Reviews of screenings from the 2012 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Toronto, Canada.
She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column (Dir: Kevin Hegge, 64 minutes, Canada)
An historical document with a strong and living pulse, Hegge's film tells the story of Toronto's Fifth Column, who were most active in the decade spanning 1985-1995. The doc tells the story of core members G.B. Jones, Caroline Azar and Beverly Breckenridge alongside the others who came and went during the group's lifespan, mixing contemporary interviews with copious period footage. Luckily, the band were also film buffs, linked in with the underground movie scene of the time — so there's a lot of awesome-looking Super-8 material, both from the band as well as film-maker friends, to put on the screen.
A vital link between Toronto musical eras that we might roughly label as Treat Me Like Dirt and Wavelength, Fifth Column took the punk/DIY ethos, but not the sound, inventing their own brand of psychedelic noise. Although standing alone musically (the early material here sounds excellently otherworldly), their uncompromising existence as strong woman musicians was an inspiration to the Riot Grrrl movement (Kathleen Hanna is interviewed, acting as an articulate advocate of their influence on her own work in Bikini Kill) as well as the foundation of queercore. Regarding the latter, the film also explores the overlapping world of zines and their importance in disseminating non-mainstream music in a pre-internet world. Film-maker Bruce La Bruce, who started as the band's go-go dancer, is interviewed in bringing those elements into focus.
It's also, of course, the story of strong personalities wresting art out of their many clashes — and those clashes stood at the nexus of a lot of things that read like a list of the best of Toronto's music culture today — from Will Munro's gay-straight alliances to the electro-queer sounds of Peaches and Kids on TV, to say nothing of the legion of strong, independent-minded women making music in this city today. Though hardly a household name, considering Fifth Column's legacy gives hope that this doc will fix them more firmly as groundbreakers. It deserves to be seen; their music deserves to be heard.
Screens with: The Man That Got Away (Dir: Trevor Anderson, 25 minutes, Canada), which asks, in its formal construction, "what makes a documentary?" Telling the life story of director Anderson's "black-sheep" uncle, this short takes the rather unique approach of rewriting his life as a musical. It's befitting to the subject, who ran away to join a male chorus on Broadway, and gives the film a fresh and ebullient vibe. A musical is only as good as its music, and the six original songs by Bryce Kulak, who also stars, generally carry the task. (The songs are streaming online at CBC3.) The film also makes excellent use of its location, a concentric parking ramp that follows Uncle Jimmy's sad, spiralling descent. Also: Judy Garland!
Meet the Fokkens (Dir: Rob Schröder and Gabriëlle Provaas, 70 minutes, Netherlands)
Ignore the terrible and gimmicky English-language title to this one, and think of it as the original Ouwehoeren. From the Dutch, the film-makers mentioned that renders as something like "to chatter like an old whore". No insult in this situation, as that's exactly what 70-year-old identical twins Louise and Martine Fokkens do. Prostitutes in Amsterdam's red-light district for over half a century, Louise and Martine have seen it all and discuss their lives and careers without shame. In fact, they're open-hearted and charmingly ribald throughout. Martine, in fact, is still at work, sitting in her window and calling out to passers-by who look like they might want a spanking.
Like any job, there are mixed feelings, with pride in one's work rubbing up against frustration at the circumstances that led one there in the first place. Both sisters have a few regrets but are never short of dignity and laughs as they swap stories and memories. They're wonderful characters, a two-headed army who frequently dress the same and share a deep bond. Warm and funny, this film also gives us a chance to look at a lot of important issues — not just at prostitution generally, but also at elder sexuality, the changing face of The Netherlands, family reconciliation and the value of art as therapy. Recommended.
Do note that in sharing the space with sex workers (and their clients!) this film gets a bit more explicit than you might have expected going in; but truth be told, the most prurient images to a Toronto audience might be the shots of a functioning modern LRT system.
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