Tag Archives: film

Documentaries with Depth

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Movie-poster-for-Kedi-documentary-on-Kanopy

I am not so deluded as to think that the majority of people turn to a nice, juicy, critical analysis of a real-life topic in the form of a full-length film on a Friday night. I’m probably in the (very cool, very sophisticated) minority with my love of a good documentary. It’s pretty rare for me to find someone who shares my appreciation for a good talking head. (Not to be confused with the iconic David Byrne band). I have a friend who is my twin in many ways. In fact, we refer to each other as “my twin.” We once spent a night eating tacos, playing Dance, Dance, Revolution, and watching a cult documentary. The classic documentary structure is so ingrained in us that we don’t even notice it anymore. The lower thirds, the montages, the expert talking heads/family members/witnesses/celebrities. Of course, some documentaries do it better than others. The choice of subject is important, to start with. The ones that captivate my attention foray into a completely unexplored topic. Sure, I’ll catch the odd true crime documentary that’s trodding over familiar territory, but those ones have their own, unique appeal. In general, I want to know something I’ve never known before. The following documentaries are in our physical collection or we provide access to them through the Kanopy streaming app. They might not be the most flashy or spectacle-driven media in existence, but if you give one a chance, it might just prompt you to do your own deep dive into the granular detail of reality.

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New York’s Younger Cousin in Film

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Still-from-Serendipity-movie
IMDb

Toronto is perched atop a deep seam of film lore. As you probably know, it’s a city that stands in for other cities. The historic streets coupled with bright, piercing skyscrapers provide a versatile backdrop for all sorts of productions — period and modern alike. Talking with my fellow HOTS Blog team member Royce the other day helped me come up with the idea for this blog post. So, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. Wait. One sec. Let me try that again. Let’s explore Toronto’s history of film production, taking a tour of the spots that are now famous for their inclusion in film and TV. Starting with Serendipity. I have warm, fuzzy memories and the softest of spots for this 2001 rom-com starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack (who coincidentally has a distinctly mullet-like hairdo in this movie). When it premiered, 9/11 had just happened, so it was one of the films that ended up using CGI to remove the Twin Towers after its initial release. The film’s commercial success was affected as well, as people avoided crowded, public places in the aftermath of the attack. It developed a following in the years after, though. Now, it seems to regularly make the cable rounds on weekend evenings, enticing viewers with the promise of well-intentioned twee. And, I mean, Eugene Levy is in it. According to Good Housekeeping, the elevator scene where the pair test whether they are fated to be a couple was actually filmed at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel downtown, not the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Toronto is always pretending to be New York. The latter is like an older cousin who lets you borrow their ID to get into a bar. The reviews for this movie are not great, with a 58% on the Tomatometer. Sometimes you wonder if critics are affected by their moods when they review a film. I understand this kind of thing is not for everyone, but even Ebert wasn’t won over by the combined charisma of two Hollywood stalwarts. I don’t get it. It’s an incredibly light story about two people that have a compulsion toward self-sabotage. (Don’t worry about fate. Ever. Especially when it comes to romance. Life decisions should never be made by an amorphous, hypothetical concept. They should be made by people. Okay, I’m off my soap box now.) To be honest, the most winning element of this movie might be the way it romanticizes New York — an almost otherworldly metropolis with a sheen of fictionality to it. They did film in Toronto, but there’s plenty of shots of the city that never sleeps.

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Film History Books for Cine-Nerds

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Cover-image-for-A-to-Z-Great-Film-Directors-book

My Film Studies courses were some of my favourite classes during my liberal arts degree. Building on a love of movies that’s been with me since I was a kid, I love applying an analytical mindset to the medium. Cinematography techniques, editing terms and styles, the history of silent film, and the invention of the “Talkies.” This juicy knowledge allowed me to better understand the choices writers, directors, and actors make — all of which affect the final product. It turns out we have plenty of books about the history of cinema in our collection. I thought I would share the most intriguing ones for me in the hopes that you are inspired to learn about the avant-gardists and the innovators, the great craftspeople of the movies who have been creating amazing works of art for over a century now. Let us start with some of the best directors that have ever existed. I took out Andy Tuohy’s alphabetically organized, slender reference book A to Z Great Film Directors a year or two ago. I remember savouring the condensed morsels of information on each page. I was familiar with some of the collected auteurs, but more often I had heard their name without knowing much about them at all. As a trivia enthusiast, I was also hoping to find out some tidbits and little-known facts that might come up during Jeopardy. I had to return the book before finishing, stopping somewhere around Hitchcock or Iñárritu. I will get back to this one someday. I’m sure of it. The bright and colourful graphic illustrations of directors make each entry fun and keep you turning the pages.

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