The following review is written by our friend and fellow documentary lover Joe from Mechanical Forest Sound, check out his blog for Hot Doc reviews, exceptional live recording and probably a helluva lot more thought out writings

Ignore the terrible and gimmicky English-language title to this one, and pretend it’s called it’s original Ouwehoeren. From the Dutch, the film-makers mentioned that renders as something like “to chatter like an old whore”. No insult in this situation, as that’s exactly what 70-year-old identical twins Louise and Martine Fokkens do. Prostitutes in Amsterdam’s red-light district for over half a century, Louise and Martine have seen it all and discuss their lives and careers without shame. In fact, they’re open-hearted and charmingly ribald throughout. Martine, in fact, is still at work, sitting in her window and calling out to passers-by who look like they might want a spanking.)

Like any job, there are mixed feelings, with pride in one’s work rubbing up against frustration at the circumstances that led on there in the first place. Both sisters have a few regrets but are never short of dignity and laughs as they swap stories and memories. They’re wonderful characters, a two-headed army who frequently dress the same and share a deep bond. Warm and funny, this film also gives us a chance to look at a lot of important issues — not just at prostitution generally, but also at elder sexuality, the changing face of The Netherlands, family reconciliation and the value of art as therapy. Recommended.

Do note that in sharing the space with sex workers (and their clients!) this film gets a bit more explicit than you might have expected going in; but truth be told, the most prurient images to a Toronto audience might be the shots of a functioning modern LRT system.

Meet The Fokkens screens one more time, Fri, May 4 7:00 PM @ Cumberland 2

One of the four billion fighting documentaries at Hot Docs this year, Corey Lee’s Legend of a Warrior is actually not about fighting. The film is actually about Corey Lee’s attempts to reconnect and repair his relationship with his father, a famous martial artist teacher who has trained world champions and movie stars in the craft of ass kicking. Frank Lee’s story is fairly typical of a lot of Asian’s who immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada in hopes of greener pastures in the 60’s/70’s/80’s. In an effort to provide for his family, Frank consumed himself into his work throughout Corey’s childhood and as a result, the typical emotional ties that binds a family together were severely tested. With a family of his own, Corey is now keen on rebuilding his relationship with his dad, and in the process, learn about and reclaim some of his Chinese identity in the process. The two train together over a course of a year, culminating in a trip to great city of Hong Kong to get a first hand look at where it all began.

A bit slow at times, Legend of a Warrior does succeed in portraying a certain Asian-Canadian Old-New world experience that a lot of Asians in North America can identify with. The film includes some amusing comic book style retelling of how Frank became a legend and some of the fighting scene that Frank’s students go through gives you a good insight into the discipline and perseverance that is required in the world of fighting. I personally got a kick out of seeing the two eating at Chinese restaurants I frequented when I was living in Edmonton, but that probably only affects 1% of the Hot Docs audience.

Go see this with your father, and then give him a hug after.

Mon, Apr 30 9:15 PM Cumberland 2
Thu, May 3 1:30 PM The ROM Theatre
Fri, May 4 4:00 PM Isabel Bader Theatre

The following review is written by our friend and fellow documentary lover Joe from Mechanical Forest Sound, check out his blog for Hot Doc reviews, exceptional live recording and probably a helluva lot more thought out writings

An historical document with a strong and living pulse, Hegge’s film tells the story of Toronto’s Fifth Column, who were most active in the decade spanning 1985-1995. The doc tells the story of core members G.B. Jones, Caroline Azar and Beverly Breckenridge alongside the others who came and went during the group’s lifespan, mixing contemporary interviews with copious period footage. Luckily, the band were also film buffs, linked in with the underground movie scene of the time — so there’s a lot of awesome-looking Super-8 material, both from the band as well as film-maker friends, to put on the screen.

A vital link between Toronto musical eras that we might roughly label as Treat Me Like Dirt and Wavelength, Fifth Column took the punk/DIY ethos, but not the sound, inventing their own brand of psychedelic noise. Although standing alone musically (the early material here sounds excellently otherworldly), their uncompromising existence as strong woman musicians was an inspiration to the Riot Grrrl movement (Kathleen Hanna is interviewed, acting as an articulate advocate of their influence on her own work in Bikini Kill) as well as the foundation of queercore. Regarding the latter, the film also explores the overlapping world of zines and their importance in disseminating non-mainstream music in a pre-internet world. Film-maker Bruce La Bruce, who started as the band’s go-go dancer, is interviewed in bringing those elements into focus.

It’s also, of course, the story of strong personalities wresting art out of their many clashes — and those clashes stood at the nexus of a lot of things that read like a list of the best of Toronto’s music culture today — from Will Munro’s gay-straight alliances to the electro-queer sounds of Peaches and Kids on TV, to say nothing of the legion of strong, independent-minded women making music in this city today. Though hardly a household name, considering Fifth Column’s legacy gives hope that this doc will fix them more firmly as groundbreakers. It deserves to be seen; their music deserves to be heard.

Screens with: The Man That Got Away (Dir: Trevor Anderson, 25 minutes, Canada), which asks, in its formal construction, “what makes a documentary?” Telling the life story of director Anderson’s “black-sheep” uncle, this short takes the rather unique approach of rewriting his life as a musical. It’s befitting to the subject, who ran away to join a male chorus on Broadway, and gives the film a fresh and ebullient vibe. A musical is only as good as its music, and the six original songs by Bryce Kulak, who also stars, generally carry the task. (The songs are streaming online at CBC3.) The film also makes excellent use of it’s location, a concentric parking ramp that follows Uncle Jimmy’s sad, spiralling descent. Also: Judy Garland!

Waiting Room is an exhilarating look into what goes on during a typical day in a public hospital in the United States. For the purposes of this documentary, the film takes place at the Highland Hospital in East Oakland, California but the faceless facade of the hospital and the anonymous nature of the people that work there do well to indicate this could be anywhere, USA.

The cameras are everywhere and as viewers, we get put right into the thick of things. We’ll see what the patients, administrators, nurses and doctors all see over the course of the day. The patients are poor, sick and desperate. Almost every patient in this film is skirting the poverty line and as such can only afford the most basic of healthcare. The administrative team are overwhelmed and stressed out, having to manage an increasingly large list of patients while dealing with increasingly agitated people in the waiting room. Equally frustrated are the doctors who not only have to deal with a large and volatile group of people but also the helplessness that arrives from repeat drug addled offenders who take up valuable space inside the hospital. Simply put, the staff is undermanned. The system does not work.

The film moves along at a rapid pace and does a good job jumping between the characters we will meet. You’ll want to get more background on some of the main characters, but there’s no time for that in this documentary. With this 81 minute documentary, director Pete Nicks easily demonstrates some of the major problems that exist within the US healthcare system as it exists today.

The Waiting Room is a great example of a documentary that takes a snapshot of the moment. It doesn’t spell out any solutions to the problems you see – rather, it opts to just lay it all out on the table for you look at, think about and discuss among your fellow film goers and friends. It’s a film about people, and ultimately, for the United States to be willing to reform it’s ways, it’ll be the people who’ll have to rise up and make some noise. Having discussions is a good starting point.

A very good documentary. Highly recommended.

Screenings:
Fri, May 4 7:15 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Sat, May 5 6:30 PM, Isabel Bader Theatre
Sun, May 6 9:15 PM, The Royal Cinema