A NIGHT WITH ROSS McELWEE:

Ross McElwee and Thom Powers during the Q&A.

Filmmaker Donal Mosher (OCTOBER COUNTRY) with a friend.

Filmmakers Hugo Perez and Francisco Bello.

Filmmaker David Redmon gets his Ross McElwee DVD autographed by the man himself.

FIlmmakers Nina Davenport (PARALLEL LINES, OPERATION FILMMAKER), Ross McElwee, Lucia Small (THE AXE IN THE ATTIC) and Joshua Seftel.

Filmmakers Doug Block (51 BIRCH STREET) and Michel Negroponte (I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE).

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE:

Thom Powers with Vogue creative director Grace Coddington.

Director R.J. Cutler with Grace Coddington.

Continuing with the Russian theme, I headed into RUSSIAN LESSONS by Andrei Nekrasov and Olga Konskaya.  The film delves into the violent and bewildering conflicts in the Caucasus, with Russia pitted against the former Soviet state of Georgia, and involving Georgia’s troubled regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It’s a super dense film – if fact, Nebrasov informs the audience before the film begins that it’s a complicated story and congratulates us on our bravery for being there.  But it’s well worth the 2+ hours.  The directors weave together a complex story of ethnic animosity, the blatant manipulation of footage in the media to perpetuate lies and the horrific war crimes committed against the local Georgian population. That particular conflict wasn’t covered much in the US media and the directors take their time piecing it together.  The directors’ harsh attacks on the Russian government and media make them controversial.  One person in the audience asked if they worried about their own safety.  Nekrasov replied that it was more important to get this information out then be pre-occupied with his personal safety. He also made a documentary about the Russian journalist who was poisoned by the government a few years ago called MY FRIEND SASHA: A VERY RUSSIAN MURDER [and POISONED BY POLONIUM, aka REBELLION: THE LITVINENKO CASE, programmed by Thom Powers for TIFF 07], so he is well aware of the dangers associated with being a journalist in Russia.

I hopped into 12TH AND DELAWARE by co directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (pictured) who made JESUS CAMP a few years ago. The film tries to deliver an even handed look at two opposing clinics stationed on opposite sides of the street: an abortion clinic and an anti choice center that protests every day in front of the abortion clinic across the street.  The directors do a good job of showing both sides but in the end you can’t help but look at the anti choice group as detrimental to the lives of the mostly under age girls dealing with life-changing situations. Some of the tactics that the anti-choice hard-liners employ to manipulate the women are so shocking that the audience responded with loud gasps.  As with JESUS CAMP, the directors play nice to get in on the other side where access is typically limited. In this case it’s an anti abortion group.  There was a woman in the audience who said that she works for the group that counsels young women against abortion and that their portrayal of their side was not typical of their work.  Ewing responded that their choice in clinics had only to do with the fact that they faced each other physically. She went on to say that they had searched all over the country for their location and that 12TH AND DELAWARE was cinematically perfect and delivered the drama they wanted to capture surrounding the issue.

Another film getting a lot of buzz is FAMILY AFFAIR by first time director Chico Colvard.  The subject of incest is hard to tackle and Chico conquers it in a beautifully intimate way, never overwhelming the audience with too much information. At 10 years old, Chico Colvard shot his older sister in the leg. This seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed unspeakable realities and shattered his family. This could have been a film that sends the audience into a downward spiral of horror and shock but instead he focuses on his sisters’ strength, ability to survive, and the power of forgiveness.  Well done, Chico. 
Last on my list of sobering films today was LAST TRAIN HOME by director Lixin Fan.  I wish I could say I enjoyed the film but I got stuck on the front row, off to the side, making the viewing experience torture.  My neck pain aside, it was a fascinating look at the migration of 130 million Chinese workers going on vacation over the Chinese New Year. (It’s the largest migration in the world.) Fan creates an incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere with hundreds of thousands of travelers waiting for trains and jamming into tight spaces. The cinematography is strong and Fan creates a visual style that is both consistent and captivating. Aside from the impressive images of hordes of travelers, the film really examines the hardships migrant workers face: leaving their families in the country for factory jobs, sacrificing their health and their relationships with family members.  Fan follows one family over a couple of years and captures the family as it slowly falls apart.  The cinema verite style works well and the narrative arch is strong, making THE LAST TRAIN feel more like a narrative film than documentary.

Can anyone say, “The buses are a’coming”? Stanley Nelson captures the flowering of the civil rights movement in his historical documentary FREEDOM RIDERS, about an integrated band of college students—many of whom were the first in their families to attend a university—who decide to risk everything and buy a ticket on a Greyhound bus bound for the Deep South.  It’s a beautifully told story that combines archival footage and interviews in a way that takes you right into the heart of the events that transformed America.  Audiences were captivated and sniffles could be heard through out.  At times that songs were sung in the film, you could hear murmurs from the audiences who were humming along. At the end, the filmmakers and 2 freedom riders who attended the Q and A got three standing ovations, and deservedly so.  It’s a poignant film for the times that encourages people to get out there and make a difference.

Then I made a run for a last minute addition to the line up, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, by the infamous graffiti artist, Banksy, who actually left his mark on Main Street in the middle of the night before the film was announced. The film takes on a lot: Banksy himself, the art of graffiti, Terry Guetta – who’s been documenting graffiti artists for almost a decade and becomes the subject of the film – and an expose on the art world with it’s mid-altering mix of hot air and hype.  I’m a big fan of Banksy so it was exciting to see a film about him work and even more so to witness the art in person that’s decorating the walls of Main Street, and causing a bit of controversy as well. 

Banksy hits a local Part City wall on Main Street, stirring up controversy ahead of his documentary premiere, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

Right after SPACE TOURISTS I headed into THE RED CHAPEL, by Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger, for a surreal journey to North Korea.  Brügger travels to North Korea under the guise of directing a theater troupe that promotes cultural understanding. The troupe, consisting of Simon the straight man and Jacob the self proclaimed spastic are both Danish Koreans who have never been to Korean. The film is a crazy mix of the theater of the absurd and political activism. It reminded me, in some ways, of BORAT. But instead of making fun of the soft targets of American society, THE RED CHAPEL attempts to expose the dictatorship for the “evil and demonic” oppressor that it is.  Not sure if they accomplished that but it did reveal a lot about a country that most people don’t know: the capitol city is virtually deserted, there are no handicapped persons to be seen and that Kim Jong-ill wrote a book on how to make a great movie. 

With my mind reeling from images of space junk scrappers and robot-like 5 year olds performing for their Dear Leader, I make my way to my last film of the day, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, directed by Davis Guggenheim. The film examines the current state of the US education system, which is an enormous undertaking.  Guggenheim uses archival footage, animation, charts, interviews and the stories of 5 children to tackle this beast. The stories of the kids were most effective and I wish Guggenheim had spent more time with them.  But the ending is suspenseful and does a good job of conveying just how big of a mess we are in.