year of the dog

year of the dog is the directorial debut of mike white (writer of the good girl, chuck&buck) and stars molly shannon as peggy, a woman whose closest companion, her dog pencil, dies and subsequently, her life as she knew it falls apart. peggy is a secretary whose only friends are her coworker layla (regina king) and her brother and his wife (thomas mccarthy and laura dern) but we see that these relationships are more or less superficial and that peggy truly feels closest to pencil. when peggy adopts a new dog, she meets newt (peter sarsgaard) who feels the same as her about animal rights and she begins to like him and it seems as though they may have a relationship. however, he like peggy, has better relationships with animals than humans and is incapable of being anything more than a friend to her. after this realization, peggy adopts a strictly vegan lifestyle which alienates her from her friends and family. molly shannon effectively portrays the balancing act that peggy attempts to perform between living a normal life and adhering to her beliefs. in the scenes when we see her using her company’s money to support animal rights foundations, and when she takes her brother’s children to a farm and then a slaughterhouse, we know she is attempting to do good things, but they end up backfiring because her gestures are too extreme. shannon conveys this through her performance by shifting between humour and drama, even within particular shots. it is often difficult to know whether we’re supposed to be laughing or feeling deeply sympathetic towards peggy. i think this technique is effective especially when peggy ultimately abandons the traditional life she had been living to support her cause entirely at the end of the film. even after she has been rehabilitated and her boss has welcomed her back, she cannot rejoin the life she lived before. i saw this film soon after zoo (a film dealing with real-life zoophiles) and it got me thinking about the spectrums of animal love. year of the dog seemed to me to be the safe side of the spectrum, portraying a woman with a deep emotional connection to her pet, so intense that when he dies, it upsets her entire world, and zoo being the dangerous territory of beastiality. i do not think the relationship portrayed in year of the dog is meant to suggest that peggy is a zoophile; just to perhaps bring to light the idea that the connections some people feel to animals are often more fulfilling than their human interactions. and that the way the men in zoo had to negotiate their regular lives with their love of animals was similar to the way in which peggy negotiates her animal rights beliefs with her existence in a more traditional setting.

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disturbia

director d.j. caruso’s (taking lives) disturbia begins with a car accident that kills kale (shia labeouf)’s father and causes kale to become reclusive and act out in school. an argument with his spanish teacher ends with kale punching him and receiving a punishment of three months under house arrest. he has an ankle monitor attached that allows kale to reach the boundaries of the yard and if he is to go beyond that, the police are immediately dispatched. initially, kale wastes his days playing video games, watching trash tv and eating junk food. his mother (carrie-anne moss) gets frustrated with this behaviour and cuts off all of his entertainment. out of boredom, kale begins spying on his neighbours, including Ashley, a hot teenage girl who spends most of her time lounging poolside, and mr.turner (david morse), a man he suspects to be a serial killer who is all over the news. kale employs the help of ashley and his best friend, ronnie, to do the investigating that he cannot. the parallels to hitchcock’s rear window are unmistakable with shia labeouf’s house-bound kale mirroring jimmy stewart’s wheelchair-bound l.b. jefferies, both of whom become obsessed with an unsolved murder mystery in their own neighbourhoods. however, disturbia does not extend the mystery of the killer’s identity in the way that rear window does. the clues in disturbia are laid out blankly through the television reports and kale realizes that mr.turner is in fact the killer, almost immediately. beyond this point, the tone of disturbia changes and it becomes a fairly standard teen thriller, albeit a suspenseful one.

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hot docs: girls rock!

the world premiere of arne johnson and shane king’s girls rock! was the best screening i attended at hot docs. the film is about a rock n’ roll camp for girls aged eight to eighteen. while at this week-long camp, the girls must choose an instrument (that they may never have played) and form a band with other campers. at the end of the week, all of the bands perform for a large crowd. the film focuses on several campers and follows their progression through learning to play instruments to resolving conflicts with other band members. along with learning to play music, the girls take lessons in self-defense and discuss body image issues as well as pressures they face at school and home. a lot of emphasis is placed on the idea of girls not being afraid to be loud and to express themselves. we witness many of the girls undergo transformations when they lose their initial inhibitions and allow themselves to play loudly, make mistakes, and get sweaty. one of the camp leaders mentions the ways in which girls are taught to be small and quiet in this culture while boys are allowed to be loud, take up space, and get dirty. part of the focus of the camp is working to undo these behaviours in the girls, by providing a space that they feel comfortable and encouraged in. one of the most profound realizations that some of the campers reach is discovering that they are happy with themselves; a quality lacking from many of them when they begin the week. i felt that this documentary worked really well because the girls they interviewed and followed for the week were all very endearing in their own ways and the film approached the difficult subject of teenage girls’ self-confidence through the guise of a music camp, while still addressing a full spectrum of individuals and struggles.

hot docs: zoo

director robinson devor’s zoo depicts through interviews and re-enactments the story of a seattle man’s death in 2005. the man died of a perforated colon due to engaging in intercourse with a horse at a gathering of zoophiles on a washington farm. devor constructs the story out of order, cutting between establishing the psychology of the zoophiles involved and the lead up to the actual event of the man’s death. it was obvious that devor was extremely careful to not pass judgment on this group of people, and to treat the situation delicately. the film portrays these men as misunderstood and somewhat alienated from healthy human connections. we never see the actual people involved, only re-enactments (for privacy reasons i assume), but we do hear their voices in the voice-over. it is nearly impossible to distinguish the voices from one another, giving the sense that they are all speaking as a unified group. much of the film is dark and sets an eerie mood when the events leading up to the death are recounted for us. conversely, when we are hearing some of these men discuss the emotional connections they have with animals (sexual relations are barely mentioned), the cinematography is quite beautiful; a lot of nighttime outdoor shots with vibrantly coloured flowers, trees, etc. i think devor used this technique of two distinct filming styles to visually reinforce the idea of a spectrum of animal love. because much of what the men discuss is emotional connections, it helps us to move beyond the initial shock of the sex to see that it’s not such a simple distinction between zoophiles and everyone else. i thought devor’s cautious treatment of this subject was effective because i left the theatre not focused on the man’s death, but more on the psyches of zoophiles and where exactly i stand on my beliefs about them.

hot docs: dreamworld / my second life

this was the north american premiere of both dreamworld and my second life. jorien van nes’ dreamworld tells the story of patrick, a 30 year old man living in the netherlands who spends most of his time playing second life, the online virtual world that has been gaining popularity recently. he describes creating an online avatar and the process of creating a second life identity. we meet patrick’s wife, danielle, who also spends a great deal of time in second life. cut between this story, are interviews with two other women living in the u.s. one of these women, christine, is patrick’s online girlfriend and he is planning a trip to meet her in real life. his wife also has an online boyfriend and so allows him to make this trip. once patrick arrives in the u.s., we witness how awkward their interactions are. at the end of the weekend, patrick discusses how the trip was not what he expected, while looking clearly disappointed. the films running time was only 30 minutes and i think had it been longer, van nes could have focused more on the implications second life has on the increasingly indistinguishable boundaries between reality and fantasy. while patrick had clearly functional distinct lives in reality, with his wife danielle, and in fantasy, with christine, when he tried to bring his fantasy life into reality, the two did not easily mesh. i think dreamworld is important because it’s one of our first forays into the effects of our culture entering into more and more virtual and online social networks, and as a result moving away from personal and physical interactions.

douglas gayeton’s my second life is the first documentary to be shot entirely in second life. the premise is that a california man named molotov alva went missing and director, gayeton discovered diaries of this man who chose to leave his real world existence behind and “entirely” live in second life. the documentary within a documentary is told from alva’s perspective in what is a problematic conflating of the real and fantasy worlds. granted these concepts are philosophically very interesting, i found gayeton’s approach to be superficial and pretentious. throughout the film, quotes from philosophers and various intellectuals are used to blatantly further these lofty ideas, while not actually expanding upon them, in what seems an attempt to deceive the audience into thinking gayeton is more insightful than he actually is. afterwards, these suspicions were confirmed at the q&a where gayeton came across as highly arrogant about the “truth” of his documentary.

hot docs: girl inside

this world premiere of maya gallus’ girl inside was presented with hell’s grannies at hot docs and was co-presented with the inside out film festival. the film follows twenty-six year-old madison’s male to female transition. this is a fairly typically structured documentary, mostly involving talking heads style interviews edited together with observational footage. a significant part of the film is madison (formerly matt) speaking directly to the camera in a diary style about her experiences with transition. she begins by explaining the incongruity between her biological sex and gender that she felt even as a young child, but how she did not ‘officially’ start transitioning until her early twenties. once given a summary of madison’s progress up to the present of the film, we are aligned with her as she visits several family members for the first time since transitioning, including both parents and her brother and sister. these visits all go relatively well; while still demonstrating a few complications within her family in regards to the transition. the other primary voice in the film is of vivian, madison’s grandmother. we learn that madison left her rural new brunswick home to live with vivian in toronto when she was seventeen without much reason given for the move. vivian functions as madison’s main support through this transition, offering her advice on how to perform as a woman. i found vivian’s perspectives interesting because while she is entirely accepting of madison’s decision, her notions of gender are rigid. she obviously understands that gender is fluid but recognizes the importance of societal cues and expectations for gender. for example, she instructs madison in several scenes on proper behaviour for a woman; like when madison dives into her swimming pool, vivian tells her that ‘isn’t how a girl would dive’. she also gives Madison tips on hairstyling and makeup which seems to be what madison wants; to pass as a woman and be as unremarkable as possible. we witness madison going through hormone treatments, minor surgery to remove her adam’s apple, and the struggles of saving enough money to have the final gender reassignment surgery over the course of the three years that the film spans. during this time, before she’s had the final surgery, madison decides to pursue dating using the internet. dating pre-transition was an issue that i had personally never considered as part of the process. madison chooses not to state online that she is transitioning, but instead decides that if she meets a man who she could potentially be serious with, that she will tell him in person before it does get serious. we don’t see her dates but learn about them through madison’s brief descriptions to vivian; we learn that some were uneventful and she does end up telling a couple men about her transition and while they are both accepting of it, they choose not to continue seeing her. about half way through the transition process, madison and her best friend cameron begin dating which creates an interesting dynamic. a generous amount of time is paid to this relationship in the film; cameron identifies as a straight male and sees madison entirely as female even after being friends with matt for many years. madison makes clear that if she had any doubt that cameron might be gay, their relationship would not work. cameron and madison date for a couple of years before madison can afford the surgery and when she reaches that point, he travels to montreal with her for the surgery. we see post-surgery that madison is obviously happy and that their relationship is doing better given that they can finally have a sexual relationship as well as an emotional one. at the q&a, madison confirmed that they are still together and happy. i found their relationship one of the most interesting parts of the film as they both obviously needed to be completely secure in their own sexualities for the dynamic to work for them. madison also discusses what she describes as her own internalized homophobia being a struggle when deciding to transition and all the way through the process. as a boy, when she had feelings towards another male, she explained that she would repress them because she had internalized the idea that being gay was wrong. so the idea of self-hatred arises and gets complicated in this situation because as madison explains, she never felt like she was attracted to a man as a man, but as a woman. this situation helps to make obvious how psychologically damaging heteronormativity can be; that there are more people willing to acknowledge their gender dysphoria but that there still must be countless others who refuse to come to terms with it. while the film presented an overall positive conclusion, madison made clear at the q&a that this was only her story of transition, and not the exemplary model of a transsexual story. i think it was important that she spoke about the trans organizations in toronto to explain that more work towards understanding needs to be accomplished and how she has met many other people not as lucky as her.

hot docs: hell's grannies

jason gileno’s hells’s grannies was screened with girl inside as part of the canadian spectrum. hell’s grannies is a short documentary, following a group of elderly women who are lead by sybil rampen, 75 who decided as she got older to do something about the rut that often accompanies aging. they create a book of them posing with motorcycles and appear on tv shows. the documentary also follows their trip to port dover for the friday the 13^th biker gathering where they attempt to sell their book and see where they fit in the biker world. the grannies themselves were cute and the film had a positive message of not letting your age determine your behaviour, but overall i felt like it wasn’t very cohesive and after it was over, i was still unclear on whether the grannies actually rode motorcycles. during the q&a, this question was asked and apparently not all of the grannies ride. i got the impression that the film was edited quickly because some of the footage was from about two weeks earlier and would have benefited from more time and a lengthier running time.

hot docs: o amor natural

o amor natural, a brazilian film from 1996 by heddy honigmann, is a series of conversations with elderly brazilian people about the famous poet, carlos drummond de andrade. honigmann asks all those interviewed if they are familiar with his erotic poetry. this collection of poems, titled o amor natural, was published posthumously. andrade was concerned that the poems would be perceived as pornographic. honigmann asks these elderly people to read selected poems for the camera. most scenes of this contain a shot of the person reading a poem while the camera zooms in slowly on their faces. some of the people interviewed offer what they know about andrade, the person. most interesting to me was the man who made his hats; he shows us the two colours of hats that andrade preferred. while we never actually see andrade himself, we begin to create an image of him built from these anecdotes and the poems. several of the people interviewed speak about their own sexual history, providing a surprising look on elderly sexuality, a more or less ignored subject in this culture. as if to emphasize or draw attention to their age, honigmann includes footage of almost every participant commenting on needing their glasses to read the poems. the elderly come across as much less repressed than we often think through the relaxed way the interviewees discuss the poems and in turn, their own sexuality. we can see from the image built that andrade was equally as comfortable with his sexuality, yet due to a perceived sexual repression on the part of the public, his erotic poetry could not be published until after his death.