family

Daddy Tran: A Life in 3-D (2008, Director: Sia Tu): At first glance, this appears to be a film about an artist who has a passion for 3-D photography. Unfortunately this film is more about Hai “Daddy” Tran’s lifelong obsession with photography and its impact on his family.

Tran is an interesting subject for a film. He’s charismatic, passionate about photography and he runs a vintage camera store in an industry that is dominated by digital cameras. He loves to collect things and not just a few — thousands of cameras and lenses, jewelry, lights, lawn ornaments. Every door inside his house has multiple locks. It takes four keys just to get inside his house!

I found Hai Tran to be more a lovable eccentric than a true artist or photographer. I was hoping this film would be a little more along the lines of What Remains (2005) or Manufactured Landscapes (2006). Tran appears to be more of a holiday snapper than a photographer. I guess this is why the film focuses more on his obsessions and character rather than his photography.

Daddy Tran: A Life in 3-D is an average documentary film for me. The production values could have been stronger and I found that the same photos were being used repeatedly in different parts of the film.

I might have enjoyed the film a little more if:

• the projectionist didn’t stop the film 3 minutes in because it was being shown in the wrong aspect ratio
• the film didn’t stop 10 minutes later because it was missing the subtitles
• director Siu Ta brought the correct version of the film and checked it before the screening

Siu Ta wanted to cancel the screening and reschedule it for a later date! Thankfully an audience member persuaded her to just show the film. She used a microphone and translated parts of the film while it played.

Watching this film was probably the most unique experience I’ve had at Hot Docs. What made all of these glitches ironic was that it screened with Behind the Glass (review) — a film about projectionists and their importance in the presentation of a film.

(6/10)

Tagged as: family, photography

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El Bola (Pellet) (Director: Achero Mañas, Spain, 2000): Pablo’s nickname is Pellet, hence the title of this film. I didn’t know anything about this film before popping it in the DVD player, so I had no idea what kind of a ride I was in for.

The ride was great. Performances are authentic and at times, appropriately subtle. The actual subject matter doesn’t arise until almost halfway through the film; a style that doesn’t always work, but definitely does here.

Pellet loiters around town with some of his misfit, daredevil peers and befriends the new kid at school, Alfredo. Alfredo provides Pellet with a simple camaraderie that Pellet seems to never have known before, and he is obviously needy for this kind of friendship. Still, he initially feels out of place in certain situations, such as spending time in Alfredo’s family environment; granted, Alfredo’s family environment may not be the most “normal”, but we soon see why Pellet is tentative.

The film touches indirectly on a lot of themes and situations that are not very developed, but I appreciate the realistic snapshot of time-and-place that this method provides; they also work to advance characters rather than plot. We never really get the story on some of the supporting characters but it ends up not really mattering; somehow the subtle oddities of certain people and events gives the film a “truth is stranger than fiction” sort of backdrop.

I was very impressed with the lead actor Juan José Ballesta, who played the title character at only thirteen years of age. I didn’t recognize him at first, but later realized that I saw him in person a couple of years ago at TIFF when he was in town to promote the film 7 vírgenes.

El Bola is a powerful film that deserves the many awards and nominations that it received. It is a moving story that is painful at times and heartwarming at others. It authenticates itself through its photography, characters, performances and sadly, the story itself. I think that Jay would consider this to be a “Jason Chu film”, so it’s no surprise that many moments of it recall Truffaut’s Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows).

Note: Film Movement featured this film as their Year 1 Film 1. That’s right, it was their very first pick. As an added bonus, the film is on sale right now for half price, making it a bargain even for non-subscribers to Film Movement’s service.

Official site for the film (Spanish only)

Tagged as: adolescence, DVD, DVD Clubs, family, Film Movement, spain

The Bodybuilder and I (Director: Bryan Friedman, Canada, 2007): I was looking forward to this documentary as I have been known to do a few bench presses at the gym. But bodybuilding was simply the backdrop for this very personal journey for a son and father.

Bill Friedman had been a bad husband, a workaholic and an absent father. But after a second divorce and a bout of depression, he quit his job at the law firm, headed to the gym and started pumping iron. In fact, he became a competitive bodybuilder.

Knowing this information from reading the synopsis gave me a bias. I didn’t like Bill. He was obnoxious, gruff and…well, let’s just say I felt for his son, director Bryan Friedman. I took Bryan’s side against an absent father who never had time for his kids, who was only looking out for number one, perhaps someone who didn’t deserve a son.

Yet, at a turning point in the film, when Bryan and Bill discuss the past, I realize that it takes two people to create animosity. Bryan has to let go of his anger. Ah, Bryan, get over it. Stop whining and blaming your dad for your problems.

As father and son journeyed to self-discovery, I journeyed with them. And I think that’s what makes the film very strong. Their feelings come right off the screen. The all-business dad and the woe-is-me son are human. And in between more comedic sections: Bill practicing his routine (for the bodybuilding competition), tanning or trying on his costume, the relationship is starting to develop through the bodybuilding, the sweat and the inevitable tears.

The father/son message comes through: although you can’t make up for lost time, life is too short to hold grudges. Forgive and forget and start anew. And that’s what Bryan and Bill are doing.

(9/10)

UPDATE: The film was awarded Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the Hot Docs Awards ceremony held on April 27. Congratulations to director Bryan Friedman and everyone involved in the film.

Tagged as: family, fathers-and-sons

Tell Them Who You Are (Director: Mark Wexler, USA, 2004): Oscar-winning cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler is a man who is invariably praised as brilliant, but he has just as often called “a pain the ass to work with.” This portrait by his son Mark Wexler delves beneath the accolades to find out what sort of man, and father, he really is. It’s a painful and awkward journey at times.

We get a standard series of talking heads, including actors, directors and other cinematographers who have worked with Wexler. We learn a few things: that despite all the accolades as a director of photography, Haskell Wexler suffers from colour blindness. Also, that he thinks he could have done a better job of directing every film he ever worked on as a cinematographer. The difference in a few of these interviews is that Mark is often asking them for advice on getting closer to his dad, with whom he’s had a complicated relationship. The fact that Mark chose to enter the same line of work as his dad may be the cause or the effect of this alienation.

Mark Wexler is clearly not the gifted cameraman that his father was. And he has spent years trying to emerge from his father’s enormous shadow. Which makes his decision to make this film an odd one. In trying to decipher his relationship with his father, he has made the film he will be remembered for. And it’s a film in which Mark again fails to emerge from his father’s enormous shadow. It’s not that it’s not a powerful film. It’s just that the force of Haskell Wexler’s personality, even into his 80s, crowds out his son.

Both father and son express many times during the film their desire for the project to bring them closer, and by the end, perhaps it has, but I’ve often found it a particularly male issue that our most intimate interactions with each other have to be mediated in some way. Many times in the film one or the other of the Wexlers are behind a camera while trying to express some awkward emotion.

In some ways, the fact that this is a very unpolished film works both for and against it. It’s certainly not neatly resolved by the end, which is a strength, but on the other hand, Wexler Jr.’s very artlessness as a filmmaker comes across as a weakness. This is the source of a lot of humour in the film, since Haskell is often crankily dispensing advice to his son behind the camera

Not in the film itself, but in one of the extras, we see Haskell’s reaction to the finished film, and it’s extremely emotional and cathartic to see him praising his son’s work, maybe for the first time in any substantial way. It’s not a perfect film, but I suppose as an emotional document of two people reaching toward each other, it’s perfect enough.

Official site for the film

(8/10)

Tagged as: family, fathers-and-sons