With over 170 films screened over ten days in April, Hot Docs is the largest documentary film festival in North America. While it may not have the celebrity-gawking star power of September’s Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs makes up for it with an abundance of thought-provoking films tackling everything from human interest stories to insects getting it on.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
A behind-the-scenes examination of the $180 million Beatles extravaganza Love, All Together Now depicts the two surviving Beatles with awed reverence. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is pitched at the same superficial level. Though competent and fast-paced, director Adrian Wills never delves into the inner-workings of the production, nor does he examine the reasons behind the band’s enduring appeal. All Together Now is more puffery than documentary, yet almost worth the price of admission for several nifty candid shots of the Beatles and their hangers on: Paul and Ringo seated together during the show mouthing their own lyrics; Yoko Ono in mid-hissy fit; and George Martin offhandedly miming the cello during “She’s Leaving Home,” among others.
Rating: VVv
GREEN PORNO
Dressed in a variety of bug costumes while posing in front of tacky, brightly coloured backdrops, Isabella Rossellini describes the mating habits of various insects. This series of shorts has inspired snickers over the sexual subject matter, but Rossellini (who also directs) presents the material with a rather charming, childlike sense of awe at both nature and the mechanics of sex.
Rating: VVVV
AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR
The latest from Peter Gilbert and Steve James, whose film Hoop Dreams remains one of the most acclaimed documentaries of all time. At the Death House Door packs a similar emotional wallop, profiling Carroll Pickett, a prison chaplain who presided over the executions of nearly 100 prisoners. Gilbert and James devote special attention to Carlos De Luna, who was executed on murder charges despite growing evidence that put his guilt into question. A powerful anti-death penalty statement done quietly.
Rating: VVVVv
GARBAGE! THE REVOLUTION STARTS AT HOME
What begins as a gimmicky documentary turns into a feverish rant over 76 rushed minutes. Aping the style of Super Size Me, director Andrew Nisker enlists his friends, the McDonald family, to store all of their garbage in their garage for three months. During this time, Nisker travels across the continent to see the effects of pollution on our environment. While the McDonalds’ plight is fitfully entertaining, Nisker haphazardly tackles too many topics. Some of his segments work (do most consumer goods really need so much packaging?), but others misfire: it’s unfortunate, for example, that the community around a garbage dump has seen property values nosedive, but doesn’t Nisker realize this is an inevitability? As his checklist of offenders rises, the film feels less like a cry for a revolution than a caterwaul of hopelessness.
Rating: VV
VIRTUAL JFK: VIETNAM IF KENNEDY HAD LIVED
The title is a misnomer: Virtual JFK is actually a fairly standard retelling of political events during the Vietnam War, and the war’s escalation during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Still, it’s all compelling material that will undoubtedly make for prime viewing on the History Channel. Particularly fascinating is the abundance of footage from Kennedy’s press conferences, where he appears witty and charismatic, and the coda on LBJ is sympathetic to his crises of conscience without excusing his mistakes.
Rating: VVV
AIR INDIA 182
Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson (Beowulf & Grendel), Air India 182 intersperses staged re-enactments of the notorious 1985 terrorist attack with interviews of airport personnel, victims’ families, and others involved in the bombing and its investigation. While the re-enactments are created with the same level of realism as United 93, Gunnarsson has difficulty maintaining a consistent visual style (some scenes are shaky-cam, others feature intimate close-ups and smooth establishing shots). Worse, these sequences clash with the stylized interview segments, turning what should be a harrowing and emotional work into a cold and distanced one.
Rating: VV
S&M: SHORT AND MALE
The plight of the short-in-stature man is chronicled through this tongue-in-cheek documentary, which highlights examples of the discrimination they face. Howard Goldberg’s film is occasionally funny and even shocking (a long section deals with painful procedures that can increase height by several inches), and it brings to light some interesting facts (every additional inch in a man’s height can translate to thousands in salary). But Goldberg needs a better editor: his transitions from comic to dramatic scenes are abrupt and jarring, and his set pieces are edited together arbitrarily with little sense of flow or momentum. S&M peaks around its midpoint, and grows increasingly tiresome from then on.
Rating: VVv
