Reviews - Page 80

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

‘Your Turn’ Gives Voice to Youth Protest

Your TurnΒ [Espero tua ( Re )volta] (Brazil, 93 min.) Dir. Eliza Capai If Petra Costa took audiences to the edge of democracy with her Oscar-nominated portrait of Brazilian politics, then Eliza Capai throws viewers into the thick of the storm withΒ Your Turn. This dizzying political doc offers a participatory glimpse at the student movements that rippled throughout Brazil during the past decade. They’re not related to the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff that audience saw inΒ The Edge of Democracy, but the stories intersect. Your TurnΒ is all about the intersections of political movements and the criss-crossed wire of the film’s

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‘Beyond Moving’: Siphe November Takes Centre Stage

Beyond Moving (Canada, 84 min.) Dir. Vikram Dasgupta The story of Siphe November has been likened to that ofΒ Billy Elliot. While Billy Elliot grew up in a small town of Northern England where young boys were expected to become coal miners and not ballet dancers, Siphe November’s tale is also one of an unlikely ballet star.Β Beyond Moving, directed by Vikram Dasgupta, profiles November and his trajectory to the world stage via Canada’s National Ballet School. At 22 years old, the South African November’s career is remarkable – not simply as one of very few Black men to lead a ballet,

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The 2019 Oscar-nominated Short Docs

One can only commend the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for its selections this year. The Oscar nominees for Best Documentary (Short Subject), like their feature documentary counterparts, represent one of the few categories where the Academy got it right. While the short docs are admittedly more conventional than they have been in recent yearsβ€”no hybrids or animated docs hereβ€”their quality is hard to deny. Similar to the feature documentaries, the short docs boost the profiles of talents from underrepresented pockets of the industry. In doing so, they give worthy creators a spotlight and

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Preach, Pauline! ‘What She Said’ Celebrates the Legacy of Pauline Kael

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (USA, 95 min.) Dir. Rob Garver Most film critics can name the review that got them hooked. For me, it was Manohla Dargis’s review ofΒ A History of ViolenceΒ for theΒ New York Times. It was a marvel to read a New York based critic who completely understood the film’s decidedly Canadian sense of humour. Reading Dargis’s review was as much of a thrill as watching the film, if not more. She dug into the film, studied it within the context of its production, and celebrated David Cronenberg’s subversive elevation of a potboiler by playing

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‘Botero’ a Family Affair

Botero (Canada, 84 min.) Dir. Don Millar The art of Fernando Botero has a peculiar, if distinctive, shape. His paintings, drawings, and sculptures share virtually the same figures and traits. They feature rotund characters in classically styled portraits. Think the Mona Lisa with three chins, chubby cheeks, a pear-shaped figure, and an overall doughy personality.Β Botero, the documentary by Don Millar, argues that the Colombian-born painter and sculptor is the most famous artist working today. But does this claim mean that Botero is any good? Millar obviously adores Botero. His documentary is the work of a true fan. He clearly has

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‘Chasing Einstein’: Into the Unknown

Chasing Einstein (USA, 80 min.) Dir. Steve Brown, Timothy Wheeler Albert Einstein’s equation of E = MC2 might be the most famous scientific theory of our time, but does it add up?Β Chasing Einstein, by Steve Brown and Timothy Wheeler, follows a field of dedicated researchers eager to add to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Voices ranging fromΒ New York TimesΒ columnistsΒ toΒ haughty vloggersΒ have questioned Einstein’s theory. They suggest that Einstein’s theory in which energy and mass are equal generally holds up, but they also argue that there must be more to the equation. Chasing Einstein follows this line of inquiry. For the chorus of

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‘Golda’: When a Leader Prefers Not to Choose

Golda (Israel/Germany, 88 min.) Dir. Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir, Shani Rozanes Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir makes two especially memorable comments in the archival excerpts ofΒ Golda. She says that she barely slept while holding the top office from 1969-1974. Meir reveals that these sleepless nights were of her own choosing. Worried that she might miss some major news while resting, she advised her underlings to call her intermittently throughout the night. One can only wonder what the course of history might have been had the late Meir been well rested while decided the fate of the world. The second

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‘Nomad’ and a Wondering, Wandering Herzog

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (UK, 86 min.) Dir. Werner Herzog β€œThe world reveals itself to those who travel on foot,” saysΒ Werner HerzogΒ inΒ Nomad. The indefatigably prophetic director quotes himself while relating his bookΒ Of Walking in IceΒ to his latest film. The book recounts Herzog’s trek on foot from Munich to Paris to visit a dying mentor. Herzog’s new film evokes a journey both different and similar. He embarks on a nomadic quest to honour the life of his late friend, Bruce Chatwin, thirty years after the journeyman’s death. The film might be Herzog’s most personal film to date. It’s

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