There's a lot of talk these days about nature deficit disorder, the idea that many children (and adults) today don't get enough contact time with nature and suffer for that in terms of poorer physical, mental and emotional well being.
Two films in the Edinburgh International Film Festival focus on children who spend a lot of time in nature, but that doesn't mean they don't have problems!
Of Skies and Earth focusses in the lives of four young Filipino boys who have left home for various reasons and are living in an abandoned hut in the countryside. They seem very self sufficient but need to go into the nearby town to look for work. They really struggle to make any money at all until they wheedle their way into working at the local slaughterhouse (cue some gruesome scenes for the vegetarians amongst us). This doesn't all go according to plan and the boys find themselves drifting into petty crime and sniffing solvents. What seems at the beginning like an almost idyllic life is shown to be a gateway into something much less appealing.
There's an interesting conversation at one point between two of the boys, the younger one of whom wants to stop looking for work in the city and return to their mountain home where it's beautiful and peaceful but the older one disagrees and says the city is better, as there are more people and more jobs (though those people are unfriendly and the jobs hard to find!).
Kid Thing is a disturbing film about a child who is basically out of control. Annie lives on a goat farm in the USA, with her father, who pays her very little attention. She spends a lot of time in the local woods, where her favourite activities seem to be destroying trees and squashing insects. One day she comes across a woman who has fallen down a well. Is this Annie's opportunity to learn some positive attitudes towards other people?
These films are part of Edinburgh International Film Festival. There are no more showings of either film.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended free press screenings of these films.
As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Friday, 29 June 2012
Walking and Transformation and thoughts on nature
I just saw What is this Film called Love? at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It's basically a walking tour of Mexico City made by Edinburgh based film-maker Mark Cousins with his imaginary companion the late Russian film-maker Sergei Eisenstein. Along the way Cousins makes remembered diversions to Monument Valley (USA), Moscow and Edinburgh, quoting poetry at various points from Frank O'Hara and Norman MacCaig.
It's a film about the transformational value of walking, with some interesting ideas about shot composition in film-making and some magnificent scenery. Unfortunately I found elements of the film irritating and pretentious (particularly the voice-over), which prevented me from fully appreciating the ideas in the film until I left the cinema.
Most interesting perhaps was the contrast made between Pushkin's concept of indifferent nature - the idea that nature and human life are separate and nature is a bystander to everything that goes on in the human world and Eisenstein's idea of non-indifferent nature, in which humans and nature are closely interconnected. (I've looked for references to these particular thinkers' ideas on these themes on the web but haven't found any yet, it's a topic I may come back to).
It's certainly a film that will keep you thinking long after you've left the cinema, and may even inspire you to walk around your own city with your eyes more wide open than usual!
What is this Film called Love? is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, you can see it at 19:35, 30 June in Cineworld 5.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and saw a free press screening of this film.
As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks to other pages where you can find out more.
It's a film about the transformational value of walking, with some interesting ideas about shot composition in film-making and some magnificent scenery. Unfortunately I found elements of the film irritating and pretentious (particularly the voice-over), which prevented me from fully appreciating the ideas in the film until I left the cinema.
Most interesting perhaps was the contrast made between Pushkin's concept of indifferent nature - the idea that nature and human life are separate and nature is a bystander to everything that goes on in the human world and Eisenstein's idea of non-indifferent nature, in which humans and nature are closely interconnected. (I've looked for references to these particular thinkers' ideas on these themes on the web but haven't found any yet, it's a topic I may come back to).
It's certainly a film that will keep you thinking long after you've left the cinema, and may even inspire you to walk around your own city with your eyes more wide open than usual!
What is this Film called Love? is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, you can see it at 19:35, 30 June in Cineworld 5.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and saw a free press screening of this film.
As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks to other pages where you can find out more.
Riding Zorro and a Link to a Poem
I'm guessing rodeo has its roots in the need to tame horses so they could be ridden and used in farmwork but as a sport it always seems arrogant and cruel.
Ethical considerations about rodeo and animal welfare aside, Riding Zorro is a beautifully made film. A biopic of rodeo's most famous horse, Zorro, the film is a collage of old, scratchy film, interviews with horse-riders who tried to ride Zorro, and old still photographs woven together imaginatively and creatively. All to a wonderful sound track of guitar music.
Zorro was a spirited, untameable horse and this is a wonderful tribute to him. The only criticism is of the subtitling, which is particularly poor.
Zorro in his lifetime inspired poetry and song, so I had thought of writing this review as a poem, but it didn't happen.
Unfortunately there are no further public screenings of Riding Zorro at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of Riding Zorro.
Ethical considerations about rodeo and animal welfare aside, Riding Zorro is a beautifully made film. A biopic of rodeo's most famous horse, Zorro, the film is a collage of old, scratchy film, interviews with horse-riders who tried to ride Zorro, and old still photographs woven together imaginatively and creatively. All to a wonderful sound track of guitar music.
Zorro was a spirited, untameable horse and this is a wonderful tribute to him. The only criticism is of the subtitling, which is particularly poor.
Zorro in his lifetime inspired poetry and song, so I had thought of writing this review as a poem, but it didn't happen.
Unfortunately there are no further public screenings of Riding Zorro at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of Riding Zorro.
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Animals in Captivity on Screen
Postcards from the Zoo is wonderfully odd, filmed mostly in a zoo in Jakarta, in Indonesia. The zoo is also a funfair and has a lot of life size sculptures of large animals. In fact, at first, when the scene showed pelicans feeding amongst the feet of statues of elephants I thought for a moment that we were seeing a zoo of the future, when, all animals being extinct, zoos become sculpture parks.
Lana grew up in the zoo, having been abandoned there by her father and lives there with zoo employees, homeless people and some people who love the zoo so much they can't bear to leave. Lana is really busy round the zoo and has a wonderful rapport with the animals, there are lovely scenes of her and the giraffe (and whatever your views on animals in captivity, there is something immensely touching about seeing a trusting relationship between human and animal.)
One day everyone except official zoo employees is evicted from living in the zoo. It's a surprise to the viewer that Lana isn't an official employee, but she too is evicted and runs off with a strange magician who dresses as a cowboy. They do magic tricks for people until the magician himself disappears, leaving Lana lost in the wilds of Jakarta and offered lodging in a massage parlour on condition that she becomes a worker there. She seems to adapt quite well from washing down large mammals to massaging large men. but it is clear that she feels that the zoo is her natural habitat.
Bestiaire also focuses on animals in captivity. It is filmed mostly in Quebec's Parc Safari, both in the fields where the animals wander with a lot of freedom and the cramped internal cages, with concrete floors and metal bars. It is very upsetting to see zebras, lions and hyenas, animals used to wandering the vast African savannahs bashing themselves against cage bars.
The film looks at animals through the eyes of artists, zoo-keepers, zoo visitors, taxidermists and of course the camera. It is a mostly beautiful meditation of our relationship with captive animals, a very thought provoking film.
These films are part of Edinburgh International Film Festival and can be seen at:
Postcards from the Zoo: 20:00, 29 June; 15:30, 1 July both in Filmhouse 2.
unfortunately there are no more public screenings of Bestiaire.
Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attend free press screenings of the films I review.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Lana grew up in the zoo, having been abandoned there by her father and lives there with zoo employees, homeless people and some people who love the zoo so much they can't bear to leave. Lana is really busy round the zoo and has a wonderful rapport with the animals, there are lovely scenes of her and the giraffe (and whatever your views on animals in captivity, there is something immensely touching about seeing a trusting relationship between human and animal.)
One day everyone except official zoo employees is evicted from living in the zoo. It's a surprise to the viewer that Lana isn't an official employee, but she too is evicted and runs off with a strange magician who dresses as a cowboy. They do magic tricks for people until the magician himself disappears, leaving Lana lost in the wilds of Jakarta and offered lodging in a massage parlour on condition that she becomes a worker there. She seems to adapt quite well from washing down large mammals to massaging large men. but it is clear that she feels that the zoo is her natural habitat.
Bestiaire also focuses on animals in captivity. It is filmed mostly in Quebec's Parc Safari, both in the fields where the animals wander with a lot of freedom and the cramped internal cages, with concrete floors and metal bars. It is very upsetting to see zebras, lions and hyenas, animals used to wandering the vast African savannahs bashing themselves against cage bars.
The film looks at animals through the eyes of artists, zoo-keepers, zoo visitors, taxidermists and of course the camera. It is a mostly beautiful meditation of our relationship with captive animals, a very thought provoking film.
These films are part of Edinburgh International Film Festival and can be seen at:
Postcards from the Zoo: 20:00, 29 June; 15:30, 1 July both in Filmhouse 2.
unfortunately there are no more public screenings of Bestiaire.
Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attend free press screenings of the films I review.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
Vivan Las Antipodas
Antipodes are places and peoples that are diametrically opposite each other on the earth. This beautiful film contemplates life in four antipodal pairs - Russia and Chile, China and
Argentina, Botswana and Hawaii, and Spain and New Zealand.As the earth is mostly ocean, there are few antipodes where both are inhabited. I was interested to note that of the antipodes in the film only one is really urban, three are Spanish speaking and two are English speaking (three if you count Botswana, but the people in the film spoke Setswana).
The most different antipodes are rural Argentina (where two men look after a bridge over a river and chat between themselves and the drivers that use the bridge) and Shanghai in China where the crowds bustle through the streets.
The most similar antipodal pair is Russia (where a mother and daughter pick fruits and chop wood by Lake Baikal) and Chile (where a shepherd travels with his herds (along with the cutest and silliest sheep dog ever)).
Condors fly above the mountains in Chile while the shepherd takes his cats for a walk. The rocks on the Spanish mountains are home to a wonderful array of insects and lizards just as the countryside of Botswana is full of lions, giraffes and elephants. Lava from an active volcano flows down the hillsides in Hawaii. A whale is sadly beached in New Zealand.
(Parts of the film are shown upside down or sideways, which adds to the feeling of antipodes but which can be unsettling to the eyes!)
This is a wonderful film for losing yourself in meditation of the beauty of the world and the interconnections between everywhere. Hopefully, if you get to see the film, you'll be able to see the whole thing. Unlike us! There was a power cut just ten minutes from the end of the film!
Unfortunately also there are no more public screenings of Vivan las Antipodas! at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.
The most different antipodes are rural Argentina (where two men look after a bridge over a river and chat between themselves and the drivers that use the bridge) and Shanghai in China where the crowds bustle through the streets.
The most similar antipodal pair is Russia (where a mother and daughter pick fruits and chop wood by Lake Baikal) and Chile (where a shepherd travels with his herds (along with the cutest and silliest sheep dog ever)).
Condors fly above the mountains in Chile while the shepherd takes his cats for a walk. The rocks on the Spanish mountains are home to a wonderful array of insects and lizards just as the countryside of Botswana is full of lions, giraffes and elephants. Lava from an active volcano flows down the hillsides in Hawaii. A whale is sadly beached in New Zealand.
(Parts of the film are shown upside down or sideways, which adds to the feeling of antipodes but which can be unsettling to the eyes!)
This is a wonderful film for losing yourself in meditation of the beauty of the world and the interconnections between everywhere. Hopefully, if you get to see the film, you'll be able to see the whole thing. Unlike us! There was a power cut just ten minutes from the end of the film!
Unfortunately also there are no more public screenings of Vivan las Antipodas! at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Disclaimer: I have a press pass for Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.
Official Best of the Fest
Edinburgh International Film Festival
has just announced its Best of the Fest list (which as far as I'm aware
is based on ticket sales). All films are screening for £6 (£5
concession) so here is you chance to see festival films at normal
prices:
Showing at Filmhouse
GOD BLESS AMERICA (11:15)
RENT-A-CAT (20:30) which I have bought a ticket for, having missed the press screenings and the public screenings being sold out!
I'll probably do my own Best of the Fest post at the end of the festival.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more!
Showing at Cineworld:
BRAVE (11:00)
DR SEUSS’ THE LORAX (13:15)
FLICKER (12:10) which I may review tomorrow
7 DAYS IN HAVANA (12:20) which i may review tomorrow
BORROWED TIME (12:30);
FRED (14:20);
DAY OF THE FLOWERS (14:30);
JACKPOT (14:50);
LIFE JUST IS
(16:00);
THE IMPOSTER (16:25);
FUTURE MY LOVE (16:25) you can read my review here
GRABBERS
(16:45);
CALIFORNIA SOLO (18:15);
AND IF WE ALL LIVED TOGETHER?(18:30);
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (18:45);
SHADOW DANCER (18:55);
GUINEA PIGS
(20:30);
DRAGON (WU XIA) (20:45)
PUSHER (21:00).
GOD BLESS AMERICA (11:15)
RENT-A-CAT (20:30) which I have bought a ticket for, having missed the press screenings and the public screenings being sold out!
I'll probably do my own Best of the Fest post at the end of the festival.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more!
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Postcards from the Zoo
One of the films I saw today was Postcards from the Zoo, which is filmed in a zoo in Indonesia. I'm going to review it tomorrow alongside Bestiare, another film about animals in captivity which I'll be seeing tomorrow.
However, Postcards from the Zoo surprisingly has a lot of parallels with another film that I saw today, Attractive Illusion (which I review on Over Forty Shades, here).
The heroine of Postcards from the Zoo, Lana is forced out of her home the zoo, in much the same way as the characters in Attractive Illusion are forced to live their homeland of Nigeria. Similar to Enor and Amen, who become prostitutes in Attractive Illusion, Lana is pushed into working in a massage parlour where, the implication is, she offers services beyond massage.
Watching so many films, it really is interesting where unexpected parallels can be found!
These films are showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and you can see them at:
Postcards from the Zoo: 20:00, 29 June; 15:30, 1 July both in Filmhouse 2.
Attractive Illusion 20:00, 30 June Cineworld 11
unfortunately there are no more public screenings of Bestiaire.
Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attend free press screenings of the films I review.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
However, Postcards from the Zoo surprisingly has a lot of parallels with another film that I saw today, Attractive Illusion (which I review on Over Forty Shades, here).
The heroine of Postcards from the Zoo, Lana is forced out of her home the zoo, in much the same way as the characters in Attractive Illusion are forced to live their homeland of Nigeria. Similar to Enor and Amen, who become prostitutes in Attractive Illusion, Lana is pushed into working in a massage parlour where, the implication is, she offers services beyond massage.
Watching so many films, it really is interesting where unexpected parallels can be found!
These films are showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and you can see them at:
Postcards from the Zoo: 20:00, 29 June; 15:30, 1 July both in Filmhouse 2.
Attractive Illusion 20:00, 30 June Cineworld 11
unfortunately there are no more public screenings of Bestiaire.
Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attend free press screenings of the films I review.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
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