This weekend is the Animation Festival of Halifax, in its 14th year. It’s put on by the good people at Carbon Arc Cinema, where I’m a volunteer programmer and artistic director.
Carbon Arc used to go on hiatus during the summer, which made the festival the natural conclusion to our busiest time, when the days are short and people come to see the best in international, independent, Canadian, and documentary films in Halifax/Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki.
These days, Carbon Arc is screening four days a week with screenings put on by a small staff and an enthusiastic group of volunteers for a growing audience. I’ve been so busy with programming and other work I haven’t had the time to write much on FLAW IN THE IRIS about the films we’ve been showing, but I have been collecting my programming notes, which I thought I’d share to give a sense of the breadth and quality of the new films we’ve been bringing in. (This doesn’t include our Saturday late night programming, which this season has included classic work by David Lynch. Wong Kar-wai, John Waters, and Elaine May, our partnership screenings with Fleapit Cinema, or the Nova Scotia Retro Film Festo.)
If you haven’t seen these at Carbon Arc, and you are able to attend in the future, I hope this gives you an idea what we do. And if you’re curious about any of these films, many are now or will be soon available on other platforms, and a few are still to come this month at Carbon Arc Cinema.
Armand
This is one where I was really enjoying the first half, which is a tense school-campus based drama not a far cry from The Teachers’ Lounge, which we showed last year, except with a dark undercurrent of satirical humour. The story circles around a meeting between teachers and school administrators and parents of two six-year-old kids, one of whom may have sexually assaulted the other. The mother of Armand, the accused, is played by the amazing Renate Reinsve. She’s a public figure, an actor, and tends to the dramatic. It turns out she and the couple, the parents of the other kid, have a complicated history. I really liked the first half. The problem with the second half is the filmmaker, Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel — the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman — is trying a whole lot of directorial ideas, maybe in order to impress, rather than trusting his own script. Hallucinogenic visions and dance numbers are a big swing.
Bring Them Down
A grim but compelling Irish thriller about a long festering feud between two families that explodes with generational spite and patriarchal toxicity. Christopher Abbott really impresses with his accent and actually speaking the Irish language, and Barry Keoghan is typically good. The filmmaking choice to tell this in a Rashomon fashion, flipping antagonists, helps drive home the underlying theme of violence and masculinity.
Caught By The Tides
A fascinating look at the changing face of China in the drama/documentary mix shot over 22 years by renowned Chinese art house filmmaker, Jia Zhangke. The film somehow manages to cast a spell even as characters disappear into the landscape.
Darkest Miriam
This is a very Toronto movie — more specifically a love letter to the downtown park, Allen Gardens, but it still manages to strike universal notes. It’s about a solitary librarian managing grief (starring Severance star Britt Lower) and evolves into a love story when she meets a Slovenian-Canadian cab driver.
I enjoyed the delicate cinematography, the way the film uses opera on the soundtrack, and the subplot about mysterious, dramatic letters. I’m not sure if it sticks the landing, but I really appreciated the emotions it plumbs. Great to see the iconic Sook-Yin Lee in a supporting role.
DIG XX
Fantastic rock documentary about competitive bands in the 1990s San Francisco scene, revised for its 20th anniversary. On camera Dave Grohl calls it the greatest rock documentary ever. He may have a point.
Every Little Thing
A delightful, touching, and uncomplicated documentary about hummingbirds and a woman who cares for them. The birdwatching community came out in flocks for this.
Hard Truths
The quintessential quality film I’m glad to have seen once, but will never again. Mike Leigh reunites with his Secrets and Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste in this portrait of a deeply unhappy woman and her fraught connection with her family. Leigh’s compassion in his writing and work with his actors carries the day.
The Hermit of Trieg
Ken Smith has been living for 40 years in a cabin on the side of a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. The documentary, shot over years by a much younger friend, goes into some detail about his background, how he manages not only to survive but thrive up there, just as he goes through what could be an existential health challenge. There’s something universal in his story, even if his life is so unique. As he says: how many of us have dreamed of doing something like he did, going out into the woods, living on our own… but how few have actually done it?
Holy Cow!
A French, rural coming-of-age picture about an obnoxious teenager whose father passes away unexpectedly, forcing him to take care of the failing family farm and his little sister. Somewhere along the way he falls for another local farm girl and comes up with a plan to make money from entering a cheese contest. Scrappy and fun, for the most part.
Julie Keeps Quiet
This is a terrific film, about a tennis prodigy who chooses not to reveal what she knows about her coach who’s been suspended after the suicide of another student. This is something I saw at the Atlantic International Film Festival and found myself completely absorbed in the film’s shallow-focus cinematography, which isolates tennis-academy star Julie in the centre of the frame in a lot of shots even when she’s in the company of friends. Also very much enjoyed the production design, desaturated and chilly, working well to accentuate the darker themes bubbling underneath.
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
Celebrity docs are a dime a dozen, so I wanted something different from this one and I got it. It’s as much about Liza Minnelli’s collaborators and close companions as it is about her work. It reminds audiences what an artist she is, and it starts with the death of her famous mother and how she needed to define herself.
“Being Judy Garland’s daughter is not a lot of laughs,” she says. There’s something comfortingly old-fashioned show-bizzy about the project, but also totally relevant in light of all the glitzy celebrity culture we’re living through now, with every pop star offering some kind of curated “behind the scenes” product. This just feels more honest.
Misericordia
At first I wondered whether this one was going to be totally inert as I wasn’t impressed with the set-up aside from the not-so-subtle suggestion of camp and homoeroticism. Then, suddenly, the characters get interesting and there’s a murder and everyone’s quietly in love with the murderer and it’s all so wonderfully undeniable, and French.
No Other Land
The moving Oscar-winning Palestinian/Israeli documentary that struggled to get distribution in the United States. Go here to read my review from having seen it in London in January.
The Players
This is an interesting one. Set in 1994, it’s a semi-autobiographical tale of writer-director Sarah Galea-Davis’ own experience as a teen actor in an avant-garde theatre troupe in Toronto, it explores the ways in which a keen, talented, but inexperienced artist can be manipulated by the adults around her in ways even they may not understand.
Porcelain War
A look at how a small group of Ukrainian artists are adapting to the war with Russia, by turns beautiful and sad. I was surprised by how much footage from the front lines is included in this documentary which is ostensibly about civilians trying to create and maintain beauty in their day-to-day.
Santosh
This is an exceptional film. An Indian thriller about a woman whose husband, a police constable, dies on duty, and she’s given his job as part of a government program of “compassionate employment.” It leads her down a murky path when she tries to solve the murder of a lower caste girl. It glares unblinkingly at the classism and sexism in Indian society through this individual who’s had to eat a lifetime of it, struggling to exert some power.
Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat
An in-depth and gripping examination of Cold War history and how Western covert foreign policy, imperialism, and a lasting colonial hangover killed Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, and the role the great African-American jazz musicians of the day played, often against their will. A fascinating piece, it uses the music to help illuminate the grim history, along with well-chosen archival materials.
Vermiglio
Maura Delpero’s neo-realist Italian romantic drama set in a small mountain town at the tail end of the Second World War. I found this lovely but struggled to engage with its slow-moving plotting, though it found an enthusiastic audience.
Village Keeper
A first feature from Toronto documentary filmmaker Karen Chapman. The film suffers some from the limitations of its budget, but delivers a dramatic study of lingering, generational trauma in a suburban Caribbean-Canadian community.
We Were Dangerous
This one is a real joy. It’s about a group of (mostly) Maori girls at a Christian reform school in New Zealand who get moved to an island and then are subject to medical experiments around sterilization. Despite the heavy subject, this is a surprisingly light and gorgeously realized film. I wondered as I watched it whether a film made on a similar subject would have a similar tone here in Canada. I suspect not. I don’ t think we’re as far along in our efforts at reconciliation as they are there.
