Hot Coffee

A good meal often ends with coffee, and I will end my reviews from Hot Docs with a review of Hot Coffee.  

A good movie can change your perspective.  Hot Coffee did that, for me and most of the audience.

The movie is about US civil justice reform which restricts citizens' rights to sue corporations and caps the compensation allowed if they do sue.  The movie documents the orchestrated public relations efforts by corporations and the American Chamber of Commerce to bring about these changes, and nasty interventions in elections to oust people who do not agree with big business' position.  It's a rather horrifying story.  So-called tort reform is a major cause of 'crusading fiscal conservatives', as the Economist describes them and most of the American public has been convinced that desperate changes in the justic system are warranted.  This movie argues that the cure is worse than the disease.

But an audience would have no sympathy for this point of view, because they 'know' all about that famous McDonald's scalding coffee case - the one where the elderly lady drove her car with a coffee cup between her legs, received a mild burn and was awarded $2.86 million in compensation.  It's the poster child for 'frivolous lawsuits' and excessive compensation and sparked public sympathy for the law reforms mentioned above.

So Hot Coffee wisely starts off by debunking the myths around that case.  The woman was a passenger, not the driver.  The car was stopped.  In her attempt to remove the tricky lid to add sugar and cream, she spilled the entire cup of coffee over her thighs, buttocks and groin.  The third-degree burns on 6% of her body were horrific (as shown in gory detail in the movie) and required multiple skin grafts. 

McDonald required franchises to serve coffee at 180-190 degrees, considerably hotter than other establishments, a temperature that can produce third-degree burns in two seconds.  The company had received hundreds of complaints about the temperature of its coffee and failed to respond.  The plaintiff sued McDonald's after they refused her request for $20,000 to cover her out-of-pocket expenses for medical bills and lost income and reaffirmed their determination to keep the coffee temperature as it was.  She felt a lawsuit was the only way to bring attention to the issue.  The jury found in her favour, and calculated the compensation based on two days of coffee sales.

The results of the case were as follows:  McDonald's reduced the temperature of the coffee by 10 degrees; they changed the lid design to make it easier to open the coffee;  a judge reduced the compensation to $640,000 and the plaintiff ultimately settled out of court.  But the unintended consequences were far greater.  The settlement gave the right a poster child for frivolous lawsuits and helped gain support among the public for tort reform.

In the Q&A, the filmmaker asked the audience how many had heard of the McDonald's case and virtually everyone raised their hand.  When asked if their opinion on the case had changed, virtually eveyone left their hands up.  She unabashedly admitted she was one of those maligned 'trial lawyers', acknowledged that there were abuses in the civil trial system, but felt that the direction in US justice system and politics would lead to far worse abuses.

As The Economist put it in a recent article "Frivolous lawsuits are, along with criminal aliens and fraudulent voters, a bit of a bogeyman. They do exist, but are hardly as ubiquitous as the thundering rhetoric would suggest."  


The movie emphasizes how American big business has incredible power against the consumer.  In the US, in many contracts - espeically contracts with cellular providers and banks -  the consumer agrees to  'mandatory arbitration' and forfeits the right to sue the provider.  That doesn't sound too bad, does it?  A neutral arbitrator determines a reasonable settlement and keeps the dispute out of court.  Well, the problem is that the provider chooses the arbitrator, which puts the consumer at a significant disadvantage, and they have to recourse to the courts.  
 

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in March 2011 that a customer was allowed to proceed with a class action suit against Telus, despite having signed a mandatory arbitation clause.  So it appears that the situation in Canada is not as lopsided as in the US.

Dolphin Boy

After vicious torture and beating by relatives of a girl he was accused of seducing, Morad sinks into a closed world of his own.  At the start of Dolphin Boy, we see Morad in a catatonic state, unable to speak or even make eye contact.  His father is determined - and makes huge sacrifices - to do whatever it takes to heal his son.  

On a doctor's advice Morad's father takes him to Dolphin Reef on the Red Sea.  The reef is staffed with people who use dolphin therapy to reach the unreachable.  Morad's first contact with any living thing is with the dolphins, and over a period of three years, he reenters the world, strong enough to relive and face the terrors of the night of his kidnapping.

Underlying the surface story, just as the dolphins swim under the Red Sea, is a story of co-operation between Palestinians and Israelis.  Because Morad is Palestinian and the doctor and workers at Dolphin Reef are Israeli.  The dialogue in the film shifts back and forth between Arabic and Hebrew.  While Morad is at the reef, he speaks Hebrew and only as his healing is complete is he willing to revert back to Arabic.  The message is never highlighted in the film, but in the Q&A, the filmmakers clearly stated that one of their goals was to show some good news from the region.

This was a lovely Hot Docs movie and I recommend it.

Susya and The Hilltops

These two movies were on a double bill at Hot Docs and put forward two views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The Hilltops interviewed a number of people living in the infamous Israeli settlements, on the hill tops in Gaza.  With zealous commitment, the settlers argue for Israel's right to own this land and are fierce in their determination to stay in the settlements.  We see a crew of men with tools erecting the frame of a new home, until the arrival of the Israeli Defence Forces, who tear down the walls and arrest all the men.  Soon after, the women return, and raise the walls, and hammering the nails in place with rocks.  

The Canadian director said that he had been criticized for not sufficiently demonizing the settlers, but his intent was to let them speak for themselves and let the audience come to their own conclusion.  It's harder to be engrossed in a film that has no particular narrative thrust.  Although interesting, I didn't find it particularly captivating.

Susya was a short 15 minute film that should have been shorter!  A Palestinian father and son return to their home village which is now an Israeli archaeological site.  Israeli police appear, and tell them they're not allowed, despite their having bought tickets.  The shot of the father walking down the road, with the Israeli military vehicle following him menacingly, ran way too long for my taste.

Mama Africa

Miriam Makeba, the great South African singer, earned the name Mama Africa because of her activism in support of pan-African peace and unity.  Besides her singing career, she was friends with all the leaders of the newly minted independent African states in the 60's, and spoke passionately in the UN against South African apartheid.

The movie Mama Africa follows Makeba's life from her early discovery in South Africa, when her songs were included in an American documentary about South African apartheid.  When she went to the Venice Film Festival for the film's opening, the South African authorities expelled her.  She fled to the US, where friends helped her career, and Harry Belafonte's support shot her to prominence.  However, when she married Stokely Carmichael, her career immediately dried up in the US with the cancellation of all her engagements, and she moved to Guinea at the invitation of the president, before finally returning to South Africa after Mandela's release.

This was a good movie.  An audience question of the director revealed that the music had come from a wide range of sources.  Hot Docs is great in that there's often a film expert in the audience who appreciates how difficult it would be to weave such a diversity of audio sources into a smooth movie.  Take it in if you get the chance.

And so for the last film review from Hot Docs. I thoroughly enjoyed the Festival this year, even I guess what I missed was even better. Of the 10 audience award winners this year, I had seen none of them!

Neighbors is a lovely, lush film by a former NFB filmmaker. Ostensibly, it's about touring through the old mansions of a district known as Garden City in Cairo. But those opulent, now abandoned, mansions are just a backdrop for the interesting stories of the former occupants, who reminisce about the past. Days when the upper class lived in luxury in their privileged quarter. Days when their views weren't obstructed by the ugly embassy buildings of US and Canada. Days before security measures for the US Embassy restricted access and destroyed their businesses in the district. Days when people of different religions mixed amicably.

I loved the leftist-leaning professor who took us on a tour through his immense library. He pointed to a picture of Nasser and said 'I liked Nasser, even though he threw me in prison several times'. The film gave me a bit more appreciation for the nuances of Eyptian history since the revolution and piqued my curiosity to learn much more. This was a beautiful, graceful film and I would definitely recommend it.

War Games And The Man Who Stopped Them

Picture this. You're a senior staffer in the Polish Army, handling strategy and liaising with the Soviets. You see Soviet military plans against Europe, and realize that the attack corridor passes right through Poland. A first echelon of Polish and other Soviet republic troops attack through Poland; the equal sources of the Warsaw Pact and NATO mutually wipe each other out, allowing the second echelon of Soviet troops to come through Poland. NATO's desperation would likely lead them to launch nuclear missiles. And guess where they'd land? In Poland. Poland is the biggest loser in World War III. So what's a loyal, patriotic Pole to do? Ryszard Kuklinski decided to spy for the West.

He first made contact via a letter during a sailing trip and proceeded to pass documents and information to the CIA for a period of ten years between 1971-1981. It has been estimated that he passed over 35,000 documents to the west,earning intense respect from everyone who knew him. He wasn't a James Bond type; rather he was modest and retiring. He didn't ask for money; he simply wanted to do what was right for Poland and the world.

Just before martial law was declared, Kuklinski was spirited from Poland to the US. The CIA agent who was his contact and was responsible for getting him out described attempts on three separate evenings, before they were successful in getting him out.

Upon settling in the US, he and his family tried to adjust. This was particularly hard for his wife, who didn't speak English. One consolation was his sailboat as he still loved to sail, and pictures show him on the water. At one point, his story was exposed in the Washington Post; Kuklinski felt abandoned when the CIA did nothing to salvage his reputation at that time. His sons both die young, both in accidental deaths. His youngest dies on the ocean on a trip to the Keys with a friend. The undamaged boat is recovered, but never any bodies. The older son is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Coincidence? Or revenge?

When he defected, he was sentenced to death in Poland in absentia; the sentence was later commuted to 25 years and finally he was pardoned. When he returned in the 90s, it was to a mixed reception, some considering him a hero and others a traitor. He died of a stroke in the US, just after he'd finally agreed to talk to the director in detail.

This was a very interesting movie. I would recommend this movie. But there is a lot of handheld footage, which would be very shaky and disconcerting for people bothered by handheld filming.

Sisters in Law

This five-year-old film was part of the Hot Docs special tribute to filmmaker Kim Longinotto.

Sisters in Law takes place in the little town of Kumba in Cameroon. There have been no convictions for spousal abuse in 17 years, but that is about to change. The films focuses on a few cases undertaken by the feisty prosecutor Vera and court president Beatrice. This is, to say the least, relatively informal justice - no CSI teams rushing in with forensic evidence, or defence lawyers challenging points of law. Simply presentation of the case in pretty simple and direct terms, and a ruling by the judge.

In the course of the movie, we see a husband convicted for beating his wife. Subsequently, the woman, who wants to divorce her husband, faces the arguably tougher Sharia court requesting divorce. To her joy - and surprise - she is granted the divorce.

In another case, a father is convicted of kidnapping a child from its mother. His claim which seemed to revolve around ownership of a chattel didn't hold water with the judge!

A third case saw a man convicted of raping a young girl and a fourth involved an aunt physically beating a girl she took in after the death of her parents. In each case, the prosecutor is willing to take on cases against the powerful in protection of the weak, and the judge follows through with common sense decisions.

Longinotto, in the Q&A, indicated that she and her mother had both been beaten by an abusive father/husband, and this led to her interest in the disadvantaged, which is a persistent theme in her work over the years. She is a much-awarded film-maker, including her film Rough Aunties winning at Hot Docs last year. This is another film I recommend.

A Film Unfinished

This was a hard film to watch. It showed all 62 minutes of film captured by Nazis in 1942 in the Warsaw Ghetto. The footage was never edited into a film, so there were a series of scenes, but no indication of how it would finally have been put together or narrated.

This movie's footage is often used in other movies but it has never before been shown in its entirety. (Ironically, a snippet of the movie appeared in the movie War Games, which I saw the next day, proving this very point!). But this was a movie about a movie. The filmmaker, Yael Hersonski, had dug into how - and why - the film had been made.

Notebooks of the Jewish 'commander' of the Ghetto (not sure what his official title was) describe the arrival of the film crew and the staging of the scenes of the movie. This man was to later commit suicide the day he was ordered to select the people who would be transported to the concentration camps.

The cameraman, Willy Wist, is discovered to have testified at war crimes trials. An extra reel was discovered with various outtakes and some colour film, apparently by one of the other cameramen which had Wist in a frame and enabled identification.

Most touching were the interviews with survivors of the ghetto. Hersonski focused on their faces as they watched the film. Their anguish was echoed throughout the audience.

By May of 1942, many Jews from Germany had been transported to Warsaw and crammed into the existing ghetto; then the ghetto shrunk and the barrier made impermeable on threat of death, so that there were terrible conditions of overcrowding and privation. Food supplies were paltry (I particularly 1/5 egg per month per person on the list) so people were dying of starvation, and each morning brought fresh corpses on the sidewalk.

The hypothesis is that the film was shot for one of two reasons. One could have been to show how miserable the Jews were, and to later point out what a good thing it was that the Germans had exterminated them. The second might have been to juxtapose the Jews who were still comfortable and not starving against the miserable masses and point out that the Jews themselves had no mercy or kindness for other Jews who were suffering. They were shown dancing as in the photo below.

One scene was filmed several times to show wealthy Jews walking by disregarding the corpses on the street. The corpses were tossed onto open tumbrels, with pseudo-comedic touches as the bodies kept falling off. This was followed by a horrific scene showing two Jewish gravediggers deep in a narrow grave, catching skin and bone corpses as they slid down a ramp, and stacking them together as tightly as possible. The bodies were carefully covered with heavy paper or cloth, presumably ready for tomorrow's batch.

This film won the Hot Docs Best International Feature Award. I highly recommend it, but bring your fortitude with you, as well as perhaps a Kleenex.

Aisheen [Still Alive in Gaza]

Aisheen was filmed in Gaza shortly after the end of the Israeli offensive in 2009. It is a series of vignettes of people proceeding with the daily lives under tough conditions.

We see young boys fishing off the coast, frustrated by the single fish in their nets that day, complaining that there aren't many fish available within the 2 km barrier set by the Israelis. One man who's lost all his olive groves which he claims are over 600 years old is so demoralized he has no encouragement to offer his sons to replant the groves. Kids in a community centre watch two clowns perform, whose antics are meant to reduce the tension around the bombing, including likening it to a balloon that explodes when a clown sis on it. There are shots of people smuggling food from Egypt through tunnels, and the sporadic bombing of these areas near the border. And there's the chaos of the UN food distribution centre, with people being crushed against a wicket barrier where they press to present their ID.

There's no narration in the film, just the subtitled voices of the people being filmed, with sometimes thge backdrop of the rap group DARG Team which is featured in the film.

This is a movie worth seeing if you get the chance.

Arsy-Versy

Hot Docs is often about somewhat bizarre people. Lubos is 50 years old, lives with his mother, seems to be unemployed (to his mother's chagrin), and is passionate about bats. He's one strange dude, and I couldn't quite get engaged with him. His weird sense of humour didn't grab me at all. He seemed pretty content, though. I'd give this short Slovakian film a miss.

The Mirror

Viganella is a village in the Italian Alps, tucked deep in the valley between two mountains. It's been steadily losing population as youth head out of the village for the cities and the charming young mayor, Pierfranco, is searching for something to revitalize the village, especially the village square. Viganella doesn't receive sunlight for several winter months. Why not place a mirror on the mountainside above the town and reflect sunlight into the village square?

While Viganella is inhabited by mostly aging Italians, up on the mountains nearby in Bordo and Cheggio are clusters of Germans who are trying to live an ecologically pure life. One of these Germans, Tomas, becomes the second main character in the film as the site for the mirror is chosen next to his farmhouse.

The first effort to land the huge mirror on the platform on the mountain via helicopter is unsuccessful as the helicopter reotors create such a wind off the mountain that the mirror swings helplessly in the air and can't be guided to the right spot. Back to the drawing boards, have the helicopter lift the frame, and then land the mirrors in a stack. They finally get the mirror erected, and choose to unveil on the day when they already have a celebration planned for their twinning with a village in Spain. There's press from all over (even Al Jazeera turns up!) and Pierfranco is in his glory, but, alas, the results are, ah, underwhelming. There's enough sun to cast some shadows, but most people are a bit disappointed with the whole exercise.

Having said that, the film is equally interesting as a study in contrasts between the Italian and German communities. The Italians are first skeptical then enthusiastic about the project; the Germans are bemused and gently point out it could have been constructed more sustainably. The priest talks up the project in church and the Germans practice Buddhism up on the mountain. The local Italian band plays in the square, while up on the mountain we hear the haunting music of the East.

The director, in Q&A after the screening, said he was encouraged to play up any antagonism between the two communities, but said that he frankly hadn't seen much. There's even one hilarious scene where Tomas is visiting a family he's friends with in the village. He has a very long walk back up to his farm, and he is being roundly - and fondly - castigated by the Italian mama that it's time for him to move down into the village and, basically, get a life. He calmly replies that when he finds he's too old and tired to make the trip, if he's in the village he'll stay there and if he's on the mountain, he'll stay there.

A lovely film - highly recommend to anyone.

The Freshwater Plague

Shadflies everywhere! That`s the curse of North Bay during late June and early July when the shadflies emerge after spending a year or two underwater for their day or two of mature life.

Hosing down buildings deeply covered by shadflies and vacuuming the streets are some of the ways the natives deal with the shadflies and their moulted skin.

This movie was by a student from Sheridan and was absolutely delightful. Some close-ups of feet crunching the shadlies as they walked along a wharf were actually rather spooky, and there was lots of humour. It`s hard enough to find screenings of documentaries, and you`re even less likely to find a screening of a short film like this (10 minutes), but if you ever have a chance, take this one in.

Feathered Cocaine

One of the exciting things about attending Hot Docs is that you get to 'meet' many fascinating people, who are committed to - or even obsessed - by topics that you knew nothing about. Alan Parrot is such a man and falcons was such a topic.

Alan Parrot, an American, grew up with a passion for falcons. As a young man, he travels to Iran to pursue his passion, and ends up involved in the extremely lucrative trade of falcons from the north sold to rich falconers in the Arab world. Arab falconers so serious about their sport that they are willing to pay into seven figures for the right falcon. As Parrot realizes that he is trading these birds into a quick death since they can't survive in the desert, and contributing to the falcons becoming an endangered species, his remorse leads him to dedicate himself to stopping the trade.

As he struggles to raise awareness and spark action to stop this trade (allegedly the fourth biggest illegal trade in the world, after drugs, arms, and people), he comes upon another aspect of this sport. Middle East Arabs feels most relaxed and serene when they are in the desert hunting their falcons, and they have what we'd call 'meet-ups' for up to a week of hunting together. Parrot discovers this is a particularly popular pastime of terrorists, particularly Osama bin Laden. The film includes an interview with someone who's spent time in the desert with Osama, and points out this would be when he's most exposed for people searching for him.

Parrot is a striking, tall man, wearing the turban of his adopted religion Sikhism. The movie, and the interview with him after the film, showed a passionate and single-minded devotion to pushing this issue in the US and the UN.

Enemies of the People

This film was a testament to the persistence of a Cambodian journalist who spent years building a relationship with men from the Pol Pot regime, right up to the second in command to Pol Pot (shown in the photo). He was eventually able to get them talking about their experiences killing people. These men spoke in careful, unmodulated voices - even when they were saying they now experienced remorse and shame for what they'd done, there was certainly no emotion identifiable in their body language, at least to this Westerner.

The most chilling segment for me was when the journalist asked for one of the men to give a demonstration of how he killed. The journalist was told to lie on his stomach with his hands behind his back, as the killer showed how he would pull his head up and back to slit his throat. He mentioned that his wrist could get tired after a number of such murders and he would change to a stabbing motion to give himself a rest.

Despite the admiration for the tenacity of the journalist who had gathered all this film in his spare time and his passion for documenting this period (during which his own father had been killed), the film was missing something for me. It didn't tackled the big themes - a better explanation of why Pol Pot embarked on this kiling spree, other a brief mention that it was internal conflicts. Nor did the men interviewed come to life for me as individuals. They gave the usual reason for the murders - orders from above - but I didn't get a strong feeling whether this was something they did unthinkingly, or with much internal angst. Neverthless, I would recommend this film.

Farewell

A gigantic blimp, a small passenger gondola slung below, one woman among the score of journalists and an around-the world trip. Lady Grace Drummond Hay was the first woman to circle the globe by air, and she did it in the Graf Zeppelin in 1929. The film consists of archival footage from the period and the story is narrated by a Julie Andrewish voice, as if reading from the journal of Lady Grace.

Graf Zeppelin was designed and built by Germans and the trip described in the film had a German captain flying the dirigible. However, the Germans ran out of money, and the around-the-world trip was paid for by William Randolph Hearst. Lady Grace Hay, a journalist looking to make her mark, enthusiastically accepts Hearst's invitation to provide the women's point of view, only to discover she's to be under the wing of an experienced journalist - her former lover Karl von Wiegand.

The film weaves together three stories. There's the story of life on board the ship, and the images of the journalists working away at their ancient typewriters, writing both about the trip and the political situations in the countries they fly over. The depiction of tumultuous welcomes on their landings in Frederichshafen, Tokyo, Los Angeles and finally New York provides the backdrop for further comment on political situation, as we see swastika armbands in Germany and marches protesting war reparations.

There's the adventure story of the trip itself . There's the counterintuitive image of the wind blowing through open windows as they move majestically through the sky. They have to jettison water as they struggle to rise about mountains in Russia that were supposed to have been 3,000 feet high and turned out to be 6,000 feet. The description of a ferocious storm in the Pacific that had them out of touch and stranded on the water making repairs on the Tokyo to LA leg, was apparently 'borrowed' from a different trip across the Atlantic but lent drama to the film.

Then, there's the third story - the love story between Gracie and the married Karl. Their romance was on again off again during the trip. But the pair were to be lifelong companions and traveled to cover many stories over the globe, with many adventures, including internment in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

I saw some 'cheats' in this supposedly totally documentary film (e.g. same men reaching up to grab the ship on landing in US and Germany) and read of more online today. Nevertheless, the mood of the film was totally coherent and charming, and this is another film I would recommend.

Budrus

Budrus is a Palestinian village of 1,500 on the West Bank. The Israelis arrive to to build the security fence - well beyond the 'Green Line' marking the boundary between Israel and the Palestinian territory on the West Bank. This will result in the residents of Budrus losing land and olive groves they depend on for their livelihood.

A leader in the village inspires non-violent resistance. At first the protests involve only the men of the village, but they are soon joined by the women. As word of the protests spreads, some international sympathizers join the protesters. But the tide really turns when Israeli activists arrive to stand side by side with the Palestinians. The Israeli Border Patrol is reluctant to do anything that would result in Israelis being hurt, and many cameras documenting the action serve to keep the army's actions moderated. Frustrated youth finally break ranks and start throwing rocks at the Israeli armored vehicles. But the threat of chaos breaking out is averted and the protest continues mostly peacefully.

Ultimately, the Israelis decide to move the placement of the fence near Budrus. By the, the protests have spread to other villages where the fence has swung substantially within Palestinian territory, and the fence ultimately gets built very close to the Green Line. The Israelis state the change is not due to the protests. As the Billy Joel lyrics to She's Only a Woman go - "she never gives in, she just changes her mind."

The film was created from the film taken by many different people over the course of the protests and was supported by the work of Just Vision (click here for their web site). For those sensitive to hand-held cameras, be warned that some portions of the film are subject to considerable motion.

I would recommend Budrus to anyone who has a chance to see it. It's a heart-warming tale of how non-violence can be effective, and how supposedly antagonistic people can work together in common cause.

Hot Docs Festival

It's that time of year when I veer away from TED discussions and inject some reviews of Hot Docs films into this blog.

In the past, I've tended to have about 90% or better hit rate of films I love at Hot Docs. This year, I got the 10% cleared early!

My first film was General Orders No. 9, an elegy to the passing of the South as interstates and big cities dehumanize the old towns. I chose this film because it had won the Cinematography Award at Sundance. It did have some beautiful shots, but, in my personal opinion, not that nice! To say the film's pace was langorous would be to overstate the pace; it felt like a series of still photographs dissolving into each other, with some narration and music in the background. Despite some beautiful scenery, I couldn't recommend this movie to anyone.