Hot Docs 2012 - Dreams of a Life

Dreams of a Life by Carol Morley, 2012

The skeleton of a woman is found in a London apartment, three years after she had died. Even though the television was still on, no one came looking. Dreams of a Life is a film looking for answers to this mystery. How did something as sad as this happen? Through testimony from her various acquaintances, we hear stories and speculations, with the unfortunate realization that there are no answers. As heartbreaking as the central story is, Morley's documentary is a slog to sit through. I saw various members of the audience rubbing their eyes, checking their watches and even walking out during the film. Dreams of a Life lacks a real dramatic hook, and a visual timeline organizing different events in her life is confusing and poorly realized. Various reenactments and artistic dramatizations are peppered around the interviews, but watching the actress sing to herself, look depressed and watch said interviews on a tv in her apartment on what is supposed to be the last day of her life, make for an absolute bore. Definitely a disappointment.

2 out of 5

Hot Docs 2012 - Buzkashi!

Buzkashi! by Najeeb Mirza, 2012

"I hope that one day buzkashi becomes an official Olympic sport," a player says in Mirza's intense film. After viewing the spectacular circumstances of the sport, one can't help but laugh at this notion. A game played for centuries in Central Asia where hundreds of men on horseback grasp for a dead goat in order to bring it across a goal line, buzkashi definitely does not seem like the type of sport to have national teams around the world. But the men vying for the win take the game very seriously, where winning means honour in society, and the danger and drama they put themselves through make for a thrilling spectacle. With rolling hills of grass in the background and a fury of men on horses, whipping their way to the centre of a crowd, Buzkashi is a film like nothing you've ever seen.

4 out of 5

Hot Docs 2012 - Only the Young

Only the Young by Elizabeth Mims & Jason Tippet, 2011

Garrison, Kevin and Skye are three teenagers living in California. Simply put, this is the plot of Only the Young. Capturing moments of these characters' lives as they date, skateboard, and discuss the concerns in their lives (with various awkward, hilarious, and idiotic actions peppered in between), Mims and Tippet have made an extremely engaging and touching film. Beautifully shot over the course of two years, Only the Young is an impressive debut, showing us those relatable years in a very honest and poetic way.

4 1/2 out of 5

Hot Docs 2012 - Canned Dreams

Canned Dreams by Katja Gaurilof, 2012

How many countries, and how many residents of these countries, does it take to make a can of ravioli? Katja Gaurilof enlightens us with this question by visiting everyone from mine workers in Brazil to pig slaughterers in Romania, exploring the various journeys of all the ingredients needed to make this consumer-ready food item. Beautiful visuals accompany voiceovers provided by each of the interviewees who, instead of explaining aspects of their jobs, speak of everything from their dreams and hardships, to memories from childhood and their fantasies of revenge. I appreciated this structure of Canned Dreams and the way it diverted from my expectations. The simple stories and emotional confessions of these subjects made for a uniquely personal film about a globalized world.

 4 out of 5

Hot Docs Film Festival - 2012

It's been a few months since my last post. After moving to my own apartment in late 2011, attending my brother's wedding, and just taking some downtime (all excuses, I know), Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival is already looming over my schedule. Opening last Thursday, April 26, my first of eight screenings is tonight, with the rest continuing throughout the week and ending on Sunday. I will be completing capsule reviews for each of the films I see. Below is my schedule:

April 30: Canned Dreams (2012) by Katja Gauriloff
May 1: Only the Young (2011) by Elizabeth Mims & Jason Tippet
May 1: Buzkashi! (2012) by Najeeb Mirza
May 2: Dreams of a Life (2012) by Carol Morley
May 3: Indie Game: The Movie (2011) by Lisanne Pajot & James Swirsky
May 4: The Queen of Versailles (2012) by Lauren Greenfield
May 5: Vivan las Antipodas! (2011) by Victor Kossakovsky
May 6: Planet of the Snail (2011) by Yi Seung-jun

The Mill and the Cross

The Mill and the Cross
By Lech Majewski, 2011

If you have ever looked at paintings from centuries past and wondered what a particular scene would look like when brought to life, here is your chance. In Lech Majewski’s new film The Mill and the Cross, he attempts to understand and portray the meanings and decisions behind Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting The Way to Calvary. Why is there a tree there? What does the mill itself represent? As a filmic answer to these questions and more, The Mill and the Cross is quite the success.

The film opens on a Flemish landscape. The camera pans along the setting, and in it we see a crowd of people including soldiers, peasants and a woman crying in the foreground. The characters hold their stances as still as they can, with a horse or a child occasionally coming out of his or her freeze. Soon the artist Bruegel enters with a colleague to discuss the scene at hand, the scene that will become his painting.

The Way to Calvary is a work depicting Jesus being persecuted amongst the people of Flanders in the 16th century. Flemish people accused of heresy were regularly executed during this time by the Catholic Spaniards ruling the land. Bruegel created this work as an allegory for the inhumane crimes he witnessed, and now Majewski has painted a wonderful portrait himself, being ever so insightful of the painting with his film.





Besides laying out the scene in the painting (the scenery is beautifully composed using a wonderful green screen effect that allows the actors to appear alive on Bruegel’s painted background), Majewski uses elements from the painting to display historical details from the time period. When we cut away from the live-action painting at the beginning of the film, we are taken to the mill that stands in the artwork's top corner. A couple wakes up in the early morning, they put on their wooden clogs and begin the laborious process of starting up the windmill. A man asleep on the floor is also awoken; he walks the exaggerated distance (the mill in the painting is perched atop a steep mountain peak) to the mill’s terrace, where he releases the mill's sails to begin the grinding of grain. Soon after, we are shown a young Flemish couple take their calf to market, only for the man to be apprehended by Spanish soldiers, beaten, then tied to a wheel which is subsequently perched atop a tall stick of wood so his bloodied body can be feasted on by crows. In The Way to Calvary, these barbaric devices are seen planted throughout the landscape.

Unlike anything I’ve seen before, The Mill and the Cross is quite special. It is part documentary, part drama, part history lesson and part art lesson, using a minimal amount of dialogue to share its knowledge. Maybe it isn’t for everyone, but if you are keen on learning and have patience for details, please seek this film out. Immediately after viewing the film I found myself hoping that the director would follow up with another investigation of a painting. I really hope so.

4 out of 5

Project Nim

Project Nim
By James Marsh, 2011

My friend and I have a running joke about all things primate: chimps, gorillas, apes, etc. There isn’t a specific joke we have going, but we both find them hilarious and terrifying. Chimps are scary. As cute and human-like as they might seem, they are unpredictable and incredibly strong. With the new Planet of the Apes reboot just released in theatres, my friend and I thought we were up for a special blend of fun and scares. But with quite good reviews, maybe we ought to take that film more seriously before venturing to the theatre. The other primate-focused film in theatres right now is Project Nim, and after listening to an NPR podcast about a similar scenario, I recently opted to choose reality over science-fiction.

Project Nim is James Marsh’s documentary on Nim Chimpsky, a chimp raised solely by humans in the 1970s. Nim was taken from his mother by psychologist Herbert S. Terrace soon after being born in order to see if he could be taught American Sign Language. The film follows Nim’s journey through several homes, including his initial homestead where he was treated more like a child in a family than an animal, and a research building in the country where the comings and goings of psychologists and students would cause the chimp to act out in anger and revolt.





The documentary is a well-executed, suspenseful piece of filmmaking. Marsh sets up the story with a cast of interesting characters that include the types of heroes and villains one would find in a fiction narrative. The central character is always Nim, but he is as complex as any human you will see in a documentary this year; he becomes a type of antihero that you pity but also fear. The story is constructed with the use of great historical footage, and the interviews are quite intimate and direct at times, reminding me of Errol Morris documentaries like The Thin Blue Line and Standard Operating Procedure.

Although a metaphorical motif of having characters literally ‘removed from the picture’ is a little forced, as are some of the reenactments, overall Project Nim is a very interesting film. It raises many questions about our relationship with animals and the underlying, mysterious feelings these captive primates have. And Marsh seems to revel in these types of fantastical stories in our history, as he did in Wisconsin Death Trip and Man on Wire. These stories aren’t widely known, so let’s hope he continues to unearth many more and bring them to life, so we as an audience can join in on the discovery.

4 out of 5