Tuesday, April 26, 2005

last day of iffb

Ok. On Sunday I saw the following films:

A Whale of a Tale - Canadian director Peter Lynch's sprawling documentary about his journey tracing the origins of a whale bone that was found by a construction worker in Toronto in 1988. The film is more about the director's personal quest to discover how the bone got there. It is a funny tale of obsession and history.

The Future of Food - Deborah Koons Garcia's documentary on the history of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) and their impact on the environment. She brings you up to date on the history of the debate. In fact, it has been used less in the classroom and more by farmers all over the world (Indonesia, France, India...) to educate themselves on the nature of these crops and current patent law. Although it really did feel like a horror film to me at times, it is an important and well thought out documentary. She give you some suggestions as to how you can work to change the situation, different models of farming and farmer's markets etc. for more information check: http://www.thefutureoffood.com/
and also: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/

The Fall of Fujimori - an unprecedented look at Alberto Fujimori's reign in Peru during the 1990s, I can't believe how close the director got to her subjects. A very scary film. One thing of note is that this primarily focusses on Fujimori's family -- rarely are any Peruvian citizens allowed to explain their perspective on the situation from a local level, this is probably the single most glaring fault of the film.

Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story - light, silly comedy starring Rob Corddry from the Daily Show. I needed some levity after a day of informative but scary documentaries.

No comments: