Billy the Kid

by James McNally on April 22, 2007

in Documentaries, Film Festivals, Hot Docs

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Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid (Director: Jennifer Venditti, USA, 2007): I’d heard good things about this film when I was at South by Southwest a few weeks ago, but had no idea what it was about. The titular Billy is Billy Price, a 15-year-old living in rural Maine. He’s definitely a bit of an oddball. Left out or picked on at school, he seems to have no idea how to say or do the right thing in social situations. And yet he’s sensitive and articulate and lives by a strict code of honour. First-time filmmaker Jennifer Venditti (whose other job is as a casting agent) met Billy while casting a fiction film and was captivated by him. Shot in just eight days, the film captures, incredibly, Billy experiencing all the exhilaration and terror of first love. There are some moments of such raw emotional honesty that I found myself cringing one minute and beaming the next. Billy’s greatest disability may also be his most winning trait as a film character: he doesn’t have the same boundaries as the rest of us. He shares his heart, sometimes awkwardly but always sincerely.

Though technically the film is very rough (lighting was a particular challenge), the sense of intimacy more than makes up for that. Director Venditti let us know in the Q&A after the screening that since the film’s completion, Billy had been in some trouble at school and was forced to undergo a mental examination. After all this time, he was finally diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. But Venditti was very careful not to talk about issues of diagnosis or treatment in the film, because her aim was to show Billy as a real and whole person. Often, we define people by the labels attached to them by society, and the only label that could ever encompass Billy would be Billy.

Here is the Q&A with director Jennifer Venditti from after the screening:

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Duration: 14:51

NOTE: Billy the Kid screened with a charming little short called The Truth About Tooth, from Scottish director Hazel Baillie, who also appears on the Q&A.

Hot Docs programmer Shannon Abel interviews Jennifer Venditti

Official site for the film

8/10(8/10)

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Helvetica

by James McNally on April 22, 2007

in Documentaries, Film Festivals, Hot Docs

Helvetica

Helvetica (Director: Gary Hustwit, UK, 2007): This was THE hot buzz film of the festival, and a lot of people didn’t get in to see it who wanted to. I’m still a bit baffled that there could be that many font geeks in Toronto, but I suppose that since we all use computers now, everyone knows what Helvetica is.

Gary Hustwit is the co-founder of Plexifilm, and has been involved as a producer in the making of a number of documentaries, but for his first project as a director, he chose to explore the legacy of Helvetica, a font which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Despite its age, it seems as popular as ever, appearing in logotypes for companies as diverse as Toyota, American Airlines, Target, Crate and Barrel, and American Apparel, to name just a tiny fraction. What has allowed Helvetica such longevity, where other more recent trends (like the grunge fonts of the mid-90s) have flamed out already? Opinions differ wildly.

According to some, Helvetica feels like the final version of sans serif typography, and attempts to improve upon it just fail. For others, the arrival of the computer and the installation of default fonts just means that people are lazy. If you thought a bunch of well-dressed graphic designers arguing over a typeface would be boring, you’d be ever so wrong.

Spanning several countries, Hustwit’s film takes us inside the studios of such leading lights of design as Matthew Carter, Erik Spiekermann, Massimo Vignelli, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Stefan Sagmeister, and David Carson. If these names mean nothing to you, you’ll still mostly enjoy the film, a beautifully-designed thing which is punctuated by real-world examples of the font in use, shot in rich high-definition and set to a wonderful soundtrack. You may just tune out all of those designer concepts and controversy.

And if you do know the names? Well, font geeks, not only are you in for a treat, but this fall, Mr. Hustwit will have a wonderfully jam-packed DVD to sell you.

Here is the Q&A with director Gary Hustwit from after the screening:

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Duration: 14:12

Q&A with director Gary Hustwit from the Hot Docs site

Official site for the film

9/10(9/10)

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The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun

by James McNally on April 22, 2007 · 2 comments

in Documentaries, Film Festivals, Hot Docs

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun (Director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær, Denmark, 2006): Mr. Vig is an elderly bachelor living in a broken-down castle. For years, he has dreamed of establishing a monastery there, “to create something enduring,” and so, sensing he doesn’t have long to live, he invites the Russian Orthodox church to use his property. They send a small group of nuns to check the place out, including the shrewd Sister Amvrosya. They leave and then return in a few months, and Mr. Vig spends time trying to clean and fix the place up. Once the nuns are more established, he finds himself butting heads with Sister Amvrosya over the renovations and the future plans for the monastery. But for the first time in his life, he seems to have entered a domestic relationship with a woman, and finds the contentment that seems to have eluded him in his long life.

This film was unbelievably touching and beautiful, from the 35mm cinematography (which is becoming rarer all the time in the world of documentary filmmaking) to the soundtrack to the very low-key direction. There are many small grace notes throughout the film, like shots of Sister Amvrosya and Mr. Vig walking in the garden, or her preparing food for him. Everything is unspoken, but there is a very real bond between these two.

Throughout the film, Mr. Vig laments that he just isn’t like other people, that he doesn’t know anything about love, that when it comes to emotions, he’s “deformed” or “a cripple.” And yet, he invites people into his house, invites God into his house, and it somehow becomes a home.

The metaphor seems obvious but it’s true. The house is the man. Ramshackle, run down, a little dirty, perhaps, but full of interesting things and stories, and ultimately beautiful. This quietly powerful film will stay with me for a long time.

Official site for the film

9/10(9/10)

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