Hits and Misses

Grizzly Man
(USA, Canada, 2005, 100 min) – International Showcase
Director: Werner Herzog

The story of a man who lived for 13 Summers with Grizzly Bears in Alaska... only to be eaten. I was expecting a think-piece, Lorne Greene-Esque Nature Film, but was served up a truly bizarre treat.

The line up outside the Bloor Cinema was extremely long, and despite my media pass, I was forced to wait in the Rush line-up with all the other sub-par schmucks… at least I had an umbrella, it was pouring out. The nasty rain and the long line up were signals the festival is hotter than ever, and this was one of the gems on the roster.

Timothy Treadwell is a likeable character who decided he could be a makeshift shepherd of the wild, but we are left wondering whether he really did any good up there. He toured the U.S. giving speeches to children for free and even guessed on Letterman.

Director Werner Herzog took 150 hours of footage that Treadwell shot and whittled it down to this fascinating and somewhat upsetting look at Treadwell's passion and mental health. Expecting Treadwell to look a little grizzly himself, instead we get an Owen Wilson twin/Gay Surfer-dude who runs around with foxes and pets 10-ft. wild bears on their heads. Herzog puts it well in his heartfelt narration when he explains that Treadwell didn't prove much about man's relationship with animals, but because of his extreme methods, he was able to get some of the best footage of these wild animals ever shot.

Treadwell's end throughout the film is strikingly powerful, as Herzog allows a certain amount of gore, but mainly deals with the emotions involved in Timothy and his girlfriend being eaten alive in the wild. This movie was the darling of Sundance and has received huge acclaim at Hot Docs and is just so odd that I couldn't help but love it.

- Mark Wigmore

Don't Fuck with the Lewises
(Norway, 2004, 50 min) – Last Call
Directors: Ronny Kristoffersen

I don’t consider myself an expert, but it seems simplicity is a necessity when it comes to the Doc. This film proves you don’t need planning, or even a storyboard to construct a great film. Sometimes all you need is a little curiosity, and the story will explode like a great ball of fire.

The concept of this one had my attention from the get go. Two Norwegian filmmakers hit small town Louisiana on a trek to document the state’s rich musical culture, but what they get isn’t the dirty south or crunk. It’s actually a bit of both, and this has nothing to do with Lil Jon. Class is in session folks, and today’s instructor is Rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis’ black sheep of a sister Frankie Jean. The setting for this baby is the family home/museum dedicated to her brother. Did I mention, the place doubles as a drive thru bar and liquor store? Oh yeah, the only thing missing is the trailer park.

I had to remind myself on numerous occasions that, yes, this is a documentary, and, yes this is a fucking true story! The filmmakers spend about 12 hours with the Lewis clan, and edit it down to an entertaining 50-minute preview of the future Ashlee Simpson Story. What happens when your siblings get all the attention? If you’re looking for a compelling, thought-provoking way to spend your day it ain’t happenin’ here. If you’re looking for entertainment, and a film that will make you say, “is this really happening right now?” check this one out.

- Cale Fair

The Next War: Radical Zionists in the Holy Land
(Israel, 2004, 80 min) - National Spotlight
Director: Dan Setton

In Dan Setton’s eerie documentary, it all starts with two very important assassinations:

The 1990 assassination of Rabbi Kahane in New York City after giving a speech by Egyptian terrorist El Sayyid Nosair, who was part of the cell involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and, the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by extreme right-wing activist Yigal Amir, after attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, now the Yitzhak Rabin Square.

Both were on opposite sides of the peace process: Kahane spoke of reclaiming all of Israel, killing Arabs or Muslims that get in the way if they won’t leave; problem is the Israel government won’t allow them to. Rabin is known for his leading roll in the signing of the Oslo peace accords, and signing a peace accord with Jordan. These two men could not be more diametrically opposed!

So start the problems in Israel, the stuff you don’t hear about but is bubbling contently under the surface. Followers of Kahane believe in what he used to preach: “Arabs out!” The latest polls show that 30 per cent of the people in Israel support the idea that the land belongs exclusively to the people of Israel.

That doesn’t mean you’re going to get extremists, does it? When it’s about religion, it becomes about what they see as their birthright to be there. Whether Arabs like it or not, they want them out.

Like radical Islam, this is nothing but terrorism. So imagine what is going to happen if 30 per cent of Israel decides to rise up; even those in the army oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Israeli pullout from the West Bank and Gaza. We’re looking at the next war, this time internally. You can already see it in the news.

- Antoine Tedesco

La Sierra
(Colombia, 2004, 86 min) – International Showcase
Directors: Scott Dalton, Margarita Martinez

One of the reasons I love the big film festivals that come to Toronto each year are the amazing foreign films. In the case of La Sierra, it was transportation into the Barrio of Medellin, a city in war-torn Columbia. This Hot Docs 2005 selection boasts shots as recent as 20 months ago and tells the heartbreaking story of three kids caught up in the horrible civil conflict that finds gangs joining paramilitary groups or guerrilla factions that battle, rather matter-of-factly, for turf in the cities.

I often repositioned myself in my seat as I learned of the everyday goings on of Edison, Cielo and Jesus who all have normal teenage humour and dreams, but who are burdened with owning the city streets by day and running a war at night. It felt so different as a human experience, yet I could relate to all the softer things they could enjoy, like dancing at a bar or falling for pretty girls. When reading about this documentary, I envisioned camouflage and barking of orders, when in fact 22-year-old Paramilitary Commander Edison speaks quietly into modern walkie-talkies and wears neon shorts and a t-shirt while loading his rifle with a bent clothes hanger. His dreams are of someday becoming an Engineer, but knows his chances of living past 25 in such a position of power are zilch. Females play a vital role in the film as we find out that at least 6 girls as young as 12 and 13 are getting pregnant with Edison, knowing full-well of his doomed occupation, but seduced by his power and extra money. Often these girls' parents and grandparents are seemingly ignored by the cocaine-stoned soldier-boys visiting their houses in the afternoons, hours before they take to the hills of the Barrio and fire at their enemies on the streets.

Texas filmmaker Scott Dalton and his partner Margarita Martinez spent a year with these kids, Dalton often putting his own "Gringo" life in severe jeopardy. As the film begins, they have edited in the comments of a local Medellin man who states the real problem: "Kids with Guns". This was a daring and brilliantly put together piece that I will never forget.

- Mark Wigmore

Preacher With an Unknown God
(USA, 2005, 16 min) – Last Call
Directors: Rob VanAlkemade

Look out Ad Busters, the anti-consumerism message has its new messenger and it’s Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. But 16 minutes was a little too long to completely convert me on this one.

Don’t get me wrong the story of Billy and his very talented choir, hitting the road in their corporation-stomping bus, makes for an interesting film. The Reverend causes a stink at every Starbucks, Disney Store or Wal-Mart he can get himself within 500 feet of, and it isn’t some passing fad either. This guy’s been delivering song and sermon for over 10 years. Toss in the 2004 American election as the scene for this show, and you have one U.S. tour worth checking out. Right?

Maybe. The idea is there. In fact, I’d argue it’s great. Late Friday night, the director asked, post screening, whether or not the audience would be willing to check out a half-hour version of the show which he is currently working on. The half cheering, half annh answer from the crowd explains it better than I ever could, but what the hell.

To the untrained critic, with a very open and impressionable eye, it needed some things. More attention paid to sound, for one; and cuts that added to the flow of the story, rather than take away from it. He had me glued at some points, and had me reaching for my pope at others. Could be inexperience on the part of the director, or it could be I just don’t get it. I suggest figuring this one out on your own.

- Cale Fair

Bearing Witness
(USA, 2004, 112 min) – International Showcase
Director: Barbara Kopple

Documentary films are fascinating because they depict people and things in a light we may normally not get a chance to see. Barbara Kopple’s Bearing Witness provides an unflinching look at what it’s like to be a female war correspondent. She expertly weaves together an honest portrait of five female journalists and their experiences during the most recent Iraqi-American war.

We read the articles, watch the news channels, and discuss war commentary around the water cooler, but what is it really like to be there? To put your life at risk every time you want to go out and gather information? Kopple takes the viewer on a journey into this life full of danger, excitement and loneliness.

The result is riveting. Making the choice to give themselves over to the front lines is seen as both heroic and a death wish at the same time. Relationships are compromised, lives lost, and countless atrocities witnessed. Kopple holds nothing back as she follows her subjects around, providing a deep insight into their lives, lives so extremely different from the average person.

It’s difficult to understand why anyone would choose a life so far removed from normalcy, and so full of destruction and sadness, but Kopple does an excellent job of getting into the psyches of her subjects. By the end, it becomes clear why they do what they do. It becomes obvious they could never do anything else, and very likely won’t.

Bearing Witnessis an intensely beautiful look at five women who have nothing and everything to lose.

- Jessica Padykula

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
(USA, 2004, 113 min) – Special Presentation
Director: Alex Gibney

When Michael Moore released Bowling for Columbine a few years back, I sat in a room with some other reporters questioning the outspoken director about his latest "Documentary". After some interesting back and forth and a few laughs, Moore pointed out that he still considers his films to be funny, and more importantly, entertaining at their base.

After the Oscar for Bowling, the rollercoaster over Fahrenheit 911 and a mass guffaw over the antics of Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me, it is assured that the documentary is at the top of its game. What am I getting at? Well, it seems Magnolia Distributing has noticed this trend and in turn, released this latest film on the money hungry gas tycoons at Enron, knowing full well of the current genre's popularity. While I am most impressed with Director Alex Gibney's catalogue of work, this film was nothing to get passionate about. I went in hoping to be sent into a rage over CEO Ken Lay's and COO Jeff Skilling's corporate greed and merciless business practices, instead I left with that feeling of trying to see all the floors in the American Museum of Natural History in two hours.

I am no brainiac, but I am able to follow most business stories with basic knowledge. About half way through the film I stopped caring where the money went within the various levels of the company and governments involved, not because I couldn't understand, but because I didn't care. This game of economic snakes and ladders was about as interesting as a lesson in spreadsheets.

Billions of dollars moving around the office space is not interesting, and what Director Gibney failed to do was to cut down on the fact sheet and fuel up on the effects on the human condition.

- Mark Wigmore

Courtesy images