Reviews - Page 145

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

Review: ‘Brand Canada’

It’s the Canadian sesquicentennial, a time when this country can engage in celebrations, critiques and a vast array of looks at what has happened here over the past 150 years. CBC must have been pleased when Big Cedar Films’ producer-director Geoff Morrison suggested that his company make a ten-part series about Canada’s “brand” and how it’s perceived nationally and internationally. The results, which range in length from slightly over a minute to slightly under six minutes, will be available from Canada’s national broadcaster in multiple ways, including online, after a launch on May 15. Like all anthology series including Morrison’s

Read More

Review: ‘Risk’

Risk (USA/Germany, 92 min.) Dir. Laura Poitras Featuring: Julian Assange, Sarah Harrison, Jacob Appelbaum, Jennifer Robinson, Edward Snowden   Communications, security systems and global politics have shifted dramatically since Julian Assange started WikiLeaks in 2006. An Internet startup like no other, Assange’s organisation hasn’t made billions but it’s changed the world. The complete tale of WikiLeaks may already be too complex to tell in one film but Laura Poitras has certainly made the best doc yet about Assange’s tempestuous recent life in her newly revised version of last year’s Cannes feature entry, Risk. When American documentarian Poitras began to shoot

Read More

Review: ‘Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS’

/

Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS (USA, 99 min.) Dir. Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere)   Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS, Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested’s new documentary, is the closest thing we’re likely to see to a comprehensive narrative about the Syrian Civil War. Where films like City of Ghosts and Last Men In Aleppo tell the incredibly complicated story of the war through the individual stories of, respectively, the citizen journalist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently and the volunteer

Read More

Review: ‘Long Strange Trip’

/

Long Strange Trip (USA, 240 min.) Dir. Amir Bar-Lev Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere)   One can’t help but appreciate the nod to the longevity of The Grateful Dead in the running time of Long Strange Trip. This epic four-hour rock doc is a cradle to grave saga of one of the most peculiar success stories in American music. Fans of the band are bound to relish all 240 minutes of this amped-up archival feat, but one doesn’t need to be a Deadhead to enjoy the show. Even if one knows Jerry Garcia primarily as the inspiration for a flavour

Read More

Review: ‘Rebels on Pointe’

/

Rebels on Pointe (Canada, 90 min.) Dir. Bobbi Jo Hart Programme: Singular Sensation(s) (Toronto Premiere)   In Rebels on Pointe, Montreal filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart profiles Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the successful New York based company that knocks the stuffy art of ballet off its pedestal and makes it an open, inclusive, and accessible experience. The key to “the Trocks” is that it’s a very funny all-male, all-gay company. The Trocks offer a positive space for people who don’t fit the conventional roles of ballet. Their performances incorporate classical technique with camp, drag, and farce, and this spirited

Read More

Review: ‘Give Me Future’

/

Give Me Future (USA/Cuba, 85 min.) Dir. Austin Peters Programme: Artscapes (Canadian Premiere)   Before The Stones rolled into Cuba for their 2016 Havana Moon show, Major Lazer drew huge crowds of young Cubans to a groundbreaking performance. The core of this electronic dancehall world music unit are the deejaying trio of Florida’s Diplo, Jamaica’s Walshy Fire, and Trinidadian Jillionaire. Heavily influenced by Caribbean riddims and popular on the islands, Major Lazer’s motto is “make the world smaller by making the party bigger.” They promote the mingling of musical styles, nationalities, and races. Lean On, their best-known song, just hit

Read More

Review: ‘Machines’ and ‘Cold Valley’

/

Machines and Cold Valley are part of a cluster of films at Hot Docs that fall into the sub genres of labour and environmental investigation. Cold Valley by the young German director duo Florian Fischer and Johannes Krell is a white cube documentary art installation, which actually started out in a heavily stylized, antiseptic gallery space. The camera zooms in on a framed image of lush green plants through shrinking white, empty wall space—until we notice the plants moving under raindrops. Then the film swallows us for the next 12 minutes into structured, textured, monochrome whiteness, carried by a monotone

Read More

Review: ‘Susanne Bartsch: On Top’

/

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

Read More

Review: ‘White Walls Say Nothing’

/

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

Read More

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

/

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.

Read More

1 143 144 145 146 147 179
0 $0.00