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:
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Duration: 19:20
(9/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
design
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
Steel Homes (Director: Eva Weber): I’m not in the habit of reviewing shorts, but as it happens, I ran into the director of Steel Homes at a Hot Docs party and she eagerly pressed a copy of her film into my hand. The reason I usually don’t review shorts has nothing to do with the perceived quality of the films, and everything to do with my perceived lack of talent at writing about them. Nevertheless, here I go.
Eva Weber has taken a look inside a self-storage facility and has asked some questions. What kinds of people keep their stuff here? Why do they do it? Why are there some things we can’t keep with us and yet can’t throw away? In ten short minutes, the film elegantly attempts to answer these questions by means of a perceptive camera moving at a stately pace, accompanied by voiceovers from some of the tenants who rent lockers. These anonymous-looking buildings have popped up all over the developed world, places to store the overflow of “stuff” that we acquire during our lifetimes. But what emerges is that people aren’t just keeping excess material goods here. In many cases, they’re constructing shrines to lost relatives or even to their own lost youth or ideals. In one case, a man has lost his home and is storing things here until he can get back on his feet again. His shrine is to a lost life as well, perhaps the life of the man he thought he could be.
By focusing only on the sterility of the facility itself, and never on the human objects it contains, the cinematography is superficially distancing, but it only makes the voiceovers more heartbreaking. As these very articulate subjects recount their attempts to grasp immortality by hanging onto a person or a memory, the images reinforce the futility of that quest.
Perhaps the best thing I can say about this short documentary is that it left me wanting more.
Official site of the film
(8/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
shorts
Sarcastic thanks are in order to doc blogger Pamela Cohn, who has dragged me into a blogging meme based on this year’s Hot Docs festival. As if I haven’t done enough writing about it already (and with another five reviews or so still bouncing around in my head), here goes:
- Film that Tugged at My Heartstrings the Most: This one’s a tie: Aron Gaudet’s The Way We Get By and Greg Barker’s Sergio. In fact, these two knocked me out so thoroughly that I’ve been unable to write about them yet. I hope that will change, but I’m finding it very difficult to put into words how each of these films made me feel. To sum up poorly, both made me think about how what we do with our time on this planet has a lot to do with how we will be remembered. And that each of us very much wants to be remembered.
- Strangest Cinematic Moment: Even though I watched it at home via screener, there came a point in John Maringouin’s Big River Man where I thought that the unhinging of Slovenian distance swimmer Martin Strel’s mind might just take mine with it.
- Best Party: The day job kind of precluded my full immersion in the nighttime scene, but luckily my pal Joel Heller (producer of the hilarious and utterly charming Winnebago Man) invited me to a couple of post-screening gatherings. I was at the infamous Conference Room F party while it was still coalescing in Joel’s suite. I got to meet some amazing people (including, finally, the above-mentioned meme-tagger herself!) even though I could only stay an hour.
- Overall High Point: Probably for me, the final post-Winnebago Man party on Saturday night. There was a rumoured trip to Toronto Island that didn’t come off, but I had a great time at the Victory Café instead and got to meet some really interesting people. I did skip the post-party karaoke, which was probably best for everyone.
- Favourite Pitch: You see, this is where I show how much of an imposter I really am. I did not attend the Toronto Documentary Forum, the Dragon’s Den of documentary pitching, and therefore I have no opinion on this at all. Hopefully after my experience at SIFT in a few weeks, I’ll know a good pitch from a bad one (and hoping mine won’t be one of the bad ones!)
Now, I’m supposed to tag another five people who can continue this thing. Unlucky victims: Bob Turnbull, Shannon Ridler, Trista DeVries, Sarah Gopaul and Kurt Halfyard.
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
memes
Inside Hana’s Suitcase (Director: Larry Weinstein): Inside Hana’s Suitcase is beautifully crafted and easily one of the best films at Hot Docs this year. It’s based upon the the internationally acclaimed book “Hana’s Suitcase” written by Karen Levine.
It’s a holocaust story but don’t let that fool you into thinking it will be another depressing doc. Through a series of dramatic re-enactments the film tells the real-life story of two Jewish children from Czechoslovakia, George and Hana Brady.
Things shift from the 1930s and 1940s world of Czechoslovakia to present-day Japan at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum. A suitcase with the name Hana Brady painted on it is delivered to the museum where Fumiko Ishioka and her students discover that it came from Auschwitz. They examine the contents of the suitcase and learn as much as they can about Hana’s life and the war. Their journey leads to the discovery that Hana’s brother George is alive and living in Toronto. From there the story continues to get more and more interesting.
Throughout the film, children from around the world tell Hana’s story and the lessons they’ve learned from her experience. I thought this was pure genius because it provides the audience with a child’s perspective of the war in a way that is powerful and full of hope.
Larry Weinstein’s direction is brilliant and puts the film in the same league as last year’s Academy Award-winning film, Man On Wire. The period music and special effects transport the viewer back to the war while animation of Hana’s drawings enrich the moviegoing experience.
Inside Hana’s Suitcase is a film about hope that children and adults can learn from and enjoy on many different levels. I highly recommend this film and hope it gets a theatrical release.
Update: Inside Hana’s Suitcase was named as one of the top ten audience favourites at Hot Docs this year.
Official site of the film
(8/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
holocaust,
worldwar2
