Jason goes to Docfest--Day 9

Aka, the kinda stupid and incredibly exhausting 14 movies straight with no sleep--part 1.

Let's jump right in. First off I saw a short and feature about people living in makeshift communities far from civilization. This isn't even small town, it's no town. First up was "The Legend of Rosalie", a loving tribute to the hard partying, beautiful soul who built a library in her trailer, brightened everyone's life, and then sadly died of breast cancer. But even up to the end, she wasn't sad about dying, she was sad that her post-mastectomy boob job was so botched--all lumpy and irregular. It would've been better in her mind to have no tits.

And then the feature, "Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa", an in-depth look at the eccentric characters who've chosen to live in the middle of the desert so that they can be free. If there's an economy at all there, it's selling pot. But mostly they hunt and farm what they can, and scrape by as best they can. It's a refuge for old hippies, ex-soldiers who've become disillusioned with the society that's willingly given up the freedom they fought for, and of course teenage runaways. One runaway in particular--a young girl who stays on the Mesa for a while (with a kindly old farmer who takes in all kinds of strays--human or animal)...then leaves...then dates a 35 year old guy in town...then gets hooked on crack...then gets pregnant, would be particularly tragic if she weren't so stupid and annoying. But the real drama comes in the form of a series of robberies committed by a gang of teenage runaways living nearby (but who declined to be on camera). Several of the ex-soldier types want to hunt them down and shoot them, cuz that's the law out here and they were stealing from the mouths of babies. As one resident says, "We don't dial 911, we dial .357!" Without giving anything away, the situation is resolved. At times it's a chilling look at the fringes of society, but ultimately I see it as a society with about as much freedom as you can have without an anarchic implosion. In many ways, it reminds me of Burning Man back when guns were allowed (or shortly after they were banned), when people really came for the freedom instead of the braindead hippie bullshit rally it's become.

Speaking of hippies, the next program was a short and feature about developmentally disabled individuals. "Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide" is about Creativity Explored, a San Francisco arts institute for the disabled. The artists describe their work and their methods in their own words, and as someone who probably knows less about art than they do, it's pretty interesting.

And then the feature, practically a home movie called "Extraordinary Measures". The Sutton family had 5 healthy, active sons (and some sort of thing about names that start with T) when their 6th, Thad was born. Thad was born with a deformity--a large portion of his skull was missing, and his brain grew in a giant bulb of skin and hair on the outside. His prognosis was not good--he was supposed to be dead in a week. But the family sent him to a hospital in San Antonio (satisfying the Texas theme of the festival), where his conditioned stabilized until they could take him home. They were warned that deformed babies often tear families apart--they require so much work and attention that the other children get jealous. But just the opposite happened. The family of wild boys who were running in all directions suddenly came together and all rallied around their disabled but loving and lovable baby brother. The parents were told they shouldn't have more children, since once you have a disabled child the chance of a subsequent one being disabled skyrockets (particularly for this specific defect). They went ahead and had 2 girls (finally) and twin boys. Then they stopped at 10. Growing up, they always took lots of home video (if I remember correctly, in the Q&A they said that their grandfather was actually the first guy in the neighborhood to own a home movie camera). Now 30 years later (and Thad is still alive), Travis (on of the twins) edits the home movies together and brings them all back together for interviews to make a movie about their extraordinary family. Just what he had already would've been a remarkable movie, but as he's putting it together they get a new tragedy--their father has a heart attack and is without oxygen for several minutes, resulting in some amount of brain damage. It's heart-wrenching, but in a way Thad has already taught them how to deal with this. For the record, although it's not in the film, their dad is fine now. A truly remarkable film. A couple of the Sutton boys came to present the film and do a short Q&A. I know the one on stage right (their left) is Travis, the director, and I believe the guy on the right is Todd, but I couldn't keep all the T names straight:


So then we moved from extraordinary measures to extraordinary accomplishments with "New Urban Cowboy". Michael E. Arth (that's his real given name, it's not a pun on "earth") is a writer, an artist, an architect, and a city designer. His passion is "new pedestrianism"--designing cities that encourage walking and discourage driving cars, creating a friendlier "town square" atmosphere. He was living in Santa Barbara and renting out mansions to celebrities (including Keanu Reeves) when a financial crisis forced him to move out to Florida (that's right, passing through Texas. In fact, I seem to remember he lived in Texas at one point. Or maybe I've started hallucinating Texas into every film). There he bought some nearly condemned buildings in the part of DeLand known as "Cracktown". Nothing but drug dealers and prostitutes there, the cops advised him to get a gun. So, in his words, he got a nail gun, a brad nail gun, and a staple gun--and set straight to work cleaning up the neighborhood and building his new pedestrian ideal city. The area is now known at the 'Historic Garden District', and is the jewel of DeLand. I have nothing more to say, his accomplishment is nothing sort of a miracle. He did it with hard work, courage, and a lot of luck (he likes to tell one story where he was going to confront some crack dealers who were hassling him. As he was walking up with no idea what to say, lightning struck right next to them and they all ran away without a word). Here's a picture of Micheal Arth (who's also credited as co-director) and co-director (and SF native) Blake Wiers:


And here they are again, taking a picture of the audience (I wonder if they got me with my cell phone camera in that shot?)


And my last film of the day was the "Manufacturing Dissent", about the movies, politics, and questionable practices of Michael Moore. The filmmakers Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine are actually fans of Michael's movies and his politics (Debbie's even Canadian), and so they set out to make a movie about him and the controversies surrounding the release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and his 2004 Slacker Uprising Tour. But along the way, they started hearing some pretty disturbing things about Moore--about how he fabricates stories, treats his employees poorly, denies things he provably said on tape, etc. I've already given my opinion of Moore in my review of "Sicko"--great filmmaker, lousy propagandist (yeah, you got that right, it's the opposite of what most of his critics say). Well, this is a really good film that pretty much uncovers just that. People acknowledge that he's successful as a commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and highly influential filmmaker. But just about every issue he takes on becomes about him, and that's to the detriment of his arguments. To their credit, the filmmakers find friends of Michael who do say some very nice things about him (even a former employee who thought he was a great boss). I'll just say, I thought it was a great film and I'd highly recommend it. But the Q&A afterwards just left me shaking my head. So many people asking why they didn't attack Ralph Nader (my answer: that would be a different film, possibly called "An Unreasonable Man", but I haven't actually seen it). Why didn't they attack George W. Bush as the real divisive character? (answer: that's a different movie, called "Fahrenheit 9/11"). And many people attacking them for not including all the supporting data they had for the claims (two parts they pointed out: first, it wasn't their claims, it was the people they interviewed. Second, that would be a 4+ hour movie and not even Michael Moore wants to watch more than 4 hours about Michael Moore). At one point when someone said how important it was for Moore to be out there creating honest debate Rick actually looked at me in the front row and mouthed "honest debate?" I just had to shrug and shake my head. Anyway, here's a pic of Rick and the faint image of Debbie nearly lost in the shadows:


And that was my Saturday at Docfest, but not nearly the end of my movie marathon.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 8

Two movies tonight, and the next time I'll have time to write, I'll have seen another 14, or I'll have failed miserably.

First up was possibly the best movie of the festival. Maybe the best, but not my favorite, as it deals with the extremely unpleasant subject of torture. "Taxi to the Dark Side" uses the story of Dilawar--an innocent Afghan taxi driver who was picked up by militia and turned over to American forces at Bagram prison--as a jumping off point to deconstruct the entire US policy on torture. Dilawar was tortured (they thought he was the getaway driver in a rocket attack) and died of his injuries just 5 days after entering Bagram. The movie interviews the dishonorably discharged soldiers who beat him, all of whom come off as contrite and disappointed in the leadership who gave them either unclear or illegal rules for torture (a point of view the movie adopts). It also follows the torture issues from Bagram to Abu Ghraib to Gitmo, and really takes the administration to task for it, cleverly together statements from Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield that contradict either other statements or the plain facts on the screen. Director Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room") and his team have put together another wonderful documentary, which untangles all the bits and half-truths and spin that the mainstream media give us. It's kind of a no-brainer to be "against torture", but this movie gets to the heart of what's really done (in our names), the rationale/rationalizing behind it, and the true ineffectiveness of it all. Most pointed moment in the movie, when a British national is released after years in Gitmo, the soldiers releasing him even admit, "If you weren't a terrorist before, you'll certainly have reason to be one now." Again, there's a lot of graphic, unpleasant footage, and it's a hard film to watch, but possibly the best film of the festival (so far).

After that I was ready for a good light-hearted movie--like an illegal pirated look at the Cuban sex trade. But first a couple of shorts, also about the sex trade. "Amazon Highway" is a humorous look at a female body builder (but not the grossly over-muscled type--she still has boobs) who travels around and wrestles men in her hotel room for money. As far as the movie shows, no sex takes place, although the men get off on it somehow. Oh yeah, and she's from Texas, so it fits the festival theme. Then there was "Overdue Conversation", where two gay friends/lovers, one of whom is a hustler, film each other having a conversation. Each one talks while filming the other, and the movie presents the conversation in split-screen (which is cool movie-wise, because you can see who has trouble keeping the camera steady, and what they're saying at the time). Anyway, not to give anything away, but the overdue conversation is about AIDS.

And finally the look at the Cuban sex trade in "Luchando". The word traditionally means "struggle" and was originally applied to the Cuban revolution, but these hustlers and prostitutes have co-opted it for themselves. There are moments of humor, pathos, and drama. This movie was shot in secret cinema-verite guerrilla-style, and it has the potential to be a close, intimate look at these people's lives and their predicament. However, there seemed to be almost no editing, and nothing to tie it together as a story. Adding a narrator or just a few words on screen to explain what's going on would make this movie a hundred times better. As it was, the brief where-are-they-now text at the end tells more of a story than the rest of the movie.

And that's Friday at Docfest.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 7

And this time I made it leisurely in plenty of time. Of course, the fact that I was only seeing one movie, and it was the 9:15 show, had something to do with it.


The movie was "Free Spirits", a first hand account of the Brotherhood of the Spirit, one of the most successful and most controversial late-60's communes (which actually lasted until the late 80's). The spiritual leader was Michael Metelica (later Michael Rapunzel), and the commune started as 9 friends in a tree house in the rural northeast. Eventually it grew into hundreds if not thousands, recorded an album, started a greeting card company, founded a church, and owned about half of a small Massachusetts town. And it became a microcosm of why communism doesn't work. Michael Rapunzel became a megalomaniacal, controlling, ill-tempered, alcoholic and cocaine addict (in the early days, all drugs were banned). Eventually he was kicked out in 1989, and for all intents and purposes the commune disbanded shortly thereafter (most of the members had left by then anyway). The history is told solely by the members--including archived interviews with Michael Rapunzel--and tells a story of idealism torn apart (except for Michael Rapunzel, who tells a story of how he was wrongly vilified). The first hand accounts are pretty fascinating, and there's some excellent first-hand footage--both photographs and home movies--from the time. Pretty interesting, and makes me glad I'm not some braindead hippie (no matter how many people think so just because of my hair).



And that was Thursday at Docfest. Two more movies tonight, and then a marathon weekend. 4 movies Saturday, then down to Santa Cruz for a 6 movie midnight Secret Film Fest, then back up for another 4 docfest screenings--that's 14 movies without sleeping. Then I plan to die, if I have time.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 6

So I've already written about racing to the movies because of BART delays, and I've mentioned rushing to the movies because of work delays. On Wednesday, I got both!

I actually planned to see "A Skin Too Few" at 7 pm, but I was working until past 7 and it plays again next Tuesday at 5 and next Wednesday at 9:15, so I have more chances. Instead I put in a 12-hour day at work, go to the BART about 7:30, and got to the platform just in time to miss the 7:32 train. No big deal, that would've gotten me there at about 8:30, 45 minutes early anyway. There's another train in 20 minutes, and I'll be there 25 minutes early. That train was late, I missed my connection, and got to the station 5 minutes before showtime. Just enough time to race to the theater, find out the movie I was seeing had moved to the other screen, and race over there. This film fest is either going to kill me, or get me into shape--whichever's worse.

So the show was a short and a feature about the little guy. First was an oral history of classic San Francisco movie houses, called "Forgotten Palaces". I cried. I cry whenever I see an old theater marquee that's been turned to something useless, like a porno theater or a church. I'm surprised it didn't go further in time. It started with theaters from the 1920-1930 range, and I know they could continue to just a few years ago (the Roxie has almost made that list a few times just since I've lived here). But it's a good look at lost community icons.


And then there was the feature "If You Succeed", about Christian Dennery and his estranged wife Dolores Lagdameo, who own one restaurant in Brooklyn. They're raising money to open a second one, to be called "Bodegas". It's fairly apropos that in the opening minutes they point out the number of methadone clinics nearby, because addiction is a bit of a theme. Christian is a "deal junkie" who has grand schemes but not the resources to follow through (which has a lot to do why he and Dolores are estranged. They do stick together for their kids, though). The movie follows his optimistic comedy of errors, and watching him fall prey to contractors, debt, and possibly shady business partners can be painful. The movie, however, shares his optimism, no matter how misguided it may be. And, without giving away any spoilers, he does have his triumphs. A pretty interesting look at how far dreams alone (and a spreadsheet system of expenses and income) can take you.

And now, I'm caught up with Docfest!

Oh, one final note. I mentioned a few posts ago about Texas being a theme of the festival. Movies so far that at least have a passing mention of Texas (as best I can remember, I might be adding false Texas memories):
"What Would Jesus Buy?" I thought had something in Austin
"El Mechanico Loco" The guy's from Texas
"American Scary" Mentioned a horror host from Austin
"Shakey's Hill" When they returned from Vietnam, the unit was stationed at Ft. Hood
"When the Light's Red" Takes place in Austin
"The Blues According to Lightning Hopkins" He's from Texas
"A Well Spent Life" Also a bluesman from Texas
"Wiener Takes All" A brief mention that there's wiener dog racing in Austin
"Breaking Ranks" One of the AWOL soldiers was stationed in Ft. Hood

And I might've missed some. I also know that "Hell on Wheels" takes place in Texas.

As a pure coincidence, I'm going to Houston at the end of the month.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 5

So I mentioned before that nearly every film festival where I take BART includes an incident where I have to run from BART to the theater. I already did it once on BART's fault. On Tuesday I did it again on my fault--or rather my work's fault. I had to leave early to get to the 5 pm show, and even though I warned everyone I had to leave early, they still kept asking me for stuff. Anyway, I sprinted in just at the intro to the first film.



First was the short "Absolute Zero". It's a little bit non-documentary, because it's all re-enactment. But it is possibly the most interesting story I've heard. In about the 1930's a train was travelling through the Australian desert. One of the cars was a refrigerated freezer car. A worker got trapped inside just before the long journey, and froze to death. During his long ordeal, he scrawled his dying thoughts on the walls, clearly documenting him succumbing to hypothermia. Now here's the kicker (spoiler alert, highlight to read): The refrigerator was broken. If he'd been in any other car, he'd have died of the heat, but his car was a comfortable 68F. He died of hypothermia because his brain thought he was dying of hypothermia. Here's an extra kicker--the autopsy report noted frostbite on his fingers and toes.

End spoiler.


That was followed by the feature, "Breaking Ranks", about American soldiers in Iraq who seek flee to Canada and seek asylum. Some would label them cowards but they claim that it's an act of conscience, that they're not opposed to war, just that this war and the atrocities they've seen (including one account of insurgent-head soccer) are unjust. Some volunteered for non-combat duty but were denied. All filed for conscientious objector status and were denied. This film definitely takes their side, and I certainly can't fault it for that. I know it's a sensitive subject, so here's my two cents: I have neither the moral authority nor the physical ability to force anyone to act in a way that is contrary to their conscience. So if their conscience tells them to not fight and flee to Canada instead, I can't stop them. However, their actions still have consequences that they must accept. If that means they can never return to the U.S., or if Canada denies their asylum claim they'll be wanted in the U.S. for desertion and in Canada for illegal immigration status, then they have to be ready for those consequences. And on the third hand, those consequences should be reasonable--but I'm not going to venture into what specifically that means. In any case, whether an individual claim truly is a matter of conscience or cowardice, I would hope that there is a refuge where they can escape, and Canada seems like a good choice.


Well, I don't know a good segue from the politics of war to kinky sex and body modification, but that's how the night went. First with the short "A Tale of Two Bondage Models". The two models are specifically Lorelei Lee and Princess Donna, who were in attendance but I didn't get a good picture of them (I'm sure if you're interested you can google them). I'm not actually into BDSM, but I've seen a number of movies (mostly documentaries) about it, so there was nothing too surprising or shocking to me. I guess I'm jaded. Still, it was pretty cool.

Now the feature really tested how jaded I am. "Flesh and Blood" is the story of Steve Haworth, a professional "body artist" who started out as a piercer and went on to invent 3-d body art. Surgical implants under the skin for various 3-d bumps, stars, patterns, etc. Bases on which he can screw metal spikes, just about anything. He does it all without administering anaesthesia so he doesn't cross the line to practicing medicine without a license. Pretty freaky shit, including some pretty graphic and bizarre genital alterations. Then things get really weird, when he and his friends get into "suspending"--hanging themselves from hooks stuck through their skin. For the most part it sticks to his point of view and shows him in a flattering if unconventional light. But in the last half hour or so cracks start forming in his perfectly bizarre life, and his girlfriend leaves him and his crazy group of friends start growing up and getting normal. All of a sudden the person whom the movie has tried to convince you isn't really that crazy turns out to be...really fuckin' crazy! And kinda self-centered. But still somehow grounded, as he's a single father of 2 children from previous relationships (children he never thought he'd have to take care of). One last thing I want to mention. There's a guy in the movie who was the first person to get implants to have metal spikes sticking out of his head--a kind of metal mohawk. In the end of the movie, he gets them taken out. He's interviewed and claims they got to be too much of a distraction, and he couldn't have a conversation about anything but the spikes. But the whole time he's being interviewed he's wearing an eye patch (and big lobe-stretching earrings, but that's not important). And the whole time I'm thinking, "he got rid of the spikes because they were a distraction to conversation, but he's wearing an eye patch. What's up with the eye patch?" It's never explained, but if I see someone with metal spikes sticking out of his head, I know there's only one real story behind that, and I don't need to hear it. But if I see someone with an eye patch, there's at least a hundred possible stories, and I have to know!

And finally, the last movie of Tuesday was "Sanctuary: Lisa Gerrard". I don't really follow music, so I didn't know who Lisa Gerrard is. Turns out she has an amazing ethereal voice with incredible range, and was in a band called Dead Can Dance. She also feels everything far more sensitively than you anyone else. That's certainly true for me, because I wasn't feeling this, and I kinda dozed off a bit in the middle of this 90 minute infomercial. I did perk up again when it got to her film scoring career because hey, I like movies and she's done scores for some great ones--"Whale Rider", "The Insider", etc. So overall, I don't know if it's a better movie if you're already a fan of hers (I talked to one fan who thought the movie sucked), but if you know nothing about her, this is a pretty rude introduction.

And that was Tuesday at Docfest.

Jason goes to Docfest--day 4

Two more shows last Monday, each with a short and a feature:


First up was the short "Aqui Comienzian los Estados Unidos", a look at the lives of Mexicans immigrating (sometimes legally, sometimes not) into the United States. This is, of course, quite a hot-button issue, but this short takes a more human, less overtly political look--and in doing so, falls on the pretty obvious political side.


This short was followed by the eco-political agitprop "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil". When the Soviet Union fell, that decimated Cuba's economy. In particular, the price of oil skyrockets, making both fuel and petroleum-based fertilizers unaffordable. This is diplomatically referred to as the "special period", but the movie investigates the Cuban people's solutions to the crisis. Specifically smaller, organic and rooftop farming, carpooling (government vehicles are required to pick up anyone who needs a ride if they have room), public transit, alternative fuels, etc. It presents Cuba as a model for the peak oil crisis the rest of the world will eventually face. There are good ideas in this movie, but it's so laughably propaganda that those ideas will probably be lost on all but those who are already convinced. It's sad, but true. Small local farms, public transit, carpooling, alternative energy are all good ideas, but you're not going to convince anyone by saying, "that's how they do it in Cuba!"


Anyway, after that there was another program of Blues fest films, a short and a feature (but oddly, not in that order):


First was the feature (and boy did that screw me up, after 30 minutes I kept expecting it to end) "Sacred Steel". It's a really cool look at the pedal steel guitar, a sort of bench-top electric guitar played with a piece of metal instead of fingers to stop the strings. As a result, musicians get a sort of vocal tone to it. It's traditionally Hawaiian, and is used in worship ceremonies at the House of God church. Only recently have church musicians taken their music out of the church and into concerts (where secular audiences still dance around like they're possessed by the holy spirit). The sound is really cool, and the song about Roosevelt is alone worth the price of admission.


And finally, the short "A Well Spent Life" by local filmmaker Les Blank, who also did "The Blues According to Lightning Hopkins". In fact, those two films make good companion pieces, as this is again about a Texas bluesman (in fact, Texas has actually become the recurring theme of the festival). This time he interviews and profiles Mance Lipscombe. In particular, how his hard life actually made him appreciate what he has more.

And that was Monday at Docfest. I'm catching up slowly, but still have 4 more films to write up.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 3

Another 5 movies last Sunday. Here we go:

Most festivals (especially in SF when I take BART) include at least one show where I sprint like a madman to make it there. Sometimes it's my fault, but this time it was BART's fault, as the train leaving Fremont was late, I missed the transfer, and got to 16th and Mission at 12:29 instead of 12:09. So I sprinted to the Roxie just as the first movie was starting. As I walked in, I saw the meditating image of Abbot Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto (aka Khru Bah). the amazing subject of "Buddha's Lost Children". Khru Bah was a Thai boxer, but he gave up the sport to become a Buddhist monk, traveling to the remote northern province of Thailand most famous for impoverished hillside villages and brutal druglords. There he founded a temple and orphanage. He travels to all the local villages, adopting the most impoverished and/or sick children, battling drug smugglers, and spreading his message of peace and love. The filmmakers had amazing access, and captured some beautifully moving images. And just when I'm in awe of Khru Bah, my attention shifted to the children. 3 stories in particular touched me. Nehn Sukh has unknown parents, and although he starts out having trouble keeping up, he becomes sort of a leader of the novices (apprentice monks), and wants to be a monk his entire life. Yee starts out barely able to speak, but slowly comes out of his world and becomes a novice himself, changing his name to Pan Saen. And finally, Boontam is only 4 years old, the youngest of 5 children in a family too poor to take care of himself, much less his disease that has made his legs so weak. But he has a smile that could light the world. Khru Bah even believes he could be a Buddha, and the miracle these people need. As a follow-up, his legs are healthy now, and he travels back and forth from the village to the temple. When he becomes 7, he plans to formally become a novice, too.

Next up was "Call of the Wild", the documentary about Chris McCandless, the 20-something who went out into the Alaskan wilderness and died on an abandoned bus after about 3 months. It was made into a book called "Into the Wild", and Sean Penn directed a movie version of it that's out now. In fact, this documentary runs into Sean Penn twice, as they're both filming on location. I never read the book, but I knew something of McCandless. I had recently moved out of Alaska at the time, and still kept track of the news up there. I'm eager to see Sean Penn's take on the story (which I've heard is pretty faithful to the book), but in the meantime Ron Lamothe has made an incredibly fascinating rediscovery of the events, including new discoveries that the book got wrong. One of my favorite points is when the local guide shows Lamothe the McCandless' backpack--found in the bus but completely overlooked by the Alaska State Troopers. In a secret pouch is McCandless' wallet, including about 8 forms of ID. So the weeks spent trying to identify the body, the dental records sent from the east coast--that was all unnecessary. I also like the reactions of the locals in the bar in Healey. They're the only ones who are blunt about how he was a dumbass and his death was Darwinism in action. That's actually more or less my opinion, although I can sympathize with the idealism and romanticism that has surrounded his myth. This was one of my favorite movies of the festival, and makes me all the more eager for Sean Penn's movie. By the way, I think I also recognized Lamothe's friend Tom Borden and his movie "American Rash" in there, but that's another story.

Next up was a short and a feature. First the short "The Indypendent", a brief look at the independent, mostly-volunteer, New York newspaper of the same name. I'm sure they do great work, and there are a lot of dedicated people, and they've won many independent press awards, but the movie really plays as an extended commercial for the paper.

The feature was "WTF: an Okaymentary", about the online community okayplayer.com. Originally a site for Roots fans, ?uestlove put the url on an album and then called his web administrator and told her "you have to make this site!" I'd never heard of it before this movie, but it's grown into a fairly large online community that's not necessarily even all Roots fans anymore (though mostly it still is). The filmmakers are all on okayplayer, and made it as sort of a road trip with the intention of meeting all the people face to face who they already know online. In that way, it shares a lot in common with any online community, particularly the stories of how people are meaner online than in person. But overall, okayplayer seems like a friendlier site than most online communities I've seen. Pretty cool. Here's a pic of co-directors Leslye James and Tim Adkins:


Next up was the treat of the festival so far, the dogumentary "Wiener Takes All". They really rolled out the red carpet for the stars:


The premise is simple and hilarious--an in-depth look at the world of competitive wiener dogs (or dachshunds for you prudes). It delves into the cutthroat world of wiener dog racing, the waaay more cutthroat world of dog shows, and even into the history of wiener dogs--they actually go back to Egyptian hieroglyphics, which oddly show other dogs on leashes but wiener dogs unleashed. The racing, of course, is the best part, with the fierce rivalries of Noodles, Pretzel, Vinnie Barbarino, Baby Luv, Heidi Roo, etc. It also hits on some faux-scandalous elements, like allegations of doping or bribing dog show judges. And in a few moments, it touches on deadly serious elements. I don't want to give away spoilers, but I feel I should warn about three things, since they'd be likely to upset dog lovers who are otherwise the best audience for this film. First, there's a scandal in dog show world about double-dappled and piebald dachshunds. Both have a color that's unacceptable to the dog show world--white. Problem is, dappled or double-dappled is a genetic disorder that doesn't just affect pigment, but affects function--whatever is underneath the white spots doesn't work right. Piebald is a different kind of white coloration that is completely harmless. On the one hand, puppy mills will breed dapples to make double-dapples, because the ~10% of survivors are so cute. On the other hand, dog shows ban piebalds for no good reason (in fact, one doggie historian claims the original wiener dogs in Egypt were piebalds). The second disturbing episode--historical accounts of hate crimes against "German" dogs during WWI and WWII. Poor wiener dogs were killed just for being German, even if they were born in America (they were in fact temporarily renamed Liberty Pups). And the final disturbing bit--and the one that really got me--comes from the argument against wiener dog racing. Greyhound racing has become such a big industry that perfectly healthy losing dogs are often put to death. It's fine to note that as an abomination and a reason against letting the sport get that big, but this movie did show graphic footage. I understand why it's there and I don't want to say it shouldn't be seen. And normally I might not even say a word about it. But since the presumed audience is doggy enthusiasts, I think they oughta be forewarned. Especially since all the rest of the movie is silly and fun.

Here's a pic of director Shane MacDougall with Docfest programmer Fay Dearborn.


And here are stars Baby Luv and Bruno, with their humans. It was so cool to meet the athletes/movie stars in person. I even got a smooch on the nose from Baby Luv!



And then, the final movie of the weekend was the surrealist suburban joke, "Radiant City". I will now visibly struggle with the issue of spoilers:

Errrgh, ungh....umm....

Okay, I've decided not to give any spoilers, other than that there is a major spoiler and if you know that you'll probably get it while watching it. This documentary is about the suburbs, the sprawling, uniform, featureless zombie wasteland that stretches across North America (it's a Canadian film, but that's not the spoiler). They interview experts, activists, and families who live in the suburb. My personal favorite was author James Howard Kunstler ("Geography of Nowhere") with some rather biting criticisms. The scene of his musings while sitting on a "recreational" bench facing a chain link fence and the freeway is priceless. But they also interview a family of suburbanites. As the children show them around their neighborhood, the mother defends suburban living while the dad passive-aggressively tolerates it while putting on a local theater production of "Suburban: The Musical!" All in all, it's a pretty funny look at a way of living that's best described as the "first attempt" to build community architecture.

And that was Sunday at docfest.