Reviews

Hot Docs: Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! [2011, Jamie Kastner]

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

recessionize!

Toronto – Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! is light hearted look at the worldwide recession and how people worldwide are dealing with it. Shot in 15 segments, director Jamie Kastner travels the world and visits some people who have a unique approach to dealing with the recession. We meet a goat herder in California, hamster hotel owners in France and a brothel in Germany among others. Each person has unique approach on how to make it in tough times. While the spirit of the documentary might be to let the viewers know that the recession isn’t that bad, I find that the director James Kastner often seem to take an almost condescending look at his subjects, presenting them in a “look what we got here!” tone. Maybe he wanted to present the documentary with a dose of humor, but when the humor is at the expense of the subjects of your documentary, then I’m not quite sure.

Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! is a breath of fresh air for most part. Most documentaries about the financial crisis are rather depressing and so it’s nice to see a documentary that sees the lighter side of things.

Screenings
Thu, May 5 9:45 PM @ The ROM Theatre
Sat, May 7 6:30 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Hot Docs: The National Parks Project [2011, 2 Many Directors]

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

national parks project

Toronto – 2011 marks the centennial birthday of Canada’s National Parks. In order to celebrate this birthday, 13 filmmakers were commissioned to create short films that captured Canada’s majestic landscapes in art form. The directors in question were Louise Archambault, Keith Behrman, Daniel Cockburn, Hubert Davis, Sturla Gunnarsson, Zacharias Kunuk, Stéphane Lafleur, Peter Lynch, Catherine Martin, Kevin McMahon, Scott Smith, Jamie Travis and John Walker. Each of them would represent a province or territory and create a vignette about that particular landscape that was to incorporate both visual and if need be, audio elements. Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Melissa Auf Du Maur (who I always seem to see at airports) and Casey Mecija were among the artists involved in the project, which is also featured on Discovery television.

Seeing how this entire film was based on collaboration, I decided to do the same, and collaborate with my fellow twitter and facebook friends on this review. I guess the only difference is that I don’t have their consent. HAHAHAHA. So without further delay, here are some twitter reactions:

Much like a fourteen year old teenager, twitter overreacts to everything and so I think the criticism of the film were a bit harsh. With a running time north of two hours, The National Parks Project runs long, and when you give 13 different artists free reign to produce something to their liking, you have to expect a mixed result. I found the National Parks Project to be an uneven collaboration that created a roller coaster ride of a film. There were some exceptional moments, filled with great music, great footage and astounding shots that showed just how beautiful Canada is. However, these exceptional moments were bogged down by seemingly pretentious vague artsy moments by some directors trying to be overly creative. With nothing to drive the film besides music and imagery, these moments weigh down the film significantly and given it’s two hour running time, seem to extend the film even longer. It’s sad to say, but these moments are ones that will dominate the conversation in the end. Perhaps the discovery channel portion of this project, which see it broken down into different episodes, is a better outlet for this type of collaboration.

Hot Docs: A Simple Rhythm [Tess Girard, 2010]

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Paul in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

Toronto – Rhythm is a dancer.  Rhythm is gonna get you.  Get rhythm when you get the blues.  These are just a few of the words of wisdom spoken (or rather, sung) on the topic of rhythm.  But what is rhythm really?  According to  A Simple Rhythm, it’s the basis of all life and pretty much everything relies on rhythm.  It exists at a cellular level.  In a sense then, music is everything and everything is music.  This is a concept I can get behind. 

Through interviews with various scientists, musicians and other experts, director Tess Girard presents her argument.  One of the most memorable subjects is Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think fame, who explains the concept behind his Happiness Project and how it illustrates the rhythm and musicality that can exist in everyday life and in people’s patterns of speech.  One scene in particular that stands out is when he shows his daughters how to listen to their heartbeats and then describe what they hear.  It’s not only a cute scene, but a nice encapsulation of the basic theme of the entire film. 

There are several other effective scenes, including the use of the metronome as a visual aid and talk of circadian rhythms and other biological examples.  I could go on about the deeper meaning of rhythm, but instead I present you this 1989 clip from a BBC kids music program.  Why?  Because it’s awesome. 

Screenings:

Sat, May 7 6:30 PM, Cumberland Four
Sun, May 8 3:45 PM, ROM Theatre

Hot Docs: El Sicario, Room 164 [2011, Gianfranco Rosi]

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

Toronto – Despite the fact that this documentary is basically a 90 minute interview, El Sicario, Room 164 is an engaging film that sheds some light on the vast amount of corruption and crime that permeates central America.

Face hidden underneath a black veil and armed with only pen and paper, we meet an “El Scicario” (professional killer) in an empty hotel room somewhere near the border. He first explains the significance of the room before sitting down to tell us his life story. Spanning from the time he was in high school until present day, this man tells us how the cartel recruit youths into doing simple tasks, rewarding them with drugs, money, cars and women. From that point on, the story expands into all kinds of juicy subjects such as corruption, torture methods (quite brutal), kidnapping procedures and the like. It’s all dark and morbid material but at the same time, completely engrossing.

The 90 minute doc moves along quickly, partially because the man in the interview is a great story teller. Random shots of the city is used to break up the monotony of having a masked man speak to the camera. Without any footage, cinematography or bells and whistles, El Sicario, Room 164 is what it is, a 90 minute foray into the heart of darkness and those interested will be more than willing to come along for the ride.

The documentary is based on the article “The Sicario” by Charles Bowden.

Screening: Wed, May 4 11:00 AM @ The ROM Theatre

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