Reviews - Page 91

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

Hot Docs Review: ‘The Walrus and the Whistleblower’

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The Walrus and the Whistleblower (Canada, 89 min.) Dir. Nathalie Bibeau Program: Canadian Spectrum “Everyone loooooves Marineland!” The cheesy jingle for Niagara Falls waterpark Marineland is as reliable a staple of Canadian television as are Heritage Minutes. Unlike the legacy of the Underground Railroad, the Halifax explosion, or the link between burnt toast and seizures, Marineland won’t be fêted in Heritage Minutes. The dirty waters of Marineland receive an eye-opening exposé in Nathalie Bibeau’s The Walrus and the Whistleblower, a compelling character-driven story of a committed activist. The film is a contemporary David and Goliath tale as former Marineland trainer turned whistleblower Phil Demers

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Fadma: Even Ants Have Wings’

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Fadma: Even Ants Have Wings (Morocco/Belgium, 80 min.) Dir. Jawad Rhalib Programme: International Spectrum In a small community in the High Atlas of Morocco, villagers go about their daily lives, which are based on an undisputable division of labour. The women clean, cook, raise children, tend the animals and twice a day, go down to the river to fetch water. The men have snoring fests or sit at cafés for hours, when field work is scarce. This seemingly undisputed old-age order gets a rattle with the arrival of Fadma, a fiery and progressive woman, and her family from Casablanca. Their

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Don’t Worry, the Doors Will Open’

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Don’t Worry: The Doors Will Open (Canada/Ukraine 76 min,) D. Oksana Karpovych Program: Canadian Spectrum “Nothing to do, no one to punch,” says a cigarette-smoking teen-ager, riding on a rattle-trap commuter train, in Don’t Worry, the Doors Will Open. The sentiment could be expressed by bored adolescents anywhere but it’s particularly characteristic of the sardonic humour that pervades Oksana Karpovich’s aesthetically assured debut feature documentary. The doc, which took best film honours at the New Visions competition at last November’s Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), is a homecoming project for Karpovich, who emigrated from Ukraine to Canada in 2013. She set her sights

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Res Creata – Humans and Other Animals’

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Res Creata – Humans and Other Animals (Italy, 80 min.) Dir. Alessandro Cattaneo Program: The Changing Face of Europe Absolutely unique, Res Creata is a scientific and philosophical marvel asking us to ponder the bigger picture. By meandering from religious processions to pagan rituals, and from visiting acrobatic horsemen in Sardinia to learning whale speak with a zoo-musicologist, Italian director Alessandro Cattaneo retraces the blueprint of our contract with the animal kingdom. A discussion about hierarchy and anthropocentrism with philosopher Felici Cimatti is illustrated with images of stuffed animals in a natural history museum. In a mountainous landscape, we meet the shepherd

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Reunited’

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Reunited (Denmark, 78 min.) Dir. Mira Jargil Program: The Changing Face of Europe The opening of Reunited is bleak. Just moments earlier, Rana was rescued from a lifeboat on the Mediterranean sea. In the harshness of a camera light, she tries to hold back her tears, but it is in vain. This is the first time she’s been separated from her two boys, and she’s afraid. Back in Istanbul, Jad and his brother Nidal are fast asleep. Their room, still dark, is lit up by the same camera light. Both their parents were doctors in Aleppo. Mukhles, who was a surgeon, left

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Always Amber’

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Always Amber (Sweden, 75 min.) Dir. Hannah Reinikainen Bergeman & Lia Hietala Program: The Changing Face of Europe Enhanced Snapchat portraits, Instagram profiles and grainy selfie-videos of the titular protagonist Amber move at a steady pace across the screen. While the opening credits of Always Amber show joyful home videos of a happy child and loving parents, the family archive soon makes space for a new collection of self-made footage. Arranging audacious, flamboyant hairstyles in the bathroom mirror or putting on makeup in front of their smartphone, genderqueer teenager Amber lets Swedish filmmakers Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen in their intimate world

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Hot Docs Review: ‘I Want You If You Dare’

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I Want You If You Dare (Czech Republic, 89 min.) Dir. Dagmar Smržová Program: International Spectrum This compelling film tracks the loving relationship between Jana, an adult woman severely disabled by cerebral palsy, and Martina, her mercurial alcoholic mother. Jana wants two things: to exchange her home environment for residence in a facility, even though she loves her mother, and to have a first sexual encounter. Martina is devoted to Jana, carting her to town in a portable bed and happy to share everything with her, including her cigarettes and beer, and Jana loves her back, verbally jousting with her.

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Hot Docs Review: ‘The School of Housewives’

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The School of Housewives (Iceland, 75 min.) Dir. Stefanía Thors Programme: Persister I always knew that women around the world, in previous generations, were given or expected to acquire an education in the domestic arts, whether via an institution or through their mothers and grandmothers. What I didn’t realise, is that a degree in domestic arts can still be attained today. The Reykjavík School of Housewives in Iceland has been teaching students the fading skills of cooking, cleaning, sewing and home economics since 1942. The School of Housewives, directed by Stefanía Thors, is a unique contemporary documentary about the school

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Bulletproof’

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Bulletproof (USA, 85 minutes) D. Todd Chandler Program: International Spectrum “Let’s end the year with a BANG,” says a Bristol board poster on the wall of Woodland Middle School. A few minutes later, as students and teachers stroll through the halls, there’s the sudden spat-spat of gunfire. Relax—it’s a drill, another day in the life of an American school, where active shooter preparation is folded between morning announcements, math class and basketball practice. Apart from a few on-the-nose moments, the overall tone of Todd Chandler’s Bulletproof (winner of Hot Docs’ Emerging International Filmmaker Award) is an artfully meditative, fly-over view of the military, entrepreneurial

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Lessons of Love’

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Lessons of Love (Poland, 74 min.) Dir. Malgorzata Goliszewska, Kasia Mateja Program: The Changing Face of Europe For 45 years, Jola did exactly what was expected of her. She married and raised six children “for better or for worse.” In Lessons of Love, directors Malgorzata Goliszewska and Kasia Mateja, present a candid, close-up portrait of Jola as she leaves the past behind and begins to celebrate life and herself. Unapologetically raw, the film opens with a short scene in Italy where we are confronted with Jola putting on her makeup while the voice of a man, who seems to be her

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