LA MADRINA - THE (SAVAGE) LIFE OF LORINE PADILLA Hot Docs 2021

With LA MADRINA playing Hot Docs, here is a repost of my review from last year's Tribeca

Excellent portrait of Lorine Padilla who was the First Lady of the Bronx gang The Savage Skulls.

This super film starts with Lorine explaining that one doesn't choose to take drugs, rob banks or join a gang. Life pushes you that way and to understand what when before to know how we got here. She then lays out the life of her parents, her neighborhood and then herself. The result is a kick ass film about a kick ass lady. We come not only to understand and respect her but to like her. She is a tough cookie who wants the best not only for herself and her family but her neighborhood and as a result she is a fierce activist.

This film is a stunner. It is one of the best films at this year's Tribeca. Atypical in that it doesn't take a cookie cutter approach  the film not only gives us a wonderful portrait of one woman, but also of her life, her neighborhood, and our times. What she did bled outward and changed the world around us all.

Magnificent. Highly recommended.

A pointer concerning Viral (2021) Hot Docs 2021

 

VIRAL follows 7 people's lives on social media through 2020.

I am exactly precisely the wrong person for this film. I have zero interest in vloggers who stream their lives to the world as if it's a reality TV series. In a weird way I'm barely interested in my own life so I can't imagine what makes people think that anyone would care about their lives.

That said, if you are interested in how people present their lives on line, especially during a pandemic, this film is for you. Despite my bitching this is actually a pretty good look at 7 lives over the course of a year. While my dislike of the form kept me from fully connecting it was interesting to see ow some people live their lives.

Because of my bias going in, I am not reviewing this film but simply putting it out there for anyone who thinks this might be of interest to them

Brief thoughts on Mau (2021) HotDocs 2021

Portrait of designer Bruce Mau  as he talks about his life, his projects and his program Massive Action with which he hopes in inspire everyone to make the world a better place.

Interesting look at a man whose work has influenced millions. While Mau's initial work in design was with typography and words and images it grew to include things such as trying to help design to Mecca for the next thousand years and a social movement in Guatemala . Mau believes that the world can be made a better  place, we simply have to design it.

MAU is a good introduction to Mau. While I was familiar with his work I had no idea who he was. I loved that the film gave me a good look at what he has done and the philosophy behind it all.  I'm not sure if Mau's optimism will be rewarded but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I liked MAU. 

If you want to see a hopeful film that will make you rethink how you see the future, see MAU.

Brief thoughts IT IS NOT OVER YET (2021) Hot Docs 2021

Portrait of the Dagmarsminde nursing home in Denmark. Instead of treating dementia patients with typical treatments the staff focuses on engaging and connecting with the patients via touch, cake, bubbles, hugs, conversation, walks in the woods and other unconventional means.

This is a film that will make you wonder what the world would be like if we treated patients with kindness and caring instead of locking them up and medicating them into oblivion. After hearing so many horror stories about loved ones who went to a nursing home and slipped away, it was so nice to see caregivers who treated their charges with compassion. What a wonderful thing to see the patients being human longer and engaging with the world instead of being zombified by drugs.

I was moved.

You will forgive me if I leave it there but the film kick up some stuff that i s making it difficult for me to put into words how I feel. It's not so much that I don't have the words it just that I need more time to get my words right and the need to get this piece up for the festival is making it difficult. Just know this is a great film and is recommended

Faceless (2021) Hot Docs 2021

There have been a lot of films on the demonstrations in Hong Kong protesting the crushing of democracy and free expression by the Chinese government. There have been all sorts of fly on the wall films that have put us there and in the moment, revealing the terrible things that the police have done to those wanting freedom. Into the mix comes FACELESS, a look at four people who wade into the demonstrations after the mainland authorities circumvented the local laws and made the potential cost of speaking out life in prison.

The catalyst for the events in the film is the deportation act which says that if you protest you will not be tried by the local courts in Hong Kong but you will be transported to the Mainland where you will be tried and sent away for life. The film follows four people who step up and wade into the demonstrations despite of the danger to themselves.

I really liked FACELESS a great deal. Where almost every other film on the pro-democracy protests takes an in your face shaky participant cellphone approach that puts you in the moment, FACELESS is a bit more polished. Its a film that very much puts us in the moment, but it also gives us and the people on screen time to reflect. We get to hear the words of the people we are following when they aren't in the thick of battle but are considering what has transpired. Its a small touch that lifts the film up from being one of many to being one of one.

FACELESS is playing at Hot Docs and is recommended

Random thoughts on School of Hope (2021) Hot Docs 2021

The Oulad Buokais tribe in Morocco is one the last nomadic tribes. Almost every other tribe as given up the life because of over decade and a half of drought. Wanting to better the lives of their children they build a small school house and bring in a young teacher. Over the course of the film we watch how the students and teacher bond and how the teacher works to give the kids a better future.

I was moved to tears by this film repeatedly. There were so many moments where we see, I mean really see how educating our children brings hope for tomorrow. And don't get me started about the early scene where the teacher has to explain what hope is. The whole exchange just got me in the gut.

I love this film a great deal. Its a magnificent film that puts us very much in a place with the people on the screen. Its a film that really feels like real life in a way that many documentaries never achieve. Credit director Mohamed El Aboudi with giving us a real sense of where the school is and who everyone on screen is. Most documentaries never achieve that sense of place and sense of people.

Wow. Just wow.

I don't know what else to say other than SCHOOL OF HOPE will give you hope and make you feel good.

Highly recommended. This maybe my favorite film that I've seen that is playing Hot Docs.

The Gig is Up (2021) Hot Docs 2021

THE GIG IS UP is a look at the "gig" economy where people work on their own schedule for services like Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Amazon and other companies. Its a film that looks at the the pros and cons of the new way of doing things.

I'm not too sure what I think of the film. The film is a very good primer on the subject of the gig economy however there was a certain point where I kind of wished it was telling me more and bit more focused. For example the film's uneven focus is the result of the film bouncing all over the globe. We are in China and America and France or somewhere else. All of the work is kind of lumped together with the result that we don't get a sense of what everyone is doing or what each job entails. I felt a bit out to sea because I never had any sense what exactly some people were doing when they were sitting at a computer.

Frankly my reaction was simply "okay". And it left me with a desire to see another better organized film to put this one into perspective.

Wuhan Wuhan (2021) Hot Docs 2021

Director Yung Chang's WUHAN WUHAN is coming out with a potential chip on its shoulder.  The latest in a growing looks inside the city of Wuhan in the wake of the covid pandemic, it is almost certain to be compared to other films on the subject. The best thing anyone who sees it can do is simply attempt to take it on its own terms.

That is probably a weird way to begin a discussion of this film, but it is a necessary evil borne from the fact that when the film ended my first thought was "If I had seen his first I would have thought this was the best of the bunch" Clearly timing is everything.

WUHAN WUHAN follows several story lines, healthcare workers trying to battle the disease, a couple expecting a child, a psychologist trying to come terms with what is going on while trying to help others as well as others. It's a broad spectrum of life in the city that lets us know what it was like in the city at the epicenter of it all.

I was moved. More than once I was brought to tears by what I was seeing. One can never see too much what it was like to deal with an illness no one really knew anything about  but which was laying low thousands.

The strength of the film is the multiple story approach. Where 76 DAYS was largely set in a hospital and where IN THE SAME BREATH was focused on how China sought to control the narrative, WUHAN WUHAN wants to give us the big picture. This is what it was like for everyone across the board.

The truth of the matter is that WUHAN WUHAN is the film one should start with if one wants to know what was going on in the city. This is the overview that puts things into a basic context. Coming at it from after seeing several other films I couldn't help but nitpick and wish it covered things more deeply. Its a feeling that isn't fair because it was never designed to do that. Make no mistake WUHAN WUHAN is a great film, though how great will be determined by how much you have seen on the crisis in the city.

WUHAN WUHAN is recommended. It is also a must see if you haven't seen any other film on the subject.

CANNON ARM AND THE ARCADE QUEST (2021) Hot Docs 2021

Portrait of legendary arcade gamer Kim Cannon Arm who wants to beat his own record by playing Gyruss for a record 100 hours straight.

Forget what you think this film is, this is something else. A wickedly entertaining look at Kim, his friends and the place they hang out, it is video game documentary that is much more than a video game doc.

The truth of the matter is this is a film that is all about a kind of culture that is largely all but gone now. While arcades and arcade games have been making a slow come back, the guys in this film kind of seem to be stuck in the 1980's. Kim's love of the games dates back  to when he was a teen in the 1970's and now decades later, despite having kids and grand kids, he is still doing the same things, playing the same games. 

What isn't the same is the structure of the film. Focusing on more than just Kim, but is friends as well, the film is constantly spinning off in unexpected directions. We really get to know the guys and their lives and it makes it so much more interesting than if this was simply a film about a quest to play a game. This is ultimately a film about how some guys live their lives and find meaning.

I loved Kim and the rest of the guys.

CANON ARM AND THE ARCADE QUEST is a delight and recommended

The Spokeswoman (2021) SFF 2021 Hot Doc 2021

THE SPOKESWOMAN is a portrait of  María de Jesús Patricio, aka Marichuy, the First Indigenous Woman to Run for the Mexican Presidency. 

Patricio's rise in the political ranks was not something she had expected. She hadn't expected to  become a political leader but her ability to stand up to her bosses made her someone the people around her turned to to help get things done. As she began to fight for the promised rights of the indigenous people of Mexico, rights that were promised and taken away over and over again, she became a face most people knew. As a result she was the perfect person to step up and make a dark horse run to lead the country.

As good and as informative as the film is, how you react to the film is going to be determined  by how you react to the presentation. I say this because in watching the film I was wondering why I wasn't connecting to the film as well as I should. There was something wrong and I couldn't quite figure it out.

And then it hit me somewhere about half way into the film. While we are listening to the words of Patricio and those around her we really aren't seeing them speak. Its all voice over, except for the odd speech or interview. We don't see many people actually speaking on camera. It wasn't until I started to notice all the people with face masks on that I realized that there clearly is a safety issue for many people. Basically many people can not speak on camera because it could be dangerous. While I completely understand why this is so, it still makes it difficult fully connect to the film. 

Reservations aside I still recommend THE SPOKESWOMAN as a vital portrait of a fight for basic human rights.