Posts tagged tiff

Review: I’m Carolyn Parker

Meet Carolyn S. Parker: 

A friendly, welcoming and observational woman whose passion for her home and community in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans led to an angry and powerful speech at a meeting about the recovery plan after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

After being told about plans to buy out residents and knock down the Lower Ninth, one of the worst hit areas, Carolyn S. Parker is mad as hell, and she lets them know about it. “I don’t think it’s right that you try to take my property. “Over my dead body. I didn’t die with Katrina.”  

Director, Jonathan Demme headed out to New Orleans just after Katrina struck and there he met Carolyn Parker. He follows her quest to rebuild her home, her local church and get the community back together. You get to see her impassioned speech at that notorious meeting, fall in love with her and learn about the impact that political decisions had on her life.

Demme successfully shows the viewer an intimate portrayal of how Katrina impacted Carolyn’s family and the reasons why her home is so important to her. Carolyn Parker is a force to be reckoned with and watching her in action is an inspirational and emotional journey.

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Kat

Review: Monsters Club

Seventy percent manifesto style monologue, poetry and longwinded explanations about existence; thirty percent striking images. A man lives a secluded existence in a cabin in the wilderness, writing his manifesto and sending letter-bombs to large corporations in his bid against a shifting society.

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Review: Pearl Jam Twenty

Producer, Editors and Eddie Vedder at TIFF 11 screening

A band born out of tragedy and the story that led to their much deserved place in music history and on-going success is told with such a wise and passionate hand by the editors (Kevin Klauber and Chris Perkel) and director Cameron Crowe it is hard not to feel nostalgic for the Seattle scene that spawned Pearl Jam.

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Review: Killer Elite

Action movies get a tough time from critics, and sometimes unfairly so, but I can wholeheartedly say this piece of crap deserves every negative review it gets. Director, Gary McKendry came along to introduce his film and quipped about a reviewer who stated “this is exactly the kind of film that shouldn’t be shown at TIFF” – oh how we all laughed! Then the film began and quite quickly the realisation that the above statement couldn’t have been more accurate dawned upon the audience.

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Review: Mr Tree

On one level this is a strange and affecting look into the mouth of madness; the world seen through the eyes of a man named Shu. On another, this is an interesting social commentary that delves into the urbanisation of China’s rural villages and the overwhelming reality that the country is shifting into a modern behemoth of money and power.  Director Han Jie is confident and clear when delivering his portrait of the evolving landscape in china.

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