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Bright Leaves

Ross McElwee shooting Bright Leaves

The reality is slipping away.

Ross McElwee is a very personal filmmaker. The first film that I saw by him, Sherman’s March (just out on DVD), was, on the surface, about the Civil War, but it’s really about McElwee and his relationship with women. He makes documentary films that are about him (but isn’t everything that we make and do really about us?) and in the process we find out a lot about ourselves and the people, places and ideas that he comes into contact with. His latest film is Bright Leaves, where he goes home to North Carolina to find out more about his family, tobacco, his friends and a Hollywood film that could be a sort of “secret home movie”. He works in a gentle, subtle style that could rub people the wrong way. Not me as I love it and settled in to the groove of the film right away. While his films are personal, they are also about filmmaking and contain many profound insights. The connection and disconnection that occurs when you film things hit home with me. In looking at footage of his father he thinks that “the reality is slipping away” and while the images remain, what about the memories. Does film preserve or destroy our memories. I became so disturbed by this that I actually didn’t videotape or photograph a lot of my family for almost a year. I wanted to be there and participate and not document what was happening. McElwee shoots and records most of the sound himself (with some assistance this time from his son) and his son Adrian also took the photo that is beside this entry. I really liked this film and I’m glad that I saw it.

September 16, 2004 aff2004, brightleaves, documentary, film, review, rossmcelwee, shermansmarch

Bus 174

José Padilha‘s 2002 documentary Bus 174 is about a bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 is a gripping, heart-wrenching look at an incident as an indication of a larger problem. Through the incident it establishes the context and the series of events in Brazil that lead to a situation that was both horrible and inevitable. The film uses the extensive footage of the incident covered live on television in Brazil. It asks the general question of “how did we get here?” and the more specific question of “how did Sandro get here?” The invisibility and lack of media attention paid to the street-kid who caused the incident is the nagging question that Padilha thought was the key to understand how it happened. Film is a time-based medium and co-director / editor Felipe Lacerda and Padilha skillfull break up and magnify time as the incident unfolds and we understand things a bit more. The cross-cutting between the story of the Sandro and the hijacking slowly reveal broader insights into Brazillian society in a direct, powerful and personal way that many documentaries about larger social issues fumble all-too-often. Sweeping helicopter shots establish the locations and provide some relief from the tension of the events. But as the film moves towards the end of the highjacking we watch in excruciating detail how the tragedy unfolds. An amazing film that exemplifies the possibilities of documentary.

July 24, 2004 brazil, bus174, documentary, film, review

Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore gets a bit better with each film. Fahrenheit 9/11 continues his series of quirky political documentaries in a very timely fashion. It’s funny, moving and serious. It was also a little bit annoying at times, but overall I think that it’s a better film than Bowling for Columbine. Moore is less present in this film, which is good as the construction of the film is a bit better without someone needing to stand in for us. I can see Moore moving into the background within his films as he’s starting to become a distraction as you can’t really be a completely ordinary guy after winning an Academy Award and the Palme d’Or. What’s great about Fahrenheit 9/11 is that it solidly captures the spirit of Moore’s TV shows (TV Nation and The Awful Truth) in the blend of the timely, the political and the irreverent and captures a good chunk of the zeitgeist of the time. It’s a difficult balance with only a few exploitative parts. Political documentaries are tough as most of the time you’re either preaching to the converted or upsetting those who don’t share your view. Moore injects enough humour to carry things along without letting things get too serious, but the film definitely has a point of view and it’s a call to not reelect Mr. Bush in the upcoming U.S. election and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. As a documentarian, it’s encouraging to see a documentary doing so well at the box office (even though the competition was a bit weak) and it will be interesting to see how it holds up against Spider-Man 2.

June 28, 2004 documentary, fahreneit911, film, michaelmoore, review

Stevie

Last night I saw Steve James‘ documentary Stevie which is built around James’ idea of going back to find out how the boy he had been a Big Brother for 10 years earlier had turned out. The idea was to do a small, short film about it, but things didn’t turn out that way. During the course of filming Stevie Fielding is charged with a serious crime and everything gets much more complicated. James becomes part of the story as we watch the tensions in the family grow and see the difficult decisions that need to be made. It could have been a very exploitative film (such as Capturing the Friedmans), but James questions his own motives and implicates the audience in watching the difficult situations with no clear way forward. It’s a challenging film that isn’t judgemental about the subjects, but doesn’t avoid resposibility which is really what documentary filmmaking is all about.

The film was screening as part of the Atlantic Film Festival‘s Inspired series for emerging Atlantic Canadian Filmmakers, which meant that the directors were present for an interview with journalist Laurie Brown after the screening. It was a great interview and James’ provided more context and insight into the role of the documentarian and the relationship with the audience. The key thing that he talked about was how a documentarian has to “fight the tendency to sit back in easy judgement” of the people that you see on the screen. Steve James thinks that if filmmakers don’t wrestle with the issue of whether they are leeches on the subjects of their film then maybe they shouldn’t be making films. James has made a bold and powerful film that doesn’t give easy answers, but provides a compelling and difficult look into the lives of the people who surround Stevie Fielding.

June 6, 2004 aff2004, documentary, film, review, stevejames, stevie

The Fog of War

Errol Morris is a film craftsman. His films tell challenging stories in visually interesting ways. The Fog of War won the Academy Award for Best Documentary and it is also one of Morris’ best films. The film is built around interviews with Robert S. McNamara. The score by Philip Glass moves the film forward with a steady pace along with archival footage, stills and significant, but understated visuals illuminate, but don’t distract from the lessons of the film. Morris knows how to build a film from various elements that suit the material and The Fog of War is divided into 11 lessons as the organizational principle. While the man and his personal insight are at the centre of the film, it is a fascinating glimpse into the history of the United States and how individuals shape that history. McNamara is amazing to watch and he engages with Morris through the Interrotron, which is a camera with television in front of it. McNamara at one point outlines a fundamental rule for dealing with the media – “Never answer the question that has been asked of you. Answer the question you wish you had been asked.”

Is McNamara spinning us? Yes, of course. But what is the truth? How do we know what happened? How do we know what will happen? These questions form the core of many of Morris’ films and he doesn’t flinch from dealing with them. One of the many things that I admire in Morris’ work is how he lets the audience make up their mind. He takes a point of view, he presents evidence, but he doesn’t hide edits. With earlier Morris films he would insert some black frames to indicate that parts of an interview were cut out, but now he jump cuts because I think that with the interviews it would probably be distracting. The biggest challenge in making a non-fiction film is treating the interviewees with respect, presenting them fairly and telling the story with all of the pieces fitting together to illuminate a life, tell a story and to give us some insight. Errol Morris does that very well and I’m glad that he’s making films.

May 24, 2004 documentary, errolmorris, film, fogofwar, history, philipglass, review, robertsmcnamara, war

The Work of Director Michel Gondry

I’ve liked just about everything that I’ve seen from Michel Gondry, from music videos for The Chemical Brothers and Bjork to the film Human Nature. While he’s brilliant at music videos, in Human Nature it felt a bit forced, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind was a great combination of his talents within a great script with what appears to be little studio manipulation. I’ve been watching the Directors Label DVD The Work of Director Michel Gondry and I’m amazed by the talent of the man. After watching many of the videos you begin to see patterns of repetition and common themes and everything is dreamlike. The most amazing video is Bjork‘s breathtaking Bachelorette which makes your head spin to watch it.
While the videos are great to watch, the neatest part of the DVD is the documentary about Gondry growing up and how and why he works in the way that he does. I’ve Been Twelve Forever takes you through his childhood and mind in an entertaining and visually exciting way that lets us behind the curtain of some of the visions that he has brought to the screen. It’s a lot more than a promo piece that consists of people talking about how wonderful it is to work with him and Gondry himself tries out a lot of different visual tricks to show how he’s thought about his life and the music videos and manages to keep coming back to the same themes in different visual styles. It’s a great DVD that I’ll be spending a lot more time with. It’s fun and inspirational.

April 26, 2004 bjork, directorslabel, documentary, michelgondry, music, video

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