I’m slightly leery of using the term ode to describe this film, or “poetic essay,” which Gordon uses later on in the description. While they are apt terms for this film, the idea of a meandering, experiential documentary is something that wide audiences in the US don’t gravitate toward, and I have high hopes for Waterlife, one of the most stunning films about the environmental crisis I’ve ever seen.

McMahon chooses the Great Lakes as his main character – these 5 fresh water bodies between the US and Canada hold 20% of the world’s fresh water. Those who are in the know about environmental issues understand that we are hemorrhaging water and at some point in the not-too-distant future, we may stop fighting for oil and start fighting for water. What happens to this 20% of fresh water could very well be an issue of national security. So it is profoundly disturbing to see within one film the wide array of issues that face the Lakes with such clarity.

Sensuous cinematography (by John Minh Tran, who also shot Examined Life) and a top-notch soundtrack pull us in to  the natural beauty of this place. McMahon establishes also the relationship of humans to this environment, as open space and clean water to recreate in is one of our fundamental needs. I literally leapt out of my seat when when we abruptly stop for a visit a paper factory. It is the first intrusion of industry chronicled in the film and its entrance to the rather pastoral images is jarring. After seeing all of the wood and water being used to make those crisp white sheets that we take so for granted, I was prepared for a seriously depressing trip through the Lakes.

The information contained in Waterlife is powerful and disturbing, but all of the problems are interwoven with a visual and aural tapestry that allow us to also feel why we cannot be beyond hope that it is possible to use our ingenuity to deal with the problems. There is also humor, such as the redneck fishing contest of netting jumping Asian carp. The fish are an invasive species that are inedible, so folks head out in boats and catch them as they leap from the river. I doubt the sport will remove the species entirely, but it looked like a rather fun day on the water.

An Inconvenient Truth was an important film not only because it is a doc that did well at the box office, but because it was the nudge that tipped public awareness to environmental issues. It brought together the evidence of environmental degradation into one, credible spot. Waterlife, to me, represents the next step in our education. How do all of these various problems intersect with one another? Looking at a single issue is hard enough but understanding ecosystems and the multiple impacts and their effects seems to large of a task for a single film, but Waterlife is successful in this.

Going from a factory to city sewage, understanding the flow of a river and how the pollutants move through it and then seeing the effects on the people and animals that live with those effects, is the kind of systemic investigation we need. If you don’t live around the Great Lakes, it actually doesn’t matter, because the same industrial processes, sewage, damming, invasive species, etc. are taking place on each river and fresh water source we have. This story isn’t localized, though using this important example illustrates the interconnectedness in rich detail.

If you in Toronto, please see Waterlife on Sunday, May 10 at 4:15. It deserves to be seen on the big screen, and I rarely say that, so take note. Not only does it contain important information presented in a way that we haven’t seen before but it is a beautiful cinematic experience. A spoon full of sugar helping the medicine go down.

The official Waterlife website

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The Sound of Insects is an incredible movie based on a profound and surreal story. A man with no ties to other human beings goes into the wilderness with the intention of starving himself to death. This is an important distinctive difference to Into The Wild, where the young man who died did so accidentally – I believe he meant to come out of the Alaskan wilderness but the fact that he didn’t doesn’t make him stupid (the central point of my argument in said heated party debate). The man in The Sound of Insects clearly had the intention to die and as the haunting narration, crafted from the man’s own diary discovered with his corpse, says, he was dead as soon as he arrived in the woods and began to starve himself.

Most of us spend our whole day trying to survive. We go to work to earn money to pay for the roof over our head and food on our table, clothes on our back. Many of us strive for more than that–connections to others, pleasures and leisure. It is really difficult to identify with someone who is willing to give up the fight for life. And yet, this man, as he well knew, was accomplishing something braver and more unique than most of us ever will in our whole lives. To go through this process, to record it for others and to follow through with his own will are feats not many human beings can endure. At 40 days of starvation, he felt Jesus and Buddha and saluted them for their strength to return to the human race and bring back with them the enlightenment they discovered. Our protagonist had no revelations to continue to live for, but in his diary and in the artistic interpretations that followed and inform this film and Into The Wild, he left us what precious few have–a glimpse into dying.

Dying is something we all wonder about. Some people’s religion tells them things about it that they swallow whole-heartedly and never question, while others of us believe that no one knows. It’s all conjecture, but we look for those stories, accounts, that might give us just a small piece of what it will be like. Help ease our fear.

I found The Sound of Insects to be harrowing. My own interpretation is a mix of fear and ease with the text of this man’s death. What this man (who goes unnamed and identifying details of time and place are left out) and Alexander Supertramp a.k.a. Christopher McCandless left for me is that the soul and the body are indeed two separate entities. The body will not give up the soul easily and perhaps the soul can’t separate from the body simply because it wants to. You can call this separation death, and it certainly is for the body, but I find it impossible to believe that death is the end of the energy of our soul.

Your experience of this film will be unique and personal; much more so than most. I hope that you will watch it–it is beautifully crafted in a lyrical style that allows you to experience this journey into death. It might be a place that it is hard to imagine going or even wanting to, but at the same time, we all wonder and this is about as sweet of a journey as I can imagine taking down that road.

Filmmaker Peter Liechti will be on the panel I’m moderating on Monday at 1 PM, Creativity in Doc Making. Please see this film on Saturday, 6:45 PM and come armed with your questions for him on Monday.

The Sound of Insects: Record of a  Mummy website, including Rotterdam reviews

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I’ll also be moderating a panel on Monday, Creativity in Doc Making at 1 PM on Monday, May 4. Panelists include Jennifer Baichwal, Act of God (Canada), Laura Bari, Antoine (Canada), Peter Liechti, The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Switzerland) and Menna Laura Meijer, Sweety, The Friends, Betrayal and Murder of Maja Bradaric (Netherlands). I’m excited to watch their films and to think about creativity in doc making. It’s a subject that tends to get overlooked by people who are getting into documentary. They watch a lot of nonfiction television and think that a doc has to follow a certain form while in reality, the best docs push the boundaries of the form. Please stop by if you can!

Of course, there are way more films on my wish list than I’ll be able to see but here are the ones I’m hoping to catch:

21 Below Produced by my friends over at Indiepix, I’m curious to see what this one is all about. I saw a trailer at some point and wanted to see more.
Ali Shan This is the new film by the  director of Up the Yangtze, one of my favorite films from last year.
Big River Man I missed this one at Sundance and I heard good things. I’m going to try to catch up with it.
Bitch Academy A class in gold digging? Ok, I’m interested.
The Cove Another film from Sundance that I missed, although I missed it intentionally as I have a hard time watching animal slaughter. We’ll see if I can get myself to watch.
International Documentary Challenge I’ve been on the screening committee for this program the last two years. I’d like to catch up with the program at the theater and hear how folks are responding to the short docs.
El Olvido Heddy Honigman, need I say more?
Let’s Make Money Part of the Let’s Make Money sidebar of films dealing with the topic of money. Several of the films look really intriguing and as usual with HotDocs strands, hit the nail on the head.
Rough Aunties Directed by Kim Longinotto and producered by We Are Together crew Teddy Leifer and Paul Taylor. I’m in.
Sergio Recommended by Aj Schnack.
The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy Rings of Into The Wild, a story I loved.

Of the films in the program that I’ve seen, here are some recommendations:

Winnebago Man So far universally acclaimed. This one will make you feel good, and we need that right now.
Zombie Girl A fun look at a young Austin filmmaker. Zombie love not necessary to enjoy this one.
The Way We Get By See my recent post about the film.
The Yes Men Fix The World Besides the fact that The Yes Men are hilarious and smart as hell, this was a fun movie experience. A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, as the saying goes.
Burma VJ A haunting story of perseverance in the face of extreme difficulty.  I got a press release that the featured journalist, “Joshua” will attend the festival. Should be an amazing Q&A!
The Jazz Baroness I caught this one at Sheffield and really enjoyed it. I’m not a jazz fan but if you are, this one is a must-see.
Over the Hills and Far Away Seriously, you won’t be sorry. This is a wonderful story, beautifully told. Can’t miss.
Reporter Eric Daniel Metzgar’s latest (The Chances of the World Changing, Life.Support.Music)
Steel Homes Made by City of Cranes filmmaker Eva Weber.
Tyson While this film came across as typical mysoginistic fare when I saw it at Sundance, I do think it is more complicated than that. It’s worth watching, if only to have a conversation about it.
We Live in Public A really intriguing film about the effects of overindulging in our digital lives. I was mesmerized watching it at SXSW and couldn’t stop talking about it.

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Above all, Ron is a consummate listener. He always wants to hear what others have to say, and then rather than responding in words, he responds in his own work and in programming. But I respond in words, and this is my response to a panel discussion on Friday where arts writers continued the lament for their overworked, status-quo writing that has plagued film writing over the past months, years. It’s truly frustrating to hear people say that only arts writers are qualified to write about art. I’m paraphrasing the discussion since the same argument is being made for film critics, and again, there was no acknowledgment of the fact that plenty of people, like me, are out in the world responding to the things we see and other people are reading, watching, and talking with us. I have no pedigree other than having had mentorship in the field, the drive to produce even if I’m not being paid and no one was reading, and opportunities to watch lots and lots of movies.

If I had spoken up at the panel, I would have said that this is only thing I’ve ever felt really successful in doing. Writing about film is the one thing I can recall ever having other people acknowledge as something I do above average. The work I’ve done in this space has led to other opporunities, for which I’m incredibly grateful. It was disconcerting to hear the arts editor at The Austin Chronicle wonder if anyone reads his writing. I receive continual feedback that people are reading my writing–from simple recognition when I introduce myself, to comments left for me here, to emails from friends and strangers responding to something I’ve written. I’d suggest to any writer who feels unsure if folks are reading their work to shake it up. Throw out the verbal bomb and see what kind of impact you have. If people aren’t responding, it might not be that they aren’t reading, but rather that what you are saying isn’t engaging them.

The majority of art is put out into public space for the public to experience. Whether or not they have any background in critisicm, or the tradition of the art form or even the ever-subjective good taste, the art or performance is there for them to experience and judge for themselves. Their reaction to it, my reaction to it, might not be the same as yours and it might be less “informed” but that doesn’t matter. All that matters is the experience and how that experience is interpretted by the viewer. We can stroke one anothers’ backs all day long with how good something is, i.e. critical acclaim, but if the audience doesn’t respond now or sometime in the future, then how can we claim it to be important? Art asks questions, dares us to respond. The best art pushes boundaries and asks us to examine our reactions. An inability to engage others is failure in art and in writing about it.

Whether you realize it or not, this blog is actually the story of my life through the movies I watch. I only write about movies that touch me in some personal way and when I write about them, I often share at least part of the personal story informing my reaction and what specifically I’m connecting with in the film. Joeseph Campbell talked about the importance of story, myth, in revealing to us the world in which we live and the complicated human relationships and interactions we have. A story holds up a mirror to you and you look into that mirror and either recognize something or not. The best stories reveal truths that reverberate far and wide, but we all know that it can also happen that a special story simply doesn’t get the exposure it deserves. That is where I come in. I needn’t worry about capsule reviews for films showing at the multiplex. Others have that covered.

Every publication and writer should have their own voice. Rather than crying about whether or not people are reading or worrying about my own self-importance, my goal is to respond honestly to the work, to cover as much as I’m able in the time I have, and to raise up good works whenever I can.  I can walk into a discussion with any credentialed, knowledgeable, educated, well-paid critic, programmer, distributor and know that my opinion is just as valid as theirs, though my grammer might not be exactly right but I don’t care about that. Of course, that’s just my opinion

The Austin Chronicle: To Be Conversant by Hannah Kenah

Fusebox Festival

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It’s funny how life cycles, isn’t it? One day Bush, the next Obama. One day love and sunshine, the next rain and sorrow. Money, no money. I’ve very much been in a period of waning on my blog, but the doc days are heating up and so too must my little project here, or be I doomed back too obscurity!!

Through several channels has The Way We Get By by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly come to me. If you click to their website, you can see they are consummate internet marketers. I have to say that is about as technologically advanced as a film website can be these days – especially after all, they just premiered at SXSW where they won an Special Jury Award. They clearly have their ducks in a row, as the other channel that the film came through on was the P.O.V. press release as it will be on late in the upcoming season.

A prize at SXSW and a slot on P.O.V. plus their outstanding website are about as good of a pedigree for a documentary as you get these days. A lot of people believe in this film. The filmmakers shared a screener with me so of course, I watched it. It would take a hard heart indeed to not be taken in by the folks who are the focus of this film.

It is a group of volunteer troop greeters at an airport in Maine where most flights to and from Iraq connect. These sweet elderly people drag themselves out to the airport, at all hours, in all conditions and always with complete humility to say “goodbye and good luck” to departing soldiers and “welcome home” to those returning. I remember when I was a kid that having someone at the gate to greet me and waving me off as I walked down the jetway (back when you could get that close) was one of those simple, joyous moments. I can only imagine how much it must mean when a war is on the other side of the trip.

Your politics don’t matter. The hearts and souls of these people will show you what you are made of. Whether or not you like what you see in that picture is entirely between you and the screen upon which you watched. Unless, of course, you agreed to blog about it.

The last channel that I got news of this film was through Thom Powers, as it will be screening tomorrow night as part of the Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC Theater in NYC. The film is being co-presented by the Camden International Film Festival… a documentary festival in… Maine.

Now, it makes perfect sense, given that The Way We Get By is set in Maine, that Maine’s doc fest present the film in New York City. For a documentary festival to be in its 5th year and for me to not recall ever hearing about it? Oye. Maybe I should hang up my PowerBook. Am I getting too old for this already? Geesh. Well, I read through the materials Leah Hurley and Ben Fowlie, the folks who run the fest, sent me and it sounds like a great event. “Over the past five years we’ve managed to bring in some relatively big names and premieres from the doc world to the coast of Maine, including Al Maysles, Eric Metzgar, Ian Cheney, Jennifer Baichwal, David Redmon and Nina Davenport….and several NE PREMIERS like Al Otro Lado, Iraq in Fragments, The Garden and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.” It runs from October 1 – 4 this year.

So there you have it. My blog continues. Stranger Than Fiction tomorrow night or you can also catch The Way We Get By at Hot Docs (May 5 & May 7 screenings), which starts this Thursday as well.

I’ll be at Hot Docs from this Saturday to Tuesday, so send me your recommendations if you have them. I’m going to celebrate the mid-career retrospective of Ron Mann’s films. Ron is one of the rare people in this world who has maintained his sense of fun and rightousness, while still delivering important messages about freedom and entertainment.

And, if you are looking for a new documentary destination? Camden International Film Festival? Let me know what you think if you attend this year.

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Politics in America is fucked. I don’t usually say stuff that that, but come on… Obama was a welcome glimmer of hope that perhaps, just maybe, we might start making a few good decisions to get ourselves out of the total mess we are in, but if anyone is thinking we are out of the woods, all I can say to that is No Way! Not even close. Budget crisis, healthcare crisis, employment crisis, foreign relations crisis and rampant greed and corruption. We are just at the tip of the iceberg. The Great Depression was worsened by The Dust Bowl, and we’ve gone ahead and nurtured the possibility of environmental disasters to rival anything that has happened in the past, just to define what a fine precipice we stand on right now.

What happened in Texas with Kinky’s race for the governor’s office is important for our whole country. I’m really disappointed to hear that festival programmers disagree. If ever there was a time to start airing state political races and examining how our political process is broken, now is the time. Kinky Friedman is a musician and entertainer. He made his career making people laugh (Texas Jewboy) and at the same time challenging deeply held prejudices in the very red state. As the film makes clear, as did Paul Stekler’s Last Man Standing (2004, not much has changed), it’s basically impossible for Democrats to be elected in Texas. That fact is astonishing to me, and the reasons why are even more flabbergasting. Yes, there were some key voter turn-arounds that made it possible for Obama to win and this film shows how the mood was changing toward the winds that would become Obama’s campaign. All hope is not gone on the national level, but we citizens have work to do on the state of our country. It won’t happen through politicians alone, especially not those who are more concerned with their own bottom dollar than the welfare of communities. Kinky tried, and he has to be admired for that because not many of the rest of us are willing to do the same.

Kinky’s idea was that government was intended to be a part-time gig. One that would see business people, lawyers, etc. rotate into top positions, serve their country and then rotate out to other things. Career politicians are a serious problem. What is made also abundantly clear in Along Came Kinky is that governing today has become seriously complicated and to walk in off of the street and expect to not spend a year playing catch-up is also unreasonable. This is an important message for those of us who would like to see the whole damn thing nuked. The idea Kinky brought to the table was inspiring but the reality of someone who isn’t up to speed on all of the issues is also a reality we need to deal with.

Anyways, whether you agree with me or not, this conversation is important. Along Came Kinky is a wonderful film because it is funny and engaging, but also a serious observation of our political process at work and how we are failing ourselves by not becoming involved. It doesn’t matter whether this happens in Texas or any other state. This story rises beyond the individual, the state and where others wonder about third-party politics in the US.

My next thought after hearing that the film had been rejected from several prominent fests that I would have thought would play it, was that perhaps the film was judged too quickly based on the rough cut. I never saw the rough cut so I’m only speculating, but I think that a film like this has a bias against as being too local when it lands in a programmer’s box. If the rough cut didn’t dispel that idea, as did the fine cut that I watched, then that would be a good case for holding back festival submissions until a film is completed.

Distribution, including festival play, is an incredibly tough game to play and the battle ground is littered with filmmakers and films that are good and have an audience, but I want to add my voice to accolades for this one. I believe that Along Came Kinky can and will win audiences outside of Texas so keep your eye out for it.

Other thoughts on the film:
Nerve’s Screengrab
Paul Stekler for Texas Monthly
Slackerwood Interview with Harstein

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This year, most of the events I went to were local in nature–the secret screening of Linklater’s fabulous Me and Orson Welles, the fun yet important Along Came Kinky screening and downright hometown party at Rabbit’s afterward, Winnebago Man. I was very much in touch with the work that is being made locally and it was important to be present for those moments. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to, but I made a respectable showing and more importantly, I wasn’t regretting hanging out with the “local crowd,” I was reveling in it. I moved to Austin because I liked the vibe and indeed, if a major international festival can happen in your own backyard and you are happy to hang out with people you see all year long, well, I’m counting that as a true blessing and confirmation that I made a good choice in moving to Austin.

I didn’t have an enlightening experience regarding the industry. I didn’t make it to panels, largely because I wasn’t feeling like hanging out at the Convention Center this year. We had our big fundraising event on Thursday evening, and it is so much planning, preparation and stress, that once the weather turned sunny, I just wanted to be outside on decks and patios to enjoy. I’m happy that I saw so many films that I really liked. Each SXSW experience is unique and each have been meaningful to me, so I’m glad that held true this year albeit different than I expected.

I know this wrap isn’t particularly revelatory, but there was an interesting subtheme this year beyond my experience about how people come to town for SXSW, decide they love it and move to Austin. That’s my story, and I’m reporting a year and a half later, that it was a good choice. I love Austin and the people who make up the community here. My sense of other reactions during and after SXSW was that folks were having good experiences, so big congrats to Janet Pierson in her first year at the helm. Continuing to create a program that others want to be a part of is all SXSW has to do; Austin itself and the people who attend bring the rest. It’s still a highlight in my year.

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