Documentaries! The Wisconsin Film Festival will showcase documentaries with subjects that range from films about scientific discoveries, to small town problems, to inspirational stories of surprising heroes. Here is a quick survey of some highly anticipated docs plus the ones that peaked my personal interest.
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez)»
In Nepal, filmmakers Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, take the audience on a cable car ride that’s traveling above a vast jungle. The film travels back and forth the cable, each trip carrying a different load of passengers who are traveling for various reasons. The different people each respond differently to their environment. From the same filmmakers of Leviathan (2012), this film similarly captures a beautiful setting in unique compositions using an observational approach. The film has a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 7 reviews.
It takes a certain kind of alchemy to present an uninterrupted 8-and-a-half minute shot of a goat’s anal canal and call it entertainment. –Jordan Hoffman, Bad-Ass-Digest
Food Patriots (Jeff Spitz)»
It started when filmmakers Jeff Spitz and Jennifer Amdur Spitz’s son became ill after eating contaminated chicken from a commercial farm. As a result the family decided to come together to change the way American eats- contacting nutritionists, organic farmers, food-activists and the big men in charge. This is not only a film about a family committing to a cause, but a call to action for everyone to change what food they inhale, or at least be more aware of what they inhale.
Food Patriots features urban farmers, organic entrepreneurs, food activists, chefs, 8th graders, high schoolers, college athletes and most surprisingly, a conventional farm family that grows corn and soy while raising thousands of hogs in confinement. This film shows how a family learns to grow together, challenge the status quo and become engaged citizens. –Food Patriots website.
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard)»
A hybrid documentary that combines an analysis of legendary rocker Nick Cave’s creative process with a staged re-creation of Cave’s 20,000th day on Earth. Winner of the Sundance Film Festival awards for Best Documentary Directing and Best Documentary Editing.
This innovative study of Nick Cave playfully disguises itself as fiction while more than fulfilling the requirements of a biographical documentary. –Rob Nelson, Variety
Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus (Madeleine Sackler)»
Madeleine Sackler’s Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus follows the Belarus Free Theater group who explore taboo topics, such as sexual orientation and politics, in their performances despite censorship laws. Their goal is to spark controversial conversations among their supine countrymen. Being in the last dictatorship country in Europe, all footage had to be secretly shot and then smuggled out of the country. This risky production has been critically acclaimed around the world, being the official selection for both the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and the Toronto International film festival.
[Dangerous Acts] gives audiences a front row seat to a resistance movement as it unfolds both on the stage and in the streets – Dangerous Acts website.
Big Men (Rachel Boynton)»
Our Brand is Crisis (2005) director Rachel Boynton gives us a close look at oil and the big men that run the oil show. This political film grants access behind closed doors to witness a deal between the African country, Ghana, who is holding a wealth of oil and the business men who would like to have it. It is an actual time look at human nature and big business, and the motives and the outcome cannot be easily discerned.
One of the most interesting things about Big Men is that the ultimate outcome of this situation is unknown. Will Ghana make good use of its revenues? Will oil companies feel so disrespected that essential capital will be driven out of the country? –Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
For more information on the film, visit the Big Men official website.
Rich Hill (Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo)»
Rich Hill, the Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, takes on observational approach to three boys living in a small town in Missouri with a population of 1,396. As the camera follows the boys through their daily lives, they start to talk with the camera as if it were a companion, and through this the film captures each of the boys’ struggling with an impoverished background and troubled teenage problems. Each of them, though, holds differences in how they handle these problems which ultimately lead them down various paths.
Rich Hill doesn’t impose an agenda on its viewers in any real way. Depending on where you come from and what your background is, you might be horrified or mystified or find familiarity in these specific lives. All that matters though, is that it’s real, and these are very real people with real lives and problems and emotions.” -Katie Walsh, The Playlist
To Be Takei (Jennifer M. Kroot, Bill Weber)»
To Be Takei is about actor George Takei, who went from an actor on Starship Enterprise to being a Gay-rights activist. This is a look at George’s life, along with his husband Brad, and highlights their unique existence and their charismatic and wacky personalities. This Documentary is from filmmaker, Jennifer M Kroot, who also made the psychedelic film, It Came From Kuchar (2009), about twin filmmakers Mike Kuchar and George Kuchar.
Particle Fever, Mark Levinson»
Roughly hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent towards a research project aimed at finding the tiny particle that physicists believe will lead to understanding the universe. The proposed end will prove one of two extremes: “Either vindicate a theory of the universe known as supersymmerty or suggest the possibility of multiple universes” – A.O. Scott, New York Times. Particle Fever has a 90% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 10 reviews. You can see a short clip of Particle Fever and a review at Wired.
Wisconsin Rising (Sam Mayfield)»
Wisconsin Rising is by filmmaker Sam Mayfield. This is a political film about our very state, Wisconsin. It highlights the controversy over the past couple years following Governor Scott Walkers’ “Budget Repair Bill” and the negative response from the people of Wisconsin who felt that their rights were being taken. Visit the Wisconsin Rising website for more information about the film.
Village at the End of the World (Sarah Gavron, David Katznelson)»
A boy, Lars, who lives in a hunting obsessed place in Greenland, does not want to be a hunter.
Filmmaker Sarah Gavron, the maker of Brick Lane (2008), gives access to a world that is very different from our own, without electricity or internet cafes. Some of the people in the small town of Niaqornat (population: 59) love their quiet and simple town and others hate it. This ones who view Niaqornat as a paradise pull their efforts together to open a fish-factory, while others, like our main character Lars, tries to find a way to leave. 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 10 reviews. A trailer is available at the website for the film.
The Overnighters (Jesse Moss)»
Jesse Moss is known as the filmmaker of Full Battle Rattle and William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe. This is also the guy who has been in numerous horror films such as Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Final Destination 3. His newest film, The Overnighters, won Special Jury Award for Intuitive Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival, and it examines the rush to North Dakota’s oil fields in the hopes of a job. This Grapes of Wrath-like story illustrates the desperation to shake unemployment. The unwelcoming attitude towards newcomers and the lack of local housing leads the workers in a lonely state. Thankfully, an unsuspecting Pastor becomes the hopeful ray of sunshine.
[The men] range from an 18-year-old with a girlfriend and baby son back in his economically crippled Wisconsin home town, to an older man from Spokane, WA, whose past includes alcoholism, meth addiction and a 16-year prison term -David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Cairo Drive (Sherief Elkatsha)»
Sherief Elkatsha’s film, Cairo Drive, took 3 years to shoot between 2009-2012. It concentrates on one of the world’s busiest streets in one of the most populated cities, Cairo. The street’s occupants obey no rules, which results in a highly tense, and perhaps comical, adventure for anyone traveling on it. This film allows its audience to roam past the variety of drivers.
Even strangers to Cairo’s mad whirl will find themselves laughing alongside their more conversant neighbors” –Jay Weissberg, Variety