(Finland, 81 min)
Dir. Katja Gauriloff
 |
| Polish butcher Andrzej Biskup on his cigarette break |
Ever wanted to know the origins of the food you eat? Well, now
you can. Canned Dreams traces the
journey of all the ingredients that go into making one can of ravioli. As far
as documentaries about the food industry go, however, Canned Dreams is hardly Food
Inc.
Canned Dreams a
revealing, albeit heavy-handed, look at the workers behind the food-making
process, but the film is hardly likely to change many eating habits since the
argument is never really clear. Why match the voice over of a butcher who
unrepentantly describes past acts of spousal abuse while he prepares a cow? Is
it not gross rationalization to parallel the processing of food with domestic
violence? Moreover, the film ignores the political economy of food production
and consumption almost entirely, save for one sequence in which a Romanian
slaughterhouse employee concedes that he must kill pigs in order to put food on
the table for his family. Likewise, the film shows the absurdity of transporting
ingredients from multiple countries and continents to one cannery in France,
but it doesn’t offer anything as a solution. Canned Dreams might inspire practising members of the 100 km diet,
but others might simply see the film as a missed opportunity to change the way
we think about the food we eat.
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Canned Dreams screens again on Friday, May 4th at the
Cumberland at 9:30 pm.
China Heavyweight
(Canada/China, 89 min.)
Dir. Yung Chang
The latest film from director Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze), China Heavyweight makes a good companion piece to The Boxing Girls of Kabul, one of the
NFB docs that is screening at the festival this year. Like Boxing Girls, China
Heavyweight uses boxing to show a country in a time of change. Whereas the Boxing Girls took to the ring as a
symbol for gender rights, China
Heavyweight suggests a fight for modernity in a country bound by tradition.
The film follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he recruits and
trains boxers in China’s Sichuan province.
Using a detached, observational style, China Heavyweight carefully taps in to the drive to succeed by
showing the strenuous mental and physical preparations that go into becoming a
boxer. The film also contrasts the struggle for athletic glory with the fight
for modernity. One of Moxiang’s boxers, for example, wants to leave his
family’s tobacco farm in the province. The footage of his parents cultivating
the crop posits their labour as offering a physical toll even greater than that
of giving/receiving punches in the ring. The emotional pull between the lives
of the parents and their son’s need to make his own mark in life is an intriguing
bout.
China Heavyweight
also features some top-notch tech work. The cinematography by Shaoguang Sun is
intimate and gritty. (It looked even more superior to everything else at the
festival being the only feature to screen on film so far, rather than as a
digital projection.) The boxing scenes are also as well cut as those of a
narrative feature. China Heavyweight
is, above all, a human drama – it’s a well shot character study that shows how
boxing is far more than sport.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
China Heavyweight screens again on Thursday, May 3rd at
TIFF Bell Lightbox at 2pm and on Friday, May 4th at the Fox Theatre
at 9 pm. It also opens theatrically on May 11th.
China Heavyweight opens in Ottawa at The Mayfair (Bank) on Friday, August 17.
China Heavyweight opens in Ottawa at The Mayfair (Bank) on Friday, August 17.
Day 7 also featured a
screening of We Are Wisconsin, which
is reviewed here.
For more info on
films, show times, and tickets, please visit hotdocs.ca
***Note: star ratings will be assigned after the festival.
(So check back next week to see how these films rank!)
