Change Your Image
rob-richert
Reviews
La buena vida (2015)
A heart rending portrait of desecration
A bold opening cut, from the explosions in a Colombian mine to the chorus of a German Choir, trumpets the entrance of a culture clash of epic proportions . In this masterfully shot doc, patient details unspool the story of the willing displacement of a native Colombian community from their coal rich land to a dry, infertile land. Despite valiant efforts for a fair contract, the native leaders recognize deceit far too late and we are left to realize we've borne witness to the final days in their lush personal Eden, gone forever. The permanence of this films ending rings out in my memory, years after I've seen it.
Fifi Az Khoshhali Zooze Mikeshad (2013)
MUST SEE!
I'm a filmmaker.
I seem to always have SOME issue with most films.
So when I come across a film that feeds me as well as this film has - I just want to scream its name from the rooftops.
Mirta Farahani!! She is our brilliant one-woman-band seeming to shoot, interview, edit, record sound... and oftentimes her handheld shots feel as if they are only able to approximate the bigger budget locked off framing she would intended. And thus, with each shot I feel the urgency of the story!
A big cumbersome crew would have likely gotten in the way of this intimate, lovely, expressive portrait. How lucky we are that this film exists!
This portrait of a complex, charismatic artist, fearlessly vulnerable, opinionated to the core reaching through the screen and teaching me how deeply one can commit to their craft.
To commit to the point life and art are blurred.
Oh god. Did I just write that?
Yes I did.
Promise me you will do your best not to judge that corny-ass sentence, until you've seen the film. It left me damn near mute, with nothing but a handful of platitudes, pawing for the words to describe the ache in my chest.
Umi yama aida (2014)
A Celebration of a beautiful Ethos
Masterfully shot amidst the wilderness, this doc lionizes the worldview behind Japanese artisans. I was so glad to learn and see the incredible tradition of the 20 year complete rebuilding model of an ancient Shinto shrine that, like the human body, has been kept constantly in a state of being refurbished massive pillar by pillar. That tradition stands as a springboard to discuss humans' coexitence with nature as a whole.
When the film didn't work for me, it was sweatily promoting simplistic take aways from these traditions: that nature is good and maintaining it is a positive, occasionally it presented quasi-scientific theories as certitudes. But damn! When it succeeds its pairing of truly stunning imagery with poetic philosophy opened my eyes. I recommend it.