Yael Hersonski's A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

My review of A Film Unfinished is up at In Review Online.

It's strange how a reiteration of things you already know can be so powerful. A Film Unfinished is just such a documentary. It doesn't reveal anything new or anything we didn't already know about the Nazis. However, this close inspection of a propaganda film shot in the Warsaw Ghetto in those tenuous months in mid-1942, sits in the chest like a rock. As quoted on the film's website by director Yael Hersonski: "A Film Unfinished first emerged out of my theoretical preoccupation with the notion of the 'archive', and the unique nature of the witnessing it bears." This documentary starts with theory and curiosity but is finished with a great deal of compassion. A fascinating and heartbreaking film.

I think this may have played in the Twin Cities while I was out of town. It will likely come out on DVD early next year.

MSPIFF 2010: Day 7

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (2009) Leanne Pooley - Recommended
Who are the Topp Twins? Perhaps it's a bonus that this incredibly entertaining survey of the life and times of the popular New Zealand singing and comedic duo, the Topp Twins, will also be an education for most American audiences. Jools and Lynda Topp are twin sisters from rural New Zealand who became homegrown hits in the 80s and are now kiwi icons. Making a name for themselves by drawing large crowds performing on the streets of Auckland, the Topps have since turned their irrepressible charm into multifaceted folk-singing variety act which includes dressing up as lovable stereotypes such as rancher and sportscaster Ken and Ken or glamour loving socialites Prue and Dilly. The unpredictable backstory to the Topp Twins is their activism and their ability to be political without being politicized. Being openly gay, speaking out for Maori rights, protesting apartheid and rallying for a nuclear-free New Zealand never undermined their popularity, in fact, quite the contrary. The film speaks wonders to the progressive nature of New Zealand, and the (unfortunate) conservatism of Americans. Leanne Pooley was approached by the twins to make the documentary after Jools was diagnosed with breast cancer and it was unclear whether or not she would pull through. Fortunately Jools did win the battle with cancer, and the documentary went on to win the People's Choice Award for Documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival (surprising everyone by beating out Michael Moore's Capitalism.) The Topp Twins was, without a doubt, the most fun documentary of the fest. Check out the trailer for the film here and you will see what I'm talking about.
(It would be a shame if The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls did not get wider distribution beyond the festival circuit, but that seems to be the case. A DVD is available on the film's website, and although 30 bucks might seem a lot for a DVD, you can share it with your friends. That's what I plan on doing.)

My Tehran for Sale (2009) Granaz Moussavi - Not Recommended
My Tehran for Sale was the only film I saw from the 2010 Global Lens series at MSPIFF. Global Lens, a yearly series of solid, under-the-radar foreign films, permanently moved into the MSPIFF lineup last year. My Tehran for Sale follows a handful of twenty-something Iranians, each with their own way of dealing with social constraints of society. Sadaf has embraced professional life and takes a devil-may-care attitude about the risky practice of attending underground concerts and events. Her friend Marzieh, however, is a struggling actress and is suffocating under the oppression. When she falls in love with Saman, and Iranian living in Australia, Marzieh starts to see a light at the end of her artistic tunnel. But an unforeseen tragedy strikes and sends Marzieh's life into a tailspin. The strict rules in which Iranian filmmakers are forced to work under have made directors understandably pessimistic, and, as a result, unrelentingly somber. Even though first time director Granaz Moussavi now lives in Australia herself, the dark tone is carried over in her film. My Tehran triumphs in its existence: shot on the sly and smuggled out of the country for editing, it is incredible well made despite the obvious obstacles. But the film flounders with the heavy-handed melodrama forced upon Marzieh. I have no doubt that the frustrations of every one of these characters is very real, but when a guttural scream is emitted under pretext, it has an inevitable resonance of falsity.

MSPIFF 2010: Day 6

Alamar (2009) Pedro González-Rubio - Highly Recommended
I am going to deem Alamar the best film I have seen at the fest so far, knocking Looking for Eric out of that top slot. I was completely taken away by the beauty and simplicity of this film. Natan is the young son born to an Italian mother and Mexican father. When his mother decides she is going to leave the jungle and move back to Italy with her son, Natan goes on a final farewell visit with his father and grandfather on the island of Quintana Roo, 30 miles off coast in the Caribbean Sea. The three of them spend their time fishing, cooking, napping and playing as if none of it was their duty but was simply their pleasure. Diving for lobster and snappers among the reef with only the aid of a snorkel and a spear; fishing for barracuda with a spool of fishing line and a baited hook; taming a visiting egret by feeding it roaches; and cleaning and preparing the catch of the day—all are the unconscious endeavors far from the modern world. Director Pedro González-Rubio's oft quoted response to whether Alamar is a feature film or a documentary film is the evasive answer that "It is a film." What is clear about the the film is that no one is acting beyond what is natural. The father and son have a natural bond that you never question. But Alamar also exists in an idealistic realm beyond 'realism'. The elegant narrative plays out like a Greek myth with the father as the Greek god and his son the cherub that someday will have great power. It seems only natural for people to wonder if this myth is true. The finale shot, with Natan in Rome with his mother, seems to exist on another planet.
(Alamar is playing at the Best of the Fest, Sunday, May 2 at 9:30pm.)

The Oath (2010) Laura Poitras - Highly Recommended
From the award winning documentary filmmaker of My Country, My Country, Laura Poitras, The Oath is yet another very thoughtful documentary about the effects of the war in Iraq. Concerned with our misguided efforts of capturing and imprisoning enemy combatants, the film spends much of its time interviewing Abu Jandal, a high level al Qaeda operative and Osama bin Laden's bodyguard who now drives a cab in Yemen. Jandal was one of the U.S.'s first key informants after 9-11. In a Yemeni jail at the time, Jandal was an example of how the FBI's tactics of compassion, not the CIA's of torture, are more productive in interrogation. By taking part in a progressive program called the Dialogue Project, Jandal has pledged his life to non-violence after being released from prison. Jadal's life as a free man is contrasted with his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan. Hamdam, wanted for being bin Laden's driver, was captured, most likely tortured and left to languish in prison at Guantanamo Bay. Despite the fact that Jandal carried the gun, and Hamdam sat behind the wheel, Jandal is the success story. Hamdam was the first to be tried under the dodgy laws set up for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and was subsequently acquitted and released. Hamdam refused to take part in the film, but his words, read via letter, resonate. These two stories are delicately woven together and presented to the audience with little bias. The account that Jandal gives regarding how he learned about 9-11, and the fact that it was carried out by people he knew, is completely arresting.
(The Oath will be released in NYC on May 7.)

Air Doll (2009) Hirokazu Kore-eda - Undecided!
If I had never heard of Hirokazu Kore-eda, my feelings for Air Doll would be much different. As it is, I'm a fan of his films and admire his subtle style, and that is why I can not completely condemn this disappointing film. As the title implies, this film is about a blow up doll. Nozomi is owned by a lonely bachelor who has obviously given up on living women in favor of his docile and obedient doll. Treating her as his inanimate wife, he talks to her, baths her and of course has sex with her. Nozomi is not you average blow-up doll. She is far more modeled and realistic than the ones that you buy at the corner sex shop. One day, however, Nozomi animates. She gets a job in a video store (owned by a man who loves Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor & Humanity) and falls in love with her shy co-worker played by Kore-eda regular, Arata. Nozomi is, however, still an air doll who doesn't age and is susceptible to punctures. It's an absurd premise that almost works under Kore-eda's gentle guide. The mix of comedy, drama and the macabre I can take, but its horrendous slides into cheesy melodrama are unforgivable. I stuck with the film until that very last all-the-lonely-people montage where it completely lost me. I'm grateful that MSPIFF showed this film, because I have been eying the $45 Japanese DVD for about a month now. Boy am I glad I didn't buy that!

Interview with Louis Lapat: WIN OR LOSE - A SUMMER CAMP STORY

I always try to have a nose for the smaller films that get overlooked, but when the schedule was announced for MSPIFF, my objective was to find the biggest films in a bucket of small films. Hence, my lame excuse for passing over Win or Lose: A Summer Camp Story, a short documentary by Louis Lapat. I had already mapped out my plan for conquering MSPIFF when Louis contacted me about seeing and review his documentary. Although I was unable to make it to his film, he joined Daniel (from Getafilm) and I for our film goat gathering. Over a drink and a chat, Louis was kind enough to pass along a screener. We went our separate ways and I said that I would be in touch.

Embarrassingly, over a month later I finally got around to watching Win or Lose and I was pleasantly surprised. Like great things that come in small packages, Louis' short documentary, under an hour, is about as engaging as anything that is likely to come down the pipe. Win or Lose takes place at Camp Ojibwa in Wisconsin, an all boys summer camp that focuses on sports. The camp's trademark is a competition among teams called Collegiate Week. As one of the campers says of Collegiate Week, "There is winning and absolutely nothing." What starts out as a frat-boy testosterone driven narrative, slowly morphs into a sensitive and thought provoking real life drama.

Louis was kind enough to talk to me about MSPIFF, his film, summer camp, The Blues Brothers and what it takes to be a Ojibwa boy:

First of all, how did the screening at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival go?
My whole experience at the film festival was very positive. My favorite part was meeting so many people in such a short period of time from the festival director Ryan Oestreich to local film bloggers such as yourself. For the screening, I was worried that I wouldn't have a huge crowd because the film was competing against some bigger films that night. Also, I had noticed that the festival was just beginning to hand out programs two hours before the screening. With that said, there was about 60 people that showed up for the screening. It played great. All the laughs came in the right spot. I'm pretty sure most people liked it, they all stayed for the QNA and no one asked really ignorant questions like 'what were you trying to say in the film?' or 'what's the deal with the animation?' They all got it.

Was there anyone at the screening that had been to Camp Ojibwa or had a similar experience?
Yes, there was one person from Camp Ojibwa at the screening. The Camp Ojibwa people always pretty much love the film. There are so many things about camp that stay with you. The sound of morning taps or the way your arms feel after losing a Tug of War. The movie just brings all these emotional memories back. Also, Camp Ojibwa is so hard to explain to people. As someone that went to camp, you want to be able to express how important winning a box hockey match is, but no one would get you, and no one would care. This movie makes these unexplainable camp-concepts understandable.

When is the next chance to catch Win or Lose?
It is being screened twice this Sunday in Highland Park, Illinois. It was just something that was assumed from the get-go. There would always be a screening in Highland Park because everyone that went to Camp Ojibwa is from Highland Park. If you were born in Highland Park, you know about Camp Ojibwa. I think it is going to be an exciting screening. Remember the part in The Blues Brothers before Jake and Elwood go on for their final show at the end of the film? There's like a thousand people in the theater and they are going crazy. That's how I imagine it. We'll see how reality compares.

But aren't people who go to the camp from all over the country?
Not really, there are people from all over the country but a majority, like 90% are from Highland Park, Illinois and the surrounding suburbs just north of Chicago.

What made you decide to make this film?
I went to camp 10 years ago. The first 3 years were fantastic, the last year was tough. During my last year at camp I was 15 and I wanted to stay home that summer. My goals were to sleep in every day and play Madden '94 on my Sega till nightfall, then repeat. My mom thought that plan was not ambitious enough so she sent me away to camp. At camp I had one friend, the camp hippy, we'll call him Jeff. I also had one enemy, the camp bully, we'll call him Steve. I was banking me and Jeff would be best friends all summer and everything would be hunky-dory. But Steve came along and stole Jeff from me. Now I had two enemies. I felt alone and depressed so I quit camp vowing never to return. It turns out when you walk away from things they don't necessarily want to walk away from you. For the next 10 years of my life, I thought about camp constantly and had dreams about it all the time. I knew I had some reconciliation to do. I also just happened to have a thesis film that I had to shoot if I wanted to graduate and I always knew collegiate week would make an exciting story.

I admit I never went to summer camp, but it seems like every component of growing up, both painful and joyful, are magnified at camp, especially Camp Ojibwa where it is so competitive. It's like an intense microcosm of your peers.
At camp there is no MTV, no parents and I'm pretty sure there are no cell phones allowed. It's just you, your friends and a bunch of athletic equipment. Also everyone is very similar: for the most part Jewish and way into sports. The emotions associated with winning and losing are magnified because there is not much else for you to do or talk about. Also, the friendships can be stronger. Some people at camp will argue that a camp friendship is much stronger than a home friendship.

There is a lot of great tension and build up in a very short amount of time. How much footage did you shoot and have to edit down to the current 58 minutes?
I shot 130 hours of footage. All the shooting of the film took about a month and a half. 2 weeks to shoot the camp competition and about a month to film the characters at their homes. I figured in a year I would be done editing. That was a miscalculation. It actually took 3 1/2 years to finish editing the film. Part of the reason it took so long was I had never edited a feature length documentary. I also found editing documentaries extremely challenging. It's very similar to writing except you have a limited pallet. You have to follow all the rules of character development, turning points, climax and resolution but you don't necessarily have the footage to back it up. There were also so many people along the way that helped me make this film that without, the film would have sucked.

Part of me feels that this whole competition is terrible for some of these kids, but then when I see the camaraderie and a real love between these guys, I change my mind. It seems that there are great life lessons to be learned at Collegiate Week, but there is also some pretty messed up psychology behind the whole thing. Where does your opinion fall?
I think in the end, competition is a valuable activity for kids and teenagers. The most important thing it teach us is how to lose. If you learn this early in life while playing a game it's so valuable down the road when you actually do lose something important. The other great thing about sports and competition is it's acts as a kind of social lubrication for boys. After boys share an intense experience like winning or losing, they can't help but have some kind of mutual respect for their teammate or rival. Today I still love sports but tend towards ones that are less competitive like pick-up ultimate frisbee games. I wonder if the same positive lessons at camp could be learned if the competition wasn't as intense? What if Camp Ojibwa was just pick-up ultimate frisbee games and long distance running all summer? Would kids still walk away with the same friendships and lessons learned about losing? Not sure.

I was totally ready to condemn the whole summer camp, but you are very good about being even-handed with the material. Was it hard to put your personal feelings about the camp aside for the process of making the movie?
For better or worst, camp shaped me. Like, I always fantasized about being the best athlete at Camp. It would have been one of the highlights of my childhood to go 1-1 in the camp wide draft. So part of me gets completely caught up in the competition and hype surrounding collegiate week. I still tear up a little bit at the end of the movie when the winners are announced. Another part of me remembers that horrible feeling of loneliness at camp my last year. I don't think camp made me feel like a loser, it was more that I was an insecure teenager who shouldn't have gone to camp that summer. With all that said, if I do have a son, I'm going to be very careful about where I send him to camp. If he can hit 60% of his free throws and can sit through a full Sunday of NFL football he might just be an Ojibwa boy.

Are you still friends with people you met at Camp Ojibwa?
I'm friends with a lot of the characters in the film. The main character, Andrew Robinson, just spent the weekend at my apartment. I'm actually not friends with any one that went to camp when I was a camper unless you count facebook friends.

Can people buy a copy of Win or Lose on DVD?
Not yet, I'm still holding off to find a DVD distributor. The best thing to do now is to become a fan on the facebook page found off the website - http://www.winorlosemovie.com/ - and I'll notify people when it becomes available.

What's on deck for you? Any projects that you are working on or thinking about?
I'm working on writing an episodic comedic internet series. It will be similar in tone to a short film I made a few years ago. The film is here:

Thanks Louis! We'll be watching!

Win or Lose official website.
Louis' production blog

MSPIFF: Day 8

No, I didn't stop going to see movies; I just failed to keep up with the daily grind. Overextending myself over the weekend left me mentally and physically exhausted. (I swear, if I get the swine flu, I'm blaming Rudo y Cursi!) Here was the Friday shizzle-sham:

My Time Will Come (2008) directed by Victor Arregui

Another Global Lens film, and another film with the best intentions and the most convoluted delivery. A sort of "Six Feet Under" of Ecuador, My Time Will Come is facilitated by Dr. Fernandez who methodically examines corpses as they arrive in the morgue. As the narrative shots off in different directions, each segue introduces us to another possible corpse. The storylines freely connect and disconnect to a point where nothing in the film has much gravity. The entire film feels like a sketch, acting included, with nothing fleshed out. My Time Will Come will probably make an appearance on DVD, if you really must see it. Not Recommended.

Food Inc. (2008) directed by Robert Kenner

Semi-full disclosure: I have worked in the wholesale distribution of organic produce in the Twin Cities for almost twelve years. This subject of where and how we get our food is not only an occupational interest, but a personal interest. Food Inc is a very well made documentary that tries to summarize all the very complex issues surrounding the foods we eat everyday. Relying heavily on interviews with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Micheal Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), Robert Kenner does his best to cover all the bases: meat industry, corn reliance, corporate domination, consumer rights, health issues, animal rights, local farms, organic conglomerates, Monsanto, Stonyfield, Walmart, and everything in between. Because the topic is so huge, you really feel like you only get a peek behind each curtain. Sometimes a peek is all you need, but some of the stories are so galvanizing you feel cheated not getting to know more. Specifically is a farmer who never bought into Monsanto patented seeds and continued to farm corn and soybeans the 'old fashioned' way by saving seeds. Monsanto gets pissed, takes on the farmer until he can no longer afford to fight the corporate lawyers. It's an unbelievable story. I wish everyone could see Food Inc., but ultimately the people who will see this doc are already committed to a Co-op or a CSA or a farmer's market. That being said, I do think that we, the committed, can hone our voice for change, the better chance we will have in inciting that change. (Anybody see a soapbox?) I'm going to do a more detailed review/soapbox chat when I get a chance. Food Inc. is set to open in domestically sometime this summer, and will probably find a good audience here. Highly Recommended.

Film Goats retired to the very crowded Pracna for talk of film, food and other random association topics. Our group grew to the point we were standing around a small table and had to be moved to a different room. (Unbeknownst to me, a tandem post-White Man's World party was also rollicking in Pracna.) We burned the midnight oil, and Daniel and I were the last soldiers to fall. For anyone else who was up at 1:00 Saturday morning, it was cold! I pedaled as fast as I could, but had a very cold bike ride home. (Maybe this is where I got the swine flu...)