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| After yesterday's five-screening marathon, I wasn't sure
if I'd make it up this morning for Darwin's Nightmare. But it turns
out that wasn't a problem. So I got myself ready and scooted down the street
to the Varsity. Darwin's Nightmare, directed by Hubert Sauper, is a
documentary that focuses on Lake Victoria in the African country of Tanzania.
The lake has been over-run by the Nile Perch, which was accidentally
introduced 50 years ago. This has created a huge supply of fish for export to
Europe, but the Nile Perch has decimated the eco-system, including the
smaller fish that used to provide much of the food for Tanzania's
population.
Sauper does a nice job of giving the feel of the lake towns,
interviewing everyone from the owner of the fish factory to the
pilots who fly the food back to Europe to the homeless boys who eke
out an existence on the street. He spends much more time with the
marginalized Africans than the ecologists and economists who are
often trotted out in these kinds of movies. This helps us understand
how the problem has impacted the native people, though it makes it
harder for us to understand the full scale of the problem. We see the
particular rather than the general.
The documentary is shot in ugly-looking digital video, but certainly
the format made it easier to get the range of interviews Sauper does.
He spends a great deal of time focusing on the apparently empty
planes that fly into the local airport. At first, it seems as if he's
emphasizing that Europe doesn't offer anything to Africa and just
takes its food. But he finally gets around to the presumption that
illegal arms shipments are actually flying in. That's an even more
provocative argument, and the film would've been helped if it had
come earlier on. Still, this is a compelling, heart-felt look at an
area of the world we rarely hear from, and its examination of the
impact of globalization is strong. Four, out of five |
During this first screening, a gentleman sat next to me.
He was wearing one of those press/industry badges, so I asked him what he did.
Turns out he was in acquisitions for a well-known arthouse distributor. Being
a curious guy, I asked him what he had seen so far. His answers were
dismaying. He praised movies that most critics had dismissed (the documentary
Three of Hearts, for one) and then pronounced as horrible directors
who would normally fall into his company's area of interest — people
like Claire Denis and Lukas Moodysson. To each his own, I decided.
But then during the screening, the guy left on two different occasions and
when he finally came back the second time, he spent the rest of the movie
scanning his PDA. He fit the stereotype of the industry person who could care
less about the movies he's supposed to be watching. The fact that he was from
a small but notable distributor made it particularly sad.
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Schizo |
Guka Omarova
Kazakhstan/Russia/France/Germany
2004 | | |
| Movie number two was Schizo from the country of
Kazakhstan. I've seen the title translated as "Fifty-Fifty," which is a much
better title. It gets at two of the themes in the film: the idea of chance in
who succeeds in life and, if we do succeed or get lucky, how we split up the
spoils. The movie focuses on a 15-year-old boy who hangs out with his
mother's cool boyfriend. The boyfriend is ready to introduce Schizo (the
boy's nickname) into his business — setting up amateur fights for the
entertainment at a local club. That goes well at first, but when the boy
pulls a fast one on his mentor, things change.
The film isn't much more than a story; there's little character development
or larger thematic concerns. But the story is well told and refuses to trot
out any narrative cliches. Just when you expect tragedy to strike, the movie
takes another satisfying turn. Furthermore, director Guka Omarova uses solid
landscape photography and cultural touchstones to provide a sense of place.
This is a rare central Asian film that's both true to its roots but
accessible enough for an arthouse audience. Three 1/2 stars,
out of five. |
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| Agnes Varda has been charming arthouse audiences for
decades, and her latest project will only add to her popularity.
Cinevardaphoto is actually three films in one. The first is another of
her personal documentaries, a 44-minute film that focuses on an art
installation and its creator Ydessa Hendeles. The project is a huge
collection of family portraits that feature teddy bears. That sounds banal,
but in Varda's hands it takes on a very different feel. She brings her
wonderfully quirky observations to bear (no pun intended) and interviews a
variety of people who help us think about larger concerns. Some of them are
helpful, but none of them are as interesting as Varda and her wonderfully
witty use of montage, linking various photos and making us think about ideas
of history, family, art, and so much more. I loved it.
I loved the second part of Cinevardaphoto even more. It's a short film
called Ulysses that Varda made in the early '80s. It focuses on a
photograph she took back in the '50s, and that photo provides the springboard
for her to ruminate on so many different themes: history of course, both
national and personal, but also memory, storytelling, the nature of an image,
and how we relate to the people around us. Ulysses is a brilliant and
delightful work.
The final film goes even further back, to 1963. Entitled Salute to
Cuba, it's an idealistic portrait of post-revolutionary Cuba as seen
through photographs. As my friend Rob Davis mentioned, the film works better
as an artifact than a contemporary work. It hurts that Varda's "voice" isn't
as strong as in her more recent films. Still, there are some marvelous
aspects to it, especially two dance sequences created solely out of a montage
of photographs. Four stars, out of
five. |
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| My final film of the night is from the United States.
On the Outs was made by first-time directors Lori Silverbush and
Michael Skolnik. And while there are some rookie mistakes (the Statue of
Liberty makes several unnecessary appearances), this is a remarkably assured
work. It focuses on three young Latino women, all in their late teens. They
live in the same neighborhood, but they don't know each other at first. But
their lives cross when each of them is sent to a juvenile prison for various
offenses.
Don't think this is a woman-in-prison movie, though. Rather it's a simple
portrait of three girls trying to find their way. The prison sequences occupy
a relatively small part of the movie. Instead, their family life and friends
along with their choices, both good and bad, are the real subjects. The three
lead actresses — Anny Mariano, Judy Marte, and Paola Mendoza — are
all strong. I had seen Marte in Raising Victor Vargas, and she's just
as good here. But equally compelling is Mariano as a young woman who picks
the wrong boyfriend.
While the film features some tragic moments, those are handled with care,
never sinking to anything saccharine or maudlin. On the Outs is
instead a naturalistic and powerful film that looks at a tough neighborhood
and three tough women. This one should find distribution fairly soon. Look
for it when it comes to your neck of the woods. Four stars, out
of five. |
Of course — wouldn't you know? — just before
On the Outs began, a fashionably dressed woman wearing an industry
badge sat down next to me, and spent the movie looking at her PDA. You'd
think these people would just go straight to their parties rather than have
their valuable business time disturbed by all these annoying movies!
Luckily, I don't own a PDA, but I do know we're almost to the half-way point
of the fest. Tomorrow brings a much-needed slow day. I've scheduled only
only three films on Day Five, but one of them raises the bar in more ways
than one.
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