Festivals
One of the most enjoyable music documentaries I’ve seen in some time, Beware of Mr. Baker is a brilliant portrait of a man who is, by all accounts (and I mean all) completely f***ing insane. The man in question is Ginger Baker, the legendary drummer of the band Cream (which also launched the career of his now better known former bandmate, Eric Clapton), among many others. The film opens with Baker hitting director Jay Bulger with his cane, leaving him with a bloody nose. It sets the tone for the madness that is to come. Cream only lasted for a couple...
Drug testing is an important part of getting medicine to market. In some cases, these tests can result in the saving of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives, but Off Label tells seven intensely personal stories that call into question whether the costs involved in perfecting those potentially life-saving drugs are worth it. Looking at the stories of 22-year-old Iraq war veteran, a man who was experimented on while he was in prison; a young couple doing drug studies to pay for their wedding, a bipolar woman who lives in a Bigfoot Museum and takes 18 prescriptions a day, two professional...
Beauty is Embarrassing is a film about the life and work of Wayne White. For those unfamiliar with White, his career as a cartoonist led to his involvement in the creation of the television show Pee Wee’s Playhouse, which in turn led to his designing some of the most iconic images in pop culture. The film opens with a scrapbook of Wayne White’s better known achievements such as his animation work for Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight Tonight video. It then moves on to an introduction to his family life and snippets of his touring lecture. During...
The Frog Princes, an incredibly touching film, follows a theatre troupe made up of developmentally disabled adults as they mount a production of "The Frog and the Princess." Toronto Film Scene's Katarina Gligorijevic talks to filmmakers Ryan Mullins and Omar Majeed who work at the prolific, politically and socially minded Montreal documentary company EyeSteelFilm about the making of this very special Canadian film, screening this year at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival....
If ever there was a sequel to a documentary, this is it. Bones Brigade: An Autobiography picks up almost exactly where Dogtown and Z-Boys leaves off as Stacy Peralta, self-appointed historian of skateboarding, steps behind the camera again (and a little in front, too) to tell the continuing story of the people who made the sport what it is today. After Peralta achieved fame and fortune as a member of the Zephyr Competition Team (the titular ‘Z-Boys’ of the original film), he began to produce a line of skateboards with his business partner, George Powell. Peralta had a bigger vision,...
In North America, disabled people of all kinds are marginalized. We dart our eyes away and try not to stare as we see the handicapped on busses, in shopping malls or at restaurants. We don’t welcome them into our “normal” world because they make us feel uncomfortable, and as a result we feel like it’s okay to treat them as less than human. So when films come along that openly discuss the lives of those who a simply a little different, I get very excited. When the people in that film also happen to be part of a Finnish punk...
In 1970, David Siegel started a real estate development company that went on to become the largest timeshare company in the world. When he met and married Jackie, a buxom beauty queen he adored, things in his life started to get… bigger. The couple has lived a life of excess in every possible sense of the word, culminating in the building of a 90,000 square foot home for their large family. The Queen of Versailles follows this couple through booming business and into near financial ruin after the 2008 financial crisis, chronicling their struggles as they try to avoid bankruptcy....
This year’s Inside Out Film Festival marks its 22nd year of bringing to Toronto the best in queer cinema from Canada and around the world. Running from May 17 to 27, 2012, most screenings will take place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, but be sure to check the schedule for venues and times of the films you want to see. Opening the festival is the Canadian premiere of My Brother the Devil from UK director Sally El Hosaini about two brothers and gang life in East London. The film has already won awards at Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival...
The name Mazo de la Roche may not be very familiar to many people, but she holds a very important place in Canadian literature. At first an obscure writer, her novel Jalna catapulted her to international recognition, setting the stage for a 16 novel series. While her literary life was very public, her private life is a maze of half truths and carefully concealed details. Director Maya Gallus seeks to expose some of that private life with the documentary The Mystery Of Mazo de la Roche, screening at the 2012 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. The true challenge to...
Imagine for a moment that your favorite hobby, say, a sport that you enjoy playing, was the cause of you and your family receiving threats against your lives. Would you be able to continue enjoying that sport? That’s a large part of the documentary, The Boxing Girls Of Kabul, screening at the 2012 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Directed by Ariel Nasr, the film follows three Afghan women as they train to become Olympic boxers. Coached by Sabir Sharifi, a former Olympic hopeful himself, the girls struggle with inadequate facilities, personal problems, and increasing threats against them and their...
Planet of Snail follows the lives of deaf-blind Korean poet Young-Chan and his wife Soon-ho, who suffers from a spinal disability. The title refers to the world of deaf-blind people who, like snails, have to tactilely find their way through the world. Young-Chan is an avid reader, he writes poetry and essays, sculpts and studies Hebrew. Despite his independence he is still reliant upon his wife to be his guide and they communicate using finger Braille. However, the reality is that Soon-Ho’s spinal disability will worsen with time thus limiting her mobility. Young-Chan and Soon-Ho try to come to terms with this and the...
In Fellipe Garamano Barbosa’s documentary Laura, we are introduced to a modern-day Holly Golightly. She has no job and no apparent source of income save for mysterious money wires that she receives from Brazil. And yet inexplicably she is out every night socialising with celebrities and New York’s elite. If there is a film premiere or a party at the Waldorf Astoria she will find her way in and once inside effortlessly work the room. The little we manage to learn about the “real “Laura is that she was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the move from there to Brazil...
