movies

Yesterday we saw a beautiful documentary, “Babies”, about the lives of four babies in four different cultures. A baby in Namibia, Tokyo, Mongolia and San Francisco went through the same major milestones in life — but in very different environments.

The cinematography and music were outstanding. It’s a French movie but it has virtually no talking. The film captured beautiful landscapes and most of all great human moments.

Joy, a colleague, recommended this movie. Highly recommended. The trailer of the movie can be found here.

On Monday I took my nephew Julian to the movies. We saw “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” in the theater in Secaucus.

It was a fun outing for Julian — he hasn’t been to the movies often — and we had a great time together.

The theme of the movie is trouble making and overzealous parenting. Julian was quite impressed by the big volcano on the island, and recognized a Bad Word (‘brat’). There were some jokes for adults in the movie as well, including a Sarah Palin reference.

After the movie we met Sasha and Irena and we went for lunch.

Kevin Clash and Elmo at Full Frame 2011.What a festival! The film selection this year was very good.

On Friday morning I saw Hot Coffee, an interesting doc on product liability and mandatory arbitration clauses (7). We saw several films together that day:

- “How to Pick Berries” about Thai people picking berries in Finland. Very current, with the elections in Finland last week. (6)
- “When China met Africa”, about Chinese companies investing in Zambia. Great characters. (8)
- “Gun Fight”, about gun-rights in the United States. Well produced. (8)

Saturday morning we saw:

- “Universal Language”, about Esperanto. It was an okay documentary, but it was fun to see Texel, the Netherlands, where there is a monument for Esperanto (6).
- “Unlikely treasures” was very enjoyable, about people collecting useless things. (8)

Sasha left to the UK, and I went back to the festival.

- “Tugs” was nice, but way too short. (6)
- A highlight was “Being Elmo”, a film about the life of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo, the popular Sesame Street character. Kevin Clash (and Elmo) where in the theater, and he was warmly welcomed by the audience. (9)
- After such a fun movie it was a big switch to see “Scenes of a Crime”, about a man who after 16 hours of interrogation committed to a crime he may not have done. (8)

On Sunday I was in line for the award winners at 12.15 pm, nicely on time.

- I saw “Caretaker for the Lord”, a lovely short about a church in Scotland that is closing. (9)
- “We Still Live Here”, about a woman who introduces her ancestor’s lost language back to the community. (7)

Had a quick dinner at Tyler’s. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and it was great to sit outside. There was a Bulls game later that afternoon.

- “The Interrupters” was very impressive, a great film. It was long, but with the richness of the movie that was not a problem. Amazing contrast between living the inner cities and the suburbs. (9)
- Closed the festival with Il Capo (7) and “Buck”, the audience award winner. (8)

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival started on Thursday. I took a day off yesterday and we have seen several great films already. What a great event to have in our home town!

To Die In Oregon

The most memorable movie so far was ‘To Die In Oregon’, about the ‘Death with Dignity’ act in Oregon and Washington state, which legalizes physician-assisted dying with certain restrictions. The film describes why patients took this decision. It was a very difficult movie to watch, especially the story of a 57 year old cancer patient and her family in her last year.

Windfall

The next two films were of a much lighter tone. Windfall describes downside of wind energy, and the potential effects it has on the quality of life of people around wind turbines. It describes what happens in Meredith, a village in upstate New York, when developers visit the town to set up wind turbines. As the filmmaker said at the festival, the real power of the documentary was not so much describing the facts around wind power, but showing the people of the town. Some real characters!

Guilty Pleasures

The official opening film of the festival was ‘Guilty Pleasures’, a fun documentary about the Harlequin romantic books, and the people involved in producing them. Very entertaining, very nicely done. Full Frame is not only great because of its movie selection, but also because of the guests that are invited. One of the main characters of the movie was in the theater and the Q&A session afterwards was fun.

Last weekend we saw Inception, twice.

A good, entertaining film about dreams-in-dreams, with beautiful special effects. And a good cliff-hanger at the end, obviously targeting a sequel.

We had a wonderful time at Full Frame 2010 two weeks ago. We saw more than 20 movies including some absolutely brilliant ones.

It really felt like a mini-vacation. On Saturday the first movie we saw started at 10.00 am and the last one ended around midnight.

John and Jane
Man Push Cart — not a bad film, but very annoying that a fiction film made it into the programming. Sure, it says in the booklet but it has no place on Full Frame.

Here’s a list of movies we saw on Saturday:

• Born Sweet — a 15-year boy with arsenic poisoning which finds joy in karoake singing and becomes famous through his hobby.
• Today is Better than Two Tomorrows — two boys in Laos are good friends. One of them is sent to become a monk and the two split up. Sweet movie.
• Book of Miri — a short documentary about a girl in Sweden who was adopted and is looking for her identity. I wasn’t crazy about it; Sasha loved it and apparently so did the jury because it won an award.
• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee — a second movie about adoption. Forty years ago Cha Jung Hee, the filmmaker, was adopted from South Korea. Everybody called her Cha Jung Hee, but she knew that that wasn’t her real name. A social worked had swapped the girl. The movie maker goes to South Korea to find the real Cha Jung Hee. Wonderful movie.
• Stonewall Uprising — description and reconstruction of the riots around the Stonewall bar in New York City, which started the gay rights movement in 1969. Interesting.
• 12th & Delaware — on an intersection in Florida an abortion clinic and a pro-live pregnancy center are located on opposite sides of the street. Very intense documentary.
• The Sixth Section — fun, short movie about Mexican immigrants in New York City who fund projects in their hometown.
• H-2 Worker — older documentary about guests workers from Jamaica in Florida. Not bad, but we would have preferred to watch a more recent documentary instead.

On Sunday we saw 5 short documentaries, which was great:

After the winners were announced we went to see two of them:

• The Poot — gorgeous short on how tapestries are made in Iran.
• Surviving Hitler: A Love Story — stunning movie about a love story in Germany during World War II, with great footage and a beautiful interview.
• Maria’s Way
• Notes on the Other
• Photograph of Jesus
• Seltzer Works — the last setlzer factory in New York City. Short, interesting, beautiful camera work and a great topic.

The festival was well organized, as always. Last year the economic situation impacted the festival, but sales this year were strong, according to the executive director. The only downside was that the curated series wasn’t very good. We saw several of the curated selections and didn’t really enjoy them, except for The Sixth Section.

Full Frame Festival 2010 started today and we just came back from the first three movies. The opening movie of the festival was phenomenal: “16 chefs, 3 days, 1 chance” — Kings of Pastry.

This documentary showed the intense examination in France to become a M.O.F. in pastry making. Very funny, beautifully made — absolutely recommended.

Sasha arrived in New Jersey on Friday. On Saturday we went for dinner and a movie.

We went to the movie theater in New Brunswick and watched Avatar.

The film showed a beautiful alien world, with great flora and fauna. It was an entertaining movie and great to see it in 3D. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie in 3D.

Last night we went for dinner and later saw “This Is It”, a documentary about the shows Michael Jackson planned to do in London.

Very impressive dancing and music. The dancers absolutely adored Michael Jackson, ‘worshiping’ may be a better word even. Good movie.

We saw Inglourious Basterds yesterday, the new movie by Tarantino. A great film!

Very violent, as most his movies are, but very well made and a terrific story line. The acting by Christoph Waltz was phenomenal. Going into the theater I had no idea what the film was about, and that was a great way to see it.

If you liked his previous films, you’ll love this one.