Reviews - Page 92

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

Gunda Review: Some Pig

In my corner of the filmmaking world, mostly filled with arty narratives, documentaries, and animation, Viktor Kossakovsky (Aquarela) is a big deal. He’s been winning awards since the early ‘90s for edgy docs, which use genre bending techniques to force audiences to become truly engaged with his subjects. In one film, he shot footage out of his window in St. Petersburg for over a year, turning viewers into the equivalent of neighbours, who become used to the sidewalk, the street, the buildings, odd people on the block and unnerving situations with road repair that seem to go on endlessly. In

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Sisterhood Review: Questioning the Need to Be a Nun

Can a movement survive the death of its leaders? Director Maxime Faure addresses this question in his first feature Sisterhood. At its peak, Quebec’s chapter of the Society of Helpers of the Holy Spirit, an order of nuns engaged in social and political activism, had 35 members. At the time of filming, only eight remained. Though the nuns have never shied away from a struggle, they have chosen not to keep their community afloat beyond their lifetime, as they question their relevance in an increasingly secular society. Faure captures these remarkable women, now all in their eighties, as they prepare

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Alone Together Review: A Mother to All

Alone Together follows the life of Ravit Raichman, a part-time professional baby-cradler. A “first hug” volunteer, she donates the much-needed physical touch needed to keep abandoned newborn babies alive at a Tel Aviv hospital. The doc is a revealing look at how selfless acts of care can be life-saving for both parties involved. The subject of the documentary is pushing 50 and longing for a sense of connectedness and kinship. Single, retired, and with a condition that robbed her of motherhood, Raichman oozes a maternal love with no place to go. She pours it into volunteering, both at the hospital

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Marry Me However Review: What is Marriage Without Love?

“Either I marry now, or let the world be destroyed,” explains Yarden Naor, a gay Orthodox Jewish man recounting his feelings upon the day he married a woman. Mordechai Vardi’s documentary Marry Me However tells the stories of several gay and lesbian people raised in observant Jewish communities throughout Israel. Due to their religious obligations, those who appeared in the film had decided to enter into a heterosexual marriage to fulfill the Jewish commandment of having a family. However, as years passed, they all came to terms with their identities and realized they must live authentically, even if that meant

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Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl Review – The Power of an Authentic Voice

From MySpace to Kickstarter, Kate Nash has harnessed the power of the people to revitalise the music scene. Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl charts the rocky journey of the English singer who refuses to conform to convenient labels. Even the catchall “female artist” tag doesn’t rock her world, as she boldly noted when accepting the prize for Best Female Artists at the Brit Awards. “Female is not a genre,” she challenged the industry. This doc by Amy Goldstein shares the price that Nash paid for defying the mould, but also the rewards she found by staying true to her artistic

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The Kings Review: Rumble in the Archival Jungle

“Boxing, for me, was a way of making a political statement,” says Sugar Ray Leonard in The Kings. Leonard is one of four boxing champions at the heart of The Kings, an engrossing documentary mini-series that explores the sport’s final golden age. Leonard explains how boxing was a chance to prove his worth to the world at a moment when Black lives were dismissed and devalued in America’s economic system. By fighting in the ring, Leonard says he could change the narrative that saw Black Americans primarily through the lenses of crime stories on the evening news. Unfolding during the

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Sumodo – Successors of Samurai Review: Demystifing Japan’s National Sport

If you have never felt your chest vibrate with the booming cheers that erupt in a Japanese arena during a sumo match, this doc could be the next closest thing. Sumodo – Successors of Samurai, which has its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival, immerses you in the energy of the fight and demystifies Japan’s national sport. Director Eiji Sakata follows the lives and work of a handful of rikishi (sumo wrestlers), oyakata (their coaches), and the rikishi’s wives in a film that reveals the blood, sweat, and tears that go into this athletic art form. While many

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Muranów Review: A Neighbourhood of Ghosts

Muranow

Muranów is about a neighbourhood full of ghosts. The old Jewish district of the Polish city, Muranów became the site of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Warsaw’s Jews were corralled into this neighbourhood and most were later sent to their deaths at Treblinka. The Nazis then burned Muranów to the ground. In the documentary, Elzbieta Bednarska, Administrator of the Psychology Department at the University of Warsaw, stands on the roof of the building at the school. That building had once been the SS headquarters. She holds up a sepia-toned photo of a child standing in the same spot,

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Hosé! José Mujica! -Just Keep Walking Review: A Tale of Cultural Exchange

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica is a modest man. He gives 90% of his salary to the poor and notoriously (or admirably, depending on one’s perspective) drove a busted Volkswagen during his term in office from 2010-2015. During his tenure, Mujica gave a compelling speech at the United Nations’ Rio Summit “Sustainable Development and Human Happiness.” The speech, which appears throughout Kazuma Tabei’s documentary H_osé! José Mujica! -Just Keep Walking_, exemplifies refreshing humility and optimism from a world leader. Tabei explains how Mujica’s speech roused the Japanese so splendidly that a picture book was created in his honour. Drawing upon

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Behind the Façade Review: Quick Bites of History

Every building tells a story. The older the abode, the grander the tale. The short doc series Behind the Façade, produced by Lantern Films, opens the doors of several structures that shape the history of beautiful British Columbia. Curated with an admirable attention to the cultural diversity and range of experiences housed within the province, the short docs illustrate why some institutions are sites of memory for some people, while others might simply pass them by. The brevity of the docs admittedly leaves some stories feeling incomplete or under-developed in some cases—several times, the short cuts to a new film

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