A Brony Tale

It's not all NZIFF movies. Here's a movie I missed from an earlier festival. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a phenomenon. The fans of this show are referred to as Bronies, and this is A Brony Tale.

I'm not sure if it's me projecting, but this movie comes off as rather defensive. There are a lot of interview clips with Bronies, where they are basically saying "I like MLP, but I like other stuff too, I’m still a man", which isn’t really the message they should be going for (the message is "I am a man despite linking MLP" rather than "I am a man who likes MLP"). The other part of the movie is following actress Ashleigh Bell (voice of Rainbow Dash and Applejack) as she prepares to go to her first BronyCon. (There is little footage of BronyCon, were they not allowed to film there?) She starts rather apprehensive about meeting Bronies, but soon realises they are just normal people that happen to like MLP. Although some do like MLP a LOT. Then again any fandom (and I'm gonna include sports here) has fanatics, it's in the name.

There are also some talking heads about the psychology of the people involved, but we later find out that the son of one of the researchers is a Brony, so I think we know where that interest came from.

It wasn't really what I was hoping for in a Brony movie, but it could have easily been so much worse (certainly the main publicity image does not help).

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One Minute for Conductors

And, due to scheduling, there was only one other movie I saw (and getting the bus afterwards was a pain): One Minute for Conductors.

This is a competition in which conductors from all over the world come to this one place to aim for a first prize of being hired as an ongoing conductor (...with some place I can't recall). We start with 136 conductors on the first day... dropping down to 17 on the second day. And just five by the last day. As with any competition, it's not easy going, and even those who are good get cut. We see the competition itself, but don't go back into their histories (which shows the film makers just turned up for the competition itself), and we see that stress comes to all peoples. And I bet you won't guess the outcome...

This does look to be an easier way to film a documentary. Find an event that is only lasting a few days, and then record the hells out of it. Nice tight production time table. In this case they also need a team of translators, but hey, still just for a few days. I'm surprised there aren't more like this.

Anyway, a look into the otherwise overlooked area of being a conductor, so interesting from that perspective.

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God Loves Uganda

With more erratic bus schedules than I thought, and last night screens, I don't expect to get to even the five movies I picked... but I have seen God Loves Uganda.

Religion is poisoning Uganda. And that's not me saying that, that's religious people! Okay, since they are religious, it's not religion per se, it's extreme Christian Right exported from America that's the actual problem. Usually in the form of bringing hate against LGBT peoples. In this movie we see the International House of Prayer (so yes, they have that acronym) with a missionary group of young people in Uganda, who only have to preach what they've been told. And efforts of Africans to uphold those "moral values". And a few other people who are a voice of reason, if a rather ignored voice, if not a killed voice.

This movie lets people speak for themselves, with the missionary team just presented as is. Commentary of a general nature is provided by a few talking heads, but largely actions are speaking for words. It paints a rather bleak picture of what's happening in Uganda... but then it is rather bleak what is happening in Uganda.

A movie with good coverage, but, with my biases, I can't help but feel they are missing the point...


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Doc Edge 2014

So, easy post time, in which I talk about what movies I'm interested in in the upcoming Documentary Edge film festival for 2014. Although this time around, for some reason, there was only five that got my attention. There are still films from earlier fests I haven't seen, but for now I'm just going with five.

God Loves Uganda
Gringo Trails
A Brony Tale
One Minute for Conductors
Kids For Cash

Annoyingly, it's out at the Roxy, which is in Mirimar... so, like, the ass-end of Wellington, as far as transport and such goes. And the movies I want are mostly in the evening. Yeah, I want to be travelling out there in the dark of night. Still, it is only five, so tempting...

And, because I'm a member of the Wellington Film Society, I save a couple of bucks on the tickets!

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A Place at the Table

Poor people have poor food nutrition, because they are poor. But how can they even get a leg up when, politically speaking, they can't even get A Place at the Table?

We get quite a few stories of mothers, and some fathers, who can't feed their kids properly. Because they can't get decent jobs. And often if they have a job, then guess what, you can't get public assistance (at one point because the mother was $2 over the limit). And even with assistance, there's still the matter of trying to get a proper food allocation while on that budget. The cheapest and bulkiest option, usually the processed good option, being the one they have to go for.

And what does government do? Get out of the way to let charities work. And if they do help... well, they can't be giving any budget to that because that will mean less budget for the big corporations who have lobby partners giving out monies.

America has already reached a tipping point where the next generation of kids won't be able to properly engage with the workforce, but hey, as long as corporations have money, what do they care? It's not like poor people can give them any money, is it?

This is another movie with a 'what next' not answered, because the answers that are tried aren't being taken up.



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Shadows of Liberty

Hey, guess what. Here's a secret... the media is controlled by corporations! I know, right! But have you really taken time to think about what that means? About how these create just Shadows of Liberty?

This movie alternates between presenting stories of media not covering media stories, instead they tend to ignore it and fire journalists. We've heard stories like that before, but these are big stories that would otherwise topple corporations and governments. But, hey, if those organisations can shake hands with the corporations who own the media, then that's good right? Isn't it?

And also we get a taste of history. How Freedom of the Press has become Freedom of Corporations. (One person said that it was now the 'United Corporations of America'... there's a doco title!)

Now, this is all bad and terrible, but what are we to do? The movie doesn't say. I think the creator is hoping this will inspire people to rise up and overthrow... something, but the people already tried, and as the movie showed, the big corporations and government don't care. The internet might change things... or the corporations might own that too (and they are close). We'll see... but probably not as most people will be watching the latest cereal ad while waiting to find out if Britney will really ever join up with Justin again...



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The Invisible War

Where there are groups with power, there is abuse of that power. In this case, we're talking about the USA military, and The Invisible War.

You know the one. The one where women get raped, but nothing happens because it is the people in power who are either the rapists, know the rapists, or don't want to admit to there being rapist. And if you don't know, this movie will tell you as we see many women's stories. (And yes, a few from the men as well.) Why the hell is there so many stories? What the hell is going wrong here?

Actually, as I've already said, it's about power, and powerlessness. Which is what the women feel. Certainly from the numbers given here, you aren't feeling cheery by the end of it. From the looks of the wiki page, there has been some changes because of it... too little too late? Maybe. (I do wonder what publishing names would do for this...)

Not an easy movie to watch, but definitely one of those ones that shine a much needed light.



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9 Muses of Star Empire

Pop groups are everywhere, and Korea is no exception. And this is the story of the start of one such group, 9 Muses of Star Empire.

There are nine of them, so they were named 9 Muses, because there were nine Greek muses... although there is no further differentiation of any of them being any particular muse. It isn't clear if this is an entirely manufactured group, or if some of them came together naturally... but I suspect they were formed by the manager wholesale. And so we get their story of them getting together for their big debut, and of the struggles they have along the way... and how the 9 may not be the same 9 all the way through...

Which is one problem with documentaries. At some point, you stop the cameras and start putting together your film, but the subject goes on. We do get a little taste of 'where are they now' for some of them, but the group as a whole... the person who introduced the film did say that the 9 Muses were doing a lot better now.

A decent look at the forming of a pop group... although I was reminded of the Pussycat Dolls (with less stripper background).



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Propaganda

What better way to promote your brand by making people pay to go see something they can view for free? It's all a matter of Propaganda.

This film is all about propaganda, as used by the powerful to keep the majority in check. All this gets revealed by one person in North Korea, who smuggled this movie out to reveal to the world how propaganda works.

And this movie certainly goes on about it. It's long, and it's largely a tirade against propaganda. I'm sure the film maker wanted to make a point all about it, but... yeah. It just sets out to make its point again and time again. I can't even bother mentioning examples, because most of us, if we thought about it, would probably be able to come up with the methods ourselves. (Which we don't of course, that's part of the problem.)

But... and here's the catch. To quote from the link: "At the World Premiere at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, a hushed audience was shocked when it was revealed that the director was a Pakeha filmmaker from Christchurch wanting to make ”an antidote to the giant dose of bullshit we’re fed by PR”. There is one hitch in a real life twist with this clever thought out documentary, the Christchurch actor who played the scientist in the film is wanted for questioning by the South Korean authorities because they think he is a North Korean spy."

Yeah... this whole film is propaganda about propaganda... and just takes too long making its point.

But don't take my word for it. Watch it for yourself:



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Mr Cao Goes to Washington

He is but one man. And he is venturing somewhere. Behold the journey as Mr Cao Goes to Washington.

Well, it's not that impressive. Joseph Cao is the elected Republican representative for New Orleans, and we join him as he faces events in office... which is where this movie has some trouble. They have a fair few small events, making it hard to form an ongoing coherent narrative (which, okay, life doesn't provide, but this is a documentary, dammit, edited together). The first half is about how he does, or doesn't, support Obama's health care bill, being the only Republican not towing the party line on that... and then the second half is about him in the lead up to the election for his next term.

The summary certainly makes note of the fact he is the first Vietnamese American Republican to be elected to the US House of Representatives, and we see his home life with that flavour, most of the events are about how he is as a Republican first. While he says he can connect better with the African-American community, they see a conservative Republican, not the Democrat they want. And how he voted on the health care bill didn't impress either side.

Watching this... I'm wondering if it was another case of a film maker thinking they had something interesting, then tried to create a documentary from the footage he had. Not the best.



(You may or may not be able to watch it online.)

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Reportero

As a journalist, you expect to uncover some highly problematic stories. You don't expect to die because of them. Unless you are in Mexico. This is the experience of reporters at the paper Zeta, as detailed in Reportero.

The reporters there cover narcotics and drugs, and political crimes. Although the narcotic stories are the preferred ones. Preferred by the public that is. Less preferred by the criminals themselves. And so the criminals take revenge, and we get the point of this movie. Over the past decade or two, reporters have published stories in Zeta... and many of them have died because of it. This movie discusses the lives of those reporters, and how they were cut down. And how the current ones are in constant danger, but what can they do?

Because the government in corrupt. The murders weren't investigated. The acts they publish don't bring down the big names. And yet... they continue. They even get the paper published in California and shipped over to them because they can't get the paper from local, government controlled, sources.

They want to continue to report. But their eyes, and how ours, are open to what they have to face.



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Unraveled

As they say "don't do the crime if you can't do the time". Marc Dreier did the crime, and now he is facing doing the time. This is Unraveled, his story in the lead up to his sentencing.

Marc Dreier is under house arrest, and a very nice house it is too. While there, he talks about what he did. Basically "I thought it was something I could get away with". Yeah, for so long. One point with Madoff was that people ignored what he was doing. With Dreier, he wasn't suspected for a while, managed to come up with some explanations when checked, but eventually over reached himself. And certainly he didn't go as far as Madoff did either.

Dreier doesn't quite say 'it wasn't my fault', but he doesn't come across as incredibly sorry either. If it wasn't for wanting to see his children, he would quite likely have stayed out of the country. And he also insists on wanting to be in a low security jail and have no hard work to do while in prison. Yeah, he's really ready to face his penance.

An interesting look at a fraudster, but a shallow one.



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Her Master's Voice

Those voices inside your head? This is how to get them out without getting called crazy. Be a ventriloquist! And this is a movie about one and her mentor, in Her Master's Voice.

Nina Conti is a ventriloquist... or maybe not. She's thinking about giving up when she hears of the death of her mentor, Ken Campbell. And she gets his puppets. For one last trip, she takes the puppets to a ventriloquist convention, and will donate one to Vent Haven Museum. But while there, she tries to find voices for the puppets, and fills them with her own inner thoughts...

And this is one of the most charming things about this movie. Nina uses the puppets to express her own doubts and even attack herself about what she is doing there. It's an interesting form of psychotherapy.

We also get a lot of ventriloquism. And they are good. She is very good.

This is a funny sad movie, and well worth the watching.



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The Island President

What do you do when the country you are in charge of is disappearing beneath the waves? This is the dilemma that faces The Island President.

It's the Maldives, and this is President Mohammad Nasheed. He took over from 30 year dictator Gayoom... whom I wonder if he took off because he saw the climate issues coming and wanted nothing to do with it, so allowed a 'free election' and basically said 'you deal with it'. Which President Nasheed had to. And the big event coming up (which is the focus of the movie) is the Copenhagen talk in 2009 and Nasheed is trying to get the governments to agree to changes, without which the Maldives will cease to exist.

What I noted with interest was the people he met with. Here he is, the President of an island nation, and in other countries he is meeting with ministers and radio hosts. Yeah, that's the lot of power he's swinging here.

He tries, tries to get all the small island nations together, tries to ask for reasonable agreements... and at the end comes away with a 'this is a note we agree is a note that has nice ideas'... about as binding as anything the United Nations seem to be involved with. When facing up against China, America, India... none of whom have the slightest interest in caring about the climate change situation in other countries... you ain't going to get very far, and just getting the 'that's a note' agreement nearly ruined everything.

And then, in the text at the end, President Nasheed isn't even in power any more... and looking over the wiki page... yep, that chain of islands is on a countdown to going bye-bye...



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Thems the documentaries

It's that time of the year again. But due to time and money, I won't be going to as many as last time. But here's a list of all the films I might be going to at the Documentary Film Festival:

Features:
9 Muses of Star Empire
Bikes for Africa
Brooklyn Castle
Dance for Me
Detropia
Her Master's Voice
The Invisible War
The Island President
Last Call at the Oasis
Mr. Cao Goes to Washington
A Place at the Table
Pretty Brutal
Propaganda
Rafea: Solar Mama
Reportero
Shadows of Liberty
Soldier on the Roof
Tales from the Organ Trade
Trashed
Unraveled - The 750 Million Dollar Thief
The Waiting Room
The World According to Dick Cheney

Shorts:
Abuelas
Cutting Loose
The Green Chain
Hens' Night
Mondays at Racine
Outlawed in Pakistan
Pouters
Saving Face

As I will only be going to a subset, I'll be posting them as normal blog posts, not as bonus ones.

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In the words of Lizzie Sladen

I can't say I've read a lot of biographies/autobiographics, but for (I think) obvious reasons, I have read Who-related biographies. Although, for some reason, I've only gotten around to reading many them until after they died... and keeping that trend going, I've just finished listening to the Elizabeth Sladen autobiography, as read by Caroline John.

It reminded me a lot of Nicholas Courtney's audio autobiography, in that there is a lot of time spent on non-Who items. Yes, that happens. These people are actors. While we know them for Who-stuff, they did have other jobs. This can lead to 'get to the Who', but I didn't mind, and Lizzie did drop in occasional mentions of new Who/SJA enough to keep things moving along. And her earlier reminiscences were interesting in and of themselves.

Of course, there are revelations, and her relationship with Jon Pertwee was very revealing. Shows that the on screen presentation doesn't always reflect what is happening behind the scenes. And there are other revelations that make me want to know what other people (who were involved) think about it, for example about her time on School Reunion.

The afterword gets bittersweet, as it would, written (and read) by Brian Miller, and Sadie, after Elizabeth's death. While she might have had many doubts about doing an autobiography, I'm glad she did. It was an interesting listen.

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Documentary 2012

So for those of you who kept track, I did see all 20 movies on my list. And significantly contributed to the local economy.

Speaking of which, one comment made by the organisers (who always introduced each movie) was that this was partly funded by the Wellington City Council, and so they wanted plenty of people to watch the movies so there would be incentive for WCC to keep giving money.

Only one movie of the lot I attended was anywhere near packed. And one session I was in had only three people... Yeah, I'm not seeing this an incredibly successful on that front. If, next year, it didn't make it down here again, and was only in Auckland, I wouldn't be shocked. (I think Auckland had higher attendance, they seemed to suggest so.)

Also, this is currently screening at Readings, like at least last year if not the year before. These don't count as Reading movies, so you can't get Readings points for them (unless the ticket person doesn't know this, in which case cha-ching!), and can't use Reading discounts for it.

Also, the D-card wasn't great. You could either get $5 off a fifth movie, or a tenth one free (I got both for the number of movies I went to). And you couldn't use that in the Gold Lounge section (where docs cost $5 more), because they 'don't have the button for that'.

Not to mention that there could be a better screening process for selecting movies...

Ultimately, they are doing what they can to bring these movies to Wellington, so good on them for that. However, there is a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of room for it not to happen at all.

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Bad Weather

What do you not want when in the sex trade? Bad Weather

Okay, read that summary of the movie carefully. It's about sex workers on the remote island of Banishanti, and how their livelihoods are under threat of climate change. Yeah? However... the climate change aspects of the movie are almost 'oh yeah, there's this going on too'.

What it really is is a 'slice of life' movie of these women on Banishanti, how they are basically here against their will (but remain here as they have been dishonoured and have made a life for themselves out here). The most they do with climate change is the odd shot of water and the local crazy man/poet talking about things ending.

Not a bad movie about the rights of these woman, but not what was advertised.

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Disappear in Light

Put on a play, and then Disappear in Light.

This is the movie of the play. Actually, that's wrong, this is the movie of the part up to the play, but not the play itself. It's the movie of the production of the putting on of Jo Randerson's play Good Night The End.

And it's damn good. With the director doing everything herself, she documents the getting of money to initial meetings of people, to some rehearsal (she wasn't allowed to be there, but then she did get 120 hours of footage as it was), and the opening night. If you don't realise what it takes, this is a must watch movie.

And afterwards, we had  Q&A with the director herself. She put a lot of time into this, and it shows.

Go see this if you have the chance.

[No trailer.]

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The Interrupters

When you're faced with violence, you need The Interrupters. These are the people, in Chicago, that are a part of the black neighbourhoods that intervene when there is black violence.

These people get involved, and try to make a difference, telling their stories, and a fair few of them were on the wrong side of the law before they became part of the Interrupters. We get quite a few stories, and sometimes things come out for the better, but not always. But while watching, I wanted to say 'you think you've got it bad? Watch Carte Blanche, and then start complaining.'

Definitely an eye opening movie to watch.


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