SIFF 2012 continues
Jun. 3rd, 2012 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
Three more films this time - a Spanish werewolf romp, a drama about the battle for native rights in Brazil, and a documentary about the Texas State Board of Education.
Game of Werewolves (Lobos de Arga). Tomas is a writer who doesn't sell many books. He returns to his ancestral village, where he spent most of his childhood, when the mayor offers him the key to the town. Unfortunately he discovers he was really invited back so that he can be sacrificed to the local werewolf, because his family's blood is needed to free the village from the curse of the fanged hairy one. Hunted by mobs of villagers during the day, and by the beast at night - can Tomas and his few remaining allies survive the next couple of days?
Game of Werewolves started somewhat slowly, and took a while to go beyond the standard werewolf fare and nocturnal chases, with a few amusing one-liners. It really picked up the pace half way through, though, and delivered some truly funny scenes that had the audience howling. Don't be expecting any high quality special effects here, though, the werewolf look is definitely at its best when poorly lit! Entertaining trash. 7/10.
Xingu is a dramatisation of the story of three brothers, who in the 1940s signed onto an expedition into the unexplored areas of Brazil. The goal was to find suitable sites to build airstrips, and open up the interior of the country. They also met and befriended the local villagers, and became prime figures in the battle for native land rights. Their mixture of successes and failures causes divisions between the brothers, and immense personal stress.
I know nothing about the people and the subject of the film, so I have no idea how much was factual and how much was added for drama. The film was solid in quality throughout, and didn't hide from a few controversial scenes as the brothers' drive over-rides the rights of individuals. The film ended with some archival footage of the real life guys, and some factual information to give serious pause. 8/10.
The Revisionaries follows the Texas State Board of Education through their process of revising the curriculum in 2009, and the election of board members in 2010. There is an ongoing battle between young Earth Creationists and other members of the board over the wording of the evolutionary teaching, and also over the social and historical subjects to be covered.
This documentary is fascinating. The film-maker has tried to be scrupulously fair with both sides, and Don McLeroy, the leader of the creationist group, supports the film and has attended festivals with it. Mostly the creationists are careful to make reasonable statements, but every now and then they come out with something utterly crazy. From a British perspective, the bizarreness is not just in which radicals get themselves elected to a school curriculm board, but that there is an elected board at all. A random selection of lay people, who between them know pretty much bugger all about any scientific subject, let alone all of them, get to decide the minutiae of what is taught as science in schools? Call me reactionary, but that seems to be the ultimate in idiocy.
There was a Q&A session with the director and Ron Wetherington, one of the film's main subjects, after the screening, and that same question was asked. Ron pointed out that in the US, the alternative to an elective board is one appointed by the governor, and since the governor of Texas is Rick Perry, that might not be an improvement... 9/10.
I disagree with those experts. Somebody has to stand up to experts. - Don McLeroy.
Game of Werewolves (Lobos de Arga). Tomas is a writer who doesn't sell many books. He returns to his ancestral village, where he spent most of his childhood, when the mayor offers him the key to the town. Unfortunately he discovers he was really invited back so that he can be sacrificed to the local werewolf, because his family's blood is needed to free the village from the curse of the fanged hairy one. Hunted by mobs of villagers during the day, and by the beast at night - can Tomas and his few remaining allies survive the next couple of days?
Game of Werewolves started somewhat slowly, and took a while to go beyond the standard werewolf fare and nocturnal chases, with a few amusing one-liners. It really picked up the pace half way through, though, and delivered some truly funny scenes that had the audience howling. Don't be expecting any high quality special effects here, though, the werewolf look is definitely at its best when poorly lit! Entertaining trash. 7/10.
Xingu is a dramatisation of the story of three brothers, who in the 1940s signed onto an expedition into the unexplored areas of Brazil. The goal was to find suitable sites to build airstrips, and open up the interior of the country. They also met and befriended the local villagers, and became prime figures in the battle for native land rights. Their mixture of successes and failures causes divisions between the brothers, and immense personal stress.
I know nothing about the people and the subject of the film, so I have no idea how much was factual and how much was added for drama. The film was solid in quality throughout, and didn't hide from a few controversial scenes as the brothers' drive over-rides the rights of individuals. The film ended with some archival footage of the real life guys, and some factual information to give serious pause. 8/10.
The Revisionaries follows the Texas State Board of Education through their process of revising the curriculum in 2009, and the election of board members in 2010. There is an ongoing battle between young Earth Creationists and other members of the board over the wording of the evolutionary teaching, and also over the social and historical subjects to be covered.
This documentary is fascinating. The film-maker has tried to be scrupulously fair with both sides, and Don McLeroy, the leader of the creationist group, supports the film and has attended festivals with it. Mostly the creationists are careful to make reasonable statements, but every now and then they come out with something utterly crazy. From a British perspective, the bizarreness is not just in which radicals get themselves elected to a school curriculm board, but that there is an elected board at all. A random selection of lay people, who between them know pretty much bugger all about any scientific subject, let alone all of them, get to decide the minutiae of what is taught as science in schools? Call me reactionary, but that seems to be the ultimate in idiocy.
There was a Q&A session with the director and Ron Wetherington, one of the film's main subjects, after the screening, and that same question was asked. Ron pointed out that in the US, the alternative to an elective board is one appointed by the governor, and since the governor of Texas is Rick Perry, that might not be an improvement... 9/10.
I disagree with those experts. Somebody has to stand up to experts. - Don McLeroy.
