Due to personal family reasons, sadly I was unable to attend the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in person (like I did last year), but with the advent of modern technology, I was able to review the documentary section from the comfort of my sofa in Dublin. This year I was allocated a brand new competitive section entirely devoted to documentaries, and consisting of 11 films.
These were the three big award winners:
…
.
An overview
The depth of these features ranged from industrial to holistic, hagiographic to horticultural, and introspective to indolent. Individually, every work spoke its truth, but collectively, the series allowed viewers to have a deeper sense of civilisation. In many ways, this genre is the most honest form of filmmaking, because it is the one that peers most pertinently at life around the camera.
The films in question were largely strong, and the two finest works veered outside the confines of the mainstream, developing well-rounded epistles to human endeavours. The weakest flitted from timid to lightweight, and the most daring (audacious, even) meant that at worst they were noble failures, and best invigorating works of cinema.
.
Striking gold
And out of the 10 I got to see, Black Gold proved to be the most rewarding, both on an intellectual and emotional level. A snapshot of a lifestyle heartily different to the one commonly enjoyed by Westerners, this Portuguese film demonstrated the possibilities that exists for humans searching for a more holistic, spiritual life. Big winner The Watchman was another yearning work, that of fatherly love to his son. Freight (Switzerland, Max Carlo Kobal) received the second highest rating after Black Gold, largely because it showcased life at sea in a manner that was observational and fragile. With My Open Lungs (German, Yana Sad) was also very strong. The doc peered at cancer, no hollow metaphor, but an illness battled by a woman against the backdrop of the Ukraine invasion.
Less successful ventures were Trains (Poland and Lithuania, Maciej J. Drygas) – an impasto of footage pieced together of locomotives – and Ice Aged (Germany, Alexandra Sell), a strangely lightweight depiction of ageing in a modern world. Murmuring Hearts had its fair share of issues, but the cinematography (collating colours of every spectrum) was exemplary, which is why it deserved the award in that category.
.
Other riches
If Black Gold proved to be the strongest feature, then Full Support (Israel, Michael Cohen) stands at the opposite end of the spectrum, a fairly anodyne commentary about bra sizes. That said, what it lacked in intellectual posturing, it did somewhat make up for in its progressive depiction of trans women. Minorities need to be seen on the big screen, in the hope that they can inspire people from the same class to prosper as individuals.
And then there’s Ms President (Slovakia, Marek Sulik), navigating a woman’s work leading her country. Whether it will inspire more females to take up political positions is a question that cannot be answered at this time, but there’s no denying the fact that nations can be served well with a person who is not a man. Documentaries serve to illustrate the viewer’s reality, and with any luck, they can inspire a new generation to change the flow of industry and politics.
Amendment
Since the initial publication of this piece, I reviewed Never Too Late (China,Lizhu Yang) a feature that blended the antiquated with the modern through that most human of grievances: divorce. This work peers at China in a style that is rich in pathos, although the camera setups are bland at times.
Loading ...
