Corporate Media – not the best thing on Earth.

This much is clear (or should be), but how did this happen? when did it start? and more importantly, who is responsible for the monopolization of media today? These are the questions that Jean-Philippe Tremblay answers in his greatly detailed talking heads documentary Shadows of Liberty. This high end production features an impressive cast of people including Julian Assange, Dan Rather, Amy Goodman and the one and only Danny Glover. They all regale you with information and stories that you may or may not already know, all leading to the undeniable fact – mainstream media in the United States is largely run by conglomerate whose main interest is not providing real news, but to make a profit. The fact that these conglomerates are funded by government contracts has led to the censorship of mainstream news.

Jean-Philippe Tremblay’s film is an exhaustive study into this subject and topics such as the Nike sweatshop scandal, TWA airline crash and the Iraq war are discussed thoroughly. The film is extremely well made (great soundtrack), with seemingly unlimited resources to archival footage and impressive personalities. While the film seems a bit one sided in nature (no one defended the conglomerates in this film), it does serve as a great introduction to those who are unaware of topics of media, news and government censorship.

Now comes the real problem. Shadows of Liberty will be definitely be a hot movie among the audiences at any documentary film festivals. However, this is the type of audience who already knows about most of the cases and information presented in the film. The real challenge would be to have this film air on a national broadcast somewhere, which as we all know, will require a bit of work. So watch this movie, and then tell a friend about it.

Next Screening:
Sun, Apr 29 4:00 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Who Cares? is a hard hitting and often demoralizing look at the lives of sex trade workers past and present that wander the desolate back streets of North East Edmonton. The sex trade industry in Edmonton is dangerous. It’s so dangerous that the police have instigated Project Kare, a project whose sole purpose appears to be to help protect high risk people such as the girls featured in the film. Throughout the film, director Rosie Dransfeld follows the lives of several people within this world – a policemen from Project Kare who has seen too many girls disappear, the locals at the Reno Pub – often seen as a safe place for the girls to decompress and then a few girls who have are or have been in the sex trade industry. All their tales are grim, and in the case of the girls, they are often tragic. Addictions, stigma and dealing with the past are all subjects that haunts these people and the documentary doesn’t hold back in showing you what they have been through and what they are continually dealing with. One of the main characters is named Courtney, a former prostitute who is attempting to rebuild her life. Given a camera to operate on her own, we get to see a first hand account of how difficult it is to pick up the pieces once it’s been shattered.

The cinéma vérité style of this film combined with the first person account (from Courtney) add up to paint a grim picture on the lives of the people in the film. Observatory in nature, those looking at the film for answers to the dangerous sex trade industry won’t find it here, which is perfect, because this is a problem that is without a solution.

Screenings
Wed, May 2 9:00 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
Sat, May 5 6:45 PM, Cumberland 3

Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa’s latest documentary is about Laura, an aging socialite from South America who spends most of her time trapezing around the outer circles of the rich and famous, going from parties to parties attempting to get noticed. Laura herself is neither rich or famous and lives in a lower class apartment complex which houses among other things, mountains of memorabilia taken from these parties.

The film provides little background as to why Laura chooses this lifestyle, how she really made the connections that allow her to go to these parties and what her goal really is. The Filmmakers originally opted for a fly on the wall approach but as the film progresses, the filmmakers become more and more apart of the documentary itself. What seemingly start offs as a film about a socialite and perhaps a look at the emptiness that is the pursuit of fame quickly descends into an odd piece that starts to intertwine Laura and the filmmakers. I have rarely seen a filmmaker unwillingly get as involved in the documentary as this one so it was interesting to see how the relationship between Laura and the film makers progresses over the course of the film. It’s a reasonably enjoyable documentary and the twist halfway through the film makes it pretty unique.

SCREENINGS
Sun, Apr 29 7:00 PM, The ROM Theatre
Tue, May 1 4:00 PM, The ROM Theatre
Sat, May 5 4:00 PM, Cumberland 2