(USA, 79 min.)
Dir. Cullen Hoback
Programme: Rule
Breakers and Innovators (International Premiere)
Think before you post. That selfie of chugging 26-er of
vodka might not be as good a profile pic as you think it is. Ditto that tweet
about needing to pee. Some information doesn't need 140 characters. The perils
of social media have been trounced across the news before, as any informed
person has probably heard of the problems that the digital age has wrought for
job seekers, or for countless persons who are victims of identity theft. Terms and Conditions May Apply looks at
the dark underbelly of the digital revolution and asks if developers have gone
too far in selling out consumers’ personal rights. The film is especially hard
on Facebook and its two-faced founder Mark Zuckerberg, as it wags its finger at
the industry for turning consumers into products.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Terms and Conditions May Apply screens:
Friday, May 3 – 2:00 pm at Hart House
American Commune
(USA, 90 min.)
Dir. Rena Mundo Croshere, Nadine Mundo
Programme: World
Showcase (World Premiere)
Sisters and filmmakers Rena Mundo Croshere and Nadine Mundo
revisit their upbringing on The Farm, a legendary Tennessee utopia that served
as America’s largest and longest-running commune. The sisters provide a
retrospective account of The Farm that is both affectionate and critical as
they cull together the history and ideology of the commune using archival
resources and one-on-one interviews with founding members and fellow Farm kids.
American Commune explains the
philosophy of The Farm fairly and reveals how the ideological motivation of the
commune reached beyond the fields of the farm itself. Doc fans who swear by
sustainable living and eco-awareness will surely be inspired, but they might
also be disappointed by the real-life struggle to realize a socialist utopia in
the heart of capitalist America. The sisters give an emotionally engaging
portrait of an idealism that failed to endure, but continues in the spirit of
former Farmers like themselves.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
American Commune screens:
Wednesday, May 1 – 3:30 pm at the ROM
Friday, May 3 – 5:30 pm at Hart House
Let the Fire Burn
(USA, 93 min.)
Dir. Jason Osder
Programme: Special
Presentations (International Premiere)
I don’t think any film at Hot Docs has frustrated me as much
as Let the Fire Burn has. Immediately
after the film ended, I wanted to stand up and cry “Oscar!” (Or at least tweet
something to that effect.) As the credits rolled and people started asking questions
of the filmmaker, I found that my five-alarm enthusiasm started to fade.
Director Jason Osder does a commendable feat of assembling
archival footage of a sensational period of American history. Let the Fire Burn tells of an awful 1985
incident in which Philadelphia police bombed a townhouse in an effort to evict
the radical group MOVE from an otherwise quiet residential neighbourhood. The
decision was then made to “let the fire burn” and expunge MOVE by the most extreme
option imaginable. Eleven people died in the fire. Five of them were children.
The footage that Osder presents is an excellent exposé that
examines the devastating effects of intolerance, prejudice, and human indifference.
The archival footage is emotionally compelling and almost devastating in its
ability to mediate upon the kind of mentality that turns a civil neighbourhood
into a war zone. Let the Fire Burn,
however, feels a bit limited by its archival scope. Little footage is used to
contextualize MOVE—the organization initially comes across as a kind of
brainwashed cult—so the larger implications of its struggle aren’t always
clear. Likewise, Let the Fire Burn
might have benefitted from asking its subjects to revisit the case as they see
it today. Why didn’t Osder interview any subjects to complement his astute
analysis of primary sources?
Let the Fire Burn
presents a strong thesis and delivers an incendiary series of clips as support,
but the collage of archival footage doesn’t offer the same thrill of crafty aesthetic
intuition and methodology as, say, Our
Nixon does with found footage. Much of the footage in Let the Fire Burn is essentially available on YouTube (see this clip), as is the
persuasive argument that the actual act of terror was made by the City of
Philadelphia and not by MOVE itself (see this clip that offers a
similar argument in four minutes). Osder nevertheless constructs a tight and
provocative essay, but like the actions of the Philly police, Let the Fire Burn suffers from closer
inspection and scrutiny.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Let the Fire Burn screens:
Tuesday, April 30 – 1:00 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox
Friday, May 3 – 9:30 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox
Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more info on films,
tickets, and show times.
