Prizes also go to Kifaru, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, and more One Child Nation, the documentary by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang that shows the devastating social impact of China's one child policy, has won its second major award of 2019. The film was honored with the Grand Jury Prize at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina on Sunday, a little over two months after it won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. "This film personalizes the political by taking us deeper into the personal costs of that policy," jurors Peter Nicks, Marshall Curry and Jennifer Redfearn noted in their citation. "The level of inquiry in the film is vital--the film raises profound questions about personal responsibility, morality, and government abuses. One Child Nation resonates with an authentic voice that allows us to examine the world around us and ourselves in new ways." China’s one child policy touched millions of lives and we hope this film will survive as a true record of what the policy meant for people affected by it. "This is incredible. Thank you to the jury and to Full Frame," producer Carolyn Hepburn said as she accepted the award. "[Full Frame is] such an incredible celebration of documentary and community." Hepburn read a note from the directors, who were not present at the ceremony. "China’s one child policy touched millions of lives and we hope this film will survive as a true record of what the policy meant for people affected by it," the directors wrote. "As filmmakers we believe once the film is finished it doesn’t belong to the filmmakers anymore. It belongs to anyone who sees it. Our story becomes part of the audience’s memory and it’s them who will help us keep the story and history alive. So thank you to all of you who watched the film, and now the film is yours." The policy, implemented in 1979 to slow China's population growth, limited most couples to a single child. As the film reveals, government authorities enforced the policy by sterilizing untold numbers of mothers and mandating abortions for others who were pregnant with a second child. The policy was relaxed in 2015 to allow couples to have a second child, partly to address a demographic shift that has left few children to care for aging parents. Amazon acquired the film shortly after Sundance wrapped. Theatrical distribution plans haven't been announced. Full Frame awarded prizes to several other films, including Kifaru, which centers on efforts to protect the last male northern white rhinoceros in existence. The documentary by David Hambridge won the Audience Award as well as the 2019 Full Frame Environmental Award, presented by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Mossville: When Great Trees Fall won the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award, "given to a film that addresses a significant human rights issue in the United States." The human rights issue in question here is the eradication of a town in Louisiana founded by freed slaves. Petrochemical companies have built huge operations in the area, allegedly poisoning the ground water and air, with devastating impacts on the townspeople. When the South African company SASOL started building a plant there it forced out the last remaining residents, except for one brave man, Stacey Ryan. Related: |
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Film by Jeanie Findlay premieres at Tribeca Film Festival before heading to HotDocs
A trailer has been released for one of the most intriguing documentaries coming to the Tribeca Film Festival this month.
Seahorse tells the story of Freddy, a 30-year-old British trans man who chooses to become pregnant and bear his own child. Jeanie Findlay directed the film; executive producers are Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, Virunga) and Charlie Phillips, head of documentaries at The Guardian.
"Deciding to carry his own baby took years of soul searching, but nothing could prepare him for the reality of pregnancy, as both a physical experience and one that challenges society's fundamental understanding of gender, parenthood and family," note the filmmakers. "He quickly realizes that what to him feels pragmatic, to others feels deeply confusing and confronting."
"It's like a total loss of myself," Freddy says at one point during his pregnancy. "I just want to close my eyes and be on the other side of it."
Seahorse premieres Saturday, April 27 at Tribeca. It is scheduled to play at the HotDocs Film Festival in Toronto on April 30.
The trailer has racked up 12,000 views in less than 24 hours. Click to watch it:
Seahorse tells the story of Freddy, a 30-year-old British trans man who chooses to become pregnant and bear his own child. Jeanie Findlay directed the film; executive producers are Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, Virunga) and Charlie Phillips, head of documentaries at The Guardian.
"Deciding to carry his own baby took years of soul searching, but nothing could prepare him for the reality of pregnancy, as both a physical experience and one that challenges society's fundamental understanding of gender, parenthood and family," note the filmmakers. "He quickly realizes that what to him feels pragmatic, to others feels deeply confusing and confronting."
"It's like a total loss of myself," Freddy says at one point during his pregnancy. "I just want to close my eyes and be on the other side of it."
Seahorse premieres Saturday, April 27 at Tribeca. It is scheduled to play at the HotDocs Film Festival in Toronto on April 30.
The trailer has racked up 12,000 views in less than 24 hours. Click to watch it:
Director Alison Klayman's vérité film aims to give the right-wing nationalist ideologue enough rope to hang himself
The poster for Alison Klayman's new documentary, The Brink, features the portly silhouette of Steve Bannon (in white, appropriately), the world at his feet. The globe appears like a soccer ball he's about to boot.
Bannon's goal -- the net he's shooting at -- is to reestablish a pre-World War II world order where nationalism is the defining geopolitical force, motivating countries to pursue their interests without reference to the good of others beyond their own closed borders. This is a worldview that brought us Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, and above all Nazi Germany where nationalism reached its apotheosis. The good old days.
This is an ideology embraced by Donald Trump, the candidate Bannon helped put into office and then steered, for a time, as White House chief strategist. And it's an ideology simpatico with Vladimir Putin, a nationalist figure who seeks a divided and weakened Europe and a Russia liberated to recapture old Soviet republics (see Ukraine and the Baltic States).
Bannon's goal -- the net he's shooting at -- is to reestablish a pre-World War II world order where nationalism is the defining geopolitical force, motivating countries to pursue their interests without reference to the good of others beyond their own closed borders. This is a worldview that brought us Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, and above all Nazi Germany where nationalism reached its apotheosis. The good old days.
This is an ideology embraced by Donald Trump, the candidate Bannon helped put into office and then steered, for a time, as White House chief strategist. And it's an ideology simpatico with Vladimir Putin, a nationalist figure who seeks a divided and weakened Europe and a Russia liberated to recapture old Soviet republics (see Ukraine and the Baltic States).
Bannon...doesn't deal honestly and that goes into also his public politicking, messaging, in terms of propaganda.
--Alison Klayman, director of The Brink
The petulant Trump fired Bannon after the publication of Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, in which Bannon, among other things, made unflattering comments about Don Jr. Trump may have abandoned him, but Bannon hasn't given up on his old boss, who in October of last year proudly declared himself a nationalist. The Bannon we meet in The Brink is shifting his attention to Europe, trying to boost nationalist movements in Italy, Germany, Holland and elsewhere.
Klayman took a vérité approach to the filmmaking, following Bannon on his travels around Europe and the U.S. advocating for what he terms "economic nationalism," populism and anti-globalism. In that sense, the film offers an unfiltered view of Bannon at work spreading his message. For the first half of the film, in particular, Klayman resists the urge to overtly challenge Bannon's ideology.
"My role there was I get to be in the room so I can say my piece through this film," she explains to Nonfictionfilm.com. "All of the time it was about me sitting back... It was a lot of biting my tongue. I think I had a pretty good poker face, although it always like my eyebrows going up... That's why I was there in the room and taking it in because I wanted to share it with you."
Klayman took a vérité approach to the filmmaking, following Bannon on his travels around Europe and the U.S. advocating for what he terms "economic nationalism," populism and anti-globalism. In that sense, the film offers an unfiltered view of Bannon at work spreading his message. For the first half of the film, in particular, Klayman resists the urge to overtly challenge Bannon's ideology.
"My role there was I get to be in the room so I can say my piece through this film," she explains to Nonfictionfilm.com. "All of the time it was about me sitting back... It was a lot of biting my tongue. I think I had a pretty good poker face, although it always like my eyebrows going up... That's why I was there in the room and taking it in because I wanted to share it with you."
It's a global revolt... We're on the right side of history.
--Steve Bannon in The Brink
Klayman's got faith that viewers will see Bannon is actually on the wrong side of history, promoting a belief system that is fundamentally racist and xenophobic.
"I mean, I've gotten the range" of reactions to The Brink, Klayman reveals. "But you know what I haven't heard from anyone? 'Now I think he has some good ideas.' Or like, 'I'm going to check them out.' And that is totally the line that I wanted to walk there... It was hard, because it should be that the ideas and the tactics are deconstructed, debunked, shown for what they are and show also that the film doesn't condone them."
"I mean, I've gotten the range" of reactions to The Brink, Klayman reveals. "But you know what I haven't heard from anyone? 'Now I think he has some good ideas.' Or like, 'I'm going to check them out.' And that is totally the line that I wanted to walk there... It was hard, because it should be that the ideas and the tactics are deconstructed, debunked, shown for what they are and show also that the film doesn't condone them."
The Brink is now playing in LA, New York and Washington DC. Click here for more info. See trailer below.
Klayman filmed several strategy sessions between Bannon and European nationalists. An she was there for several get-togethers between Bannon and Nigel Farage, the right-wing former leader of the UK Independence Party and a chief promoter of Brexit. At one point Bannon tells Farage his plan is to "knit together this populist nationalist movement throughout the world."
Bannon, then, doesn't disguise his plans by any means, although he's short on policy specifics to accompany his mission statement, aside from restricting immigration (of brown people) into Europe and the U.S.
"When you really drill down on the substance of his rhetoric and also what the actual policies are that he puts forward it's all about restricting movement," Klayman asserts. "It's not really about changing the balance of wealth or major economic issues... Does he believe in capital controls? He doesn't believe in capital controls... When you push him on that it ends up getting to a place where he'll either be trying to change the subject or he will admit, 'Look, it's early days. This populist, nationalist movement, we still need to figure out the ideas. We need to get those think tanks.'"
Klayman adds, "I think Bannon is not honest, he doesn't deal honestly and that goes into also his public politicking, messaging, in terms of propaganda... That's the thing that is scary to me, that he could succeed not because his ideas are better but because he fools people."
Bannon, then, doesn't disguise his plans by any means, although he's short on policy specifics to accompany his mission statement, aside from restricting immigration (of brown people) into Europe and the U.S.
"When you really drill down on the substance of his rhetoric and also what the actual policies are that he puts forward it's all about restricting movement," Klayman asserts. "It's not really about changing the balance of wealth or major economic issues... Does he believe in capital controls? He doesn't believe in capital controls... When you push him on that it ends up getting to a place where he'll either be trying to change the subject or he will admit, 'Look, it's early days. This populist, nationalist movement, we still need to figure out the ideas. We need to get those think tanks.'"
Klayman adds, "I think Bannon is not honest, he doesn't deal honestly and that goes into also his public politicking, messaging, in terms of propaganda... That's the thing that is scary to me, that he could succeed not because his ideas are better but because he fools people."
Most of the left now finds Trump odious. As for Bannon, he comes across in The Brink as surprisingly -- disturbingly -- affable. Klayman acknowledges, "Some [viewers] are like, 'I didn't expect to think Steve Bannon seems kind of fun to hang out with.'"
"In fact he's actually very charismatic, he can be very charming. He has a really great self-deprecating sense of humor," notes producer Marie Therese Guirgis, who worked for Bannon years ago after he bought a company where she was employed. "When he wants to, he can really listen -- he takes a lot of interest in you and is kind of a great conversationalist, raconteur. I think those are qualities he uses and certainly we see him use them with the press. I think he uses them with other foreign politicians. I think that his charm and his charisma are big tools in his arsenal that the American public was not aware of."
Bannon's ability to make himself, and thus his views, appear reasonable and even "likable" might convince some that it's better not to give him attention or a platform to espouse his views. But Klayman and Guirgis don't see it that way. They draw a distinction between an interview-style approach to a Bannon documentary, which they rejected in favor of vérité. Bannon goes on his shambolic nationalist road show but the dubious and dangerous nature of his ideology comes through, the filmmakers believe.
"I would agree there are contexts, like just putting him on a stage or interviewing him in a film, you could argue that that's giving him a platform because I don't think you can challenge him properly," Guirgis observes. "I don't think you can show enough about how the operation works by just interviewing him on stage or in a film... But I don't think that if we just ignore somebody like him completely -- he's not going to go away. He's still doing his work."
Klayman adds, "I don't think it's a question of should we cover him or people like him or not. It's how. That was in the front of my mind at every step of the way and I thought about this kind of question when I went to sleep every night."
The director maintains, "I never underestimated him And I wanted to put it even in the movie to say he's seeking legitimization through mainstream media. He's seeking to reach new audiences... And so even if, yes, it's reaching new audiences for him, so what? So new audiences have seen that he promotes racist ideologies or there's things he's good at and things he's bad at... The engine of [the movie] wasn't just blindly, 'We need to understand our enemy and blah, blah, blah.' No, it was how do you not give him a platform and expose him. It's not like you can not cover him."
"In fact he's actually very charismatic, he can be very charming. He has a really great self-deprecating sense of humor," notes producer Marie Therese Guirgis, who worked for Bannon years ago after he bought a company where she was employed. "When he wants to, he can really listen -- he takes a lot of interest in you and is kind of a great conversationalist, raconteur. I think those are qualities he uses and certainly we see him use them with the press. I think he uses them with other foreign politicians. I think that his charm and his charisma are big tools in his arsenal that the American public was not aware of."
Bannon's ability to make himself, and thus his views, appear reasonable and even "likable" might convince some that it's better not to give him attention or a platform to espouse his views. But Klayman and Guirgis don't see it that way. They draw a distinction between an interview-style approach to a Bannon documentary, which they rejected in favor of vérité. Bannon goes on his shambolic nationalist road show but the dubious and dangerous nature of his ideology comes through, the filmmakers believe.
"I would agree there are contexts, like just putting him on a stage or interviewing him in a film, you could argue that that's giving him a platform because I don't think you can challenge him properly," Guirgis observes. "I don't think you can show enough about how the operation works by just interviewing him on stage or in a film... But I don't think that if we just ignore somebody like him completely -- he's not going to go away. He's still doing his work."
Klayman adds, "I don't think it's a question of should we cover him or people like him or not. It's how. That was in the front of my mind at every step of the way and I thought about this kind of question when I went to sleep every night."
The director maintains, "I never underestimated him And I wanted to put it even in the movie to say he's seeking legitimization through mainstream media. He's seeking to reach new audiences... And so even if, yes, it's reaching new audiences for him, so what? So new audiences have seen that he promotes racist ideologies or there's things he's good at and things he's bad at... The engine of [the movie] wasn't just blindly, 'We need to understand our enemy and blah, blah, blah.' No, it was how do you not give him a platform and expose him. It's not like you can not cover him."
When we last spoke she told me how she saw her work in nonfiction: "It's like being a sociologist -- but not as a teacher; sociologist as a friend."
Director Agnès Varda, one of the most important figures in the French New Wave and an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, died in Paris Friday morning at the age of 90. The cause, from breast cancer, was confirmed by a representative of her production company.
Varda remained a vital artist until the end of her life, earning an Oscar nomination just last year for her documentary Faces Places (Visages Villages), co-directed by the French conceptual artist known as JR. A few months before that nomination she earned an honorary Academy Award for her body of work.
Along with Faces Places, she created some of the most distinctive and essential films of nonfiction cinema, including The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d'Agnès) in 2008 and The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse) in 2000. Her fictional work included Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Le Bonheur (1965).
Varda remained a vital artist until the end of her life, earning an Oscar nomination just last year for her documentary Faces Places (Visages Villages), co-directed by the French conceptual artist known as JR. A few months before that nomination she earned an honorary Academy Award for her body of work.
Along with Faces Places, she created some of the most distinctive and essential films of nonfiction cinema, including The Beaches of Agnès (Les Plages d'Agnès) in 2008 and The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse) in 2000. Her fictional work included Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Le Bonheur (1965).
I always hate the idea that because it's a documentary it should be boring. Sometimes it is. We have seen plenty of them.
--Director Agnès Varda
Varda's documentaries presented a unique view of the world, touchingly alive to beauty all around us -- in "ordinary" people, for example, or in something mundane to most people like the lowly potato. In her hands (both literally and figuratively) a potato appeared as a work of art, especially the ones deemed discardable for their twisted shapes, their "ugliness."
Potatoes were an important part of The Gleaners and I, and they were the subject of an art exhibit she created that included a short film about the stem vegetables.
"I found them beautiful," she explained at an appearance at the American Cinemathèque in Los Angeles in October 2017. "I tried to share that. It's not only documenting things but having a third look at things and what we can do with our eyes and our attention."
There was a consistency between her love of the expressions of nature -- what is considered aesthetic and what is not -- and her view of human beings she met on her cinematic travels. She was open to people, no matter where they came from, open to their loves, joys, experience, idiosyncrasies -- in short, their humanity.
"I've made films mostly [about] people in the margins, people like gleaners, squatters, fishermen, abandoned people," she commented at the American Cinemathèque. "Because it is so terrible that our society doesn't allow the people to be different."
Potatoes were an important part of The Gleaners and I, and they were the subject of an art exhibit she created that included a short film about the stem vegetables.
"I found them beautiful," she explained at an appearance at the American Cinemathèque in Los Angeles in October 2017. "I tried to share that. It's not only documenting things but having a third look at things and what we can do with our eyes and our attention."
There was a consistency between her love of the expressions of nature -- what is considered aesthetic and what is not -- and her view of human beings she met on her cinematic travels. She was open to people, no matter where they came from, open to their loves, joys, experience, idiosyncrasies -- in short, their humanity.
"I've made films mostly [about] people in the margins, people like gleaners, squatters, fishermen, abandoned people," she commented at the American Cinemathèque. "Because it is so terrible that our society doesn't allow the people to be different."
Her films were distinctly non-sentimental. They were imbued with what might be called whimsy -- except that whimsy implies a detachment from the world, a floating above it, if only a few feet. Varda's feet were planted in the earth though, in what grew from it in all its forms.
A little over a year ago I spoke with her by phone at her house in Paris in preparation for a piece about Faces Places. The film finds her traveling across rural France with JR, encountering villagers from many walks of life.
"Listening to people, giving them a lot of empathy, a lot of love and because of that they were very open, very interesting," she told me. "They talked. It's not a question-answer. It's a conversation. That's what it was. So the audience feels it. That's what our job is, to make links. That's what we made. We made links. Voilà."
She offered insight into how she viewed her role as filmmaker in Faces Places.
"It's a supposition of documentary which is like being a sociologist -- but not as a teacher; sociologist as a friend. I say it as a 'smiling sociologist,'" she commented with a laugh.
With her passing I think back on her talk at the American Cinemathèque in 2017, where she showed The Gleaners and I and Vagabond. She was unaffected, humorous, self-deprecating.
"I don't want to bore you with my artistic life," she told the audience. Reflecting on her approach to art and life, she added, "It's interesting to go on by curiosity, by love of people, and then imagination. We have to have the power of imagination. We should not lose that power."
A little over a year ago I spoke with her by phone at her house in Paris in preparation for a piece about Faces Places. The film finds her traveling across rural France with JR, encountering villagers from many walks of life.
"Listening to people, giving them a lot of empathy, a lot of love and because of that they were very open, very interesting," she told me. "They talked. It's not a question-answer. It's a conversation. That's what it was. So the audience feels it. That's what our job is, to make links. That's what we made. We made links. Voilà."
She offered insight into how she viewed her role as filmmaker in Faces Places.
"It's a supposition of documentary which is like being a sociologist -- but not as a teacher; sociologist as a friend. I say it as a 'smiling sociologist,'" she commented with a laugh.
With her passing I think back on her talk at the American Cinemathèque in 2017, where she showed The Gleaners and I and Vagabond. She was unaffected, humorous, self-deprecating.
"I don't want to bore you with my artistic life," she told the audience. Reflecting on her approach to art and life, she added, "It's interesting to go on by curiosity, by love of people, and then imagination. We have to have the power of imagination. We should not lose that power."
In this video, Agnès Varda comments on her classic film, The Gleaners and I. From her appearance at the American Cinemathèque in Los Angeles in October 2017.
Author
Matthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine.