(USA, 93 min.)
Dir. Steve Hoover
Programme: Special
Presentations (Canadian Premiere)
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| Rocky and Surya. Photo Credit: John Pope |
Blood Brother won
the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for US Documentary at Sundance this
year, and admiration for the film continued to grow at Hot Docs. I didn’t catch
the film until its third screening, yet the theatre was still packed with
moviegoers buzzing with excitement. This story of two best friends is an
inspiring tale, as director Steve Hoover goes to India to visit his pal, Rocky
Braat. Rocky has found a calling in India working in an orphanage for children
with AIDS. It’s a difficult occupation, as Rocky seems to balance a tightrope
walk between life and death every day.
Blood Brother is
bound to have viewers hooked with its opening scene. Rocky is atop a
motorcycle, pleading with a father to let him a young girl to the hospital. The
girl lies limp in her father's arms and she looks mere seconds away from death,
if she's not there already. Hoover captures the scene with a frantic
authenticity. The urgency of Rocky's plea is palpable, and Blood Brother then cuts away to explain what brought Rocky to India.
The film leaves one on edge with concern for the girl's fate.
The riveting opening scene of Blood Brother reveals to the audience the heroism of Rocky’s
mission in India. One sees a genuine bond between Rocky and the kids at the
orphanage. The kids have such affection for Rocky that they lovingly call him
“Rocky Anna”, which means “brother.” The term of endearment shows how Rocky
connects with the kids by treating them as equals. He looks beyond their
illness and engages with them as he would any child in need of aid.
Hoover’s brilliant handling of the opening scene also gives
viewers a taste of the bold, unflinching eye with which the camera will train
on Rocky’s story throughout the film. Blood
Brother arguably offers one of the most undaunted looks at what happens when
one suffers from a fatal disease such as AIDS. Blood Brother lets audiences connect with the kids and share
Rocky’s fondness for them, but the film then turns from the smiling faces of
the children to reveal the devastating effects they suffer through AIDS. Each
life and death battle is harder to watch than the last. Blood Brother is especially compelling, though, in that it refuses
to offer a sanitized portrait of the disease even though the victims are
children. One particularly heartbreaking scene comes late in the film and sees
one of the documentary’s most endearing children lying in a hospital bed on the
cusp of death as his body breaks out into sores. Rocky’s reaction to the boy’s
condition is nothing short of heroic.
Blood Brother,
much like the 2005 Oscar winner Born into
Brothels, offers an emotionally enthralling tale about the hope and
optimism one can inject into a dire situation. One does wish, however, that the
kids had been emphasized as the main focus of the project, rather than the
American hero. Rocky’s devotion to the children is by all regards commendable,
but one risks emerging from the film applauding the valour of its saintly
subject rather than asking how one can contribute to the cause to which Rocky is
devoted. Petty criticism aside, one can't deny that Rocky's mission makes for a moving film experience. Like Brothels, it’s
difficult to detach the subject matter of Blood
Brother from one’s opinion of the film itself: this is a worthy topic and it
is given commendable treatment. Blood
Brother is a top-rate character study, for Rocky’s story is ultimately one
of self-sacrifice and altruism. Blood
Brother is a deeply affective story of how the actions of one person can
bring transcendent change to a whole community.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
UPDATE: Blood Brother screens in Ottawa at The ByTowne on Sept. 5 at 6:45pm. The screening will be presented by the One World Arts Film Festival and all seats are $10.
Which Way is the
Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
(USA, 78 min.)
Dir. Sebastian Junger
Programme: Special
Presentations (Canadian Premiere)
Shortly after his 2010 Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary
Feature for Restrepo,
filmmaker/photojournalist Tim Hetherington was tragically killed by a mortar
strike while covering the conflict in Libya in 2011. Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim
Hetherington looks at the incredible work of Hetherington and explores how
he brought a humanist eye to global conflict. The film shows how Hetherington’s
photography showed an understanding for war and conflict that runs much deeper
than the sense that most journalists bring to a situation. Hetherington offers
a sort of documentary cousin to Rocky from Blood
Brother, as both men offer inspiringly selfless devotion to their subjects.
Director Sebastian Junger (who co-directed Restrepo
with Hetherington) offers an appropriate tribute to Hetherington using an
impressive gallery of Hetherington’s beautiful photography, along with interviews
with his co-workers and peers, as well as archival footage of Hetherington
describing his work and philosophy in his own words.
Which Way conveys
the depth and significance of Hetherington’s work and shows how his eye
captured the humanity of war. Seeing the world from a perspective outside that
of the typical headlines, his photography brought an artfully humane filter to
the brutal conditions of war. Which Way
is the Front Line from Here? is a fitting eulogy to an artist who took
humanity far beyond the demands of his profession.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
The Unbelievers
(USA, 76 min.)
Dir. Gus Holwerda
Programme: Special
Presentations (World Premiere)
I’m so disappointed that I missed the screening of The Unbelievers that featured subjects
Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss in a post-screening conversation. I’m not
especially familiar with either man’s work, but their ideas and debates in The Unbelievers are utterly fascinating.
It would probably have been a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage with
such great minds.
The Unbelievers
follows the two thinkers as they travel the globe in a speaking tour that seeks
to open the minds of people all over the world. Dawkins and Krauss both share an
opinion that science should be the foundation for knowledge and belief systems
on Earth. The two men trade barbs with other experts in the field and offer an
intellectually stimulating debate of science versus religion. Dawkins and
Krauss are not afraid to mock the absurdity of dogmatic piety as a trump card
for empirical proof. Atheism isn’t a dirty word in The Unbelievers: it’s
treated as synonymous with clear-headed rationality.
Dawkins and Krauss are both highly engaging speakers who
avoid esoteric intellectualism and articulate big ideas into common vernacular.
They don’t numb their message down, and Dawkins and Krauss grasp that the
common public can handle questions far more complex than those for which academics
can usually give them credit. Liberals and freethinkers will find The Unbelievers a master class in
contemporary philosophy.
There is ample material for a truly mind-blowing film
experience, so it’s disappointing that director Gus Holwerda doesn’t make the
most of his strong premise. The documentary is essentially cut together as a
filmed conversation. The Unbelievers
could have engaged the theories of Dawkins and Krauss with case studies from
past and present to let viewers debate how science or religion have shaped the
course of history, and how a preference for one over the other could be the
ultimate change of course for human progress. Why not examine a controversial
event like, say, 9/11 to see if science or religion charts the most rational
course for civilization? (One attendee of an event carries a sign that reads, “Science
flies to the moon, religion flies into buildings,” so the historical milestone
could have been easily introduced.) The
Unbelievers also affords little time to speakers on the side of the debate
for religion, aside from one ignorant conversation partner for Dawkins and a
few shots of fanatical fundamentalists. An argument is twice as persuasive when
it anticipates a counter-argument and offers a rebuttal.
The Unbelievers is
nevertheless a thought-provoking piece about how we should conceptualize the
contemporary world. The film offers ideas that need to be circulated and
debated, so perhaps the effectiveness of its scant seventy-six minutes is that
it leaves the conversation to be picked up by viewers once the film is over.
Put your thinking cap on and prepare for an evening of intelligent conversation
with The Unbelievers.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
