HOT DOCS - "Planet Bboy"

Planet B-Boy (2008) dir. Benson Lee
Documentary

***1/2

There are four core elements to the influential art form known as Hip-Hop:  Rap, DJing, Graffiti, and Bboying (aka breakdancing). Since the late 70’s/early 80’s Rap has come to dominate Hip-Hop leaving the other elements behind and out of the pop culture loop. And while Rap has become a huge money making and marketing machine, the dance form of the culture - Bboying - has gone stayed true to its roots.

Benson Lee’s exhilarating documentary reveals to the average layman the explosive worldwide phenomenon of the underground bboying scene and how the passion for this highly expressive form of art unites youth around the world.

At the top Lee gets the housekeeping done first and quickly. In a fast-paced 5 mins sequence Lee quickly summarizes comprehensively the history of bboying from its origins and influences to its status today. Lee then gets down to the real showcase and the focal point of the film - the annual 'Battle of the Year' competition. Every year Germany holds a bboying competition which sees the 18 of baddest international crews battle it out to be the best in the world. 

Lee criss-crosses the globe at breakneck speed to cover four of the most promising crews competing - Korea, Japan, France, U.S. Each of the dancers from the crews become the characters in the film. The more we learn about the backgrounds of the dancers the more Lee reveals their commonality across their different cultures. Whether it’s a Korean teen who continually seeks the approval of his single father, or a 12 year old French boy whose discovers her mother’s latent racism, Lee, in humourous and emotional ways, shows how the passion to dance, compete, and entertain allow them to rise above the poverty, discrimination or domestic problems in their lives.

In addition to these great characters, Lee captures some of the most phenomenal dancing you will ever see – period. The Battle of the Year begins with a choreography round where the crews perform a routine as a group. As each crew takes the stage we get to witness astounding feats of acrobatics, complex leg, arms and body movements and uniquely creative choreography. The final round is the traditional crew vs. crew battle. The two crews that compete in the end go through a series of jaw-dropping one-manships that had the Hot Docs audience shaking their heads in unison. The results best anything seen on "Dancing With the Stars".

So if bboying is so much fun to watch, why hasn't television hasn’t tapped into this. The dance is inherently a freestyle form of expression, and without traditional rules and conventions mainstream media has never been able to find a way to bottle and package this energy. But the dancers wouldn't have it any other way. Bboys continually push their bodies and minds to the limit because there is no rulebook, no manual to learn from, no school to teach it. It’s still a self-taught discipline and an unruly artistic force of nature.

Go and see this film, it’s currently playing in selected cities in the U.S. and in Canada in May.

Planet B-Boy

HOT DOCS 2008 - "Song Sung Blue"

Song Sung Blue (2008) dir. Greg Kohs
Documentary

**

Mike and Claire Sardina are easy targets for documentary treatment. Over the past 17 years the duo have become local Milwaukee celebs performing as a Neil Diamond/Patsy Cline cover band under the moniker “Lighting and Thunder”. Both are those celebrity-wannabes that live for the limelight no matter how dull or dim that light is. The Milwaukee cover band scene is small enough but their semi-cult following has given them dreams of grandeur.

The duo reaches their height of success when they play to over 30,000 people at a Pearl Jam concert with Eddie Vedder. But when a random accident cripples Claire, their energy to perform is diffused causing a serious rupture in their domestic bliss. With the band defunct Mike and Claire’s lives devolve into passionless existence. The film goes through the usual rise and fall and rise again path.

Its people like Mike and Claire that made the wonderful HBO series “Flight of the Conchords” so enjoyable. Lighting and Thunder (their given names are rarely used) are like Jemaine and Bret - they are so naïve to the realities of show business, yet they perform every show with every ounce of their limited talents. Usually these average Joes with hearts of gold makes for good viewing, and some rave reviews would suggest I'm in the minority, but Lighting and Thunder, their joie de vivre aside, are mildly interesting people at best.

Director Greg Kohs is a little sloppy in his storytelling, the film is cut together with a vast amount of what looks like home video footage shot by either Lighting, Thunder or their kids. Greg never establishes a timeline. And so the only reference to date becomes their fashion and hairstyles. Eddie Vedder’s appearance grounds the backstory to the mid 90’s, other than that is a slightly confusing journey.

Director Kuhs over-embellishes the ugliness of the film. The opening scene features Mike’s crotch and his droopy briefs framed as he sets up the camcorder for a confession. He then puts his face so close to the lens his black pores look like saucers. It’s just one example of many where Kuhs consciously uses the ugliest footage of his characters to generate either humour or sympathy. His mixture of tape quality ranges from Americas Funniest Home Videos rejected footage to passable quality sit down interviews. In the second half of the film Kuhs eats up screen time shooting lengthy and banal kitchen conversations with the Sardina family. Claire’s kids become key characters as the film moves along but their actions only adds to the exploited ugliness of small town America. Kuhs even shows us the screaming birth footage of Claire’s soon-to-be-given-up-for-adoption granddaughter.

All of this extraneous footage had me asking why? Kuhs seems to be passing time to get to his impossibly poignant finale when Eddie Vedder enters the saga once again with a gift which couldn’t have been written better in a feature film. This great life-fulfilling moment almost makes this long ugly journey worth it.

HOT DOCS 2008 - "All Together Now"

All Together Now (2008) dir. Adrian Wills
Documentary

***1/2

Toronto's Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival is underway, this is the first of several reviews over the next week

One of the hottest attractions in Las Vegas right now is the Cirque du Soleil show, “Love”, a Beatles-inspired extravaganza of music, light and colour. While documenting the staging of the show, Canadian filmmaker Adrian Wills is somehow allowed unprecedented access to the world’s most spectacular performance team and the world’s most legendary band. With the access, time and tools at his disposable Wills perfectly visualizes the marrying of these great artists with thoroughly entertaining results.

Talking head interviews, shot in crisp and clean High Definition, are combined with verite camera footage backstage of the Cirque production to tell the story of how these two forces got together. We learn it was the brainchild of the late George Harrison who first approached Cirque founder Guy Laliberté. Since the Beatles music is so preciously handled the Cirque artists inevitably have to get approval of the Beatles themselves and their surviving families. Paul, Ringo, Yoko Ono and Harrison’s widow Olivia,and  producer George Martin all become intimately involved in the show. In fact Martin and his son Giles go back into the studio and remix all the songs from scratch to create a 'live-like' experience specifically for the show.

Early on the Cirque producers fear the committee approach might cause more harm than good and so the whole show is approached with some trepidation. If anything is missing from the film it's the drama and tension which invariable would come from the butting of artistic heads. But surprisingly there is very little conflict. At one point Yoko Ono gives some creative feedback, which prompts director Dominic Champagne to proclaim that Yoko hates it, but other than that it’s smooth sailing. The film never turns into a puff piece though. Beyond the spectacle, it's a story of family and how the business of the Beatles has been passed down to the next generation. Wills concentrates of his characters despite them being some of the most familiar people in the world. Is there anything to know about the Paul or Ringo we haven’t learned in countless interviews, books, or documentaries? No, but we get to hear some of the wonderful anecdotal stories straight from the horses mouth often in intimate unencumbered settings.

With the aid of some long lenses and great microphone placement, Wills is both invisible and omnipresent at the same time - fly-on-the wall filmmaking at it’s best. Wills catches McCartney reminiscing with Ringo and George Martin alone during rehearsals. Wills zooms in to catch George Martin 'air-conducting' his own music while hearing the first test sound mix in the theatre. We even catch Paul singing along to his own songs!

Wills give the audience exactly what they want to see. In the Hot Docs Q&A he explains that the film wouldn't be worth doing unless he got Paul, Ringo, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and George Martin involved. Everyone is there and Wills gives everyone ample screentime. We also get to see a great summarized version of the final stage performance. The film 10 minutes is a condensed version of the show using several camera angles, intercut with Paul and Ringo’s reactions to the show.

But Wills' secret weapon which can do him no wrong is the Beatles’ music, which is wall-to-wall throughout the film. The music still gives me chills when I hear certain songs, but when combined with the awesome visual beauty of the Cirque du Soleil artistry it makes for an awe-inspiring experience. Enjoy.