Reviews - Page 127

Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.

Review: ‘Susanne Bartsch: On Top’

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Susanne Bartsch: On Top (USA, 84 min.) Dir. Anthony&Alex Programme: Nightvision (Programme: Nightvision)   Hot Docs’ team of programmers have chosen a large number of character portraits this year—more than in previous editions of the festival. While the focus may illustrate a trend in production, audience interest, or both, it also amplifies the virtues and weaknesses of that genre of documentaries. The strength of character portrait docs generally relies on two elements: the charisma of the subject and the filmmaker’s ability to extend the profile of a single character into a film of greater meaning. The excellent Susanne Bartsch: On

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Review: ‘White Walls Say Nothing’

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White Walls Say Nothing (Argentina/USA, 70 min.) Dir. Jonny Robson, Gates Bradley Programme: Artscapes (World Premiere)   White Walls Say Nothing profiles the Argentine artists who took graffiti to a new level by painting the drab grey buildings of Buenos Aires with vibrant colours and uplifting murals. The doc gains access to an impressive number of those street artists. Some work in broad daylight and speak openly to the camera while others paint by nightfall and insist on having their faces obscured from view. The hesitancy that some of the artists have towards exposing their identities doesn’t necessarily come from

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Review: ‘Motel’ and ‘Babe, ‘I Hate to Go’

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Motel (Canada, 57 min.) Dir. Jesse McCracken Programme: Canadian Spectrum (World Premiere)   Jesse McCracken strips away the postcard perfect image of Niagara Falls in Motel. This compassionate and restrained observation doc takes a glimpse at the impoverished but very neighbourly residents of the popular tourist town. McCracken, who also shot and edited the film, goes inside the rooms of The Continental motel to reveal a side of the city that is overshadowed by the waterfalls. Beyond this stunning backdrop for selfies, Niagara Falls resembles desolate Detroit more than the swinging Las Vegas the tourist town once aspired to be.

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Review: ’32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide’

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32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide (USA, 85 min.) Dir. Hope Litoff Programme: Artscapes (World Premiere) In 2008, photographer Ruth Litoff took her own life. Her sister, director Hope Litoff, returns to Ruth’s belongings and revisits the death to look for answers in her film 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide. Despite its intimacy, 32 Pills never manages to move beyond the exploitative and insensitive in its depiction of mental illness and suicide. In this documentary, we are presented with an incredibly raw portrait of the director. She is blunt and open about her emotions surrounding her sister’s death. They distress her

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Review: ‘Spettacolo’

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Spettacolo (USA, 89 min.) Dirs. Jeff Malmberg & Christina Shellen Programme: World Showcase   Capturing the inhabitants of a small Tuscan village as they prepare for their annual play, Jeff Malmberg and Christina Shellen’s Spettacolo shares with us a unique tradition. Stemming from the trauma of a Fascist roundup, the townspeople use their theatre to tackle personal and social issues they face within a form they call “autodrama.” Spettacolo is a charming film, aided greatly by the warm, rustic village in which it is set, as well as the passion of the people who put on their play. The theater-folk

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Review: ‘Life to Come’

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Life to Come / (La vie à venir) (Belgium, 75 min.) Dir. Claudio Capanna Programme: World Showcase (North American Premiere)   Born severely premature, twins Eden and Léandro struggle to survive in Claudio Capanna’s Life to Come. Staying in hospital with their mother Laurence, the babies are kept alive with machines and constantly monitored while we anxiously hope for them to flourish into good health. Shot like a science fiction film, Life to Come opens with a sequence of biological construction, showing us the development of organic tissues and fluids. Most babies, and certainly these twins, are born in a

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Review: ‘Whitney: Can I Be Me?’

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Whitney: Can I Be Me? (UK, 100 min.) Dir. Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal Programme: Special Presentations (Canadian Premiere)   Like Amy and What Happened, Miss Simone?, Whitney: Can I Be Me? celebrates the brilliance of a great artist and charts her tragic downward spiral. The film originated with Rudi Dolezal, whose close relationship to Whitney Houston led to a documentary project in the late nineties. For various reasons, and after several efforts, the film was never completed and released. Much of Dolezal’s footage forms the core of this collaboration with Nick Broomfield, who doesn’t play a directorial character in

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Review: ‘Flames’

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Flames (USA, 86 min.) Dir. Zefrey Throwell, Josephine Decker Programme: Artscapes (International Premiere)   Just what in blazes is Flames? Is it a drama? A mockumentary? A doc? Or is it just self-indulgent nonsense? It might be a little bit of all these things as Zefrey Throwell and Josephine Decker mash Chris Marker with mumblecore. This boundary-pushing film defies categorisation. One thing is certain: Flames is among the more aesthetically and thematically ambitious films at Hot Docs. Let’s just call Flames a hybrid film for the sake of convenience since it combines elements of documentary and performance as ex-lovers Throwell

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Review: ‘Still Tomorrow’

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Still Tomorrow (China, 88 min.) Dir. Jian Fan Programme: Artscapes (Canadian Premiere)   In half of China, things are happening: volcanoes erupt, rivers run dry, political prisoners and displaced workers are abandoned, elk deer and red-crowned cranes get shot. I cross the hail of bullets to sleep with you. -Yu Xiuhua, “Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You” Still Tomorrow chronicles the success of Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua, who shot to fame when her poem “Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You” went viral. The bold voice of the verse intimately connects female sexuality with questions of nationhood

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Review: ‘Bill Nye: Science Guy’

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Bill Nye: Science Guy (USA, 101 min.) Dir. David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere)   Bill Nye: Science Guy would be a relaxed, amiable film about an eccentric TV personality, were it not for his battles with anti-science anti-intellectuals, including Christian fundamentalists who deny the theory of evolution and are positive there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark. As for climate change deniers, he can barely hide his disgust. Nye’s obvious passion for science and the natural wonders it explicates leads him into almost quixotic confrontations. The film takes on urgent relevance in the Age of the

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