. His police interviews days after the event are almost incomprehensible and bordering on pathetic. After a decade of supporting his son and desperately trying to pull together the frayed ends of the family, Mason's change of his story coincides with a rapid decline in Brian's health. He's now physically and mentally shattered and struggles to put simple sentences together.

If there's a problem with the film, though, it's with these central characters. The story is well constructed, the revelations properly timed and archival footage is used appropriately to impart information, but the Jenkins family just aren't able to express their situation or their emotional states in any sort of engaging way. They aren't natural storytellers nor do they seem very comfortable in their own shells. It doesn't make the events themselves any less fascinating, but certainly affects the telling of them.

Clip found here.

Hot Doc screenings of "Life With Murder":

Saturday May 1st at 9:45PM - Isabel Bader Theatre

Sunday May 9th at 3:45PM - Bloor Cinema

Photos ©2009 JSK Jasper Productions Ltd and the National Film Board of Canada.