Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Five documentaries with promise
There is no set formula for documentary film production: Films can be shot in a matter of months, years or decades. But rest assured, whatever the length of time (and hours of footage) a film amasses, almost by definition, it’s a labor of love. Fledgling filmmakers don’t gravitate toward the documentary form out of a desire for fame and fortune. It’s an often grueling, largely thankless job that requires almost constant scrounging for funding and the least bit of attention, which is why a festival such as True/False, springing forth every March in Columbia, Mo., comes as such a godsend for documentarians.
An ecstatic celebration of the form, T/F brings together a cross-section of film folks, from creators to critics, jams them into a college town booming with cafes, restaurants and bars, and brings bands in from all over the Midwest and South to serve as the soundtrack.
Columbia sits almost equidistant from the two biggest cities in the state – Kansas City to the west, and St. Louis to the east. With a population of just under 122,000, the college town swells a bit during school months, and ebbs when classes let out in mid-May. It’s a good size place, but certainly not overwhelming, which is what makes the first week of March so extraordinarily special.
Every year, I’m astounded at the adoring throngs of doc-lovers, packing every screening of the four-day event to bursting. This year’s festival happens to come on what is predicted to be a rough weekend, weatherwise — snow forecast and a low of 5 degrees on Sunday, for example — but I doubt any amount of cold or snow could truly dampen the spirits of festivalgoers.
This year, the festival is offering some 41 features. Here are five we are most excited about:
Amazing Grace: In 1972, the Queen of Soul put on a pair of unforgettable gospel shows in Los Angeles. That is, the shows were unforgettable to the rare and privileged few who actually got to see them live. Now, after sitting and collecting dust for more than 40 years, Sydney Pollack’s concert footage has finally been properly assembled and the result is a film that has left critics as soaring as the near-delirious fans were in attendance. At the height of her powers, the film promises to be a testament to Aretha Franklin’s unbelievable talent and range. As a closing night film, the fest organizers could hardly have found a more fitting send-off.
Cold Case Hammarskjold: Mads Brugger, the legendary gonzo film journalist whose last film saw him impersonate a Liberian ambassador in order to prove a point about the slippery and largely unrestrained precious gem trade, returns to T/F with a new, even more twisty and confusing story. The film concerns the mysterious death of U.N. General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold, whose plane crashed (or was it shot down?) in what is now Zambia, back in 1961. From there, Brugger’s film delves into ever more deep and confounding theories, counter-theories, discoveries and false starts, until he may actually have discovered something of significant global impact. In fine T/F form, the film also involves the character of Brugger himself, as he leads the audience through his own confounding and convoluted responses to what he’s discovering. Sometimes, it seems, the rabbit hole doesn’t let you leave.
Dark Suns: The film is described as an “epic investigation” of the disappearance and murder of a great number of women in Mexico, but rather than trying to solve a particular crime, it becomes more of an expose of the entire system in Mexico, in which crime syndicates, cartels and public officials have created a shadow system of virtually lawless governance. Under this level of impunity, no one can feel safe, least of all the regular citizens, farmers and journalists who seem powerless to stop it. Julien Elie’s doc might start with missing bodies, but it ends with an indictment of an entire country’s capitulation to greed and commerce.
Midnight Traveler: In a film as prescient as it is powerful sounding, the filmmaker Hassan Fazili documents his forced escape from his native Afghanistan after the Taliban calls for his assassination. Fleeing with his wife and their two young daughters, the film — shot only with the couple’s cellphone cameras — follows their search for safe asylum over the course of three long years, an angry refutation of the current U.S. president’s assumptions about refugees and the need for humanitarianism rather than closed-ranked, indulgent xenophobia. Fazili’s film is a report from the front lines of asylum seekers, which could simply not come at a better time.
Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary: It seemed simple enough: Make a film about a Las Vegas-based entertainer and magician as he wraps up his career right before retirement. All filmmaker Benjamin Berman wanted to do was shoot the last shows of Amazing Jonathan, a man who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness some years before. As these things often go, however, the film proved more of a challenge than Berman anticipated. Turns out the Amazing Jonathan, a consummate provocateur, has other ideas of what the film is and how it can work, and begins to antagonize the director, throwing him off-kilter with practical jokes, and wrecking havoc on the film’s narrative flow. The end result sounds like a chaotic whirl of gamesmanship, magic and peculiar poignancy.