By: Henry J. Fromage –
As two smaller film festivals wrap up, the big one this month- the Wisconsin Film Festival- drops with a vengeance.
444. The Witches of the Orient
This French documentary chronicles the unprecedented dominance of a Japanese women’s volleyball factory team that went on to win 258 straight matches, including World Championships and the 1964 Olympic Gold Medal. Director Julien Faraut is pretty far-out, man, in his mixing of match footage, interviews of the players who are now in their 70s, truly intense training footage, and excerpts from the many animes based on their exploits. The editing is just superb, making for a truly exciting and enjoyable sports documentary even if sports or volleyball aren’t your thing. Two Beers.
445. Holler
While the previous film was my first from the Wisconsin Film Festival (which is why my numbers are so high this week), this one felt like the premiere- watching it as I did on Friday night and with recognizable faces populating the cast. Jessica Barden, who’s suddenly everywhere, stars as a sharp high school girl being raised by her older brother with her mother in rehab and father not even bothering a mention. They find what feels like a real opportunity with a junkyard owner who makes his real money pulling metal out of the abandoned factories and houses in the area. Barden does some of her best work here, Austin Amelio gets a rare showcase in a complicated role, and Nicole Riegel directs with a steady and sensitive hand. Two Beers.
446. Those Who Wish Me Dead
I should start by saying I quite enjoyed this overall- it’s lean, mean thriller with a cast that knows how to play lean and mean right down to Finn Little’s altogether excellent preteen performance. If it was directed by anybody else, it’d be a springboard film, but when you see the name Taylor Sheridan in the credits it’s fair to expect more. Here he’s directing someone else’s script and story, although he did take his pass at the script, too. Perfectly fine, although likely destined to be ranked towards the bottom of the Sheridan filmography. Three Beers.
447. Important Police Shit
Speaking of lean and mean, this shot film set in a police academy first makes the point via simple observation that the hardcore military-style training the recruits are undergoing is more liable to produce, well, soldiers, than the neighborhood policeman & protector that at one point used to be. The second, subtler point, until a shocking end, is that the brutalist machismo on display is a second kind of death for women. Two Beers.
448. Excuse Me Miss, Miss, Miss
This Filipino short starts on an absurd note and only goes more low-key Adult Swim-brand horror-comedy from there, taking a few shots at the level of effort it takes to be an hourly worker, especially for women who often take on the themselves seemingly full-time roles of wife and mother, too. Weird in all the right ways. Three Beers.
449. Wiggle Room
Julia Baylis & Sam Guest craft a tight little New York tale about a young woman (Deanna Gibson- don’t be surprised to see that name again) trying to get a payout on her mother’s insurance claim from a shady outfit. This feels like it belongs in the Safdie Brothers universe of gritty NYC drama, and hopefully will spring them all to greater opportunities. Two Beers.
450. Lizard
This Grand Jury narrative short prizewinner at Sundance follows a little girl through her Megachurch & school in Lagos on the trail of a skittering lizard, but instead finding skittering human behavior in the dark recesses of this ostensible place of God. The fact a preacher invokes Jesus’s visit to the temple market with a bullwhip shows how exactly in alignment it is with my view, as a Christian, of anything resembling a Megachurch. Viciously condemning through the behavior it shows, and it’s horror-film touches. A Toast.
451. Ava from My Class
This short is simple in its construction, one pubescent girl shyly observes another in a theater class they both attend, with her admiration and maybe something more written over her every interaction with the object of her fascination. Youmin Kang shows a deft feel for communicating depths of thought and emotion with a minimum of dialogue. Two Beers.
452. Bambirak
This short is beautiful in its simplicity. An Iranian immigrant to Germany and his daughter spend the day together on his delivery route, bonding lovingly. There are shades of anti-immigrant unease that culminate in the one dramatic incident that occurs towards the end, but the point is the relationship between these two in at times difficult circumstances. Two Beers.
453. West
So, this next slate of shorts, part of the Wisconsin Film Festival’s ‘Only the Only’ program, has to be graded on a bit of a curve- it’s very clearly comprised of a bunch of student shorts presumably from the University of Wisconsin (the local connection of one of the shorts is what caught my original interest). Anyway, this first one is a well-lensed and edited modern dance short shot in Arizona that runs about 5 minutes. Maybe the most polished shooting of the slate. Three Beers.
454. You’re Adorable
Far less slickly shot, the draw here is the storytelling- a twisted little story of girl likes boy (and compiles a list of ways to capture the attention of Boy) that quickly goes awry. Nicely acted and fun to follow along to its conclusion. Three Beers.
455. The Messenger
One of at least two student films with a Korean connection, this enigmatic collection of Chinese-Korean proverbs, myriad onscreen effects, and impenetrable philosophizing does feature footage shot in Korea, as well as some other interesting modernist architecture somewhere unknown. It’s very clearly a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach, and I’m sure all involved learned some cool things they’ll employ to greater effect later. Four Beers.
456. In Due Time
The other Korean connection film is shot by and starring a Korean-American girl doing her best to survive the pandemic on her lonesome. Full of stir-crazy touches that’ll feel familiar to just about everyone, it fills its 10 minute runtime authentically, even if there’s not much of a story that emerges. Three Beers.
457. Way Upstate
This is the other short in the slate that felt professionally shot, although it’s still plenty simple- 6 minutes of a young woman arriving at a Northwoods cabin by the lake and reminiscing about what sure looks like the loss of father and the memories they shared up there together, although that’s certainly a matter of interpretation. Three Beers.
458. I’ve Been Afraid
This little bizarrity sets out to tell a horror story with creepy voiceover and a bounty of strangely deployed early internet memes, clip-art, and other ephemera from what feels like the YTMD era. I admire the moxie, but once again this feels like a student film idea weighed down by the execution. Four Beers.
459. DESCENDED
This almost may be a cheat of an inclusion in the slate, as it’s both far longer (nearly half an hour) and far more polished than the rest- if this is the product of the same class then somebody’s clearly setting the curve here. It does fit thematically with the rest, though, telling an elliptical horror tale of a lone woman in a nice cabin who appears to be visited by a ghostly double who dances in a herky jerky motion… okay, this is kind of all of the preceding films rolled into one. I see what you did there, programmers. Anyway, a familiarity with the Japanese ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn probably will take you further than what you get at first glance with this one. Two Beers.
460. Fear
This black & white Bulgarian film is a dark satire about the overt racism of a small town of Bulgarians who react to the arrival within days of a group of Afghan refugees and an unassociated refugee from Mali with dismay and disgust. Taciturn widow Svetlana Yancheva (giving off serious Frances McDormand vibes) probably isn’t all that different than them, at least until she takes in Bamba and starts to realize just how backwards and awful her neighbors are, and how she and Bamba are cruising for a showdown with them. Two Beers.
461. Calamity – A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary
This French animated film tells the story of a youthful Martha Jane Cannary- who would go down in history as Western hero Calamity Jane. It’s a short and sweet tale that gets right to business and establishes characters deftly in a story that both kids and adults will get something out of, plus it’s fetchingly animated to boot. Here’s hoping it gets noticed come Oscar time instead of The Minions 4 or whatever. Two Beers.
462. My Darling Supermarket
This is the type of documentary that often draws the label of “quirky”, but Tali Yankelevich has a real penchant for locating the macro in the micro, in this case the daily rhythms and personal preoccupations of a Sao Paulo supermarket and its workers. In between the strangely entrancing shots of bread machines spinning dough or a stunningly talented sign painter drawing price placards arise stories like the great will they/won’t they romance of two bakery counter workers. Unique and fascinating. Two Beers.
463. Souvenir Souvenir
The Wisconsin Film Festival programmers once again hit it out of the park with their pairing of short film + short feature with this French animated short about the horror and shame of wartime and the memories that will never fade and the below Josep. Here filmmaker Bastien Dubois grapples with his grandfather’s experiences in the Algerian War, a conflict notorious for its abuses and war crimes, in particular because his refusal to discuss it does nothing but leave it up to the imagination. Knotty, yet well-rendered. Two Beers.
464. Josep
This short animated film tells the story of Spanish cartoonist Josep Bartoli, who fought Franco’s fascists before escaping to France only to be put in an in all senses of the title concentration camp there meant to keep dirty Commies away from the rest of the population (yes, I had no idea France got in the concentration camp game pre-Nazi/Vichy regime, either, but apparently they didn’t need much prompting). Harrowing and beautifully animated in a style reminiscent of Bartoli’s own work, if there’s any justice in this world, mononymed French director Aurel and Josep would be competing in a slate with Calamity for next years Animated Feature Film Oscar, but, well, this isn’t necessarily the film for reinforcing faith in a just world. Two Beers.
465. My Donkey, My Lover, and I
Another former festival miss, in this case the Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, it’s easy to see why it captured the eye of the Wisconsin Film Festival’s programmers as well. Overall, it’s not a mind-bending work of genius or anything like that, but Caroline Vignal’s film is a perfectly amiable and often quite funny story of a woman who follows her lover, the father of one her students, on vacation to the Cevennes- a hike with a recalcitrant donkey named Patrick. Of course she’ll learn more about herself on the journey with Patrick than in the inevitable encounter with her disappointing amour, etc, etc, but it’s not the destination, but the journey for this film, and a very pleasant journey it is. Three Beers.
466. Here We Are
This was a Cannes Official Selection from last year’s cancelled festival, and while at first you feel this story of a father and his autistic son may be skewing a bit broad with its depiction of autism and music choices, that very quickly changes into an almost Kramer vs. Kramer story of a stubborn man trying to do the best he can by the son he loves, against the wishes of both his ex-wife and the court system that insist on him proving some degree of income to prevent his son from being taken to a special needs program to live. Emotionally powerful and constantly surprising with the complexity of its choices, it’s very clear why Cannes saw fit to honor it. Two Beers.
467. This Is My Desire
This superb Lagos-set Nigerian film from Arie & Chuko Esiri follows two ultimately only tenuously connected strivers to escape their present dire circumstances through visas for them and their loved ones to Europe. What they instead get are an almost Job-like litany of sorrows as misfortune removes option after option. Perseverance, flexibility, and strength keep their heads above water, though. The Esiri Brothers make one hell of a calling card film here- watch out, because Nollywood is producing some world-class talent these days. Two Beers.
468. Try Harder!
This documentary follows the senior class of Lowell High School, the top high school in San Francisco, as they strive to achieve in their current high pressure environment while looking ahead to the next, bigger one- getting into the college of their choice. It shows how absurdly difficult it is to get into the top universities, and the toll the process takes on the psyches of the kids. It also touches on compelling conversations about race and the admissions process, as the vast majority of Lowell’s student body are of Asian descent and face a kind of reverse racism, especially from California schools hoping to diversify their student body. Two Beers.
469. There Is No Evil
This quadtych of stories from Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof comprise a masterful examination of the human cost of the death penalty not only on those who are sentenced to die, but those who are sentenced to carry it out (often young men unlucky enough to have drawn the shortest of straws for their compulsory military service). While maybe more dramatic than your typical Iranian New Wave feature (if we can still call it that), it’s a politically bold, emotionally elevated, and gorgeously shot whole that’s somehow even greater than a sum of its parts. Two Beers.
470. Iron Family
I’d like to introduce Jazmine Faries, a prolific writer of plays based on her lives, both real and fantasy, that she stages each year with her enthusiastic and supportive family. Oh, and she has Down’s Syndrome. This isn’t one of those documentaries, though, instead being content to just follow this interesting collection of people warts and all, including Jazmine (she’s a bit of a diva, and she’s not afraid to admit it). It’s a rather normal, pedestrian even, film about normal, pedestrian people, and that’s kind of the cool thing about it. Three Beers.
471. Operation Wolf Patrol
This documentary follows Rod Coronado and his Wolf Patrol volunteer conservationists as they strive to prevent unlawful big game hunting practices in the Northwoods by following and observing hunters who do things like set bear baiting traps or use large teams of dogs to go after bear and wolves on public land. This documentary does a good job of presenting a fairly complicated issue as well as the heightened emotions on both sides regarding it, capturing some harrowing footage of confrontations that feel like they could erupt in physical violence at any moment. Three Beers.
472. Orin + Kepa
This short tells the story of a Wisconsin animal trainer, Orin, who tackled trying to domesticate some wolf cubs he found and succeeded, forming a particularly special relationship with the alpha wolf, Kepa (although Orin made sure to establish he was the alpha every time Kepa tried to step to him, just using his apparently quite brawny Wisconsin farmer hands). The Super 8 footage used to cobble together this short is all stellar- I know we aren’t supposed to take away this message, but I totally want me a wolf cub. Two Beers.
473. Dear Mr. Brody
The story of Michael Brody, a 21 year old millionaire heir who announced in the 1970s that he’d give away $25 million in total to anyone who wrote him with a request or need, is undoubtedly a great one. Unsurprisingly, it did not go well, as requests and attention poured in and Brody, the type of guy who thought this was a great idea to help bring about world peace and displayed a bit of a messiah complex from the start, started to unravel. The filmmakers try to find a way into this story that’s not just naivety and tragedy, but frankly, fail to, which is my biggest knock against an otherwise well produced doc. Three Beers.
474. Bid Caller
This short documentary focuses on the career of Harold Betthauser, a Milwaukee auctioneer who’s gained a reputation for his skill as a bid caller- yes, one of those folks with that distinctive mile-a-minute speaking cadence. This is just a humanist story full of jovial characters and an inside look at a business not a lot know about. Two Beers.
475. The Passing On
Packaged with Bid Caller was this simply beautiful feature documentary about James Bryant, an embalmer for a long-lived Black funeral home in San Antonio, and his two current apprentices, one a young, gay black man who feels estranged from his community. A perfect example of a fly-on-the-wall documentarian in Nathan Clarke who knows when they’ve found a fascinating subject and how to let its principals shape its story. A Toast.
476. The Voice of the Moon
Frederico Fellini’s final film was this 1990 Roberto Benigni-starrer that is little known in part because North American critics didn’t know wha to do with it. In all fairness, neither did Fellini, who first landed on a theme (bucolic and perverted childhood memories, of course), got millions of funding for it (to be fair, if, say, Scorcese asked for funding sight unseen, somebody would come up with the scratch), built an entire town as a set, hired on Benigni & the rest of the cast, and then started filming. Oh a script, you say? Yeah, forgot that part, so the entire thing was written the night before shooting each scene based on observing improvisations of the cast, which probably also explains why the whole thing is dubbed despite it being, you know, 1990. Italian and French critics were kinder to it, seeing in it a farce of excess. The funny thing about a satire of excess, though, is that unless you’re entirely on point, it’ll all come out looking, well, excessive. Four Beers.
477. Golden Voices
Packaged with the above Felllini film is this winning story of two long-time Russian Jewish film dubbers who emigrate to Israel in 1990 and find the transition to be a difficult one. This is both a very interesting story of culture clash full of specificity of the time and place and involved cultures as well as a well-acted relationship drama between the two leads. Oh, and The Voice of the Moon plays a part in it all, hence the packaging together (although I can’t say having seen it first added much to the appreciation of this one). Three Beers.
478. The Metamorphosis of Birds
This creatively staged documentary from Portuguese director Catarina Vasconcelos enlists what feels like the entire Vasconcelos clan in an elliptical, poetic family history rendered in evocative voiceover and enigmatic yet unfailingly gorgeous cinematography. While fully grasping every meandering of the story may require you have the surname Vasconcelos, it’s the journey, not the destination, and what a magical realist, Vargas Llosa or Garcia Marquez-invoking journey it is. Three Beers.
479. When Claude Got Shot
This outstanding documentary from Brad Lichtenstein tells the story of his friend Claude Motley, who was shot through his lower jaw while trying to flee a group of teenage robbers in his car. Two days later the shooter himself was shot by a nurse defending herself from a similar attempt, paralyzing him. Lichtenstein follows all the principals through the massive fallout in all of their lives, from shady insurance companies to a court system that tries to be lenient until its patience is exhausted to the PTSD and twisted guilt suffered by even the lady who successfully defended herself. An incisive and exhaustive parable of how far the rotten tendrils of gun violence will unfold. Two Beers.
480. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
One of the few Bhutanese films to get a wide international release, it’s easy to see why with this story of a checked out teacher with a year on his contract who’s sent to the most remote school in the country and perhaps the world. Will he find a purpose and a new look at life from the adorable permanently ruddy-cheeked (that’s what that kind of altitude does to you, folks) moppets above? Yes, of course, and yet his arc and the characterizations of all involved so well-considered and delivered it’s contagious. Two Beers.
481. Sun Children
Majid Majidi knows his way around social realist tales of children in dire circumstances, having directed both Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise, but in returning to these themes he may have outdone himself. 12 year old Rouhollah Zamani, who has one of those expressive, naturalistic faces you just know you’ll be seeing again for years, stars as a the leader of 4 street boys, most with parents addicted to drugs, who enroll in a school for underprivileged children in order to dig under its foundation to find a treasure a local crimeboss assures them is there. I wasn’t able to tear my eyes away- this is prime storytelling with characters you begin to feel for quickly and deeply. A Toast.
482. 9 Days in Raqqa
This French documentary was part of Cannes unshown, yet still official slate from 2020, and it’s easy to see why it made the cut. At first you think this chronicle of a French author’s 9-day trip to Raqqa, Syria, formerly the very capital of the Isis “caliphate”, is going to be of the harrowing ilk of The White Helmets, For Sama, or The Cave, but it’s actually more akin to last year’s Mayor. The star here is Raqqa’s 30 year old Leila Mustapha, who is mayor of a town plagued by the past and how it is reflected in present-day divisions, but whose confidence and drive to bring a better future to her fellow citizens never wavers. Defies expectations at every turn. Two Beers.
483. Our Midnight
This small Korean indie film is about two lost souls who walk, talk, and drink their way through late/early hour Seoul in crisp black and white images and intricate long-running conversation. Yes, it’s all very Before Sunrise (except for the whole subplot about suicide prevention), and when it does thing like mention plot points from Cinema Paradiso and immediately following play a snippet of its score or have a shadow elephant come to life, it’s too precious by half. Still, the rapport between the leads is enough to keep you invested. Three Beers.
484. Bear-Like
I didn’t initially have any interest in this Doclands submission because the premise of “man gets way too close to grizzly bears” made it hard not to think that at some point in the future the featured researcher, David Bittner, will go the way of Timothy Treadwell. That may still happen if he keeps this up, but there’s no denying the staggering beauty and deep interest of the nature footage Roman Droux does capture, who does have that same Teutonic voice and philosophical mindset as Werner Herzog. Maybe this is the ideal companion piece to Grizzly Man, but I really couldn’t tell you which you should watch first. Two Beers.
485. The Time We Have Left
Doclands packaged a couple of Western U.S.-set shorts with Inhabitants, which we’ll cover below, but they could just have easily been a part of their environmentally focused shorts package as well. This one is bold- cutting between present day climate scientists telling us how boned we’ve been basically since the public learned about the affects of climate change well after the big energy companies already knew in the 1970s to very well shot dramatizations of what life is going to look like 10 and 30 years down the road (spoiler alert: doesn’t look like fun). Packs quite a punch in a relatively short amount of time. Two Beers.
486. Last Days at Paradise High
This short following the 2019 Senior class of Paradise High as they cope with the total destruction by fire of their town and finishing high school in a converted airport hangar the next town over is an effective pairing with last week’s Rebuilding Paradise. At least it’s just as effective at communicating the terror and loss of the event, but digs somehow even deeper in examining what that kind of thing does to the psyches of literally an entire community. Feels like Oscar to me. Two Beers.
487. Inhabitants: An Indigenous Perspective
This feature-length offering posits that when it comes to discovering the best ways to sustainably live we should maybe pay attention to the people who know the land best- the indigenous peoples of our world. As one Hopi farmer in the Southwest puts it, he’s a 400th generation farmer on his land, which he then demonstrates by planting corn deeper and drier than you’ll learn is possible from your local ag program. Very interesting stuff throughout, with beautiful landscape and natural photographer in support. Two Beers.
488. Whales Without Walls: The Whale Sanctuary Project
This 5-minute short was packaged together with five other like-minded (environmental and nature-related) documentary shorts of varying lengths by Doclands into the “For the Love” program. The shortest as you may expect, it’s also basically a commercial for the Whale Sanctuary Project, a clearly worthy endeavor to get whales and dolphins in captivity out of their tanks and create them a coastal sanctuary in Nova Scotia that is more natural. Three Beers.
489. The Urchin Diver
Only slightly longer was this 6-minute portrait of Connor Rhoades, a seafood diver who is experiencing the destruction of California’s kelp forests firsthand. Boasting quite possible the most gorgeous camerawork of the entire festival, it makes its point and gets out in admirable time as well. Two Beers.
490. Shaba
Next up by length was this 11-minute story of Shaba the elephant and the women of the nature reserve who saved and raised her after her mother was killed, only to see her become a step-mother to the many other baby elephants orphaned by poachers they came to care for. A bit precious in spots, but undeniably heartwarming. Three Beers.
491. The Linesman: Both Sides Matter
This was also elephant conservation-focused, this time on preventing conflict between man and elephant in Myanmar, where widescale deforestation for plantation farming and poachers have driven them into the more populated agrarian lowlands. The former driver turned activist in the middle understands both sides, and has devoted his life to protect both man and elephant alike. Three Beers.
492. We the Power
This very slickly produced documentary from Patagonia Co. (yes, that one) follows a group of Europeans from around the continent devoted to democratizing power production- via wind, solar, and even doing things like reviving hydroelectric mills that were decommissioned decades ago. It does feel like a potential piece of a future solution, and is a good call to arms to do what you can to wrest energy monopolization from big corporations where you can. It’s a bit scattershot, too, though, invoking Chernobyl as a way to shut down the Nuclear conversation outright, which is somewhat disingenuous. Three Beers.
493. The Crab Season
This short documentary is on the longer side of a short- clocking at nearly an hour, but every minute spent with Christophe as he hand-fishes for crustaceans beneath Etretat’s dramatic white cliffs and rock formations is spent well. He’s a cantankerous Tom Wilkinson sort with a set of very special skills deployed in a beautiful place- oh, and did I mention he is blind? Two Beers.
494. Writing with Fire
Another documentary that debuted at Sundance but I missed my first chance at, this feels akin to some that have made the cut in recent years for Oscar- particularly this year’s Collective. This is another story of atypical reporters serving as one of the last bastions of democracy in a corrupt system- in this case a paper run exclusively by women of India’s Untouchable caste (a ridiculously repressive system that nonetheless persists in the country) in the rapidly nationalist Right-swinging state of Uttar Pradesh. The way these women survive and thrive reporting in tense situations despite having started with literally no inherent advantage (or, arguable, every disadvantage) in their society is stunning, and utterly inspiring. Two Beers.
495. How to Form a Union
This short documentary is both hyper-local (concerned as it is with Madison’s own Willy Street Co-Op grocery store) and of general interest, focused as it is on this the nuts and bolts of forming a union at a time where doing so in order to obtain basic workers’ rights like not having a excused medical absence put you on the inexorable path to firing is treated as the work of Satan-horned Stalin himself (color me surprised that a grocery store whose entire brand is “we’re progressive!” is so retrograde in worker’s relations). These workers were successful, thankfully. Three Beers.
496. The Big Scary ‘S’ Word
Packaged along with that local story of progressive politics and striving for basic rights is this short documentary about, you guessed it, that Socialism word. Employing a diversity of interviews with great thinkers, historians, politicians, and regular folks, it succinctly but very clearly lays out the case that “Socialism is as American as apple pie”, as well as the only extant movement or party actually interested in the advancement of individual rights and the improvement of the lives of all as opposed to the privileged few. Now if we could only teach 75-85% of the electorate how to read a dictionary… Two Beers.
