Hot Docs 2008 Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Hot Docs 2008: A Bunch of Films and Sadness Later...
Filed under: Documentary », Festival Reports », Other Festivals »
Sturla Gunnarsson introducing Air India 182.
Last year was the easy selection of Hot Docs. I got to see a ton of films, and most of them were pretty damned uplifting. I laughed at the sheer awesomeness of Billy the Kid, cheered for Girls Rock!, got a huge craving for tea with All in This Tea, got some art on with A Walk Into the Sea, gaped at Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse, and was in awe of Jessica Yu's Protagonist.
It wasn't a smile fest this year. This time around, the theme was death, tragedy, and all sorts of seriousness. Most of them were pretty damn good, but it's been an exhausting week and a half seeing these films, thinking about them, and then writing about them. I still wish scheduling had permitted me to dip into the worlds of Wesley Willis and Kathy Acker, and some of the other docs I was itching to see. I have a feeling they would've helped matters a little.
Hot Docs Review: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
We always champion the documentaries that do their best to separate emotion from filmmaking. While we recognize that a documentary can never be completely unbiased, we praise the films in which a hard-hitting subject can resonate without the director's emotions overtly influencing the portrayal. But I would argue that sometimes that skewed perspective is not only necessary, but required. With Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, Kurt Kuenne bares his heart and soul. He shows his biased and emotional viewpoint, and that pulls the film out of the realms of the normal documentary and into something infinitely more memorable and inspiring.
*Note: Readers have commented that IMDb has spoilers, so check it out at your own risk!
As Erik Davis noted in his review earlier this year from Slamdance, Dear Zachary is a film to go into with as little knowledge of the story as possible, so like him, I'm continuing the review after the jump. That being said, what follows definitely isn't a spoilerfest. I will remain tight-lipped on many of the twists and turns that the film takes, so if you don't mind learning the basic story, continue on.
Hot Docs Review: Killer Poet
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
"When I look at JJ, it makes me believe in the possibility of redemption."
Redemption. Reversals. Grey area. These are the things that make the idea of a binary, black and white life so very flawed. There is a certain comfort in the thought of a world that is cut and dry and free from confusion, but it is something we can never achieve. In between each yes and no, in between each bit of good and bad, there is grey area and the possibility for change. But unless we are faced with the wonderful shades of life that lie between, it's easy to dismiss them. However, it wasn't so easy for the pro-death penalty man who uttered the phrase above, and the many others in Chicago who were shocked to discover that their beloved poet and church member JJ Jameson was also Norman Porter -- a man convicted of two murders who had escaped from prison twenty years earlier.
Hot Docs Review: Mechanical Love
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
Sorry, ASFR (alt.sex.fetish.robot) fans, this isn't a story of robot love. Mechanical Love has a more humanist approach, tapping not into the sexual world of Real Dolls and non-human sexual outlets, but rather the desire and need for companionship.
Phie Ambo's Mechanical Love begins by noting that soon the elderly will outnumber children for the first time in human history. Obviously, this leads to questions about how these people will be cared for -- and I don't just mean how they will get fed and provided shelter, but also who will give them actual care and attention. The older generations already have a limited number of ways to get personal interaction, even though it is something that is necessary to continue their drive to live. In response to these changes and concerns, there are engineers like Professor Ishiguro who are developing robots not for work or sex, but for human companionship.
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