Hot Docs: Interview with GHOST BIRD director Scott Crocker

Scott Crocker’s marvellous film “Ghost Bird” got its World Premiere this week at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto. The story of the rediscovery of the ‘holy grail’ for birdwatchers, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and the effect of the rediscovery on the dying town of Brinkley, Arkansas. Crocker makes parallels of our development of the natural habitat which caused the bird’s extinction and the sad irony of the downfall of these once developing towns. With it’s mix of humour and dramatic poignancy, the film is one of the better docs I’ve seen this festival.

I had a chance to talk to Scott about his film:

DFD: How you first came to the subject matter of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker?

Scott: This is the story which crossed over from the birding population into the wider media because it was such an amazing and astounding discovery. It was presumed extinct for 60 years or so and while people had made claims of sightings, none had been confirmed. And so when they finally confirmed in 2005 at a press conference in Washington DC every one just sat up and were amazed. And so the story went from the science section to the front page of the newspapers. That’s when I saw it. Since I’m a fiction and documentary filmmaker I just found the ingredients of it kind of amazing and interesting - almost in an absurdist way. All these people trouncing through swamps to find this giant woodpecker. It had the ingredients of a Samuel Beckett play as well.

DFD: I had never heard of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Had you heard of the bird? Do you have a background in birding?

Scott: My background is in anthropology. I come to my subjects more through a cultural lens rather than, in this case, from a birding background. What appealed to me was the multidimensional nature of the story. Not only the Woodpecker and its rediscovery but the town, the scientists, their work, the birding population and how they were just elated in the rediscovery in this species. Many of these birders had read about it as kids and lived their whole lives thinking they’d never see it, and then to wake up one day to read in the paper that it was alive and well in eastern Arkansas. They couldn’t have been happier. All those things just kind of rung true and appealed to me. And having made a previous documentary in the south, I had an affection for the people and the culture.

DFD: I often find good documentaries are about people obsessed with the minutiae of things. And me, not knowing anything about the Woodpecker, this is how I saw it at the beginning. Gradually as I learned more about the species and more and the history of the town .The world got larger for me. Is that how you saw it?

Scott: Yeah, when I started working on the story it was in Dec 2005, so it was before the real scepticism about whether the bird had been found or not had been made public. It was being felt in the hearts and minds of some scientists but no one had published anything yet. The public had yet to confront that angle of the story, so my principal interest partly had to do with the obsessed nature of the birders. They cultivate this uncanny ability to recognize species with the smallest amount of information. That’s kind of the sign of a great birder is their ability literally identify something from the corner of their eye, because they know how it flies, the habitat it lives in and other identifying features. And as soon as you snap your fingers they’ve identified it. So that level of intense focus and obsession was one of things that appealed to me.

DFD: It seems ironically that that was what caused the trouble, because there’s another bird exactly like the Ivory-Billed. Do you think obsessiveness of the birders caused all this controversy?

Scott: It was the monkey wrench in the hole. The Piliated Woodpecker (which looks very similar to the Ivory-Billed) persists in the same area. In fact you could find them in Tacoma Washington to Arkansas to the east coast. It’s a bird with much wider spread population than the Ivory-Billed ever had. Piliated was sort of the centrepiece around which the controversy started once people started questioning what were they seeing. And going back to idea of the snapshot of something in their minds eye and calling it a species, this is called GISS, which in the birding world stands for General Impression Size and Shape – and the quicker you can do that the better the birder you are as long as you can confirm it. What became an issue here is any of these sightings were birds in flight and glimpsed at various distances. I believe it was Tim Gallagher recounting his sighting of the bird, the distance kept getting a bit closer each time he told the story, if you see a bird and you’re not sure if its 60 feet or 40 feet, that’s the difference in size between the Piliated and the Ivory-Billed. You think its 40 feet and its really 60, if there was an Ivory-Billed there you could misidentify it for a piliated and the reverse is true. So that can trigger too, at least for the sceptics, the toolbox of issues it brought up.

DFD: Talk about the parallel of the dying town with the extinction of the bird. I think those two go hand in hand and makes a great throughline for the film.

Scott: I’m really glad you picked up on that. It was a parallel that I felt and wanted to articulate and bring across in a meaningful way, because in the town’s hope of this bird being out there also hope of their own resurrection. So there was a second coming of the bird and the town. Because Brinkley had once been a somewhat majestic town. I believe it was the Rhode Island Line Railroad that ran through there before it went bankrupt and the Union Pacific perhaps. They crossed paths right there in Brinkley. It was a major train switching area and it brought a lot of commerce to the region. And the main highway also ran through Brinkley. But when the Interstate came though people stopped driving through Brinkley proper and when the one railroad went bust the town started to see its fortunes diminish further. And it’s been kind of the same story for a lot of small rural towns in America. The role of interstate and big box stores like Walmart, Target and this development has really diminished the futures of these small cities. It’s been really kind of tragic. So there is this diminishing of local culture along with a sort of natural world that surrounds it. And the two paths are really interconnected. It asks questions about sustainability. Where there was once a thriving downtown, at what point do you sit up and go, ‘we need to stop the development that’s really gutting our small towns of viable businesses because these franchises are coming in and replacing them.’

DFD: How is Brinkley doing right now?

Scott: As you would predict in seeing the movie things have continued to deteriorate to the extent that the world’s only Ivory-Billed gift shop has closed and tourism has fallen off. The promise that people are going to flood in has not been fulfilled. The search itself has really been scaled back. There was less than 10 people searching this winter, which is my understanding. Actually more people from the same search party have relocated to southern Florida. So in many respects the same scientists who put Brinkley on the map have now decamped to another state. They’ve taken the funding and run.

Hot Docs Film Festival: SHADOW BILLIONAIRE

Shadow Billionaire (2009) dir. Alexis Spraic
Documentary

****

It’s impossible to discuss the brilliance of “Shadow Billionaire” without revealing some of the plot. But of course, the less you know of any plot the better – and in particular, this film. So, if you decide to read this paragraph only, I understand, as long as you track down this flick. My suggestion, bookmark http://shadowbillionaire.com and chart its progress.

So here’s the review which I've tried to keep as spoiler-free as possible:

Often time genius comes with the burden of madness. Howard Hughes was like that. Larry Hilblom was like that - the founder of DHL, the super gigantic international courier company. His entire life, he’s been an odd duck, an intelligent, ambitious but intensely secretive man with many skeletons in his closet. Later in life he became a recluse living on the near-remote island of Sai Pan in the south Pacific. In 1995, when his private plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean, killing him (supposedly...more on that later) all his skeletons become revealed in almost impossibly dramatic fashion.

Hilblom left an estate of a billion dollars, with no wife, no kids, no will. His lawyers assumed the fortune in trust of his foundation and other philanthropic ventures until… a Sai Panese woman claimed her 9 year old son was fathered by Hilblom. Soon after more women, all Philipino or prostitutes come forward with similar claims.

Ahem... did I mention he had a penchant for underage Asian girls?

Anyway, a lowly Sai Pan lawyer takes the case and demands a paternity test. This proves not so easy… Hilblom’s body was never recovered. And that’s all that needs to be said.

Contradictions and logic inconsistencies fill every corner of Hilblom's life – as if his life and death were manufactured for a film such as this. Hilblom was a lawyer, so why wouldn’t he have a will? He co-signed a law in Sai Pan giving illegitimate children the right to their parents’ estate, so why wouldn’t he just include them in a will?

Director Alexis Spraic doesn’t need to do too much to turn this story into a brilliant potboiler. It’s mostly talking heads with polished recreated footage and archival material. There’s a well needed slickness to it which elevates it above a Dateline NBC episode (and there was one made back in the day). The snowball rhythm pacing makes the 90mins go by with lightning speed, like a skier on a slalom course trying to cover every possible twist and turn. Everything gets covered and revealed with every morsel of intrigue and suspense wrung out.

"Shadow Billionaire" is more than mere details. At its heart is the Sai Pan lawyer David Lujan who uninhibitedly expresses his desire for vengeance against his opposing lawyers for taunting and condescending him in court - an uphill battle he climbs and with patience, lawyerly creativity and good old fashioned due diligence. Though we never meet Hilblom and despite his sexual predilections, he's a fascinating psychological case study. And squeezed in there is an overriding story of human rights and the exploitation of underprivileged Asian poverty by the affluent west.

We even forget that Hilblom's body was never recovered but it silently casts a veil of mystery over the entire film – adding even more layers of complexity to the beguiling case. In the end, it doesn’t surprise me, nor the subjects of the film, if all of this was an elaborate attempt of Hilblom's to watch the world suffer in the chaos of his life. Only time will tell, and it’s quite possible we haven’t seen the end of this crazy story.

Hot Docs Film Festival: PROFESSOR NORMAN CORNETT

Professor Norman Cornett (2009) dir. Alanis Obomsawin
Documentary

***

We all remember our best teachers, the ones who make education more than just about learning, the ones who inspire us to understand and embody the information we usually cram and memorize in the final days before the final exam. This was the influence McGill University professor Norman Cornett had on his students and the subject of the latest film from acclaimed director Alanis Obomsawin. It's a welcomed change of pace for Obomsawin whose subjects (ie. Kanehsatake) usually involve Aboriginal concerns. Here Obomsawin branches out with this small scale but inspirational doc about the best professor his students ever had, and probably the best professor you never had.

For 15 years Professor Norman Cornett taught Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, but not with the stodgy old traditions of standard grading structures and repetitious lesson plans, Cornett’s classes challenged his students by looking at the world from different angles and interacting with the information to create a greater of understanding of life.

On the first day of the current semester, Obomsawin shows Cornett leading his students through a group rendition of Pink Floyd’s, “Another Brick in the Wall” – an anthem of counter-culture, which will feed the entire learning methodology of the students. We watch as Cornett instructs his students to write free association, visit art galleries, Canadian dignitaries Paul Martin and Lucien Bouchard give lectures, jazz great Oliver Jones even plays a little ditty for the class. Sound kinda flighty and idealistic?

According to the students, who provide articulate first person interviews, this is not a bird course, but one of the most challenging courses they've ever taken and definitely the most influential and memorable. The students describe their education as dialogic sessions where they are required to participate in the activities in the course leading to a greater understanding of themselves and the subject.

Despite the praise from his students, no doubt, it's a controversial way of teaching. Then suddenly, out of nowhere Cornett’s contract is not renewed, and essentially fired from his job. After 15 years of service, Cornett is forced to clean his desk and leave the premises without any explanation whatsoever. And so begins a law suit against the University for unlawful dismissal. Cornett is not a vengeful person, and only desires a reason for his dismissal.

The final act which follows Cornett's fight against the school for an answer for his dismissal doesn't quite hit the dramatic gravitas as we expect. It's an anti-climax in many ways, but a poignant reminder of the kind of 'though control' Cornett was attempting to break through.

If Cornett never teaches again, the film serves as a loving tribute to the students he has affected for the rest of their lives. It may not be the best title for a film, but “Professor Norman Cornett”, expresses everything we all wanted to say about the best teachers we ever had.

"Professor Norman Cornett" premieres this Friday May 8 at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto

Hot Docs Film Festival: PARIS 1919

Paris 1919 (2009) dir. Paul Cowan
Documentary

**

War is a terrible thing, and the First World War was one of the worst, not the easy-to-define good guys/bad guys war, but the result of a complicated escalation of events, skirmishs and alliances built up over decades. None of that mattered when the victorious nations gathered in Versailles for the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to decide the fate of the ‘loser’, Germany. Vengeful nations who lost hundreds of thousands of its soldiers and civilians came after the Germans looking for monetary and territorial compensation. This National Film Board documentary tells the story of these crucial six months of negotiations between the world’s powers, which by lack of foresight and stubbornness resulted in an even more destructive war 20 years later.

It’s an intriguing period of 20th century history, a time which saw the borders of Europe, the Middle East and African redrawn, which directly affects many of the wars still fought today. And so it's this importance which magnifies the disappointment with this film.

Inspired by the acclaimed novel by Margaret McMillan, Director Paul Cowan has delivered a decent and informative television documentary, something if I was flpping through TV channels and saw on the History Channel, I’d say, this is a pretty good doc. But as a premiere at one of the world's most prestigious documentary film festivals, it contains little cinematic power and leaves much to be desired.

The style feels antiquated, a humdrum mixture of archival footage, straight-ahead recreations with actors dramatically playing the parts of Georges Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson et al. The narration by veteran Canadian actor R.H. Thompson is a dignified choice, but in Canada, his voice is so familiar, we're reminded us of the days of the dreaded “Heritage Minutes” (an inside reference to Canadians only, sorry). As a result, the film feels as out of date as the bushy moustaches worn by its characters.

But it’s not all style which Cowan misses, there’s much time spent on the stubbornness and frustration of the big four world leaders (France, Italy, U.S., Britain) as to the degree of reparations owed by the Germans, and very little time spent on the individual stories in the conference. The redrawing of the world map which resulted in some of the most heinous conflicts the world has ever seen is given little screen time. The creation of Iraq for instance is only a passing glance, and nothing is mentioned of the Israel/Palestine negotiations.

We expect something larger than life from the theatrical experience, and competence is not what we expect from a $12 ticket and a 'round the block lineup - a shame this film couldn't be made into something glorious like "The Fog of War".

"Paris 1919" has its second screening Sunday May 10

Hot Docs Film Festival: GHOST BIRD

Ghost Bird (2009) dir. Scott Crocker
Documentary

***

Some of the greatest documentaries have come out of the minute obsessions of average people. Such is the case with “Ghost Bird”, a minor gem of film about the impact of the rediscovery of a formerly distinct bird called the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in a small town in rural Arkansas. The effect of this bird, which 95% of the world’s population has never heard of, could mean the revitalization of the dying community.

In 2005, in the small depressed town of Brinkley Arkansas, there was the first sighting of the thought-extinct Ivory-Billed woodpecker in 60 years. What's the 'Ivory-Billed Woodpecker' you ask? Well, for bird watchers, it's considered the 'holy grail' of birding - a large graceful bird made extinct through deforestation and other manmade developments. In late 2005 director Scott Crocker brought his camera to Brinkley to document the global media hoopla surrounding the event.

We watch as word quickly spreads through the international birding community of the rumour, which is eventually backed up by video footage and confirmed by the US Dept of the Interior. Suddenly this dying working class town is infused with tourism, and mondo federal funds to help bring back the bird from extinction. But wait...slowly, with no pun intended, out of the woodwork skeptics emerge, who examine the evidence with a finer toothed comb than the enthused bird watchers. With the legitimacy of the sighting in question so are the lives of the town's citizens who cling to its discovery as the engine of the town's ressurection.

Crocker is clever structuring the story. He introduces the enthusiasm of the Brinkley townsfolk to the woodpecker news like gangbusters, embellishing and exploiting the ridiculousness of the woodpecker-mania for humour. In a very short period a hotel renames itself the Ivory-Billed Inn, the world's only Ivory-Billed Woodpekcer giftshop opens and the local barbershop starts cutting 'Ivory-Billed' haircuts. Without knowing the significance of the bird and the context of the town, it all sounds so absurdly esoteric, like those endearing folks in Errol Morris' "Gates of Heaven."

But as Crocker reveals more information he gradually turns the tables and switches tones, spinning the story around on itself. While I found myself laughing at the silliness of the hype, when we learn more about the bird and the town, sympathy and frustration sets in with their predicament. The town finds themselves caught in a situation of the government enthusiastically jumping to a conclusion and then crawling back all the hope it brought to Brinkley.

The parallels of the bird’s extinction with the slow death of the town is poignant. While the industrialization of America saw the bird’s natural habitat torn down through deforestation, the reliance on the old industry which now has gone abroad, seems like really bad karma.

Crocker also brings a distinct ear for music, a soundtrack which includes a melancholy original score mixed with discongruous pop songs from the Pixies, and the White Stripes. All of this adds up to a fun but immersive and reflective experience and one of memorable films from the Festival.

"Ghost Bird" premieres at the Hot Docs Festival Wednesday May 6

Hot Docs Film Festival: SERGIO

Sergio (2009) dir. Greg Barker
Documentary

****

The best doc at Hot Docs is the Oscar-worthy 'Sergio', the stunning recounting of the life and last days of Iraqi UN Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello. Here's a reposting of my original review from Sundance:

I can remember vividly the Al Queda bombing of the UN building in Iraq in 2003. The significance of the event other than the heinous act of terrorism was the death of Iraq’s UN Special Representative of the Secretary General. Before Sundance, unfortunately I couldn’t remember his name, but after seeing Greg Barker’s phenomenal film, no one will ever forget Sergio Vieira de Mello.

We know this is no ordinary political figure when two of the first interviewees we see are Tony Blair and Condelezza Rice. They are just two of the dozens of family and professional colleagues of Sergio Vieira de Mello who describe to us his professional life and career.

De Mello is described by his colleagues as a combination of James Bond and Robert Kennedy, an impossibly handsome man, fluently charismatic in at least four languages and a man who could walk into any conflict anywhere in the world and take control – what’s described as the UN’s ‘goto guy. Before his Iraqi mission Sergio had already proven his dedication to peace in a number of war torn countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sudan and East Timor. Though he opposed the U.S. War in Iraq when asked to lead the UN movement there Sergio felt compelled to go. As we all know Sergio was tragically killed in that car bomb which struck the UN headquarters in 2003.

Barker takes a two-pronged approach to tell Sergio’s story. It’s important to know the context of this man, why he was in Iraq and the big picture tragedy of the event. But Barker is clever to intercut Sergio’s life history with the minute-by-minute detailing of the bombing of Aug 19, 2003. Like some of the best films of Errol Morris, and even last year’s great doc thriller “Man on Wire” Barker's procedural recreations are, and sorry for mixing metaphors, page-turning. Barker cuts together impeccably shot recreated footage, and an almost endless number of camera angles from news footage to recreate the day.

The two American military personnel who were at the scene and trying to get Sergio and his co-worker Gil Loescher out from buried rubble are featured prominently. Barker’s documentation of Bill von Zehle and Andre Valentine’s efforts to rescue the two men are as brutal, blood curdling, harrowing and heroic as any 9/11 rescue story. Barker and his editor craft these scenes with such drama it drew tears from a sometimes jaded Press and Industry audience.

At the film's climactic moments Barker appears to stretch out the emotion to such agonizing intensity it borders on going over-the-top. The emotional breakdown of de Mello’s mother as she mourns once again the loss of her son almost has the audience begging for Barker to stop the pain.

His death is never mentioned until the end, and so even though we know he did not survive the explosion, in 90mins De Mello touches us so deeply that we mourn his death the same as his fiancé, his mother, or any of the close colleagues of his life. Sergio Vieira De Mello is so extraordinary nothing can overstate the impact of his life. “Sergio” is great film. Enjoy.

Hot Docs Film Festival: INVISIBLE CITY

Invisible City (2009) dir. Hubert Davis
Documentary

**

“Invisible City” premieres in Hot Docs with a certain degree of anticipation, certainly for the Canadian filmmaking community. Director Hubert Davis’ first doc “Hardwood” was fantastic and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject. His first dramatic short, “Aruba” was equally fantastic. And so arrives “Invisible City”, a National Film Board feature doc, continuing Davis' themes of family and despair in the inner city of urban Toronto. The intentions are worthy, shedding much needed light on the ‘invisible’ community of Toronto's Regent Park and its families with so much working against success resulting in a self-perpetuating cycle of despair. Unfortunately, a consistent frustration persists from the inability of the documentary to expose the true emotions of its characters.

Over the course of three years, grades 10, 11 and 12, Davis followed two troubled black teens, Kendall and Mikey, living in the country's oldest housing project, Regent Park. It's not an uncommon story in any major city, single mothers, trying to raise their children to be righteous against the pressures of gangs, violence, crime and all belligerent behaviour kids find it easier to escape to. There's also the teachers who are forced to act as social workers and surrogate father figures to the boys, none of whom though can seem to get Kendall and Mikey on the straight and narrow.

A sombre ambient music soundscape begins the film set against the dreary overcast skyline shot of Toronto. Voiceovers from the film’s participants speak in hushed quiet voices with little or no ambition or verve for life. This becomes the tone and visual language of the film - a unique style, which becomes both its strength and its weakness. Davis' frames are carefully chosen. He rarely using talking heads, instead looping his interviews over his frequently stunning and cinematically-inspired imagery.

But somewhere after the mark when a short film becomes a long form feature, repitition sets in - both visually and narratively. We continue to watch the kids wander aimlessly through school and the streets with maximum disaffection. Davis nails this despair and self-loathing, but we badly desire some positive action or beacon of light to guide us somewhere. Davis’s long lensed closeups try hard to attach the audience to the characters, but the barrier between camera and subject is never broken. Neither Kendall, nor Mikey truly open up to us, What do these kids want out of life? In terms of a story we need to have hope, an end goal to achieve.

It's all the more frustrating because Mikey and Kendall and both their mothers are acutely aware of their predicament. They know their actions are driving them down into an inescapable cycle of crime. Sandra, Mikey’s mother, tells us that she works two jobs starting at 5am, and unfortunately has no time to look after her son. This appears to be the crux of the predicament. How can a child with such a loving mother go down the wrong path in life? Clearly the lack of a father figure is a major cause.

Perhaps this is the point, the frustrating conundrum of inner city life - love is just not enough to pull these families out of despair. If so, while it's important to address the issue, as cinema entertainment "Invisible City" succumbs to its own sword.

"Invisible City" premieres tonight, May 2, at the Royal Cinema

Hot Docs Film Festival - BURMA VJ

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2009) dir. Anders Østergaard
Documentary

***1/2

A picture is worth a thousand words, and like the famous image of a single Chinese man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square, in politics, the power of a single image can rally people for a cause. Unfortunately in Burma, which is ruled by, perhaps, the most repressive dictatorial military regime in the world, journalists are not allowed into the country and anyone taking pictures with a camera are quickly imprisoned. So with its citizens shut in and the world shut out, very little is known of the atrocities in the country.

Anders Ostergaard’s intense and powerful documentary shows us the actions of a secret revolutionary media organization called the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a group of courageous and righteous dissidents with pocket-sized video cameras who seek to export to the world video evidence of the repressive regime.

We’re told at the outset that for the safety of the journalists, their identities cannot be shown. And so we can only watch our heroes in shadow and sihouette as they go about their secret covert work. They communicate with each other via VOIP and cell phones under fake identities, so as to avoid the prying ears of the military generals. It’s low tech spy games, with real world stakes of life and death.

It’s September 2007 and there’s a distinct revolutionary fervour in Rangoon (the city’s capital). It’s been 19 years since its citizens protested against the regime, the result of which was swift military action and 3000 dead civilians. The VJs catch wind of a march by a group of monks in the streets to the home of their imprisoned leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. There are plain clothes military everywhere and being caught with a camera means imprisonment.

Using the grainy, shakey cameras of the VJs, orchestrated by our hero referred to as 'Joshua', the journalists seek to capture contraband footage under the noses of the authorities. They are told to keep the cameras rolling, whether it’s in their pockets, under their arms, or even zipped up in their bag, any piece of video, or sound recording will help the cause. The march on Rangoon, featuring hundreds of orange-clad monks surrounded by thousands more motivated citizens makes for inspired visuals and supremely cinematic moments.

We’re reminded of the great humanitarian protests in China, unfortunately without the prevalence of worldwide TV news crews. The footage eventually does get beamed out of the country to its immediate hub, Norway, and then out to CNN, BBC and the rest of the world.

And when the military strikes back, many of the monks and VJs who have been risking their lives for freedom are captured and taken away in trucks, likely never to be seen again. Hopefully, a film like this will increase the international awareness of the atrocities in Burma, and like China and Tibet, create a more concerted worldwide movement to protect these journalists and eventually lobby for a free, democratic government.

“Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country” showcases best the power of cinema and importance of the recorded image in politics. Look for this film to make a serious contender come Oscar time, next year.

"Burma VJ" plays at the Hot Docs Film Festival Monday May 4 at the Bloor Cinema