MIFF Day 2
The Milk of Sorrow
A visually striking film about a woman living her mother's trauma. Fausta has grown up being told that her mother's rape while pregnant resulted in her passing her fear on through the milk fed to her as a baby. When he mother dies, the fears she lives under are thrown into sharp relief as she struggles to find ways to live and cope with a fear that has no basis in reality. It's a powerful film about the way parents can traumatise their children, and the pain of growing up. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and I reckon it deserved it. A really great film.
Tyson
Mike Tyson narrates a documentary about his life. He reflects on his childhood, his rise to fame and his fall from grace. He's incredibly honest about some things, other parts you wonder if he's telling the truth or not. But while he's not the most articulate man in the world, his life is a great story and the film, while annoyingly using splitscreens and video inserts for no reason whatsoever, is quite engaging.
Animation Shorts
The usual mixed bag, with a ripper claymation of a french maid saving a family from zombies by picking up a chainsaw and carving up. Stupid and hilarious. The best however was Birth, a wonderful short about a pregnant girl learning about childbirth from her mother and her mother's friends. Sad, comic and magical.
The 10 Conditions of Love
Well, China screwed this one up pretty badly. By trying to get MIFF to pull the film, they've only managed to get extra screenings put on, gain the film international notoriety, and have film festivals worldwide asking to screen it. But about about the film itself? It's a really good portrait of Rebiya Kadeer, the spokeswoman for the Uighur people of East Turkestan (now known as Xinjiang Provice in Northwest China). It gives a good introduction to the background of the issues surrounding the plight of the Uighur, and the personal cost to Rebiya Kadeer and her family as she refuses to be silenced. Interestingly, unlike other exiled leaders, she's not asking for independence from China, only that they honour the constitution put in place after the occupation of East Turkestan. That the Chinese won't even do that is a pretty poor statement on their approach to governance. The film is guaranteed to raise the profile of the Uighur people, which is great. I travelled through Xinjiang last year and their culture is amazing and their food is incredible.
A visually striking film about a woman living her mother's trauma. Fausta has grown up being told that her mother's rape while pregnant resulted in her passing her fear on through the milk fed to her as a baby. When he mother dies, the fears she lives under are thrown into sharp relief as she struggles to find ways to live and cope with a fear that has no basis in reality. It's a powerful film about the way parents can traumatise their children, and the pain of growing up. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and I reckon it deserved it. A really great film.
Tyson
Mike Tyson narrates a documentary about his life. He reflects on his childhood, his rise to fame and his fall from grace. He's incredibly honest about some things, other parts you wonder if he's telling the truth or not. But while he's not the most articulate man in the world, his life is a great story and the film, while annoyingly using splitscreens and video inserts for no reason whatsoever, is quite engaging.
Animation Shorts
The usual mixed bag, with a ripper claymation of a french maid saving a family from zombies by picking up a chainsaw and carving up. Stupid and hilarious. The best however was Birth, a wonderful short about a pregnant girl learning about childbirth from her mother and her mother's friends. Sad, comic and magical.
The 10 Conditions of Love
Well, China screwed this one up pretty badly. By trying to get MIFF to pull the film, they've only managed to get extra screenings put on, gain the film international notoriety, and have film festivals worldwide asking to screen it. But about about the film itself? It's a really good portrait of Rebiya Kadeer, the spokeswoman for the Uighur people of East Turkestan (now known as Xinjiang Provice in Northwest China). It gives a good introduction to the background of the issues surrounding the plight of the Uighur, and the personal cost to Rebiya Kadeer and her family as she refuses to be silenced. Interestingly, unlike other exiled leaders, she's not asking for independence from China, only that they honour the constitution put in place after the occupation of East Turkestan. That the Chinese won't even do that is a pretty poor statement on their approach to governance. The film is guaranteed to raise the profile of the Uighur people, which is great. I travelled through Xinjiang last year and their culture is amazing and their food is incredible.
posted by Andrew Lee at 11:41 PM
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