A Weekend of Movies
Thursday, April 9th, 2009 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kThe Wisconsin Film Festival was a lot of fun. Fascinating movies; stunning web site; helpful volunteers. (Access at some theaters was sub-optimal.)
In order of viewing:
On a Tightrope rating 4/5
Two tightropes: the literal ones walked by Uighur middle-schoolers from an orphanage plus the political one walked by a self-contained Muslim community living in northwestern China, still very much a communist country. The Uighur have some rights as a "recognized minority," but the classroom teachers who extol both Mao and Mohammed must walk very carefully indeed. Much of the doc is shot from the ground looking up, (through the safety net that isn't there!) The tundra landscape and wider-than-Montana skies are stunning.
(Wisconsin Union Theater has wonderful acoustics. Wheelie parking requires house mgr to unscrew some seats. Seemed surprised when I showed up, "Oh! will have to move them, eh?" Well duh, in a 1200-seat theater, chances are good there will be one wheelchair user. Locked accessible restroom was so poorly designed I had to leave my chair outside (thank Ghu I can!))
Jumate/Jumate rating 5/5
Heartbreaking and beautifully filmed. A Romanian woman, who's a little person, performs as an Alice in Wonderland "living doll" on Barcelona's pedestrian esplanade, La Ramblas. She lives in a squalid squat with her daughter, who provides 100% of her care, carrying her when required and pushing her in a stroller where possible. The daughter is fed up with this level of responsibility; the mother doesn't have any other choices.
(Bartell Theater upstairs. They get points for installing an elevator, and providing multiple parking spaces. Sadly, those spaces are in the front row of a very full theater. The subtitles in the projected DVD were almost unreadable because 1) too close and 2) scan lines. I had to leave 3 minutes into the second film because my neck hurt too much from looking up.)
In A Dream rating 4/5
More heartbreak, more beauty. Isaiah Zagar has completely adorned, inside and out, seven South Philly buildings with remarkable tile & mirror mosaics. He's not a little crazy. He's been celebrating his wife-as-muse in every possible medium for decades, but their marriage is not too stable. One of his sons is making this documentary; the other one is going off the rails. When the emotional turmoil is too much, I kicked back and lost myself in the amazing sculpture. Would make a great double bill with CRUMB another brilliant "dysfunctional artistic family" documentary.
(Wisconsin Union Theater: At least the house manager left the seats unbolted, and I knew to find an accessible toilet first.)
Blind Loves rating 1/5
The only stinker in the bunch. It seemed to be a Dogma-inspired documentary of life as a blind person in Slovenia, and never have 35 minutes passed more slowly. There's a brief flight of fancy when a piano tuner swings his cane deliberately into the waves, and thence to the bottom of the sea for a personal encounter with a passing squid, but it's over much too soon. Otherwise: men, women, different ages--they're all blind, they love. But there's almost no plot; the close-up of hands reading the time on a tactile watch seem to be total voyeurism. It's subtitled in English but not described, so basically inaccessible to blind people.
(Majestic: First time in the nightclub incarnation of this building. They had set aside one small space: I informed them there would be at least two chairs, and in the event there were three, although we blocked the stairs between the seating area/dance floor and the bar. Nice flat floor, screen was far enough back to prevent neck spasm. I would have left, but that would have required moving around 20 people out of my way.)
Vincent: A Life in Color rating 3.5/5
This film was simultaneously appealing and appalling. On the plus side: Chicago's fabulous architecture, gilded by a dancing man in amazingly colorful suits on the bridges of River North. Those suits! Wow! The dancing showboat, it turns out, is Vincent Falk, with an appropriately flashy website. Another plus is that the many people who admire his shows freely admit their bizarre fantasies of how he comes to be doing his spin turns on the bridges. The film-maker slowly reveals that no, Vincent is not homeless, not broke, not a trust-fund maniac, not crazy—in fact, he lives in one of the Marina Towers condos and works for Cook County as a computer programmer. Respectable as all get out, and yes he spent many years in an orphanage as a child, and yes, he's blind, and yes he's gay. How could this story be dull? Perhaps a judicious excision of around 20 minutes might have minimized my takeaway sensation of "Gee whiz! He's a supercrip! And a superqueer!" The wild'n'crazy guy meets the 60 MINUTES producers. It could have been so much wilder!
(Monona Terrace: wheelie parking is not marked; back of the house at a 15 degree angle to the screen as well as a forward tilt to the floor.)
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love rating 5/5
An ecstatic visual and auditory experience! Youssou Ndour is a Senegalese singer—older readers may remember his duet with Peter Gabriel on "In Your Eyes". Unlike some Brit pop stars, Youssou's music has aged and matured with him. His pop songs are lovely, but this movie is about an orchestral work celebrating the Senegalese saint who brought Sufi Islam to that country. Youssou collaborates with Fathy Salama, an Egyptian composer, resulting in an album and tour called "Egypt." While a great success throughout the Muslim world and "Western" Europe (there are of course many Muslims attending the concerts in France, Sweden, and so forth), most of his Senegalese fan base shun the music as sacrilegious. Then this album of sacred music gets the 2004 Grammy for world music. Mysteriously, this US attention seems to be a turning point for the album to find its Senegalese audience. Youssou's energy and charisma were intoxicating in a movie: he's clearly someone worth going 200 miles to see in concert!
(Orpheum: the official wheelie space is extreme back, extreme stage left, extremely unlikely to be desired by any human being. I picked out a front row center seat and simply backed up to it, which left enough room for others immediately left and right. The screen was bearably close, and the floor was--ah--flat) Given that this was the penultimate movie of the Fest, they kindly permitted us to stay in our seats between shows. I was delighted to share WFF rants & reviews with a couple who'd been sitting behind me.
Sita Sings the Blues rating 4/5
A thoroughly post-modern enterprise, viewable in its entirety on its website, Sita Sings the Blues. Animated in three complementary styles by Nina Paley (whose slash-mouthed het comix I've enjoyed almost as long as Alison Bechdel's), this movie juggles cultural appropriation cleavers. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this remix of the Indian epic Ramayana. The you'll-recognize-it-when-you-hear-it late 1920s jazz stylings of Annette Hanshaw form one operatic thread, bringing to life Sita's viewpoint animated in geometric glory.
After this film, I was happy to provide "20 hints for your first powered mobility purchase" to an enquiring person at the start of the journey.
And then the bus, and good night, and several days to recuperate from all the sitting still and head tilting.
In order of viewing:
On a Tightrope rating 4/5
Two tightropes: the literal ones walked by Uighur middle-schoolers from an orphanage plus the political one walked by a self-contained Muslim community living in northwestern China, still very much a communist country. The Uighur have some rights as a "recognized minority," but the classroom teachers who extol both Mao and Mohammed must walk very carefully indeed. Much of the doc is shot from the ground looking up, (through the safety net that isn't there!) The tundra landscape and wider-than-Montana skies are stunning.
(Wisconsin Union Theater has wonderful acoustics. Wheelie parking requires house mgr to unscrew some seats. Seemed surprised when I showed up, "Oh! will have to move them, eh?" Well duh, in a 1200-seat theater, chances are good there will be one wheelchair user. Locked accessible restroom was so poorly designed I had to leave my chair outside (thank Ghu I can!))
Jumate/Jumate rating 5/5
Heartbreaking and beautifully filmed. A Romanian woman, who's a little person, performs as an Alice in Wonderland "living doll" on Barcelona's pedestrian esplanade, La Ramblas. She lives in a squalid squat with her daughter, who provides 100% of her care, carrying her when required and pushing her in a stroller where possible. The daughter is fed up with this level of responsibility; the mother doesn't have any other choices.
(Bartell Theater upstairs. They get points for installing an elevator, and providing multiple parking spaces. Sadly, those spaces are in the front row of a very full theater. The subtitles in the projected DVD were almost unreadable because 1) too close and 2) scan lines. I had to leave 3 minutes into the second film because my neck hurt too much from looking up.)
In A Dream rating 4/5
More heartbreak, more beauty. Isaiah Zagar has completely adorned, inside and out, seven South Philly buildings with remarkable tile & mirror mosaics. He's not a little crazy. He's been celebrating his wife-as-muse in every possible medium for decades, but their marriage is not too stable. One of his sons is making this documentary; the other one is going off the rails. When the emotional turmoil is too much, I kicked back and lost myself in the amazing sculpture. Would make a great double bill with CRUMB another brilliant "dysfunctional artistic family" documentary.
(Wisconsin Union Theater: At least the house manager left the seats unbolted, and I knew to find an accessible toilet first.)
Blind Loves rating 1/5
The only stinker in the bunch. It seemed to be a Dogma-inspired documentary of life as a blind person in Slovenia, and never have 35 minutes passed more slowly. There's a brief flight of fancy when a piano tuner swings his cane deliberately into the waves, and thence to the bottom of the sea for a personal encounter with a passing squid, but it's over much too soon. Otherwise: men, women, different ages--they're all blind, they love. But there's almost no plot; the close-up of hands reading the time on a tactile watch seem to be total voyeurism. It's subtitled in English but not described, so basically inaccessible to blind people.
(Majestic: First time in the nightclub incarnation of this building. They had set aside one small space: I informed them there would be at least two chairs, and in the event there were three, although we blocked the stairs between the seating area/dance floor and the bar. Nice flat floor, screen was far enough back to prevent neck spasm. I would have left, but that would have required moving around 20 people out of my way.)
Vincent: A Life in Color rating 3.5/5
This film was simultaneously appealing and appalling. On the plus side: Chicago's fabulous architecture, gilded by a dancing man in amazingly colorful suits on the bridges of River North. Those suits! Wow! The dancing showboat, it turns out, is Vincent Falk, with an appropriately flashy website. Another plus is that the many people who admire his shows freely admit their bizarre fantasies of how he comes to be doing his spin turns on the bridges. The film-maker slowly reveals that no, Vincent is not homeless, not broke, not a trust-fund maniac, not crazy—in fact, he lives in one of the Marina Towers condos and works for Cook County as a computer programmer. Respectable as all get out, and yes he spent many years in an orphanage as a child, and yes, he's blind, and yes he's gay. How could this story be dull? Perhaps a judicious excision of around 20 minutes might have minimized my takeaway sensation of "Gee whiz! He's a supercrip! And a superqueer!" The wild'n'crazy guy meets the 60 MINUTES producers. It could have been so much wilder!
(Monona Terrace: wheelie parking is not marked; back of the house at a 15 degree angle to the screen as well as a forward tilt to the floor.)
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love rating 5/5
An ecstatic visual and auditory experience! Youssou Ndour is a Senegalese singer—older readers may remember his duet with Peter Gabriel on "In Your Eyes". Unlike some Brit pop stars, Youssou's music has aged and matured with him. His pop songs are lovely, but this movie is about an orchestral work celebrating the Senegalese saint who brought Sufi Islam to that country. Youssou collaborates with Fathy Salama, an Egyptian composer, resulting in an album and tour called "Egypt." While a great success throughout the Muslim world and "Western" Europe (there are of course many Muslims attending the concerts in France, Sweden, and so forth), most of his Senegalese fan base shun the music as sacrilegious. Then this album of sacred music gets the 2004 Grammy for world music. Mysteriously, this US attention seems to be a turning point for the album to find its Senegalese audience. Youssou's energy and charisma were intoxicating in a movie: he's clearly someone worth going 200 miles to see in concert!
(Orpheum: the official wheelie space is extreme back, extreme stage left, extremely unlikely to be desired by any human being. I picked out a front row center seat and simply backed up to it, which left enough room for others immediately left and right. The screen was bearably close, and the floor was--ah--flat) Given that this was the penultimate movie of the Fest, they kindly permitted us to stay in our seats between shows. I was delighted to share WFF rants & reviews with a couple who'd been sitting behind me.
Sita Sings the Blues rating 4/5
A thoroughly post-modern enterprise, viewable in its entirety on its website, Sita Sings the Blues. Animated in three complementary styles by Nina Paley (whose slash-mouthed het comix I've enjoyed almost as long as Alison Bechdel's), this movie juggles cultural appropriation cleavers. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this remix of the Indian epic Ramayana. The you'll-recognize-it-when-you-hear-it late 1920s jazz stylings of Annette Hanshaw form one operatic thread, bringing to life Sita's viewpoint animated in geometric glory.
After this film, I was happy to provide "20 hints for your first powered mobility purchase" to an enquiring person at the start of the journey.
And then the bus, and good night, and several days to recuperate from all the sitting still and head tilting.