15TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL 2018
KOLYMA - ROAD OF BONES
Watchable. The place of former gulags (labour camps) where nowadays Donetsk refugees are relocated to their amusement. Most inhabitants however claim it their home - poor but theirs. The film succeeds in presenting differing views on the past. 80% of prisoners were genuine criminals and they get their say too. The area is not as gruesome as it appears to the Polish/German documentalist. After all, like one of the interviewees notices, the whole world is built on ashes. The film shows also the climate e.g. frozen foods dealt in a market and its peculiar inhabitants. It gives too much space to those quirky individuals.
LAND OF THE FREE
Watchable. It's an engulfing and intimate portrait of 3 ex-convicts and their families, yet it doesn't break the ground. Apparently 3 out of 4 ex-cons in LA reoffend and it's a huge problem in the US. One interesting detail is a convict's girlfriend wearing "S" like in "Superman" in a brief scene - she truly is a superwoman sorting all daily life issues as she can't rely on him even when he's free. A very pleasant watching without anything you wouldn't have known or expected already. However, the project's going to continue for another 12 years and I'd love to find out how life works out for the protagonists over time. Hoping to see the sequel in the future.
GENERATION WEALTH
Recommended. Worth seeing at least for the astounding excess the rich live in. Fascinating stories are there too. And a chance to see pictures of Kate Hudson and Kim Kardashian when they were 12 and bragging about their parents' wealth and status. It states affluenza occurs where traditional culture is lost. Then money gives a new life direction.
SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Recommended. Makes you very emotional as it plays all the most famous tracks of the greatest movie score composers including my personal number one - John Williams - as well as Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and a number of others. John Williams calls his simple yet catchy notes the grammar of the movie. You learn that Hans Zimmer played the keyboard in the "Video Killed the Radio Star" video. I'm sure now I'm going to listen to movies more. John Cameron's talking about the "Titanic" score over the credits.
ANOTE'S ARK
Watchable. So much can be done to save the population of the sinking archipelago of Kiribati: huge Australia or vast New Zealand could take them in or a Japanese corporation could build an artificial archipelago. Unfortunately before President Anote managed to get any international commitment, a new party came into power in his homeland Kiribati and the policy got drowned in politics. Very informative yet the political layer is much more to the topic than the family story illustrating the great issue.
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