We continued our prowling of Silverdocs yesterday, taking in another three documentaries (two of which had accompanying short docs before them.) We saw:
- When Bubbles Burst: Yet another take on the financial crisis. The frame of this one was interesting — residents of a small Norwegian town, Vik, invested the next ten years of their town’s hydroelectric earnings in financial junk, leading the town to fiscal ruin. Two residents of Vik travel to the States, to find out what the financial crisis looks like from our perspective. While the initial parts of the film were wonderfully shown – the views of Vik, the devastation of Detroit – the film lost its focus as the Vik folk were left behind, and the coverage expanded to Greece, Spain, etc.
- It Ain’t Over: This short documentary was a beautifully filmed piece about a pastor with ALS. His narration was touching, and there’s a twist to his story that was striking. Ultimately, though, the shortness of the piece was unsatisfying. (Gee. I’m not a big fan of short stories, either.)
- The Waiting Room. One of the best docs we’ve seen – a day in the life of the waiting room of a public hospital in Oakland, CA. This film puts individual human stories at the front of the health crisis — staff and patients both. This was an easy “5″ on the 5-point rating system.
- The Middle of Nowhere: This short documentary was another beautifully filmed piece — a class of very young Scottish children play in the woods. The kids’ dialog was funny and their imaginative play was fun to watch, but ultimately, I felt like there was very little there there. My favorite was the little boy who was “driving the truck” to feed the animals — “the giraffes eat leaves so I give them leaves and the lions… the lions like prowling around, so I give them prowling around lessons…”
- Drivers Wanted: This documentary by two first-time film-makers shows a real-life taxi garage (a la the TV show “Taxi”). The various owners and drivers are real characters, and the film was anchored by a new Chinese driver who learns the ropes. Alas, the sound on this one was not great; many of the speakers were hard to understand already (given accents and age), and the sound quality was a deficit.
All in all, we are continuing to have a *wonderful* time. The worst of the films we’ve seen still rated a solid “3″, and we’re learning a lot about documentaries. Also, the people attending the festival (both those in the “business” and we peons) are very casual, laidback folks – we feel like we’re in our element.
More films today/tonight – we’ll report back!
Mindy, still learning
Mirrored from Mindy Klasky, Author.