This year, I saw several documentaries at TIFF. The lineup for this year’s TIFF Docs programme was really solid. Besides this programme, however, the Mavericks and Vanguard programmes also offered some interesting documentaries. With so many films to take in, I was only able to see fifteen documentaries, which is not that bad in my opinion.
To keep things simple, I am writing about my top 3 documentaries…
The Central Park Five (Dirs. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon)
In this documentary we meet the five men who were wrongfully accused of raping a female jogger in Central Park when they were in their teens. The “Central Park Jogger” case was what I call a ‘media fiasco.’ The New York City police, media and society in general decided to accuse five young African American and Latino young boys without taking into account other important evidence related to the case.
Throughout the film, we hear parts of the interrogation these young men were subjected. Within the interrogations, there are images interspersed to help create the sense of tension and fear the teenagers were feeling at the time. The filmmakers did a fair bit of research for this film and this is evident not only by the interviews with each of the men accused of the crime but also by the great amount of archival photos, media footage and court proceedings. As noticeable in other documentaries by Ken Burns, the music accompanying the film is en pointe.
In the Q&A after the screening, one of the five men, Raymond Santana, came up to the stage to join the filmmaker. There was a standing ovation in appreciation of his and the others’ story and strength, as well, as for the documentary itself. Ken Burns described how the team wanted to show how the media and the police “failed these young men.” They wanted to tell the other side to this story… the “untold story” as Sarah Burns said. For his part, Santana said he’s “grateful someone took an interest in our story…I’m out of words right now.” Indeed, it is about time this story is revisited. I, for one, will see this documentary again.
Rafea: Solar Mama (Dirs. Jehane Noujaim & Mona Eldaief)
This is the story of Rafea, a Bedouin woman who lives in a poor community in rural Jordan with her family. She is given the chance to go to India and partake in training provided by the Barefoot College, where grandmothers/mothers from around many parts of the world are trained to become solar engineers. The hope is that they’ll bring their knowledge back and share with their communities and also help their communities to have access to electricity.
Rafea…made it to my top five documentaries because it is a hopeful film. The story is poignant, powerful and Rafea, herself, is an inspiring individual. The film focuses on Rafea, her journey to India, her troubles with her husband who wishes she didn’t attend the college but Rafea fights back and finishes the training. Seeing Rafea interact with the other women at the college, who don’t speak the same language, is heartwarming, and speaks volumes about friendship without boundaries.
Noujaim and Eldaief have put together a film that received great response at TIFF and also good feedback. We were told the film is part of a project titled WHY POVERTY? created by Steps International in an effort to have a discussion about how poverty continues to affect the world. The series consists of eight 1-hour documentaries — Rafea: Solar Mama being one of eight — and 30 short films. In Canada, TVO will incorporate the films into their programming. Ten shorts were commissioned to look at the poverty issue in Ontatio. The first 1-hour documentary will air here on November 25. The TVO website will have all the informaion next month. I highly recommend looking out for this film and the others in the series.
The Last White Knight (Dir. Paul Saltzman)
Back in 1965, Paul Salzman was a university student who wanted to help further the cause of registering black voters with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On his trip to Greeenwood, Mississippi, Saltzman was welcomed by a group of young of KKK members. One of these men, Byron “Delay” De La Beckwith decided to Saltzman how unwelcomed he was by throwing a punch at him.
In 2006, Saltzman went back to Mississippi and sat down with De La Beckwith and decided to film their conversation. This is what makes The Last White Knight intriguing and also a very personal film.Interspersed within this conversations are interview with Morgan Freeman and Harry Belafonte. Freeman comes from Mississippi and continues to live there and speaks of his home state with fondness and refuses to discuss the issue of race. He believes if we focus less on it, the issue could become less of an issue. For Belafonte, Mississippi is a much different place. He describes an incident where the KKK pursued him, Sidney Poitier and other members of the SNCC and almost caused their car to crash. “I don’t trust Mississippi,” he states.
This film made my top five because of the candid moments; especially, those between Saltzman and De La Beckwith. Their interactions are honest and it’s really interesting to see how “Delay” becomes very honest in sharing his own views and experiences with Saltzman. In fact, Saltzman picked up his interview with “Delay” in 2011, since Obama had become president. “Delay” continues to be a KKK member, as he said, “for life.” When discussing making the film, Saltzman said “if I put myself on camera, if I take people on this journey, it would make it more accessible… It’s makes it much more real.” What he hopes this film does is for it “to take us from head (mind) to heart (feelings).” In this, he has succeeded. I really hope this film gets a run at a theatre near you.
I saw many more documentaries at this year’s festival. Others worth mentioning are Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Dir. Alex Gibney), Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (Dir. Jorge Hinojosa), West of Memphis (Dir. Amy Berg), and The Act of Killing (Dirs. Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn). They certainly made an impression on me. I know I’ll be discussing these films for some time.
