1 Apr 2009 0
Written by Kelly Robinson
Palna is an orphanage in India where two girls, Devi and Stuti, were taken temporarily, before being adopted by a couple from Finland. We follow everyday life of Devi and her adoptive parents, as they gradually progress with Stuti’s adoption.
31 Mar 2009 0
Written by Kelly Robinson
Keep Looking (Cherche toujours) opens with an intimate close-up of a face and voice-over narration recalling a dream. This is not a conventional documentary about the nature of scientific explorations, and the science the film itself explores is also not entirely typical. The study of singing dunes, crumpled paper and the shape of leaves are only some of the interests of the group of scientists whose work we follow in their somewhat claustrophobic and chaotic laboratory. The chaos around them however is not indicative of their minds, which in contrast demonstrate a precision and level-headedness to the world around them. ‘Mad scientists’ they are not. Their furrowed brows and head in hands in quiet unguarded moments reveal intensely contemplative minds.
30 Mar 2009 0
Written by Katharina Chase
“How is Fidel?” asks the interviewer. Some say he’s well. Others, say he’s dying. After watching Alessandra Magnaghi and Ortensia Visconti’s Fidelity, we come to realise that no one really knows. Castro is like a mystical deity, a figurehead; asking ‘how is Fidel?’ is like asking ‘do you believe in God?’
30 Mar 2009 0
Written by Kelly Robinson
What kind of brand message do you associate with the clothing firm Benetton? Remember those distinctive brightly coloured adverts which feature people from different cultures and creeds? Remember the shock tactics of the controversial ‘United Colours’ campaign, which featured an Aids activist dying of Aids and pictures of inmates on death row? Is Benetton a company with a social conscience perhaps, with a progressive and uncompromising attitude? The filmmakers of Colours at the End of the World set out to understand how a clothing brand promoting cultural equality came into conflict with two Mapuches over the issue of land rights. Ale Corte’s film uncovers a ‘quality’ of the Italian company Luciano Benetton would have preferred concealed.
28 Mar 2009 0
Written by Michael Brooke
It’s traditional to administer a spoonful of sugar with otherwise unpleasant medicine, and the saving grace of John Webster’s film Recipes for Disaster chronicling his family’s year-long “oil diet” is that while it trots out the usual, by now extremely familiar apocalyptic statistics about the long-term unsustainability of typical Western lifestyles, it’s often very funny indeed.
