Stiff competition: The Shutka Book of Records

Whether it's the revolution in affordable digital video-making or the voracious audience for docs that continues to bolster the genre's collective resolve, this week you'll find over a hundred thoughtful docs from around the world at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM). All have been made by passionate filmmakers who've more likely than not spent the necessary years scraping together the funds and clocking the hours in therapy and tireless nights to bring you their film.

This is certainly the case with experimental filmmaker Alan Berliner's Wide Awake, in which he tackles his own lifelong struggle with insomnia. This tour-de-force unravels the sociological, psychological and physical aspects of one of North American society's growing syndromes from a deeply personal angle. Over the course of the film, Berliner visits doctors, goes to a sleep clinic, becomes a dad and records the effects of drinking his first coffee in over 30 years. The film - both a social and scientific experiment and a creative catharsis - uses archival material that will blow your mind, with an editing zeal and imagination to match. It's a totally original film that could only have been made by an exceptionally gifted artist - and an obsessive-compulsive New York night owl.

Of course, there's more weird and wonderful on tap at RIDM. In The Shutka Book of Records, a town joker sets out to make a documentary about his village - all under the pretence of finding the town's best winner. Lucky for us, in the small Roma village of Shutka, everyone is a champion at something. Villagers proudly duke it out over whose tape cassette collection will make other men weep, pigeon trainers show off their best bird tricks, three men argue about who sports the best suit, while another claims to be Shutka's "most fabulous" homosexual. A hilarious and insightful glimpse into a little-known place and culture where boasting is more than half the battle and most of the fun.

While many films tackle the particulars of life in specific places and with special characters, others tackle the big issues left to the margins of mainstream news. Big Bucks, Big Pharma delves into the lucrative and shady state of the ever-expanding pharmaceutical industry. Although the treatment is rather dry, the content isn't. BBBP shows us how much companies spend on marketing, courting doctors, rebranding old drugs as new ones to eschew patent laws, and even inventing new disorders - all to expand markets and shrink our pocketbooks.

Meanwhile, one such big pharma drug, OxyContin, is the topic of award-winning director Nance Ackerman's Cottonland. Oxy, a highly addictive prescription painkiller, has been used as the antidote for social depression and economic despair in Cape Breton's Glace Bay community, a former booming mining town. A poignant film about personal addiction and what it tells us about the wider community.

Things get troubling in The Ballad of Vicki and Jake, when the very green filmmaker, Ian Thomas Ash, spends a large chunk of the film convincing his subject - a cracked-out mom and her son trying to make good - to sign release forms that give him and his producer the rights to their story.

Other adventures you might like to embark on this week: a journey across North America with first-time filmmaker Millefiore Clarkes in search of the meaning of love in Stalking Love; an unflinching look into the harrowing state of agro-business in Our Daily Bread; and finally, a captivating and trippy foray into the British prison system in Songbirds, a musical documentary in which women prisoners tell their traumatic personal stories through choreographed MTV-style pop songs - a highly innovative film with surprisingly heart-wrenching scope and insight.

Like the docs the fest features, RIDM is always an anything-can-happen experience. Though the fest has grown exponentially since its inception nine years ago, one of the fest's best attributes remains its intimate vibe. There'll be plenty of round tables, professional activities, debates and retrospectives this week, and you're as likely to watch a great film as you are to convince the filmmaker to continue that heated post-screening debate over drinks.

Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal
Nov. 9-19
www.ridm.qc.ca
 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

So Much To See In The Diverse Doc World!     I've always been excited by the time a new film festival rolls around in Montreal, but I soon get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of listings and the potential cost to see all I want. With the RIDM, however, I noticed that a student (like myself) could buy a 5 film "carnet" for a mere $25, and boom, a world of documentary films awaits. Based on the two screenings so far - Padre Pio Express/Appunti Romani and the Shutka Book of Records - I was already quite amazed in the diversity afforded by one genre. Gone (long, long, gone!) are the days of Troy McLure type voice-overs passing on some sort of "factual" knowlege. Documentaries are unique and as personal as the filmmaker would like them to be. And with the falling costs and accessibility of video equipment, so many more people have stories to tell (although I must admit video lacks the sense of depth and "softness" one finds in film). Also refreshing is the international aspect of the RIDM - often the documentaries I'd see of other places would be some sort of western ethnographic-style study. There's definitely something to be said for filmmakers who express their own perspectives within the cultures they live (not to dismiss curious outsiders, however!) As far as the films themselves - Shutka, to me, had the most lasting impact, bringing the energy of a Kusterica film into the documentary genre. Not for the faint of heart, you'll see circumcisions, a degree of animal harm, and public peeing here and there. But that sets up the carnivalesque stage of Shutka, and gives the viewer a little taste of the Roma village. We were fortunate to have director Aleksandar Manic present, an articulate and well-thought filmmaker, to answer our questions. And looking at the list of films to come, there are several directors visiting from around the world. All this for a $25 carnet? My future picks: 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, The Angelmakers, City Walls-My Own Private Tehran, Forever, Once a Nazi, and Songbirds. Whew!
Beth Frey	{51 votes}	November 14th, 2006
I Wish...     I just wish that I paid more attention to the details sometimes. As a self-professed documentary junkie ( over tv ) this would have held a great deal of interest to me. Had I known about it at the time. What I am hoping for is that the festival was successful enough that they hold a similar one in 2007.
Reuven De Souza	{1 vote}	March 23rd, 2007
Film Review 101/Montreal Doc Fest Overview--20/20 is most definitely hindsight     And guess what? Hindsight ain't always pretty. Maybe it's the fact that I've just recently gotten the documentary network or the fact that I remember the doc filmfests of years past but I can't look upon 2006's crop of docs with any deep love. Yeah, there were a few gems in the lot but not nearly as much as the previous visits afforded me. Big Bucks, Big Pharma and Alan Berliner's Wide Awake were some choice moments to be sure but they felt like the exception rather than the rule. Maybe 2007 will provide a better ensemble to watch. Well, I can hope...
Pedro Eggers		January 21st, 2007
Wide Appeal!     Docs are hot and have been since Michael Moore became, for better or worse, a household name. Other flicks like Super Size Me brought docs even further into the mainstream - so much so, that this fest is actually justifiably garnering some well-deserved public attention. After all, there's something for everyone from the romance-tinged, Stalking Love to the unflinchingly stark reality of food mega-processing in Our Daily Bread to the moving MTV-esque Songbirds and it's intimate music-based take on the all too tragic lives of female inmates...
Mark St Pierre	{21 votes}	November 16th, 2006
Arrive Early Or Buy Your Tickets Ahead Of Time     I continue to be impressed with the number of festivals that Montreal has to offer. The RIDM is Montreal's latest dish arriving fresh on the heels of Cinemania. After reading the Hour's RIDM festival hot picks I tried to check out Wide Awake but the lineup was crazy and I left after waiting in line for about 15 minutes because the movie had already started anyways. My advice is: arrive early or buy your tickets in advance because the lineup to buy 15 tickets or just a single ticket are one and the same and if you happen to get stuck behind someone who is set on purchasing multiple tickets you might be in for a looong wait. Hopefully the festival will return next year and I'll check it out then.
Antoinette Davis	{14 votes}	November 13th, 2006

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