Reviews - Page 78

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

Hot Docs Review: ‘First We Eat’

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First We Eat Canada, 101 min.) Dir. Suzanne Crocker Program: To Serve & Protect A force of nature blocks access to the general store in a remote area of the Yukon and it looks like things won’t open up for a long time. Some people would just find a boat, head to the airport and leave town. But filmmaker Suzanne Crocker has a better idea. She convinces her family, including her three teenagers, to eat locally for a full year and decides to put the project, including their familial struggles under the lens. The result is an absorbing documentary about resourcefulness under

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Hot Docs Review: ‘The 8th’

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The 8th (USA, 94 min.) Dir. Aideen Kane, Maeve O’Boyle & Lucy Kennedy Program: Persister (World Premiere) Documentaries have a bum rap for being kind of grim, focused as so many of them are on real-life oppression and the often futile pursuit of social justice. So how sweet it is to see The 8th, a documentary on the movement in Ireland to gain abortion rights for women. Spoiler: the movement succeeds. Actually that’s not a spoiler. The triumph is history. What’s not well-known is how a grassroots posse of savvy activists bloomed, fought the Catholic Church and transformed public consciousness to

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Hot Docs Review: ‘The World Is Bright’

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The World Is Bright (Canada,116 min.) Dir. Ying Wang Ying Wang’s movie about a Chinese couple doing everything in their power to find out how their son died in Canada is ostensibly about the ways our country fails its immigrants. But The World Is Bright’s emotional charge is triggered by what it uncovers about family devotion. When they receive word that their son Shi-Ming has killed himself and is buried in Vancouver, his parents, Li and Deng, are perplexed. Suicide doesn’t mesh with their idea of the bright son they sent abroad to study. And how could the authorities bury him without

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Her Mothers’

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Her Mothers (Hungary, 75 min) Dir. Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics Program: Persister (World Premiere) This portrait of a lesbian couple adopting a child is intimate and raw. On the surface, it’s about two women going through an adoption process and acclimatizing to their new roles as mothers, and the conflicts between the couple that go with it, but there are political elements that give this documentary depth and texture. The film opens with Virag and rock musician Nora at their kitchen table hand-crafting a booklet they’re hoping to give to their not yet adopted child; it then cuts to

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The Last Dance: the ultimate Michael Jordan doc series

The Last Dance (USA, 10×50 min.) Dir. Jason Hehir, dir. The Last Dance is such a sensational documentary series that you don’t even have to like basketball to enjoy it. Produced by ESPN and Netflix, the show chronicles the final year of the Chicago Bulls sporting dynasty in the 1990s. The thing about the Bulls is that they weren’t just winners—they had a cast of characters second to none. Start with Michael Jordan, who was so iconic as a highflying basketball dunker that he turned not only the Bulls into champions but also made his shoe supplier Nike into winners with

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‘Influence’ Charts the Unholy Marriage of Politics and PR

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Influence (Canada/South Africa, 106 minutes) Dir. Richard Poplak and Diana Neille Hot Docs Program: Special Presentations Sometimes having all the right elements for a documentary isn’t enough. Influence, about the changing impact on world politics of the public relations industry, generally, and the Bell Pottinger company in particular, is a case in point. State corruption, especially in South Africa, check; a slimy corporate honcho in the person of Bell Pottinger’s Timothy Bell, check; a focus on fake news, the kind Bell Pottinger promulgated, check. But it’s all very confusing. The film begins by tracing the changes in public relations from the Mad Men

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‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ Reminds Us that Greed Isn’t Good

Capital in the Twenty-First Century (New Zealand, 103 min.) Dir. Justin Pemberton This reviewer can’t help but smile whenever #EatTheRich trends on Twitter. The world is in an escalating crisis as the gap widens between the haves and the have nots, and Twitter mob has the knives out to turn the one-percenters into an all-you-can-eat buffet. This observation isn’t new or novel, but it’s impossible to avoid. Scan the headlines, read the Tweets, and watch the news. Frustration is everywhere. If feels the tension building towards a French Revolution style riot against banks and crooked politicians, so be it. #EatTheRich

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Jerry Seinfeld Returns with ’23 Hours to Kill’

Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill (USA, 60 min.) Dir. Joe DeMaio It’s been 22 years since Jerry Seinfeld produced a stand-up comedy and the good news is that he’s back in fine form in the Netflix special, 23 Hours to Kill. Since his overwhelming success in the Nineties with “the show about nothing,” Seinfeld hasn’t had to work. As one of the show’s producers, he’s been a one-percenter for a long time: filthy rich, but still Seinfeld. So, as he points out in this performance, why is he there? The simple answer is that if you’re very good at something,

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‘Workhorse’ an Equine Elegy

Workhorse (Canada, 82 min.) Dir. Cliff Caines Is any animal more cinematic than the horse? The equine characters of Cliff Caines’ Workhorse seem like naturals before the camera. There is ample posing to be seen as the robust and rippling muscles of the horses catch the light beautifully in the black and white compositions from DP Ryan A. Randall. Their hair flows ravishingly while the legs and hooves accentuate nearly every frame of the film with their indefatigable strength. This exquisitely shot elegy for a fading way of life captures the power and beauty of horses with a nostalgic lustre. Caines’ film

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Becoming the First Lady of Documentary

Becoming (USA, 89 min.) Dir. Nadia Hallgren Is it time to crown Michelle Obama the First Lady of Documentary? After lending her mojo as executive producer to great docs like Crip Camp and last year’s Oscar winner American Factory, the former First Lady proves herself a spectacular subject with Becoming. A superhero hasn’t revealed herself so refreshingly and candidly since Ruth Bader Ginsburg disrobed for RBG. Obama is a terrifically engaging subject who enjoys a magnetic rapport with the camera and everyone with whom she shares the screen. Rather than offering mere self-serving hagiography through this doc produced by Netflix and Higher Ground Productions, Michelle

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