MIFF Day 11
Animation Shorts (No Dogs)
Sadly, the animations with dogs were a lot better than this bunch. So many weren't really up to snuff, a whole bunch of lame student efforts, but a couple of excellent ones in there. Especially a really funny one about two morticians trying to get a coffin to a grave.
Sita Sings The Blues
Thank God for happy accidents. I wasn't going to see this one, but the film I wanted to see was sold out. I'd dismissed this one when I read the guide, and now I'm gonna try and buy the DVD. A really fun deconstruction/retelling of the Ramayana. It clearly offended some Indians in the audience, but entranced others. I thought it was a beautifully animated and incredibly energetic film with a lot of intelligent discussion of the text inside the film. There's three shadow puppets telling the story and picking it apart at the same time. Their energy and enthusiasm for the subject really pulls you in, and the use of old Annette Henshaw blues songs to serve as Sita narrating her story is wonderful. It's a really fun film.
I Just Didn't Do It
I've heard a lot of depressing statistics about the legal system in Japan. A 99.9% conviction rate, stories about how it's near impossible to prove innocence, things like that. This film dramatises those statistics and brings home in a very real way how hard it is to avoid conviction, even if you're innocent. But it also tells you why, and it's a sad indictment on a society built on authoritarianism. A brave and bold film, made even more sad and depressing by the fact that Japan still has the death penalty. How a system that's so stacked against the defendent can have that as a possible sentence makes a mockery of any sense of justice.
Sadly, the animations with dogs were a lot better than this bunch. So many weren't really up to snuff, a whole bunch of lame student efforts, but a couple of excellent ones in there. Especially a really funny one about two morticians trying to get a coffin to a grave.
Sita Sings The Blues
Thank God for happy accidents. I wasn't going to see this one, but the film I wanted to see was sold out. I'd dismissed this one when I read the guide, and now I'm gonna try and buy the DVD. A really fun deconstruction/retelling of the Ramayana. It clearly offended some Indians in the audience, but entranced others. I thought it was a beautifully animated and incredibly energetic film with a lot of intelligent discussion of the text inside the film. There's three shadow puppets telling the story and picking it apart at the same time. Their energy and enthusiasm for the subject really pulls you in, and the use of old Annette Henshaw blues songs to serve as Sita narrating her story is wonderful. It's a really fun film.
I Just Didn't Do It
I've heard a lot of depressing statistics about the legal system in Japan. A 99.9% conviction rate, stories about how it's near impossible to prove innocence, things like that. This film dramatises those statistics and brings home in a very real way how hard it is to avoid conviction, even if you're innocent. But it also tells you why, and it's a sad indictment on a society built on authoritarianism. A brave and bold film, made even more sad and depressing by the fact that Japan still has the death penalty. How a system that's so stacked against the defendent can have that as a possible sentence makes a mockery of any sense of justice.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:15 AM
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