![]() Through interviews with sons, lovers, employers, colleagues and critics, coupled with a superb soundtrack, director Joe Angio unravels the enigma of Van Peebles' complex persona, without ever falling into the trap of hagiography. How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (Prod.: Michael Solomon) tries to capture the essence of the indomitable Melvin Van Peebles-iconoclast, agent provocateur, revolutionary, chameleon, creative genius, marketing mastermind, unrepentant seducer and tireless artist, as well as Air Force pilot, successful bond trader, published French novelist and astronomer. Employing neither voiceover nor interviews, but mere title cards as dividers, the film gives viewers a rare, uninterrupted glimpse into the process of military dehumanization, and wryly questions the adequacy of Marine training. Though the rigors of boot camp have been filmed before, director Cannan Brumley still manages to give a fresh take to a known drill in his minimalist Ears, Open. This is no facile agitprop piece, but a careful dissection of a growing military rebellion that permanently altered American society, but has largely been forgotten. Extensively researched, and featuring stirring interviews, previously unseen archival footage, audio recordings, vivid stills and multi-layered effects, Sir! No Sir! combines exceptional artistry and insightful analysis with great storytelling. The film recounts the rise of the anti-Vietnam War GI movement, the cultural upheaval it caused and how it has been steadily erased-with Hollywood's complicity-from collective memory. This moving tale neatly encapsulates the effects of globalization on small villages, whose residents are seen as mere cogs in the profit wheel of multinational corporations.ĭavid Zeiger's superb Sir! No Sir! (Prods.: Evangeline Griego, Aaron Zarrow) earned the Audience Award for Best Documentary. ![]() Banding together, the residents fight government harassment and corruption in order to retain their land and ensure a future for their children. The Target Documentary Award went to Beth Bird for Everyone Their Grain of Sand, a film about the stalwart Mexican community of Moclavio Rojas, whose inhabitants bravely battle government attempts to evict them in order to make way for industrial development. Using the mordant lyrics of the corridos (ballads) instead of voiceover results in a musical yet tragic tale of survival in a failing economy-epitomized in the last shot of a border crossing littered with graves. Against a backdrop of ballads and lyrics brimming with unrequited love and torment, the film exudes the melancholy, isolation, poverty and sacrifice of the mariachi tradition.Īl Otro Lado (To the Other Side) (Dir.: Natalia Almada Prods.: Kent Rogowski, Tommaso Fiacchino) looks at the limited choices facing the citizens of Sinaloa, Mexico: drug trafficking, poverty or illegal immigration. Gorgeously shot on film, with luminous, immaculate images, Romntico is a lovingly detailed immigrant tale in reverse, following the struggling mariachi artist as he ekes out a living playing at funerals, weddings and in bars for prostitutes and their clients, and selling ice cream from a pushcart, all the while ambivalent about whether (and how) he should return to the US. Mark Becker's Romantico is an intimate portrait of a Mexican troubadour returning home to the impoverished border town of Salvatierra, after years of playing love songs for tips in San Francisco 's hip dive bars. Audiences were treated to a muscular line-up of over 20 feature docs, many riveting and thought-provoking. You guessed it: I was at the Los Angeles Film Festival, held in June and organized by the newly baptized FIND (Film Independent, formerly IFP West). ![]() Swaying palms, oversized sunglasses and Blackberrys galore.
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