I’m thinking of making a documentary short about racism in the gay community. God knows it’s an intrinsic problem that most don’t even see as a problem. I have some ideas of how to proceed and what to film, but the time and effort that’ll go into making it is already daunting to me (as someone who has previously made documentary shorts).
Oh, and a budget would be nice but we all know the chance of that happening is pretty much impossible.
Really good, poignant, and morally complex documentary. I recommend it for those who are willing to open their minds and opinions up.
Came across this fascinating documentary project today. Although they’ve met their funding goal on kickstarter, I totally want to check this out when it’s released.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jensiebelnewsom/the-mask-you-live-in
Imagine a man saying this to you:
“I don’t want to live with women. I don’t even want to see them. I just want to live in a community with other men, to know that I am surrounded by men. When I go to the grocery store, I might see a woman and it might bother me a little, but when I get home, I know that I am back in my community with men.”
If a man said this, I think most people would be on him and accuse him of being a misogynist. Fair enough. But what if the genders were switched around a women said that? Would we be as quick to label her as a misandrist?
This is only one of the many problems that Myriam Fougère’s documentary Lesbiana: a Parallel Revolution ignores and fails to explore that would have made it a far more captivating film. From the start, it dives right into what the film will be exploring: after the ’60s, women all over the world became part of a “revolution”, a separating themselves from the Women’s Movement into a one focusing on lesbianism and their wish to live with and be with other lesbian women. This sounds promising enough, and is bound to be rich in history and struggle against society’s norms. Instead, Lesbiana fails as a historical documentary, and most disappointingly on even the basic levels as a documentary.
Right off the bat, there is no context to the film. Interviewees, who were participants during Lesbiana, delve right into the movement rather than explaining the time period, the society and atmosphere, and why the need to have a lesbian movement. It also doesn’t help that the editing makes the film confusing; interviewees talk about a “separatist movement”, but it isn’t until more than halfway through the film that they explain what they are separating themselves from. Featuring too many interviewees, b-roll of book cover after book cover (with wooden pipe music played on top, as if suggesting some mystical power these books have), Lesbiana follows no timeline or sequence of events, jumping from one person to another without transition or link.
All the talking-heads are lesbian women who were involved in Lesbiana/the lesbian revolution after the ’60s. This wouldn’t be such a problem if their information wasn’t presented with such grandiosity and positivity. There’s a brief mention in the beginning of the film about how not all the women got along and there were discussions and arguments, but any sort of conflict or drama during Lesbiana disappears. Every interviewee speaks fondly of the period and how the revolution shaped not only themselves but the rest of the world. Fougère doesn’t seem to mind that not only does this make for uninteresting film, but that only positive memories and information from the women who were involved while excluding anyone outside of the movement is blatantly biased and clearly a conflict of interest.
In fact, there are no other perspectives other than the lesbian women who were involved; there is no professor to talk about the social impact of Lesbiana, no historian to comment on the effect it had not only for the Women’s Movement but for the Queer Movement. Hell, there isn’t even a bystander or friend or family member involved somehow to attest that what these women were doing wasn’t simply all in their heads. Fougère, in a wordy, bombastic, overly-formal voice-over, narrates how she was also part of the revolution, and seems more interested in keeping the information positive and good than to explore any sort of deeper issues, such as what patriarchy really means to these women, or the social impact. There are no questions asked about how things happened, just that they did, and that they were good, resulting in a rosy, scrapbook-like narrative that excludes those who weren’t involved, and is warm and fuzzy for those who were.
Lastly, there’s a very brief talk by one interviewee who mentions how men are the cause of abuse, rape, and other terrible things against women, yet none of the women ever say they have any negative personal experiences with men. Fougère outrageously lets this slide without calling out her subjects or asking for them to elaborate on it, and it feels as if it’s because of the personal conflict/conflict of interest at work again. All of this, combined with the complete absence of any other perspective, makes Lesbiana no longer a documentary, but a blatant propaganda film of the most amateur kind (and boring propaganda at that).
But what do I know? I may be a feminist and I may be gay, but I’m still a male, and that’s apparently enough to make them turn away from me in disgust at the supermarket.
Grade: F
Last term, I blogged about Goldcorp’s influence on the campus of UBC. I knew they were baddies and have infringed on human rights in Latin America. So I when I saw that the Vancity Theatre was going to be screening a documentary called Gold Fever, about Goldcorp and the mining industry in Guatemala, I knew I had to catch it.
Well, I saw it tonight and let me just say this: I don’t usually cry watching documentaries. But this one got me crying in a few places, particularly when the brave women in the small village of San Miguel retold their stories of coercion and violence against them from the Montana Mine and corrupt government officials. After watching this fantastic documentary, it really makes me ashamed to be at an institution that agreed to accept the money of such a barbaric, inhumane corporation. It’s disgusting, it’s sad, and it’s pathetic. It also made me depressed, to see such evil subjected to other members of our species because of greed. Is there hope in this issue? The film certainly didn’t seem to think so, but who knows.
While the film itself may not be perfect, the information and the stories of the real people in this film need to be told and heard. If you’re going to watch any documentary that will change how you think about how your own personal impact in the world, if you plan on watching any doc this year, I cannot recommend watching Gold Fever more. In fact, everyone should make it a priority to watch this.
Watched The Red Shoes (1948) last night and thought it was amazing. Just loved it. One of my new favourite films. And then, I watched Pina (2011) and thought… am I missing something? Or do I just not ”get” it? I mean, I know I may not understand modern dance, but it would’ve been helpful if I knew what the dance pieces meant– for the dancers, for Wenders, for Pina– so that the wonderfully staged dance sequences are more accessible to everyone, not simply dance fanatics.
So yeah. Check out The Red Shoes because it’s damn awesome.
Similar to the informative and very cool Clean Bin Project, Trashed is a documentary about garbage — literally. Unlike the former, however, Trashed goes into depth about the many toxins and chemicals that kill, mutate, and harm both our species and the planet because of our glorious waste. Shot after shot of mountains of garbage, it’s truly a sad sight to see.
This is the kind of thing I want to avoid. This is partly why I try to live as close to Zero Waste as I possibly can. Yet, telling people about the dangers of this — any sort of social change, really — is so difficult. I can’t even convince my own mother to stop buying plastic-wrapped buns from the local Chinese bakery despite giving her alternatives, such as paper bags. Many people don’t realize just how harmful plastic is; they think it’s simply that it leaches chemicals over time, but it’s much more than that. Plastic in the ocean breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, but it doesn’t really go away. It creates toxicity in the water. Sea animals also eat the plastic and absorb toxins. And of course, we eat these animals too.
I want to develop a workshop, similar to what SPEC does in their workshops, and present it to my family, then to friends, then to my community and neighbourhood. I want to change the world now.
There’s a part in the movie where one of the interviewees wistfully notes what a change it would be if the entire world cut down on their waste, if they resorted to properly disposing of it instead of sending it off to landfills or incinerators, how the toxins would go down, how much healthier people would be — and the cynic, and sadly, the realist in me thought, “There’s no way that could ever happen.”
But dammit, if I’m not gonna try.
It`s been quite a while since I last watched a documentary on Saturday morning, mostly because I always find myself having things to do and write on the weekend because of school. With some time to spare, I was finally able to open my Documentaries folder and take a look at one of the movies that have been waiting patiently. I remember when Eco Pirate played at Fifth Ave. Hardly anyone went to see it, unfortunately, and we only screened it for a week. It`s a good documentary, and director Trish Dolman isn`t afraid to show some very disturbing, graphic images, like whales being harpooned and killed, and even more terrifying and unexpected, baby seals getting bludgeoned in the Arctic. But it`s moments like these, this uncensored look at what Paul and the rest of his followers really believe in stopping. It`s the ugly truth of what goes on in the world, and people, as Paul says, are ”stupid”. What some people believe to be eco-terrorism, this film examines the injustice of nations who proceed with illegal activity or in some cases, like Japan, blatantly lie about their whaling purposes (they call it ”research” yet others point out that you don`t need to kill whales to study them), Watson looks more and more reasonable in his actions. He and his crew throw stink bombs onto other boats, clog their waste outlets (ie. the holes near the bottom of the ships where blood from whales pours out), and sometimes even ram the ships, all in the name of protecting animals and the environment.
If you have the stomach and eyes for watching animals getting killed a bit, then I would recommend this documentary. It may be a little long, but the entire film is a well-made and fascinating portrait of a man willing to make the change no one else will do.
This movie has been on my watchlist for some time now, and I was afraid I wouldn’t get to see it in theatres, since it’s 1. a documentary, which means it already has a limited release, and 2. that it’s not a huge, well-known doc right now, like The Queen of Versaiiles or Ai Weiwei. I was pleasantly surprised to see on the Van City Theatre’s site a week ago that it was indeed coming to town, and quickly noted down the showtimes.
Well, I finally saw it tonight, and wow. I’ve seen two documentaries on the AIDS Crisis this year alone, and this one is by far the best, and the most emotionally moving. Needless to say, I cried at a few parts in the film, and had to restrain myself from downright sobbing in my seat when activists dumped their loved ones’ ashes on the lawns in front of the White House in protest. Just watching the trailer makes me tear up.
I really hope this film gets nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. It’s so well put together and so devastating. It’s just one of those films that you wish everyone would — no, must — watch to understand.
aaron's random musings 