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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Film Festival: Some Recommendations
Wednesday 18 April @ 16:17:05 |
 by MAX SPARBER
Ghosts of Cite Soleil: A fascinating documentary that provides a breathtakingly intimate look at a particularly grotesque piece of history. Danish director Asger Leth points his camera at two brothers on the streets of Port au Prince, Haiti. The pair shares a crush on a French relief worker, an alarming propensity for violence, and a role in Aristide's secret army, the Chimeres, which translates literally as "the ghosts." This group of armed thugs did Aristide's dirty work in the Haitian ghettos in the months before his ousting, and this documentary takes a look at the way violence is often used as a tool in the real world, and at the scars, both literal and emotional, it leaves in its wake.
The Godfather of Disco: A mesmerizing overview of the rise and fall of '70s-era dance music in New York City that focuses on Mel Cheren, the founder of West End Records, a regular at the legendary nightclub the Paradise Garage, and author of a fascinating biography that charts the development of the New York gay scene from before Stonewall to its near-decimation during the AIDS crisis of the '80s. Cheren's music was a style of dance music that is still somewhat obscure to all but diehard disco fans--called "garage" (and unrelated to the '60s psychedelic pop that also claimed the name Garage), it pioneered electronic dance music, but with a strong gospel and soul influence. This documentary, directed by Gene Graham, takes its narrative directly from Cheren's book and offers a dazzling, propulsive look at a vibrant but doomed New York cultural explosion.
Ole Bull: If you head into Loring Park, you'll see a rather surprising statue of a Victorian gentleman playing a violin, with the words "Ole Bull" embossed across the statue's oversized base. Here is evidence that there could be international superstardom before there was recorded sound, as Ole Borneman Bull was a Norwegian fiddler who enjoyed fanatical success in his native country and traveled throughout the United States in the 1850s. For those who think swooning girls stealing bedsheets is a modern phenomenon--the sort of thing we might associate with Elvis or The Beatles--this documentary about Ole Bull will be a revelation. The man enjoyed a level of fame that feels very modern, even when it's dressed in the trappings of Victorian Europe. And these trappings are delightfully weird--his bathwater was sold as perfume, for example, and his funeral procession at sea was led by the Norwegian navy and followed by a thousand smaller boats.
Paprika: There's something about Japanese animation that lends itself well to cyberpunk themes, especially when compared to live-action American films. I mean, compare the gorgeous animated classic "Akira," as an example, with the ploddingly stupid Keanu Reeves' vehicle "Johnny Mnemonic." Director Satoshi Kon, is previously best known for his poignant 2003 "Tokyo Godfather," a tale of homelessness animated using a hazy, impressionistic palette. Here he tackles a 1993 novel by popular science fiction author Yasutaka Tsutsui that tells of a device that allows police investigators to enter the dreams of suspects, rummaging through their unconscious thoughts for clues. When this device is stolen, a scientist and a detective immerse themselves in the world of dreams to track it down. The film presents one of the most liberating--and terrifying--looks at the world of the dreamer, a world of unexpected transformations and endless possibilities.
Pervert's Guide to Cinema: It's not as naughty as it sounds, unless you find the bearded, deeply eccentric Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek unusually attractive. "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" is Zizek's tour through the world of film, inspired deeply by the writings of Freud and Lacan, in which scenes from thrillers by Hitchcock and David Lynch provide useful metaphors for humankind's fractured collective psyche. The film itself is ingenious, placing Zizek inside the sets for the movies he describes, but somehow the philosopher is at his most interesting when he indulges in bizarre, off-the-cuff commentary, such as an aside in which he declares his disgust for flowers, which, with their open petals, seem to him to be begging for sexual encounters with passing insects. "Children should not be allowed to look at flowers," he eventually declares.
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