Editor’s Note:
Doc Soup is a monthly documentary screening programme run by the good folks at
Hot Docs. It gives audiences in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver their regular doc fix each year from the fall through to the spring, leading up to the Hot Docs festival itself.
Last Train Home (Director: Lixin Fan): China is arguably the world’s most important economy at the moment and the past fifty years have seen incredible changes, politically, economically and socially. Many filmmakers have emerged from the country, including a number of excellent documentarians. Chinese-Canadian Lixin Fan can proudly stand among them with Last Train Home, just his first feature film as director.
In my limited experience, to make a great film about China, you must encompass the country’s vastness, both in terms of geography and of population, but also be able to focus in on individual stories. In this case, we are introduced to the Zhangs, a family of migrant workers, just as the parents are about to make their yearly journey home to their village to celebrate Chinese New Year. Along with 140 million other migrant workers, this is often the only occasion they get to spend time with their children and parents. Making their way from the industrial city in which they work to their village in the countryside is an exhausting and stressful multi-day journey of more than 2,000 kilometres. Traveling by train, bus and ferry boat, they arrive exhausted and are able to spend only a few days with their son Yang (10) and daughter Qin (17), who have grown up under the care of their grandparents.
Despite the economic realities which make it necessary for families to be divided this way, the Zhangs feel they are doing it so that their children will have better lives. They constantly badger their children about their grades, perhaps because they really have nothing else to talk about. Daughter Qin is reaching the stage of adolescence where she begins to rebel against her parents. She complains that they’ve essentially abandoned her and her brother and a few months after they’ve returned to the city, she drops out of school to become a migrant worker herself. The boredom of rural life for a teenager looks very different from the perspective of her parents who have been away for 16 years working in horrific conditions just to provide their kids with this protected upbringing, but that’s lost on Qin, who wants the “freedom” of working in a factory.
While this is a crushing blow for her parents, who wanted to see her finish her studies, by the next year, they’re ready to travel home again for the New Year holiday. They’ve been pressuring Qin to return to school, and it looks as though she’s reluctantly agreed. But this year’s migration is affected by a snowstorm which knocks out the electrical grid and delays the trains for days. The scenes of huge crowds pushing each other are harrowing. While the trip home is a huge hassle at the best of times, it become a terrifying ordeal when schedules don’t run smoothly. When they finally board their train, it’s clear that Qin is not speaking with her parents, and she spends the whole trip in sullen silence.
Things come to a head during the holiday, and Qin’s insolence leads to a physical confrontation with her father. Eventually, like all parents, they resign themselves to letting Qin go her own way, hoping that son Yang can finish school and support the family. In the meantime, they return to the city again, back to their monotonous factory jobs.
My synopsis makes this sound like a fiction feature, and for all the intimacy the filmmakers achieve, it might as well be. It’s helped tremendously by some very crisp editing, as well as some sweeping cinematography of the lush Chinese countryside. Last Train Home succeeds in capturing both the epic scale of the changes sweeping today’s China and their impact on the individual families struggling with them.
Two additional notes. First the disclaimer: my company (Kinosmith) is the Canadian distributor for this film. And second, the film is headed to the Sundance Film Festival, where it will compete in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Here is the Q&A with director Lixin Fan from after the screening:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Duration: 15:48
Official site of the film
(9/10)
Tagged as:
china,
family,
globalization
This is a very late leftover from
Hot Docs but I’m posting it now because I want to give people access to the recorded Q&A as well as to let you know that you can buy the film on DVD and Blu-ray from the
official site.
Objectified (Director: Gary Hustwit): Gary Hustwit was always going to have a hard time following up Helvetica. The sheer novelty of a documentary examination of a typeface would be hard to top. Instead, Objectified simply takes the first film’s approach and broadens the viewfinder. Instead of looking at pieces of text, Hustwit aims his camera at the everyday objects around us. Who designs them, and what goes into the process?
As in the first film, the camerawork is fantastic, teasing out gorgeous details in objects we often take for granted. And the interviews are just as solid and cover a fair spectrum of design philosophies. It’s no longer a novelty, but the film is solid and enjoyable. And it hints at the larger issues that trouble the best designers. That is, do we really need more stuff? What good is a beautifully-designed object that just ends up in a landfill somewhere? I would have liked to dig even deeper into these issues but I do think Hustwit makes a real effort to address the runaway consumerism that is the underlying problem with design fetishism.
I have to draw particular attention to the exemplary job Hustwit does of building a community around his films. His use of the web to promote and sell his work is nothing short of amazing, and if he ever decides to stop making films himself, I think he has another career teaching filmmakers how to connect with their audiences.
That being said, I have no desire for him to stop making such beautiful and thought-provoking films. He’s promised to wrap up his design trilogy with his next film, though he’s given no hints yet about the film’s subject. But I can say with confidence that if you liked the first two, you’re sure to enjoy the next one.
Official site of the film
Here is the Q&A with director Gary Hustwit from after the screening:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Duration: 19:20
(9/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
design
Editor’s Note:
Doc Soup is a monthly documentary screening programme run by the good folks at
Hot Docs. It gives audiences in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver their regular doc fix each year from the fall through to the spring, leading up to the Hot Docs festival itself.
October Country (Directors: Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri): Photographer Donal Mosher has been creating photo-essays of his family for many years. When cinematographer Palmieri saw them, he suggested they make a film. From that simple idea came this lovely, haunting portrait of a troubled American family. Mosher’s family live in Ilion, a small town in upstate New York, and the film covers a period of one year, beginning and ending with Hallowe’en. The title and Hallowe’en theme fit perfectly, since this is a family that seems haunted by the ghosts of the past.
Patriarch Don is an emotionally remote Vietnam vet, struggling with what he witnessed (and perhaps participated in). He’s completely estranged from his sister Denise, a lonely Wiccan who has always found solace in other worlds. Don’s wife Dottie seems to be the centre and the rock of the clan, loving everyone even when her hard-bitten wisdom is ignored, which is pretty much all the time. Her daughter Donna, who has become a grandmother in her thirties, sees her own daughter Danael making exactly the same mistakes that she once made. Then there’s Desiree, just entering her turbulent teens and wondering if she can escape the cycles of despair that the rest of the family seem doomed to repeat. Making occasional appearances (when he’s not in jail or partying with his friends) is Chris, Don and Dottie’s foster son, who has returned their patient love by robbing them on more than one occasion.
In this remarkably intimate film, each family member speaks openly about their troubles, and their efforts to break out of their destructive patterns, but something always stops them. It doesn’t help that their town is economically depressed, with the only steady jobs available at the local gun plant. Wal-mart is not only their only place to shop; its parking lot has become something of a town square, where everyone gathers to watch fireworks. Danael escapes one violent relationship with her baby’s father only to fall into another one. Her choice of men is as limited as her choice of career. The older members of the family smoke ruefully and shake their heads.
And yet. For all the gloom in the film, we can’t help caring deeply for each member of this admittedly damaged family. They are articulate, honest, and often funny, and we root for them, even when we know that nothing much can really change. Palmieri’s camera catches numerous moments of beauty in the Moshers’ lives, and Dottie admits that even with all the town’s liabilities, it’s still her favourite place to be.
Mosher and Palmieri have allowed us into the lives of people who make up a much larger proportion of the population than movies and television would ever lead us to believe. Their lives are hard, but not without meaning. The one curious omission in the film is Donal Mosher himself. It would have been much more interesting to see his interactions with his family, especially considering that he’s one who did “get out” and make his way in the larger world. You’ll hear some of his reasoning for not appearing in the film in the audio Q&A, but for something that started out so personal, he seemed determined not to impose his own feelings onto the film.
October Country is brave and unflinching. It’s interesting to note that the filmmakers gave the family members final cut of the film. Their honesty and eloquence in the midst of their troubles display some of the best qualities that human beings can embody, and the film is a beautiful portrait of these imperfect lives.
Here is the Q&A with directors Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri from after the screening:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Duration: 14:31
Official site of the film
(8/10)
Tagged as:
family,
smalltown
Editor’s Note:
Doc Soup is a monthly documentary screening programme run by the good folks at
Hot Docs. It gives audiences in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver their regular doc fix each year from the fall through to the spring, leading up to the Hot Docs festival itself.
The September Issue (Director: R.J. Cutler): Vogue’s September issue is its largest and most important of the year, and work begins on it almost a year in advance. R.J. Cutler and his small crew were granted unprecedented access to the process of putting the whole thing together.
The film begins with Vogue’s Editor in Chief Anna Wintour opining that fashion intimidates a lot of people, and therefore those people mock it. She could very well have been speaking about herself. Infamously lampooned by Meryl Streep in the film The Devil Wears Prada (based on a memoir by a former Vogue intern that portrays Wintour as a bit of a tyrant), Wintour has a reputation for meanness and iciness that has always seemed a bit undeserved to me. In fact, I’ve always had a bit of a crush on the so-called “Ice Queen.” My wife worked for several years as a copy editor at a fashion magazine here in Toronto, and her stories have made me feel a lot of sympathy for Ms. Wintour. She seems to be someone who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and the world of fashion seems overpopulated by fools.
Cutler’s film has only confirmed my opinion of Wintour, although there are comparatively few fools on display. When she’s asked late in the film what her greatest strength is, she unhesitatingly replies, “Decisiveness.” It’s what has propelled her and Vogue to the top of the notoriously fickle fashion world. She is an editor, someone who is called upon every day to decide between competing creative work, and that calls for a certain ruthlessness. Fashion is creative, but it’s also a business, and without someone making hard decisions, Vogue would certainly falter.
We meet two other types of people in The September Issue. The creative and generally hard-working people who act as writers, editors, photographers, art directors and designers. And then there are the sycophants, the air-kissers and ass kissers. The latter type is refreshingly more absent than I’d feared, but the examples on display (the buffoonery of André Leon Talley, the spinelessness of design director Charles Churchward) add a healthy dose of humour to the film, even if we’re cringing as we’re laughing.
The film actually spends more time with Creative Director Grace Coddington than it does with Wintour. The fire to Wintour’s ice, Coddington is a former model who has has worked with Wintour at Vogue for more than twenty years. Despite the fact that she was initially hostile to the filmmakers, she ends up opening up the most to them, and her passion, creativity and candor warm up the film considerably. One gets the sense that her ongoing battles with the editor over photo shoots are an integral part of what makes the magazine so consistently excellent.
But back to Wintour for a moment. As she talks about her English upbringing and the achievements of her siblings (“What I do amuses them, I think”), what comes through to this Canadian is reserve and perhaps shyness (why do you think she wears the sunglasses so often?) rather than any sense of hostility. I think Americans are simply a more gregarious people than most, and so her gentility comes across as something more sinister. She’s considerably more relaxed around her daughter, Bee Shaffer, and the scenes showing her support of young designer Thakoon also showed me a more tender side.
I found The September Issue hugely enjoyable, both for the inside look into the work of so many people coming together to create the magazine, and also for the revealing portrayal of the dynamic between a few of the people surrounding Anna Wintour. Although she barely lets her guard down, the little bit she does show dispels the myth that she’s heartless. If anything, it shows that she’s just incredibly busy, and her efficiency is a survival tactic. The film has only heightened my respect and admiration for her. Which is just a fancy way of saying that my crush is not only intact, it’s increasing. When she does finally retire, I desperately hope she’ll write a memoir. Maybe she can call it, Yes, I Wear Prada. You Gotta Problem With That?
The September Issue opens in Toronto on Friday October 23 at the Varsity Cinema.
Interview with Grace Coddington about the film
Official site of the film
(9/10)
Tagged as:
fashion,
Magazines,
publishing,
vogue
When We Were Boys (Director: Sarah Goodman): I was a big fan of Sarah Goodman’s first film Army of One (review) which premiered at Hot Docs in 2004 and so when I saw she had another film at Hot Docs, I was eager to see it. Unfortunately, it’s taken me several weeks longer than anticipated to finally sit down and watch it.
When We Were Boys is a vérité portrait of a private boys’ school here in Toronto, and it particularly focuses on the friendship between two boys. Noah is sensitive and polite, a good student and a standout in the choir. Colin is louder, more rambunctious, able to charm his teachers into letting him get away with things. We pick up the story in Grade 8, with the boys razzing each other while playing videogames. As Goodman’s camera follows them over the next year, we become immersed in the barely-controlled chaos that is school. Despite the boys’ privilege, they are just as energetic and restless as any other kids at that age. Many of them try to manipulate and charm their teachers, which although it happens elsewhere, seems particularly menacing given that within ten years, most of these kids will make more money than their teachers ever will. It’s hard to determine whether their sense of entitlement is just part of their generation or whether it has anything to do with their families’ wealth. Goodman begins the film with a long shot of the procession of expensive cars that drop their sons off each morning, and it very clearly makes the point that these boys are special. Their teachers drive the point home repeatedly as well, that they have great responsibilities to go with their privilege, but of course the message is lost on 13-year-old boys.
As the film follows the boys into Grade 9, some of the minor characters drop into the background even further as it becomes apparent that Noah is being ostracized for some reason. It’s never clear exactly why he’s no longer popular, although it could have something to do with the fact that other students seem to think his family is wealthier than the rest of them. Noah takes it stoically, but some of the shots of him sitting alone at lunch or walking home are heartbreaking. His rejection by Colin is especially painful to watch.
But then suddenly, the film skips another year into the future, and Noah and Colin are back in Noah’s basement playing videogames together. Noah tentatively asks Colin what happened, but doesn’t get an answer. That’s sort of the position the viewer is put in, as well. Goodman has beautifully captured the energy and shifting allegiances of boys at this age, but there’s very little sense of the boys’ inner lives. By picking boys rather than girls, she’s staked out particularly difficult terrain. Boys hardly talk to anyone about what’s going on in their heads at this age, never mind documentary filmmakers. So all we can see is their outward behaviour, which is guarded and superficial.
The end result is that the viewer is left to project his own remembrances of adolescence onto the boys. The soundtrack almost encourages this, helping the film feel nostalgic even as events are happening. Ultimately, though, that didn’t feel satisfying to me. Noah seems like a very interesting character, and there is one scene where he talks somewhat freely to his barber about the expectations being put on him, but for me that was almost a tease. I suppose that wanting to know things the boys themselves may not know is putting unrealistic expectations on the film, but I can’t deny that I am still left wanting something more.
Official site of the film
(7/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
adolescence
