Friday, September 11, 2009

TIFF Day Two

  • Eyes Wide Open
    Eynaim Pekukhot

  • Haim Tabakman


Description

Living in one of Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox quarters, Aaron (veteran stage actor Zohar Strauss) runs a kosher butcher shop and is the father of four young sons. His quiet life is disrupted when the arrival of the lost soul Ezri (Israeli heartthrob Ran Danker) awakens dormant feelings. Hidden under layers of piety, unknown desires suddenly rise in Aaron like an all-enveloping tide. While the devout Jew initially believes the proximity of temptation will only make him stronger, he ultimately abandons himself to the throes of passion. Eventually, however, he will have to face up to his religious and familial responsibilities. When a next-door neighbour strays from righteousness, Aaron is forced to reassume his role in the community, and listlessly joins the rabbi in making threats that will soon be redirected at him if he doesn't conform to the norm.

First-time feature director Haim Tabakman, having honed his skills editing David Volach's My Father My Lord, now explores the moral boundaries of his own religion with a sharp, mature investigation of a tough subject. Allowing the camera to breathe down the backs of his subjects, he creates a tightly wound universe of quiet devastation. Tabakman charges the merest touch with megawatts of emotion, delivering a restrained masterpiece of hidden tensions that wisely refuses to stoop to unnecessary dramatics.

Grounded in a realist aesthetic, Eyes Wide Open skilfully captures the duality of living in a close-knit community where there's no such thing as free will. People may look out for one another, but their generosity comes with strings attached. Aaron must choose between personal freedom and religious responsibility, and in this part of the world, the laws of desire do not reign supreme.

  • Cleanflix

  • Andrew James

  • Joshua Ligairi

Description

Mormons can be movie lovers too. The problem is that their religious leaders strongly discourage R-rated content. As one Mormon prophet explained, “The mind through which this filth passes is never the same afterwards.” In order to better serve their Mormon clientele, enterprising video stores in Utah started to offer “clean” versions of popular titles like The Matrix and Titanic. Using digital editing software, self-appointed censors removed nudity, gratuitous violence and profanity, then mass duplicated the clean versions for DVD rental. Soon the idea took off, and multiple franchises sought to capitalize on brands like Clean Flicks and Flick's Club. For a brief spell, it seemed like the perfect business.

Unfortunately, no one consulted the copyright holders. Hollywood figures such as Steven Soderbergh, Curtis Hanson and Michael Mann became vocal opponents of having their work re-edited. As quickly as the clean movement blossomed, it started to unravel, with legal threats from Hollywood, accusations among rivals and even a sex scandal in the backroom of a clean video store.

In Cleanflix, directors Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi chronicle the rise and fall of the clean movement. Having grown up in the Mormon community, the duo gained close access to the main players that outsiders might never have achieved. The controversy over cleaning films raises further questions: Who gets to set cultural standards? Does what we watch affect how we behave?

The film gives a broader context for understanding the Mormon institution (known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) by talking to its adherents and those who have dropped out, most notably the playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute, known for the dark themes in scripts like In the Company of Men andBash.


  • How to Fold a Flag

  • Michael Tucker

  • Petra Epperlein

Description

A cage fighter in Texas. A congressional candidate in Buffalo. A heavy-metal rocker in Colorado. A hog butcher in North Carolina. Their common thread is that they went through combat together in Iraq in the U.S. Army's 2/3 Field Artillery unit, known as the Gunners. Now they're dispersed back to their hometowns, trying to resume normal lives. In this extraordinary documentary, filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein reveal the poignant and poetic tapestry of America's neglected corners.

Tucker and Epperlein are uniquely qualified for this journey. Their debut feature film, Gunner Palace, which played at the Festival in 2004, was the first theatrical work to follow American soldiers in Iraq. That was followed by The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair in 2006, which looked at Abu Ghraib from the rare perspective of a wrongfully accused Iraqi prisoner, and Bulletproof Salesman in 2008, which examined a war profiteer.

How to Fold a Flag begins with a 1920 epigraph from the German author Ernst Jünger: “We were asked to believe that the war was over. We laughed – for we were the war.” That sentiment embodies these characters. In Texas, Michael Goss, haunted by the deaths he witnessed, says, “I need to continue fighting something.” In Buffalo, Jon Powers campaigns on his war record for the U.S. Congress, which doesn't stop his opponents from “Swift Boating” him with smear tactics. In suburban Colorado, Wilf Stuart tries to uphold his mother Becky's spirits as his brother prepares to deploy for combat. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, Javorn Drummond cracks jokes about his ramshackle home. Describing his sense of dislocation, he says, “We went to war as a unit and came home alone.”

How to Fold a Flag checks in on these characters and others throughout the pivotal election year of 2008, capturing unforgettable moments of hope, loss and redemption. They may be young, but they have a lot to teach us.



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