MIFF 2012 - Day 17
Another festival over. As always, it's a bit sad and I'm wondering where the past two weeks went. This was the first solid festival in years, with very few duds and a lot of really good films. Nothing was knock your socks off amazing, but those films come rarely. In thinking on this year, I think the worst film I saw was Shock, Head, Soul, and the best was Ernest and Celestine. I know there were other better made films, but I was completely charmed by it. Robot and Frank comes a close second. But the final film of the festival was also a definite highlight, so I'd better get on to talking about my final day...
Into The Abyss
Ok, so the two episodes I saw last time weren't actually the film. There was a mix up and the wrong thing got sent to the festival. So they booked a special screening today of the proper documentary, and geez it's sad. Herzog calmly dives into a whole mess of difficult and contradictory elements to show the deep complexity of capital punishment through the prism of one horrible and senseless murder case. Two young guys murder a woman to steal her car, they murder her son and his friend because they didn't have the remote control to get into the gated community where she lived. One of the boys got a life sentence, the other got the death penalty. The evidence against them is pretty overwhelming, but the boy sentenced to death continues to protest his innocence. Frankly he comes off as dodgy. But the tragedy of the situation is compounded as you learn more about the people impacted by the case. The death row chaplin who struggles to be there for the inmates, the former head of the death row unit who quit because he couldn't handle killing two people a week for the government. But there's also the woman who is the sister and daughter of two of the victims. And being a witness to the execution lifted a weight from her, and she knows how horrible that sounds and comments on it. While the film is clearly against the death penalty, it doesn't limit itself completely to one side of the argument, and the result is a thought provoking film that will leave you wrestling.
Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry
Ai Weiwei is one of the most prominent artists in China. He's also one of the most vocal critics of the government. We get to watch him combine art and activism, and the risks he takes to speak up for those who cannot do so themselves. As one friend comments, the state behaves like a hooligan, but Weiwei is a bit of a hooligan himself. He's proud to make symbolic gestures, even if he knows their futility. And for a while it seems like he's getting away with it, and then they come down hard on him. But his followers give him great support, to the extent of helping him pay the fine levied on him by the state for alleged tax fraud. It's a great story of people power, and gives you a bit of hope that China may change for the better one day. Even if that is clearly not currently the case.
Make Hummus Not War
Google "Hummus War". Lebanon claims it's theirs. Israel claims it's theirs. Though apparently the best hummus in Israel is made by Palestinians, who say it's theirs. The origin of hummus is hotly disputed and this is used as a way to explore the middle-eastern conflict in a new and original way. It's a highly entertaining film that will leave you very very hungry afterwards.
God Bless America
God bless Bobcat Goldthwaite. This was a great way to end the festival, with a brilliant and hysterical wish-fulfilment killing spree of inane reality tv stars, arsehole tv pundits and best of all, people who talk on their phones during movies. It's a cry for civility and intelligent discussion, with lashings of ultra-violence. Best of all, we got a great Q&A afterwards, with the depressing revelation that the clips of reality TV shows in the film weren't actually parodies. They were re-staged scenes from existing tv programs or news shows. Sad, but thanks to the wonder of cinema every one of those inane morons was shot in the head. A cathartic film for anyone frustrated with the state of our culture.
Into The Abyss
Ok, so the two episodes I saw last time weren't actually the film. There was a mix up and the wrong thing got sent to the festival. So they booked a special screening today of the proper documentary, and geez it's sad. Herzog calmly dives into a whole mess of difficult and contradictory elements to show the deep complexity of capital punishment through the prism of one horrible and senseless murder case. Two young guys murder a woman to steal her car, they murder her son and his friend because they didn't have the remote control to get into the gated community where she lived. One of the boys got a life sentence, the other got the death penalty. The evidence against them is pretty overwhelming, but the boy sentenced to death continues to protest his innocence. Frankly he comes off as dodgy. But the tragedy of the situation is compounded as you learn more about the people impacted by the case. The death row chaplin who struggles to be there for the inmates, the former head of the death row unit who quit because he couldn't handle killing two people a week for the government. But there's also the woman who is the sister and daughter of two of the victims. And being a witness to the execution lifted a weight from her, and she knows how horrible that sounds and comments on it. While the film is clearly against the death penalty, it doesn't limit itself completely to one side of the argument, and the result is a thought provoking film that will leave you wrestling.
Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry
Ai Weiwei is one of the most prominent artists in China. He's also one of the most vocal critics of the government. We get to watch him combine art and activism, and the risks he takes to speak up for those who cannot do so themselves. As one friend comments, the state behaves like a hooligan, but Weiwei is a bit of a hooligan himself. He's proud to make symbolic gestures, even if he knows their futility. And for a while it seems like he's getting away with it, and then they come down hard on him. But his followers give him great support, to the extent of helping him pay the fine levied on him by the state for alleged tax fraud. It's a great story of people power, and gives you a bit of hope that China may change for the better one day. Even if that is clearly not currently the case.
Make Hummus Not War
Google "Hummus War". Lebanon claims it's theirs. Israel claims it's theirs. Though apparently the best hummus in Israel is made by Palestinians, who say it's theirs. The origin of hummus is hotly disputed and this is used as a way to explore the middle-eastern conflict in a new and original way. It's a highly entertaining film that will leave you very very hungry afterwards.
God Bless America
God bless Bobcat Goldthwaite. This was a great way to end the festival, with a brilliant and hysterical wish-fulfilment killing spree of inane reality tv stars, arsehole tv pundits and best of all, people who talk on their phones during movies. It's a cry for civility and intelligent discussion, with lashings of ultra-violence. Best of all, we got a great Q&A afterwards, with the depressing revelation that the clips of reality TV shows in the film weren't actually parodies. They were re-staged scenes from existing tv programs or news shows. Sad, but thanks to the wonder of cinema every one of those inane morons was shot in the head. A cathartic film for anyone frustrated with the state of our culture.
posted by Andrew Lee at 10:54 PM
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