Feb. 27, 2013 - Issue #906: Tegan and Sara - Pop goes their world

Global Visions Film Festival Reviews

Until Sun, Mar 3
Various locations
globalvisionsfestival.com
Thirty years after its first iteration, the Global Visions Film Festival is well-established as a premiere destination for filmic nonfiction, drawing its wide selection of stories from across the continents. In advance of the festival proper, Vue grabbed as many advance screeners as we possibly could, and we present to you here our thoughts on the films we could see. So many films can make for a daunting selection process, so consider this a primer; but, of course, with a festival this diverse and defined, it's almost impossible that you won't, at the very least, be intrigued by whatever it is you see.
Reviews by Meaghan Baxter (MB), Kathleen Bell (KB), Josef Braun (JB), James Cuming (JC), Brian Gibson (BG) and Mel Priestley (MP).



British-born and Toronto-based octogenarian troubadour Hugh Oliver's story is one of persistent almosts. Fame and fortune in the music business seems to just keep eluding Oliver, yet disappointment has failed to dissuade him from his vocation: to this day the clever yet heartfelt lyrics and poems continue to flow from Oliver's pen and pleasingly crotchety voice. Record producer Marco DeFelice made The Ballad of Hugh as a tribute to his friend and collaborator. DeFelice's affection for his subject is never in doubt, but this first-time director often seems a little uncertain as to what to do with all that affection. Scenes of Oliver cutting a record with friends and family are pretty fun, as are Oliver's tales of bridge club and outings to Swiss Chalet; DeFelice's voice-over and insertion of lame animated bits, not so much. JB

Sat, Mar 2 (9:30 pm)
The Ballad of Hugh
Directed by Marco DiFelice
Metro Cinema at the Garneau





In 2008, environmentalist Tim DeChristopher was arrested for making fake auction bids to prevent the US government from selling huge parcels of public land to the oil and gas industry. The tense period leading up to Tim's court date is a cautionary tale of modern civil disobedience, and the stakes feel very high. Clocking in at just over an hour, this doc does a great job of packing a lot of information, contextual background and pure emotional force into a small package. With more time, it could have been more powerful perhaps, but this film will make waves regardless. JC

Sun, Mar 30 (3:30 pm)
Bidder 70
Directed by George Gage, Beth Gage
Art Gallery of Alberta


Brother Number One presents a very specific and unique perspective of the impact of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, in which millions of people were executed and hardly anyone was ever held accountable. New Zealander Rob Hamill testified at the war crimes tribunal for Comrade Duch, the head interrogator and torturer of the notorious S-21 prison, in which Hamill's brother Kerry was incarcerated and later executed after his boat was attacked by a Khmer Rouge gunship in 1976. Essentially playing out as an extended, visual version of Hamill's testimony, the film acts as a catharsis for Hamill and his family, as well as for the Cambodians he meets during his time there. The intensely emotional subject matter is often difficult to watch, and at times it may sometimes feel a bit like Western voyeurism, but nonetheless this is a fundamentally honest film marking a small step towards both a family's and a country's recovery from past trauma. MP

Sat, Mar 2 (8 pm)
Brother Number One
Art Gallery of Alberta



This film effectively smashes any utopian delusions of the carbon credit economy for the well-intentioned "First World." The story is the same across the globe: inefficient carbon-credit projects exploit and undermine peasants in poor countries without passing on any wealth generated. If the film feels a bit one-sided, it may be because every Western government and corporate spokesperson the filmmakers approached declined to be interviewed. So if you don't mind hearing the underdog speak up for itself for 90 minutes, this movie is a great introduction to a side of the argument not often heard. JC

Sun, Mar 3 (Noon)
The Carbon Rush
Directed by Amy Miller
Metro Cinema at the Garneau


Chasing Ice tells the story of photographer James Balog's Extreme Ice Survey, a project in which 25 cameras were placed at glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana for three years. The resulting time-lapse footage provides irrefutable evidence of the significant receding of each glacier, interpreted as physical proof of climate change and the foundation of Balog's larger argument for immediate, global action to address this issue.
The film juxtaposes familiar, tired media coverage of natural disasters and politicians staunchly denying global warming with Balog's stunning photography and video footage. While not everyone will agree with his thesis, no one can refute the physical evidence he captures nor deny that this project was an incredible feat of physical, technological, scientific, artistic and political proportions, with enormous ramifications for society's future. MP

Fri, Mar 1 (6 pm)
Chasing Ice
Directed by Jeff Orlowski
Metro Cinema at the Garneau



Six men, all former heads of Shin Bet, Israel's clandestine, nearly autonomous security agency, which from 1967 onward has focused its resources on counterterrorism and intelligence. The subjects of Dror Moreh's deftly organized and profoundly complex profile of Shin Bet are astonishingly candid about the mire of Israel's seemingly endless tit-for-tat relationship to Palestinian terror, the failings, the human toll, the absence of vision or moral guidance. "No strategy, just tactics," as one subject memorably puts it. Torture, overkill, unsubstantiated motivates for aggression, bad intelligence that leads to the bombing of crowded buildings full of innocents, the inability to prevent the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin: the inside dirt on so much chaos comes to form nothing less than a brief history of Israel—and it is not a history that pats anyone on the back for being in the right.  JB

Sun, Mar 3 (4 pm)
The Gatekeepers
Directed by Dror Moreh
Metro Cinema at the Garneau


American artist Gregory Crewdson makes haunting large-scale still photographs, beautifully composed, crepuscular small-town landscapes inhabited by lonesome figures and a transfixing air of stillness and quiet wonder. His process is less like that of your average art photographer and more like that of a mid-budget independent filmmaker, complete with a small battalion of cinematographers, models, set decorators and fog machines. (It isn't just an interest in decaying Americana and a fondness for Edward Hopper paintings that links Crewdson's work to that of David Lynch.) Crewdon's process is on full display in Ben Shapiro's fascinating documentary portrait, which benefits enormously from the director's obvious long-term investment in his subject, and from commentary by fellow photographer Laurie Simmons, writers Russell Banks and Rick Moody, and by Crewdson himself, who proves to be as charismatic and psychologically complex as the work he creates. JB
Fri, Mar 1 (12:45 pm)
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encouters
Directed by Ben Shapiro
Art Gallery of Alberta
 



As a civil rights worker in Mississippi in the 1960s filmmaker Paul Saltzman received a stiff blow to the face by a young KKK member. Searching for some sense of reconciliation, in The Last White Knight he returns to Mississippi to find his assailant, Delay de la Beckwith, and creates a very tenuous friendship. An absorbing look into the hatred and violence that consumed the south, it's astounding to watch these two men—with completely opposite worldviews—interview each other about the past. Jaws will slowly drop as Saltzman recounts the disgusting murders from the time period and interviews current Klan members. Simultaneously frightening and fascinating. KB

Sat, Mar 2 (2 pm)
The Last White Knight
Directed by Paul Saltzman
Art Gallery of Alberta
 


Sixty-nine-year-old identical twin sisters Martine and Louise Fokkens haven been fixtures in Amsterdam's infamous red-light district for 50 years. Louise is now retired due to arthritis, but Martine continues turning tricks to support herself financially due to inadequate state pensions. Louise, a mother of three, was quite literally beaten into the red-light district by her husband at 19, with Martine following suit. The pair eventually freed themselves from their abusive pimps, opened their own brothel and are credited for establishing the first informal trade union for prostitutes.
They've had their fair share of adversity, but the sisters recount their war stories with an unwavering sense of humour, exchanging uncensored recounts of their countless clients and life working in the world's oldest profession. There are moments when the film gets tedious, and explicit scenes displaying Martine's continued "work ethic" could have been done without, but overall, Meet the Fokkens provides a revealing and human element to life behind the glow of the red lights. MB

Sat, Mar 2 (10 pm)
Meet the Fokkens
Directed by Gabrielle Provaas, Rob Schroder
Art Gallery of Alberta

Juma and Latso are two sisters who come from a small ethnic minority in China that lives a predominantly agrarian lifestyle. Sent to the city to make money to support their families, following these sisters around quickly becomes a frustratingly limited look into a dying way of life. While the camera remains neutral, the film's narrow lens will send you straight to Wikipedia, as you try to better understand the matriarchal structure of the Mosuo people and the details of what's called a "walking marriage." Interesting, but incomplete, The Mosuo Sisters provides a mere soupçon of information, leaving a lingering desire for a more satisfying slurp of knowledge. KB

Sun, Mar 3 (5 pm)
The Mosuo Sisters
Directed by Marlo Poras
Art Gallery of Alberta
 


They may be a far cry from the young, lithe ideal of a typical world-class athlete, but this group of senior citizens will quickly humble you at a game of ping pong. With 703 years between them, an esteemed group of table tennis players ready themselves for the World Over-80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia, pushing through their personal challenges in the name of sport.
The astounding group of individuals shatter the perception that growing old means slowing down. Each comes with their own battles, from Dorothy deLow, 100, an Aussie legend who can barely move while standing but possesses killer reflexes, to Terry Donlon, 81, from England, who is battling cancer just as hard as he is his opponent. Their stories are told with a sense of great respect, with revealing glimpses into their everyday lives and struggles before showcasing their inspiring determination and table-tennis ability on the world stage, with lighthearted moments of humour punctuating the otherwise serious tone. It's difficult not to get swept up in the excitement, rooting for each of the competitors as they prove that age really is just a number. MB

Sun, Mar 3 (5 pm)
The Mosuo Sisters
Directed by Marlo Poras
Art Gallery of Alberta
 


No talking heads or simple minds here—a refreshingly direct, unconventional documentary (no background, scant context, no standard interviews), this smart little film covers a Finnish punk band that happens to rail against group-home living. The foursome, calling themselves "Pertti Kurikka's Name Day," variously has autism or Down's Syndrome. In-studio tensions, outside-the-band relationships, uncertainty about sex and rage-against-the-establishment lyrics ("They give me pig food in the nuthouse") reveal their dependent lives even as they defy that dependence with bursts of rebellious music. Seething, political punk's a venting-ground for the members' frustrations with caregiver-bound living, routinized days (singer Kari's unforgettable rant about having to see the pedicurist), and dealing with their peers' peeves. Sharply humorous and poignant by turns. But mostly exciting—for its revitalization of the musty music-film formula and its no-big-deal immersion in a milieu that most docs would get messagey and missiony about ... which isn't cool, man. BG

Fri, Mar 1 (11:15 pm)
The Punk Syndrome
Directed by Jukka Kärkkäinen, J-P Passi
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