Monica and David
I was at Hot Docs in Toronto, now one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, all of last week. I wasn’t able to see some of the films I really wanted to see because of meetings. But here are a few screening notes.
The most surprising film I saw was Feathered Cocaine, an Icelandic film which starts out as a film about falconeering and falcon smuggling, then veers off into the drug trade, and finally ends up very convincingly proving that the U.S. authorities never really tried to catch their declared Enemy # 1, Ousama Bin Laden !
While the Americans claimed to be searching for him in Waziristan, he spent several months every year in meetings with his financiers in hunting camps in the Iranian desert, with his five falcons which were all equipped with radio emitters.
The U.S. authorities, including the CIA and the Pentagon, showed no interest in first-hand information about these facts. The story is no joke, it’s journalistically sound, backed up with solid evidence. Chapeau !
Another very impressive film: Secrets of the Tribe, a shocking story of how several generations of anthropologists have used unequal power relationships to take advantage of the Yamomami people of the Venezuelan rain forests. Medical experiments without informed consent, pedophilia, the building on scientific reputations and super-egos on the backs of unsuspecting aboriginals, it’s a real horror story.
As a reader of the world’s best newspaper, the Guardian Weekly, I was well aware of this story already. But the film tells it well and should be a must-see for the academic world.
But the most moving film I saw was Monica and David, a film about two young people with Downs syndrome who get married. As in any case where the social conventions are stripped away and you are confronted with strong emotions, this is captivating.
But in this case, the emotion is love, and the two young people show enormous courage in confronting their challenges -as do their mothers and other members of the family. I was very impressed by the quality of shooting, sound recording and editing in this first film by director Alexandra Codina. Great work !
Director Alexandra Codina
I am leaving for a future post John Walker’s excellent film A Drummer’s Dream.
Thanks to Tobi Elliott for help with this post.
