You hear that, Mr Andersen?

2007 Film Festival, Day 2

The second day seemed to start with a decidedly political bent. My first movie (which I saw with C) was Run, Granny, Run. It followed the senatorial campaign of a 94 year-old grandmother who'd been unexpectedly thrust into the Democratic candidacy by the death of the previous candidate -- since they were running against a two-term incumbent, it's hardly surprising that no-one else stuck their hand up for the privilege of working really hard, and inevitably losing. Her campaign was based on (or hampered by, depending on your attitude) her belief that "soft money" and special interest donations are wrong, bad for United States politics, and bad for the politicians themselves.

This sort of behind-the-scenes politicking is always interesting, and I suspect it's not as disheartening when it's not your country being sold down the river. It was fascinating to see how difficult it was to run a campaign on a shoe-string, with a candidate who, while inspiring and sharp, was not a trained public speaker. The inevitability with which both sides of the political machine closed her out was quite sad... but the fact that she was projected to win 10% of the vote, and managed to win 30%-odd, speaks volumes... though I'm guessing they'd spend the money to crush her if they though she was actually any kind of threat.

Running for public office -- well, any kind of public service, actually -- seems to me to be something of a thankless task; I don't even like volunteering to decide about where to go for dinner. ;)

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The next movie was ¿La Verdad? (The Truth?), a documentary made by a NZer who was in Cuba with her husband and children (her husband runs Havana coffee), who got drawn into the social circle of one of the grand old men of anti-government journalism in Cuba. She started recording interviews with him, documenting his life; but while she was back in New Zealand, there was a big purge of dissident writers... and it turned out that he'd been a government mole for the past 40 years. The documentary covers the documentary-maker's reaction to this, as well as talking to his former friends (both those he had during his years of deception, and before), and his daughter and former wives.

Unlike your typical documentary, the author isn't a disembodied voice of authority -- she's fallen into the story, and lets us see how she got drawn in, and her reactions to the unexpected turns the story takes. I think that this makes for a much better documentary; I don't feel that it wouldn't have been half so effective if I hadn't seen the film-maker, and seen how she'd been affected. And I think that it's different from the documentary about tabbacco that I saw a few years ago, or even An Inconvenient Truth -- in both of those, there are parts that feel like we're focussing on the lives of the documentarians, whereas in ¿La Verdad?, I never felt that she made the movie to tell us about herself. If it turned up on TV, I'd encourage you to watch it.

Heh, it sounds like the showing today at the Film Archive has sold out. :)

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I knew a little bit about the Hungarian Revolution, and the police state that they lived under before and after; but Freedom's Fury, by focussing on the water polo team for the Melbourne Olympics, gave the entire thing a context to hang the facts on. And seeing the Hungarian flags with the hole in the middle, where the people had cut out the hammer and sickle... there were some powerful images there. It's hard to put yourself in that mindset; does anyone remember, was that the time that the National party ran the TV ads with the dancing Russians, about how if you voted for Labour the Communists would sneak in?

Anyway, the surviving members of the Hungarian water polo team seem to be articulate and opinionated old codgers... which is a blessing for the film-makers, I guess. I did find it a bit... slickly put together, which tends to make me a bit suspicious, but to be fair, perhaps they simply had enough money. One of the executive producers was Quentin Tarrantino; I suspect that an interesting story lies behind that.

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I then got to see Forever with C, Jenni & Lee. I'm not sure it completely worked for me. Sad to say, this is one documentary where a bit of narration might not have gone amiss. There were plenty of interesting stories, both about the famous people in the cemetery, and the stories of the regular people, and the people who were associated with the graveyard -- the guide, the visitors, the people who cleaned the graves of their loved ones. But it never seemed to cohere into a whole, and I left the movie mildly dissatisfied.

I wouldn't turn it off it was on TV, but I'm not sure I'd seek it out.

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And finally, Eagle Vs Shark. Not as funny as Tongan Ninja, but not as shallow, either; the characters were caricatures, but the underlying types felt real. The main female lead,Loren Horsley, was excellent, and whatever my reservations about Taika Waititi's 48-Hour films (which are strong), he seems to be able to get good performances out of children. And there were plenty of moments that felt quite true -- the geek male showing the girl all the stuff that he thinks is cool, all the while maintaining a palpable defensiveness, for example. And there's the weird little family rituals that are maintained for no apparent reason, like giving the driver "safety grass" before they set out; I think my family's "safety grass" is shouting "Bully for you" when driving around Bulli Point on the way to Taupo. Or possibly the story of the Foxton water tower and the mini, which I might tell you... some other time. :)

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Hmm, I'm still two days behind. Well, at least I have links to the movies this time. ;)

Posted by svend at July 23, 2007 11:17 PM