Reviews - Page 146

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

Review: ‘Rebels on Pointe’

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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

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Review: ‘Give Me Future’

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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

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Review: ‘Machines’ and ‘Cold Valley’

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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

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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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