These Movies Matter

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Recommended Titles

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KINGS OF THE SKY, 2004, 68 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: 2006
Director(s): Deborah Stratman

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Editor’s Note: We found this film at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival, where it was featured in the New Pioneers, Women in Cinema section, and we’re thrilled to have discovered that it’s now available on DVD.

What It's About: Adil Hoxur comes from a family of performers who have upheld the tradition of Dawaz (tightrope balancing) in an unbroken lineage for over 500 years. He and his troupe tour the borders of Chinese Turkestan’s Taklamakan (the second largest shifting sand desert in the world whose name literally means: “you go in but you don’t come out”), performing nightly in tiny oasis villages. In 1997, he broke the Guinness World Record for tightrope walking – a feat which led to his becoming a national hero among his people, the Turkic Muslim Uighurs. Apparently, Adil bears an uncanny resemblance to the Dawaz hero of an old Uighur myth who freed his countrymen from an oppressive reign of invading ghosts – an apt metaphor for the ongoing tension between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese. Since September 11th, the government’s “Stike Hard” policy has been enforced in increasingly harsh ways including controlled news, restricted travel, a ban on public assembly and long jail sentences for even a suspicion of subversion. In this atmosphere, the Dawaz troupe is doing what in can, in the realm of small things.

What to Look For: The filmmaker spent four months focusing on small, everyday truths, to create an unforgettable film about balance. In her own words: “Kings of the Sky is a film about seeking balance: balance between minority separatist yearnings and Han Chinese rule... balance between ancient cultural traditions and modern technologies… balance between an American filmmaker and a remote Muslim community... and balance between our flightless bodies and the eternal laws of gravity."

Why It Matters: The tightrope-walking act itself is remarkable: look for the bit where Adil is walking through fog, across a steel cable stretched over a deep, heavily wooded canyon, and becomes aware of "fear entering my mind…." Appreciate this rare opportunity to explore Uighur culture through the intimate everyday details of life among the Dawaz troupe. Note Adil’s reflections on the social and political realities he encounters, and his informative, and sometimes surprising, insights into a culture whose inner workings are largely a mystery to North Americans. Of particular note is the way the filmmaker lets the situation speak for itself without any narrative overlay and the immediacy she brings us as a result of being made by an adventurous photojournalist exploring a foreign land with a lightweight, compact digital video camera. And, finally, just before the credits, we learn that seven of the troupe members defected to Canada after the documentary was made. They now live in Toronto where they continue their balancing act.

Available on DVD from the producers at www.peripheralproduce.com/catalog.php
The DVD runs 140 min and includes two other Deborah Stratman films: In Order Not To Be Here, 2003, USA, 30 min., winner, Best Experimental Film, Humboldt Short Film Festival, Arcata, CA, 2003; and From Hetty To Nancy, 1997, USA, 44 min. Look for Peripheral Produce No. 13 entitled Something Like Flying, and be sure to select the “personal use” option and not the more expensive “academic use”.

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Classics

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STEPPENWOLF, 1974, 107 min., Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: August 1006
Director(s): Fred Haines

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Harry Haller knows that at least half of him belongs to the ordered bourgeois society of 1920s Basle, Switzerland, where he can pass his life in ascetic contemplation of the world of the spirit. But, he also yearns to break out and connect with the wild energy of another part of his nature that he equates with an image of a lone-wolf, howling his emotions to the vast and open spaces of the steppes. He wants to "pull down idols, seduce little girls, dynamite the established order". The only problem is, Harry doesn’t have the courage to act on his inspiration. As the film opens, he’s decided that if he can’t effect a change, he will kill himself on his fast-approaching fiftieth birthday. Almost immediately, he meets Hermine, an androgynous prostitute who introduces him to all the decadent, sensual delights of the city at night. What will happen? Will he be able to enter the “Theatre of Magic” and find enlightenment, or will he prove unequal to the task? The rawness of the original story made the book a cult bible for the hippie movement. Unfortunately, the exploration of the on-going human drama between the spiritual and the physical (animal) worlds doesn’t make a successful transition to the screen despite the director’s best efforts. The visual diversions of various forms of psycheaelia just seem to muddy the waters – perhaps simplicity would have worked better. Not wanting to loose the density of the mystical journey presented in the book, the film remains firmly rooted in the wordiness of its print origins. However, this focus on production values that don’t quite work is somewhat mitigated by the casting choices. Max von Sydow is perfect as Harry Haller, the aging tortured writer who is searching for himself; his chiselled, ascetic look and frosty distant mien play perfectly against the enigmatic Dominique Sanda who appears as Harry’s alter-ego, Hermine. Despite these drawbacks, we understand the film is still considered by many to be a cult classic.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Worth a Mention

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L'ENFANT, 2005, 95 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: August 2006
Director(s): Jean-Pierre Dardenne

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A film about the human desire for instant gratification of whatever thought happens to be passing through our head at any given moment. It is also about wanting something without discipline and without the willingness of taking on the responsibility of having it. It is not a nice film, but it is trenchantly accurate in its portrayal of the impetus to consume and the possible results that can occur without education and tempering of character. Twenty-year old Bruno is a thief of superficial character who is given to compulsive lying. He lives only for the moment: if he has money, he spends it, if not, he panhandles on the street. He is so amoral, he doesn't even register the meaning of his actions. His eighteen-year-old girlfriend, Sonia, has just given birth and arrives home with baby Jimmy only to find that Bruno has sublet their apartment to another couple. His response is that they can sleep in a shelter. One afternoon, while taking the baby for a walk he meets a woman who tells him that: “people pay to adopt.” Then and there Bruno decides to sell the baby. In a non-descript gray building he leaves the child in an empty room and returns later only to collect the money. Bruno goes back to Sonia and proudly shows her the cash. She asks about the baby and he says: “We can have another one.” He is surprised when she faints and has to be taken to the hospital. He doesn’t understand emotions but the turn of events prompts him to set about trying to get the baby back. This proves to have even more dire consequences in the form of the two thugs who gave him the money but now have nothing to sell. Sonia leaves him, taking Jimmy with her; she may be immature herself but she knows it is time to put away childish things and which of her two "children" needs to come first. Set amidst the pawnshops, car parks and by-passes of an unnamed Belgian industrial town, this is a shocking film from the first moment when we hear the cries of the newborn to the end where the adult father is weeping like a small child. Not for the faint-of-heart, but certainly worthy of discussion.

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ETERNITY AND A DAY, 1998, 132 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: August 2006
Director(s): Theo Angelopoulos

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This film is a metaphysical reverie that is both haunting and spiritual. It opens with the last day in the life of Alexandre, a famous Greek writer and poet, (played in German by Bruno Ganz, then dubbed into Greek). As he makes his preparations to go to the hospital, Alex finds himself travelling in and out of his past, reviewing his life in the light of his impending death. He is filled with regret at not having finished his latest literary project and wonders why he spent so much of his life aloof and apart from those who loved him most: his elegant mother, now in a nursing home; his charming and loving wife, who died young; and their daughter who is about to sell the ancestral home. As his mind moves between fantasy and reality he finds himself musing on why nothing in his life seems to have worked out as he anticipated. In the course of his mental wanderings, Alex’s memories keep returning to a young boy whose situation as a political refugee mirrors his own spiritual condition. When he first meets the boy, he is living on the street and Alex saves him, first from the police and then from kidnappers who want him for the foreign adoption trade. Both man and boy are disconnected and fearful – Alex because he is leaving this life and the boy because he is young and his life stretches before him. By touching the boy's pain and fear, Alex’s own heart begins to soften. On the last night of his life, he and the boy take a magical ride on a bus where each in his own way experiences the keen sweetness of being alive and the rewards of connecting with others. Beautifully shot in a dreamy, fluid style, this is an eloquent on-screen exploration of an interior journey into the meaning of life beyond temporal and spatial boundaries.

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LAST MOGUL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LEW WASSERMAN, 2005, 110 min., Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: August 2006
Director(s): Barry Avrich

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Canadian Barry Avrich’s investigation of Lew Wasserman, a sharp street-smart go-getter from the American 1930s underworld, who rose to become the most powerful man in Hollywood. Rumoured to have been an inspiration for “the godfather”, Wasserman started out as a press agent and booker for the gangster-dominated club scene of his native Cleveland. He went on to become a protégé of Jules Stein, founder of the MCA talent agency and became Stein's man in Hollywood, where Ronald Regan was one of his first clients. When MCA bought Universal Studios, Lew became the very model of a Hollywood mogul. An absorbing story for anyone who wants to rub shoulders with fame – discretely. Wasserman was famous for his paper-free desk and a preference for secrecy in both his life and his dealings. Particularly interesting viewing if you want to go behind the scenes and find out how big studio movies get made.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources