RIDM 2013: Le Semeur - The Sower

LE SEMEUR - THE SOWER

PRODUCTION TEAM:

PRODUCTION: JULIE PERRON

CINEMATOGRAPHY: GEOFFROY BEAUCHEMIN, SAMI MERMER, ALEX MARGINEANU, FRANÇOIS VINCELETTE
EDITING: MICHEL GIROUX, ALEXANDRE LEBLANC
SOUND: CLAUDE BEAUGRAND, FRANCINE POIRIER
LANGUAGE: FRENCH
SUBTITLES: ENGLISH
COUNTRY: QUEBEC
YEAR: 2013
RUNTIME: 80 MIN
CONTAC: CLOTILDE VATRINET, LES FILMS DU 3 MARS, COORDINATION@F3M.CA

RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

"He likes beets, especially hardy varieties that can stand up to a strong wind. He admires independence in a plant. He looks over his carrots with the same patience and meticulousness as he harvests seeds from his squash. Sometimes, he dreams about a certain cherry tree whose genetic legacy he wants to preserve and spread. Not to mention his pride in his Polish rutabagas. Patrice Fortier isn’t crazy, he’s just seriously passionate about his work. Living on his company farm, Société des plantes, in the Kamouraska Valley, he is preserving and propagating rare and forgotten seeds in order to restore vitality and variety to our agricultural heritage. Directed by Julie Perron with uncommon elegance and assurance, Le semeur gives us a fascinating taste of Fortier’s intensely lived days."

This is a truly inspirational film. Patrice Fortier's determination and vision of preserving the heritage seeds is remarkable. He was not born a farmer. Originally, he was a city dweller and an artist. But then he drastically changed his life and moved to the rural Quebec and began farming in order to propagate the heirloom seeds. 

Although farming requires a lot of work and stamina, the film also captures the playful and poetic moments, as well as Patrice's light sense of humour, and especially his visceral approach to his work and the pleasure he finds in it. It also shows how farming is a source of inspiration for his unique artistic expression. Yet alongside the works of art that he creates apart from his farming, the film appears to state that the process of seeds cultivation and preservation is indeed a creative process, an art form in itself, an artistic installation in progress.

Click on the image to enlarge

The film shows what can be accomplished by a single person with a big vision and a lot of willpower. In our modern world of mono-cultures, the variety of produce is quickly disappearing. The abundance of plants that nature created and people had cultivated for hundreds of years is now rapidly fading into oblivion. The personal mission of Patrice Fortier is to slow down this process and to bring more variety in food and plants back, to make them once again available for all and for the future generations to come.

The cinematographic aspects of the film are precise, well defined and help bring forth the story and the main premisses of the film. The film successfully tells us what it is to have a desire to properly manage the riches that nature had provided to us all so freely, and portrays the efforts and action needed to save and reclaim those riches for the benefit of all.

Patrice's words at a launch party after the projection of the film said it all: "I really want to preserve the seeds!"

Patrice Fortier's  La société des plantes website:

http://www.lasocietedesplantes.com

Although the website is only in French, Patrice speaks English. So do not hesitate to get in touch with him should you be interested in his heritage seeds, his art, or other activities he is offering. The contact information is on the website.

RIDM 2013: Ariel

PRODUCTION TEAM:

PRODUCTION: SARAH SPRING, SELIN MURAT, NATHALIE CLOUTIER, LAURA BARI

CINEMATOGRAPHY: LAURA BARI

EDITING: LAURA BARI

SOUND: STÉPHANE BERGERON

LANGUAGE: SPANISH
SUBTITLES: FRENCH

COUNTRY: Quebec

YEAR: 2013
RUNTIME: 96 MIN

CONTACT: DISTRIBUTION ÉLISE LABBÉ, OFFICE NATIONAL DU FILM DU CANADA, FESTIVALS@ONF.CA

RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

"In her first film, Antoine, Laura Bari explored the world from the perspective of a blind boy. Ariel continues her impressionistic, ethereal approach to film as it delves into the unique perceptions of people with unusual bodies. Ariel is a man haunted by the memory of his legs, lost in a mechanical accident when he was 33. He is consumed with a quest to design and build his own prostheses so that he can walk again. Ariel is Laura Bari’s brother, and she filmed his ten years of struggle and transformation. Direct cinema meets poetry, storytelling and music, and a metaphorical story emerges: a dark fate redeemed by the brilliance of imagination."

The film features a personal drama, both psychological and physical, of trying to cope with a disability. Despite all the down times as well as family problems Ariel goes through, there is always a hope driving him forward, an inner force that makes him to endure all the difficulties and disappointments as well as pain. His motivational strength lies in his desire to walk again, to design and build for himself the perfect and simple leg prosthesis not requiring any electrical input and sensing elements. After many trials and failures, he finally succeeds to produce and try out the first working model.

The film delves not only into the physical context of Ariel's personal struggle and aspirations, but also ventures into the world of his dreams in almost a metaphysical manner. It examines Ariel's invisible inner energy and force through his imagination and internal synbols. After quite a few years, his struggle, inventiveness, dreams and perseverance bring Ariel to the point when he finally walks.

Since the film presents several sequences of Ariel's dreams, to a certain degree the division between the reality and his inner world of the imaginary symbology looses a definitive edge. Because of that, it is hard to fully grasp as what is actually taking place at the very end of the film. This is due especially to the fact that the scene captures, unbeknown to the viewer, some very unusual circumstances of a solar eclipse. It is also filmed on top of a hill or a mountain with a labyrinth-like design on the ground made of rocks. In addition, huge dark clouds roll rapidly over the terrain with what appears to be an unrealistic speed. All of this causes the scene to take on an unreal sense, as if inside an Ariel's dream sequence. Consequently, when Ariel is shown to be actually walking amongst many stomping dances, it tends to be interpreted as part of his dream.

It was only after the film's projection when the director of the film Laura Bari explained to the audience the real circumstances of the filming, that it became clear this was a real sequence, and the ambiguity was dissolved. But Lora Bari would not be present after each screening of her film to explain this to the audience. So the ending might be the film's weak point. Many spectators might walk out of the cinema without knowing what a real accomplishment had just been shown on the screen since they might even assume the ending was simply a dream and somehow artistically contrived and enhanced purely for the film's art sake. Yet Ariel's accomplishment of taking those steps was so real and so magnificent that the ending should not have had any ambiguity about it. The film could have continued for just a little bit longer to make it completely clear to every viewer that yes, indeed, Ariel had succeeded!

In case the film has an ending which is not crystal-clear because of Ariel's ensuing difficulties and struggles, this type of thinking is not valid since his future problems could have been made into a subject of a follow-up film. Yet Ariel's accomplishment in this film to take those steps was so great that it should have been made and honoured to its fullest as a perfectly clear reality, without any possible doubts in any spectator's head. 

Film's Trailer:

Ariel bande annonce

RIDM 2013: Bloody Daughter

Bloody Daughter

PRODUCTION TEAM:

PRODUCTION: PIERRE-OLIVIER BARDET, LUC PETER

CINEMATOGRAPHY: STÉPHANIE ARGERICH, LUC PETER
EDITING: VINCENT PLUSS
SOUND: MARC VON STRÜLER

LANGUAGE: FRENCH, ENGLISH
SUBTITLES: FRENCH, ENGLISH

COUNTRY: FRANCE, SWITZERLAND

YEAR: 2012
RUNTIME: 96 MIN

CONTACT: PRODUCTION NATHALIE MULLER, IDÉALE AUDIENCE, MULLER@IDEALE-AUDIENCE.FR

RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

"At the age of 8, pianist Martha Argerich performed Mozart and Beethoven concertos for the public. At 16, she won the most prestigious music competitions. Today, some consider her the greatest living pianist. What’s it like to be the daughter of a goddess? The youngest of Martha’s daughters, Stéphanie Argerich (from Martha’s third marriage, with Stephen Kovacevich, another great classical pianist), directed this intimate portrait of her mother and the Argerich clan. It isn’t easy to find your place in a family full of great talents, nor to reconcile motherhood and artistic passion. This insider’s portrait of an unusual artist, who has always carefully guarded her privacy, is not uniformly happy, but it is always deeply moving."

The film is a sensitive portrayal of the renown pianist Martha Algeritch made by her youngest daughter Stephanie Algerich. Martha Algerich comes across as a real person with personal vulnerabilities and peculiarities, rather than a distant stage persona we have seen at concerts or on posters and other promotional materials. It is amazing that she actually agreed to be seen publicly on the screen at her intimate moments such when waking up in her bed or having a stage fright just before a concert. This creates a really interesting narrative, through which one discovers the personality of this extremely talented Diva, and learns how rather unassuming and simple she is in real life.

The film does not attempt to focus on or explain the scope of the talent and power of Martha Algerich's art as a pianist. It rather explores the family relationships and situations and lets the viewer to discovers the real Martha Algerich through family dynamic, especially through her interaction with her three daughters, each a result of a different relationship or marriages.  Every daughter is given a chance to express her personal perception of her famous mother, allowing the real Martha Algerich portrait to come alive. Yet the film is mainly about the relationship Stephanie Algerich, the creator of the film, has with her mother and also with her father Stephen Kovacevich, the last husband of Martha Algerich and also a remarkable concert pianist.

Bloody Daughter English Trailer

RIDM 2013: Finding Vivian Maier

Finding Vivian Maier

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Production: Charlie Siskel, John Maloof
Cinematography: John Maloof
Editing: Aaron Wickenden
Sound: Scott Palmer, Steve Lynch
Language: English

Contact: Michael Boyuk, Films We Like, mike@filmswelike.com
United States, 2013, 84 min.

RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

 "Sometimes, a seemingly innocuous event, for example a storage auction, can shake the art world. If a dogged amateur historian (John Maloof, who also co-directed this film) hadn’t purchased a certain box full of negatives, one of the 20th century’s great photographers might have remained completely unknown. Vivian Maier lived a simple life as a nanny, and she was an intensely reserved and private person. When she died in 2009, she left behind some 100,000 street photographs, many of them truly remarkable. This unknown, slightly disturbing and supremely talented artist left behind a priceless legacy, while also carrying plenty of enigmas to the grave — enough to enthral anyone who watches this gripping art thriller."

This film masterfully incorporates a sense of intrigue and suspense into the searching for an identity and personality of a woman who was a true artist but did not claim or struggled for the artistic recognition she trully deserved during her life. Were it not for John Maloof's chance encounter with her work at an auction, her photographic art would be still undiscovered and most likely lost forever.

Vivian Maier's photography featured in this film is truly remarkable. The images she captured have timeless quality, regardless of the fact they are dated by the specific time when they were taken and even by clothing people wore at the time. Why timeless? Because they capture the essence of a person, the unique emotion, grimace, disposition, or a personal struggle, suffering and even love. Each shot is masterfully delineated, it seems not requiring any additional picture cropping or trompe l'oeil enhancements as freely done now in the contemporary photography. The photo-frame of pictures she was shooting appears perfect from the start, the way they were originally captured by her camera on a celluloid photographic film. 

This documentary film raises a question: what is an authentic art in photography: the masterful picture taking itself or the technical process of picture printing and even self promotion involved in order to become a recognized artist? It is stated in the film that she is not being shown in the museums because she herself has not developed many of the films and has not produced the photo prints herself. However, let's keep in mind that many well renown medieval painters have not painted their canvases entirely by themselves, but had a number of students and helpers in their ateliers - workshops who executed many of the required tasks in the production of a painting. Yet those masterpieces are cherished and attributed to only one painter and are displayed in the museum with only his name.

Vivian Maier was a remarkable photographer. It is worthwhile to discover her as an artists and also a person, to become knowledgeable about her work, her remarkable artistic and photographic vision, her skills of capturing fleeting street moments and making then durable by endowing them with her personal and very private perception and sensibility.

Finding Vivian Maier - Official Movie Trailer

 

RIDM 2013: Magnetic Reconnection

MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Production: Kyle Armstrong
Cinematography: Kyle Armstrong
Editing: Kyle Armstrong
Sound: Jim O'Rourke, Kyle Armstrong
Language: English with French subtitles

Contact: Kyle Armstrong, kylesmacbook@gmail.com
Canada, 2012, 13 min.

 
RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

"Filmed on the outskirts of Churchill, Manitoba, Magnetic Reconnection makes breathtaking viewing. A narrator (musician and actor Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy) and the atmospheric music of Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth) take us on a poetic reflection about the power of nature and the illusion of progress. Superimposing sublime images of the aurora borealis on industrial carcasses scattered on the tundra, Magnetic Reconnection takes a paradoxical look at our relationship with nature and technology. While decomposing film underscores our own illusion of progress, it is a cutting-edge experimental camera that captures the ephemeral beauty of the luminous sky."

This film is at times mesmerizing to watch. It captures the magnificent Northern Lights, with colour display changing tones and even hues, flaring and dancing across the Manitoba northern skies.

This powerful display of nature, full of beauty and magnetism, which repeats itself over and over again with unceasing majesty, is juxtaposed in the film to the men's deteriorating accomplishments: a crashed plane, and a nearby decommissioned, scientific-military installation, which some time studied the the northern lights, trying to find its secrets and how to use its power for war-related purposes. The human image in the film appears more as a silhouette. As if a flat form, somewhat powerless in comparison to the nature's power displayed, and the nature's purpose, renewal and even permanence when compared to the human lifespan.

A narrative is offered to the viewer, yet the images often speak louder than the words. It is amazing that in only 13 short minutes the director was able to present comprehensively such a complex and fundamental issue of our modern human existence.

Film's Trailer

RIDM 2013: Lisa, Go Home!

LISA, GO HOME!

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Director: Oksana Buraja
Cinematography: Kristina Serekajte
Editing: Oksana Buraja
Sound: Giedrius Aleknavicius
Production: Uljana Kim
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Lithuania / Estonia, 2012, 28 min. 

RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS:

"As the title suggests, little Lisa is always running away. Her life is dismal and violent, so she takes refuge in nature, where she creates a fantasy world where games, music and magic reign. Her imagination is so fertile, she is able to survive the endless drinking binges going on at home. What is most remarkable about this sensitive, poetic short film is that it gets to the heart of a terrible situation without surrendering to its darkness. The film has no pretensions to sociological rigour, only a desire to capture the adult world through innocent eyes as faithfully as possible. Like Lynne Ramsay’s early films, this short has earned a place among the most beautiful films ever made about childhood."

Lisa is eight years old. Though inhabiting the same house, she lives in a completely different universe from that of her parents and their friends. In the adult's' reality there is the drinking, squabbling, shouting, loud beat music, sexually suggestive clothing and dancing. But in Lisa's inner world reign melodious harmonies, nature, peace, beauty, and purity. It is a universe to which her parents have no recourse and which they do not understand. They scold her repeatedly for being distant, enclosed in herself, for running away from home. Her mother demands over and over again to explain where she went, but Lisa is dumb on this subject. She cannot and would not explain why she needs to ran away from her mother's reality, and what it is she finds in her own inner universe that she holds so steadfast inside herself. She is completely mesmerised by what she sees in the nature and by nature mysteries, and senses that the adults around her have no understanding of such things. Lisa's dream is to climb a tall mountain, to reach that world of beauty she is seeking, to be in it, to be there not only by herself but together with her family with in the real world she feels a disconnect. 

Lisa, go home! is a beautifully made, sensitive, short documentary film. It poses a question: Where is the real home of this little girl? Does she simply withdraw into an imaginary world of her own, or does she actually connect to some spiritual realities she cannot share with anybody around her?

Film's Excerpts:

http://www.oneworld.cz/2013/films-a-z/23298-lisa-go-home