TRH Movie – Hot Docs

So. I’m going to preface this entire rant by saying that I have absolutely nothing against Hot Docs as a festival nor any of the films screening this year — I’m highly supportive.

BUT.

In order to review some of the Hot Docs screeners for Chart, I had to sign up for a press badge. Usually, I’m thrilled to bits to get a press pass, but because I have no time to actually go to the screenings, I feel bad that I won’t be able to make good use of it. There’s too much bookish stuff going on next week, plus exercise classes, yeah, you get it.

The real problem is that I have been receiving non-stop spam from festival participants for the last few days for screenings, for parties, for everything and anything. Had I been a REAL journalist, all of these emails might have been worthwhile, even helpful. But for the most part, they’re just frustrating.

Regardless, I did screen four of the multitude of movies that are playing until April 29th: Your Mommy Kills Animals, Without the King, Yoga, Inc., and Forever. Full reviews are posted here, should you care. If you are planning on seeing any of the Hot Docs this week, I’m not sure if my recommendations will help or hinder, but here they are anyway:

1. Your Mommy Kills Animals: The story behind radical animal rights activists as compared to their tamer cousins, the animal welfare groups, I found this documentary to be excellent. It’s hard not to get emotionally involved in terms of watching footage of dogs being beaten or seeing the poor minks in the cages on their farms, but the documentary goes well behind the issue to present a smart, articulate and fascinating look at many of the groups (like the now imprisoned SHAC 7) the US government considers the greatest homeland terrorist threat.

2. Without the King: A fairly stereotypical documentary about the only absolute monarchy left in Africa, Swaziland, Without the King was actually really disappointing. I’m not a fan of traditional-style documentaries, I think that the art form has evolved so much over the last 20 years that there’s no excuse for lazy storytelling. This documentary, more so than the other three, suffered from this — the subject matter is fascinating; the documentary? Poorly done.

3. Yoga, Inc.: As a practitioner myself, I found this documentary kind of interesting. Again, the traditional ‘oh look at this fascinating subject’ narrative style annoyed me, as did the little ‘chapter headings’ that preceded each section; however, there’s a lot here. Including a totally awesome bit with the fellow who owns f**k yoga, which I would totally buy a t-shirt from. Especially considering he said something totally awesome: f**k yoga essentially means “f**k Sting” and all of the other H-wood types suddenly into the practice, which made me chuckle. Like I said, I do yoga, and I am totally guilty of much of the commercialization as the next guy. Hell, I shop at Lululemon, but at least this documentary did a good job of exploring the trend from all sides. It was a little history-light, but that’s okay.

4. Forever: Quite easily the worst of the 4, it’s a meandering, puttering film about the fascinating Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Forever was supposed to be a meditation on the importance of art in life. Yawn. As told through the people who visit the gravestones of really famous artists within the cemetery. Double yawn. When you watch a documentary, not knowing what it’s about until 15 minutes in is a sure sign that it has narrative problems. Anyway, I loved all the shots of the cemetery though, and I especially loved a few of the characters she films. One, a group of lovely widows who fled Franco’s Spain, and two, a fascinating woman who takes it upon herself to maintain the graves of many of the cemetery’s writers. The RRHB and I spent a lovely morning at the cemetery the first time we went to Paris almost three years ago now. And that’s exactly what we did: wander around and muse over art, and life, and the dead guys and Edith Piaf, but it’s hard to translate that kind of whimsy into an entire documentary. Oh, and the interstitials of the terribly earnest Chopin-adorer playing the piano? Triple yawn.

But maybe I’m too cynical. That could also be the problem.

Anyway. I’m dead excited about seeing a documentary that’s screening called Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel (it’s actually the only piece of spam I actually paid attention to). It’s airing on TVO May 9 and 13 at 10 PM. A look at the gentrification of the Gladstone, one of my neighbourhood’s hot spots, and a current literary scene staple, I’m curious to see the story behind the walls.