Manufactured Landscapes

I had wanted to see this movie even before I knew it was playing at the Salem Film Fest. When I was at the 2005 Venice Biennale, I saw Edward Burtynsky's photographs. The scale of what he was shooting as well as the images themselves was breathtaking. When I heard that there was a movie about him and eventually that we would be playing it at our theater was thrilling.

The movie was made by Jennifer Baichwal, not Burtynsky, and it seemed like it was filmed to be part homage, part documentary. The opening tracking shot is mind blowing. It attempts to capture through video what Burtynsky does through still photographs. The camera goes from one end to another in a massive Chinese factory, taking about 10 to 15 minutes to do so. When standing at one end of the building, you can barely see the other side.

There is very little narration in the movie. The only time we hear Burtynsky's voice is either from him talking out in the field while he's photographing or through sparse clips taken from what seems to be a lecture he gave. Baichwal lets Burtynsky's images speak for themselves, which is exactly what he intends. His goal is to pursue his interest in urban landscapes and it's effect on nature, never putting a positive or negative spin on his images but rather showing them just the way they are.

Genghis Blues

The first time I was introduced to throat singing was when the two musicians in Nomadak TX traveled to Mongolia. I was definitely intrigued, especially because so little of it was shown. And because of the minor throat singing aspect to Nomadak TX, it was an appropriate segway into the movie I watched the next night. Genghis Blues documents Paul Pena, a blind American blues man, who teaches himself Tuvan throat singing from only hearing 10 minutes of it on the radio. As much as this movie is about Paul Pena, it's also a movie about serendipity. After a series of coincidences, Paul ends up traveling to Tuva, a country located between Russia and Mongolia, and he's followed by a motley group of people who film his journey. They meet a famous Tuvan throat singer who shows them great hospitality, and Paul performs in a national throat singing symposium. It's certainly a movie with an original story line but also one that doesn't progress too much. Knowing what the movie is about ahead of time kind of spoils it. It's similar to seeing all of the good parts of the movie in it's trailer. I wasn't so much as waiting for the movie to end but more wondering how it was going to end. And of course, it ends with everyone going back to America. Not the most exciting conclusion, but with such a unique story, I guess it doesn't matter.

Nomadak TX

This is a movie that I knew hardly anything about but knew I would love. The movie centers on two men who play the txalaparta and travel to various nomadic villages. They go all over the world from the Arctic Circle to Mongolia to the Sahara to the edges of India where they find people who are no longer part of traditional society. Most of them live in their own villages, others choose to wander. The two musicians go to these places in search of native sounds, be they musical or natural or both. Whenever they arrive in a village, they set out to use the local materials to create txalapartas. They end up making them out of ice, rocks, and bamboo, but each one always has a slight variation in sound from the traditional wood. I liked this movie not just because it's focus was on sound but also because it was the complete opposite of a plot driven movie. These men traveled, playing music for and with other people. To me, there was no greater message, never implying anything positive or negative. Although according to the film's website, "They use the music to say to the rest of the world: We are here, we are alive, we are who we are." I guess that would be a "message", but certainly one that's non-intrusive. This was definitely the best movie I viewed that was part of the film festival. I recommend it to all who are interested in music, sounds, and nomads.

Buddha's Lost Children

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It's about a retired Thai boxer who becomes a monk and opens The Golden Horse Monastery to take in poor and starving boys. He gives them each a horse, and teaches them how to care for it. He also teaches them boxing and how to be good people, living in the "now." At first, I got the impression that this guy was a bit righteous, not that he didn't have the right to be, but he still rubbed me the wrong way. As the movie progressed, however, I realized what a respectable person he is. He compared his popularity to a straw fire saying that it doesn't last very long, but you need to use that light and bring it to dark places.

One of my favorite parts was when they were on a long journey to rebuild a run-down temple and one of their horses gets sick. They stop everything, make a camp, and spend the next days successfully nursing the horse back to health. It's so refreshing seeing a non-Western perspective on animals. In America, that horse most likely would have been shot so things could be kept on schedule. It's a really great movie and in addition to it being a touching story, it's beautifully shot, capturing the gorgeous Thai jungle and villages.

The Salem News & Salem Film Fest

The Salem news thinks I'm smart and sexy. Just a few days after they interviewed me about the Best Picture nominations, they came into Cinema Salem and took my picture while I was building the movies for the Salem Film Fest. It's only going up now because I've spent the last week working my ass off for the festival. I'm not complaining, though. The fest was awesome. We had a lot of really great movies and it was very well attended which is impressive due to the fact that the planning for it started only a few months ago.

Sadly, though, due to my involvement with the festival, I didn't get to see a lot of the movies we had playing. The only films I was able to watch were ones that were 35mm prints because I had to run them through to make sure the splices and cues were correct. The only time that was able to happen was after we closed for the night, so I did a lot of lonely late night screenings. But that did mean I got to watch to the 4 movies I was most looking forward to that we were showing. Short impressions on them will be coming very soon.