Virgin and Extra: The Land of the Olive Oil (film review)

 


This fascinating documentary explores the history and heritage of olive oil in Jaén, which produces almost half of Spain's olive oil. The film shines a light on the complexity of the product, the diversity of its flavours and colours, the varied ways it is used in cooking, together with its status as a superfood and many recognised health benefits. 

Watching the film, I was astonished by how much of the area is covered in olive groves, extending seemingly forever. Some of them are quite bare of other vegetation, but a couple of interviewees in the film described their concerns for biodiversity and how some of the farms at least are working to increase their biodiversity with ground cover crops. 

Virgin and Extra Virgin olive oils are in themselves relatively new products and it was interesting to watch the competition to find the best oil and hear the judges talk about how many more great oils there are these days than there used to be. Also interesting to see the olives actually being processed into oil. Virgin and extra virgin oils are extracted mechanically and don't contain additives, which mean they are tastier and healthier than other oils. 

Since reading this article I've become very concerned about how olives are harvested, as some of the mechanical methods result in the deaths of large numbers of birds. So I was watching this film very carefully to see how the olives were actually harvested and it seems that in the featured farms at least, the olives are picked mostly by hand with mechanisation used only to transport them. If you want to source a bird friendly olive oil (edited to add, my blogpost on this topic is now up here) you may want to do more research on this, but Jaen based The Green Gold Olive Oil Company certainly harvests its olives manually. 

Virgin and Extra is definitely an interesting film for foodies and you may even pick up some ideas for delicious recipes from some of the featured chefs!

Virgin and Extra is screening as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 at 1540, Saturday 22 June and at 1310 Sunday 23 June, both at Odeon Lothian Road. You can book tickets here.

If you're interested in the role of olive trees in agriculture and culture then you may also be interested in The Olive Tree, screening as part of the Spanish strand at this years Edinburgh International Film Festival. I saw this excellent and moving film when it was first shown at the festival in 2016. You can read my review here.  

 

The Olive Tree is screening as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival at 1800, Saturday 29 June at Odeon Lothian Road. You can buy tickets here. 

You can read my earlier reviews from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019, by following the links below:

Boyz in the Wood a group of teenage boys get lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2040 - can technology offer solutions to our current climate and ecological crises?

 Bait - Cornish fishermen try to adapt to a changing world

How to Fake  a War (on my Shapeshifting Green blog) what happens when a rock star decides to meddle in international affairs?

Farm Animals on Film - featuring The Biggest Little Farm - an inspiring story of the creation of a sustainable biodiverse farm in California, plus Vulture, an experimental film about farm animals.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the film festival and attended a free press screening of these films.

 

Happy as Lazzaro - film review

 
 
Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) is an innocent young man growing up part of a group of indebted sharecroppers in some seemingly timeless era. They live in extreme poverty, crowded together in tiny houses and wearing old clothes. They are obviously unsatisfied with their lot but enjoy each other's company and make the most of things. As the story unfolds seemingly anachronistic details turn up - baseball caps and mobile phones and we gradually realise that this story is taking place some time after sharecropping was made illegal and that this community is being lied to by the local tobacco magnate, the Marchesa ­Alfonsina de Luna who is exploiting them.

Lazzaro is put upon by the other sharecroppers, as his sweet nature and untiring physical strength mean that he is able to keep working and will do others bidding without complaint. He somehow makes friends with Tancredi, the Marchesa's son who uses Lazzaro's innocence to plot a way out of the area.

Eventually the isolated community is exposed to the modern world with unexpected effects that leave the sharecroppers in entirely different but equally deprived circumstances and Lazzaro as much of an outsider as ever. (Saying anything more would be a real spoiler).

It's a fable about inequity, progress and power structures while also being a beautifully watchable, moving story about one innocent young man's journey through life.

Happy as Lazzaro is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Thursday 11 April.

Faces Places - film review

 

This is a beautiful, informan ald thought provoking documentary featuring film maker Agnes Varda and environmental artist JR.  I was particularly keen to see this film after seeing The Gleaners and I which screened in the recent Agnes Varda retrospective at the Filmhouse (you can read my review here). 

Faces Places sees Varda (in her 80s) team up with JR (in his thirties) to travel around France in a mobile photographic studio to photograph people and to use those photos in large scale art installations that draw attention to the connections between people and places. They plaster the walls of condemned miners' houses with photos of the miners who used to live there along with the one woman who is refusing to leave after everyone else has been evicted. They place huge portraits of dock workers' wives on the side of a stack of containers at the docks where the men work.

The film makers meet two goat farmers - one who has changed all his production to mechanised milking machines and has removed the horns from all his animals, the other of which gave up mechanised milking after an experiment and who has kept the horns on her animals as she believes it is natural for goats to have horns. As a result of these meetings JR and Varda plaster a wall in the area with a huge photo of a goat complete with magnificent horns.

They meet many people, which leads to all sorts of creative discoveries, including an elderly man called Pony who makes wonderful works of art using re-used bottle tops (if you're inspired to make similar art, this link takes you to the bottle tops for sale in my Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop).

It's a wonderful film, conversational in style but full of wisdom and insights into creativity, friendship and culture.

Faces Places is screening at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Thursday 27 September.

The Gleaners and I - film review

 

I have no idea why I didn't see this film when it was released in 2000, but I was very happy to catch up with it in the Agnes Varda series at Edinburgh's Filmhouse.

The Gleaners and I is a film about gleaning (defined by Wikipedia as 'the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest' but the film takes a broader interpretation than that).

Varda takes us on a wonderfully quirky tour of gleaning in its many manifestations, starting with a brief history of agricultural gleaning, highlighting paintings that have featured gleaners and meeting some modern day gleaners. Modern day gleaners range from travellers who turn up to pick through rejected potatoes, to a top chef whose grandparents taught him to glean and uses it still as a way of sourcing local ingredients for his restaurant to urban gleaners who pick up leftovers from markets as an ethical stance.

Expanding beyond the original agricultural roots of gleaning, Varda visits artists who make sculptures and artworks out of recycled materials and people who pick up dumped fridges and furniture to repair it and give it away or sell it.

She also considers the idea that she is, herself, as a film maker, a gleaner, picking up scraps of observations and ideas from wherever she can to weave them into a film.

This is an inspiring film full of ideas on how to make the most of the materials around us and how to reduce waste while shining a light onto the scandal of food waste and our throwaway society and at the same time highlighting how difficult life is for some people who are forced to glean to find enough food to survive.

The Gleaners and I is showing again tomorrow as part of the Agnes Varda season at Edinburgh Filmhouse. Go and see it!

Leave no Trace - film review

 

Tom (Thomasina McKenzie brilliant in her first lead role) is a teenage girl who lives in a lovingly created shelter in the national park outside Portland with her father Will (Ben Foster). Ben struggles with PTSD and is still coming to terms with the loss of his wife, as a result he feels the need to hide away from society and keep moving from one wilderness hideout to the next.

When Tom and Will are found they are taken away from their shelter and into the care of social services. After being put through a barrage of tests they are given a hut in a rural area where Will is made to work in the logging industry and Tom is signed onto the school roll (though social services admit that her father;s home schooling means that she is in advance of what is expected of her age group). Will wants to keep moving but Tom enjoys the company of other young people, learning how to look after bees and handle rabbits.

This is a beautifully film, the woods are gorgeous and the acting is low key and all the more moving for that. The viewer is left wondering how we should look after those in society who don't fit in and how do families cope when their members want such different things from each other.

There's an excellent (and longer) review by Kevin Jones on the Cineccentric site here. 

Definitely a recommended film, Leave no Trace is screening at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh until Thursday 26 July. Find out more and book here.

Jane - a film review

Film director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research challenged the male-dominated scientific consensus of her time and changed our ways of thinking about primates. The film draws from over 100 hours of never-before-seen footage from the National Geographic archives, mostly shot by Goodall's then husband Hugo van Lawick.

The film follows Goodall in her early career, when she set out to study chimpanzees in Gombe without any scientific training. She had been taken on byLouis Leakey who specifically wanted someone who didn't have academic preconceptions about primates. 

We see how patience and diligence helped Goodall to become accepted by the chimpanzees which allowed her to study aspects of their lives never seen before - such as their ability to make simple tools, their caring relationships with their families and their warfare when provoked. There are some wonderful clips of chimps stealing food, playing together and grooming each other.

It's a fascinating film for anyone interested in Goodall and her ground breaking research with chimpanzees. 

Jane is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Sunday 24 December.

The Odyssey (film review)

The Odyssey follows the early career of Jacques Cousteau, the famous French oceonographer, film maker and conservationist. It starts at the period of his life, when still in the French Navy, he became more and more interested in underwater photography and research. His early films were financed by an oil company, which believed that Cousteau's work could help them find new oil reserves, he then went on to make films for a US TV station and after that he founded, with his sons (Phillipe and Jean-Michel), The Cousteau Society, which protects marine life and is involved in environmental education.

The film features some wonderful underwater footage, most impressively Phillippe Cousteau's encounter with sharks. These scenes alone make the film worth watching. However, the film is less satisfying in terms of narrative. I got the feeling that there is too much story in even a relatively short period of Cousteau's life and work for one film and so both his biography and career often feel as they are being skated over, plus often it feels unfocussed.

I felt the best part of the film was the way it handled the overarching story arc of Cousteau's transformation from enthusiast in the pocket of the oil company to passionate environmental activist (a role he was encouraged in by his son Phillipe).

The Odyssey is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Thursday 24 August.

Incident at Loch Ness

In 2004, Incident of Loch Ness was one of our favourite films to be screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. As it featured the great German director Werner Herzog and one of Scotland's enduring favourite creatures, the Loch Ness Monster, we thought it would return to our screens quite soon after getting it's premier at the festival. We only had to wait 13 years.....


Directed by Zak Penn, this purports to be a documentary of the making of Werner Herzog's documentary 'The Enigma of Loch Ness'. We are given access to production meetings and one to one discussions about how the film is going to be made and the increasing tension between the crew members. It becomes more and more obvious that something is not quite right, from the miniature Loch Ness monster that keeps appearing to the lack of credibility of the scientific and technical members of the crew.

Herzog becomes more and more disillusioned with the whole project and things take a decidedly dangerous turn.....

So does the Loch Ness Monster exist or is it just a figment of our collective need to believe in the unseen and unknowable? Is the film a hoax? Was Herzog ever intending to make a film called 'The Eniglma of Loch Ness'? Are any of the crew members who they say they are? Are the stories about Herzog as a director true or just myths?

This era of fake news in in fact the ideal time to see again this brilliant film about the nature of truth, the distinction between truth and facts and the difference between lies for the sake of art and downright lies. I just hope we don't need to wait another 13 years before it next hits the big screen!

Incident at Loch Ness screened as part of Edinburgh Filmhouse's current Herzog of the Month series.

Interview with the director of the film Zer

1.  
   

 
 

1. One of the films I most enjoyed in this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival  was Zer (which I reviewed here).  Zer is the story of Jan (Nik Xhelilaj) a young man studying music in New York who becomes close to his Turkish grandmother, Zarife (Güler Ökten), in her dying days and is fascinated by a Kurdish song she sings (the Zer of the title). I was invited to interview the director, Kazim Oz via email: 
    
   Q1. What was the original inspiration for the film?

The story is based upon a song called ZER that I heard so much while I was shooting a documentary in 2005. Both in shooting process and after the shooting was over, song really haunts me, I always encounter with it. Later on, I worked on the story of the Zer and I put it in a kind of historical dimension. It turned out to be related to 1938 Massacre that was executed by Turkish Republic upon Kurdish people living in Dersim.

Q2.  Is  Zer a real song and is the story behind it (as shown in the film) a real story?

There are lots of traditional and different versions of the same song Zer. I just wrote a new song and story out of all these different versions. I even wrote new lyrics for the song which has different melody.

Q3. How would Jan's reactions to his experiences have differed if he had been based in Istanbul rather than New York? 

It is well thought idea to choose NYC rather than Istanbul and Europe. It is consciously chosen. I thought how far the road and distance is from the roots, then the impact of the journey/quest will be deepen. The story will be stronger if the distance is getting long. It is valid for both culturally and geographically. Someone from Istanbul will cover a short distance to find his/her roots. If I had chosen someone from Istanbul, his relations with his grandmother and his own culture would be different. Undoubtedly, his psychology would be different, as well.

Q4.  How did you avoid the blending of past and present in the film from becoming confusing?

In this film, Zer is one the main characters. It also plays a great important role for every each character of the film. Therefore, past and the present must be blending in each other but at the same time it should not be chaotic and suffocating for the audiences. Past and present intermingle in such a soft way in our life that we could not even notice it, it must be like that.  Past, present and the future are not separate from each other with radical boundaries and limits. There is actually a kind of wholistic flow of time. I tried to succeed to have cinematic correspond of this wholeness in Zer.

 

Q5. How do you hope viewers will react to the film?

They react the same way as imagine. They are really interested in the film, they follow it without being confused and being estranged from it. They watch it as if they were in this journey. I am very happy about it.

Q6. Is the film going to get international distribution? If so when will it be in cinemas?

It is on cinemas in Turkey, now. We had and still have great difficulties in distribution on national ground due to the censor executed by the government. You have watched uncensored version of it but some scenes you watched are not included in version being shown in Turkey. They are deleted. In Turkey, censored version of the film is on cinemas. Furthermore, although Zer has audiences who want to watch it, cinema halls are feared of government pressure and do not want to show Zer. As to current situation in distribution, we are looking for a foreign distributor to be able to show Zer in all around Europe. Lots of audiences demand Zer and show their request on social media accounts of Zer.  I hope we will be on cinemas all around Europe till autumn.

Journeys through Time and Cultures (a film review)

Three film recommendations for Edinburgh International Film Festival today and all of them involve travel through time and cultures.

First is Zer, the story of Jan (Nik Xhelilaj) a young man studying music in New York who becomes close to his Turkish grandmother, Zarife (Güler Ökten), in her dying days and is fascinated by a Kurdish song she sings (the Zer of the title).

A wonderfully touching relationship develops between the young man and his grandmother and they become close, bonded at least in part by their shared love of music. Jan however is very innocent of the history of Kurdistan as his parents have hidden what they see as a shameful part of their family history. Jan becomes intrigued by the history that lies in his grandmother's memories and the story behind the song Zer. Following her funeral in Turkey he decides to find out the origins of this song, a quest that takes him further and further into remote regions of Kurdistan.

This is a fascinating journey geographically, historically and culturally, revealing buried memories and the existence of a whole multiplicity of songs called Zer, all of which relate to an original story about a pair of ill starred lovers. The film blurs the present and past, memories, dreams and reality in a way that is beautiful and yet not confusing. This is really enhanced by the stunning cinematography - New York has never looked more beautiful on the big screen and the mountains of Kurdistan are stunning.

This is a beautiful, haunting film that explores a painful part of history without ever feeling like a history lesson.

Also delving into painful history is Sami Blood, the story of Ella Marja (Lene Cecilia Sparrock) a young Sami woman, a pupil at a brutal boarding school in Sweden, where all attempts to speak Sami are punished and Ella herself the brightest student in the class is told she can't continue her studies as Sami are known to have small brains. Ella has ambitions and desperately wants to escape the school, her life of reindeer herding (which see feels is backward) and the simmering prejudice that is found all around. She meets a young Swedish soldier at a party and decides to visit him at his home in Uppsala, hoping that she can then continue her education and make a life for herself in that city. But even here, the cards are stacked against her for her Sami heritage. We also meet Ella Marja (or Christina as she later calls herself) as an old woman returning for her sister's funeral and this made me curious to know what happened for her between her young adulthood and her old age.

The landscape is stunning and the story, though quite documentary in style is very affecting in its portrayal of the brutal prejudice shown against the Sami people in Sweden.

Ella Marja as an old woman is looking back on her life, but in Donkeyote, the elderly protaganist (Manolo) is planning a final great adventure, despite his failing health. He has always enjoyed walking and riding in the Spanish countryside near where he lives but now has an eccentric and ambitious plans to travel from Spain to the USA to walk along the Trail of Tears (the enforced migration route for many thousands of native Americans in the 1830s) accompanied only by his donkey Gorrion and his dog Zafrana.

His daughter supports his ideas, but is concerned for his health and well being. Manolo becomes concerned about the amount of planning the whole project will take, how he will get Gorrion to the USA being one of the most frustrating aspects. He also has to help Gorrion to overcome his fear of water, a not inconsiderable task, given that Gorrion, normally a good natured animal becomes very stubborn when near water. So will the trio surmount their problems and explore the USA?

Edited to add: in retrospect I realise Donkeyote has lots to do with Don Quixote, but apart from the scene with the windmills I don't know Don Quixote well enough to analyse the connection! 

These films are showing  at the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

Zer is screening at 2050, Thursday 22 June and 2030 Saturday 24 June both at Filmhouse.
Sami Blood is screening at 1800 Thursday 22 June and 1520 Saturday 24 June both at Cineworld.
Donkeyote is screening at 1800, Thursday 22 June at Odeon and 2040 Saturday 24 June at Cineworld.

Disclaimer - I have a press pass for the festival and attended press screenings for these films.

God's Own Country (film review)

So this is the time of year when 30 Days Wild coincides with the Edinburgh International Film Festival! As has been the case over the past few years, I have a press pass for the festival and will be reviewing films that deal with environmental issues (including rural life) or literature in some way.

God's Own Country is the film that will open the festival on Wednesday evening and has been described by some as the British Brokeback Mountain, but it is much more than that, certainly more interesting and in my humble opinion a better film.

Johnny (Josh O'Connor) lives on his family farm in the bleakly beautiful Yorkshire Pennines, with his father (who is disabled from a stroke) and grandmother. The farm is only just succeeding, conditions are unforgiving and family life is demanding. Johnny works hard, drinks hard and picks up men at cattle shows. He seems envious of his friends who've gone to college but claims to be doing the better thing by staying at home.

Things begin to change when young Romanian farm worker Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu) arrives to help out on the farm. Gheorghe is a natural, enthusiastic farmer with a wonderful skill with sheep, he adopts an orphaned sheep and looks after it in a most touching way. Gheorghe is also able to reach Johnny in ways which the English guy stays clear of. 

When Johnny isn't being his own worst enemy, the two develop a relationship, which has to rate as one of the most beautiful I've seen recently on film. Unfortunately Johnny all too often is being his own worst enemy and there are many times when I wanted to shake him and say 'don't be such an idiot!'. Is he ever going to grow up and see sense?

This is the debut feature of director Francis Lee and I hope we see lots more from him.  

Astonishingly at the time of writing, there are still tickets for this film (which already features on many lists of the best British films of the year)! 

You can buy a ticket here for God's Own Country, screening as the opening gala of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017 at 2040 on Wednesday 21 June at Festival Theatre, or for its second screening at 1810 on Thrsday 22 June at Cineworld. 

If you can't make either of those screenings then the film will be released in the UK from 1 September.

See a film for 30 Days Wild.  

Hidden Figures - a film review

I try to limit my book and film reviews here to those that deal with nature or environmental issues with the occasional review of media on other sciences (otherwise this blog would overflow with reviews). I'm stretching my definitions a little by reviewing Hidden Figures, but it's such a great film I can't not review it!

Hidden Figures is based on the real life stories of three amazing black women who worked as mathematicians in NASA in the 1960s, starting off in the 'coloured computers' section of the agency and working their way up to more specialised and responsible roles - Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P Henson) to become (after much fighting) a supervisor leading the 'coloured computers' to become the programmers for the first IBM computers installed at NASA, Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) to become the key mathematician who enabled the first manned spaceflight to go ahead safely and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) to (after much fighting) become the first black woman to attend a local college to get the qualifications to become the first black American to become a NASA engineer.

The film follows their participation in the work that helped to get the first USA astronauts into space. It shows the everyday double discrimination that they faced as black women (from thinly veiled insults to separate 'coloured coffee pots' and of course the notorious 'coloured toilets') and how they worked to both overcome and overturn some of these.

The film is also a fascinating insight into the advancement of space technology and how the thought of the Russians getting an astronaut on the moon first was a huge spur to the American efforts. Above all it is a brilliantly dramatic, totally inspiring film with a great sense of humour.

You know when there was all the fuss about the Oscar for Best Film, with the wrong envelope been handed to the compere and La La Land incorrectly being hailed as winner instead of Moonlight? I think there must have been a second lost envelope somewhere, one that had Hidden Figures written in it.

In Pursuit of Silence - film review

This film seems very timely as our world gets louder around us and as we go through the hectic, frantic and loud days that lead up to Christmas.

In Pursuit of Silence is a wonderful, meditative and thought provoking film about the value of silence and peaceful natural places in our lives. Interviews with sound technicians, theologians, rangers in USA national parks and philosophers explore the concept of silence, its value to our mental and physical health and well- being and the damage caused by noise pollution.

There is no such thing as absolute silence on earth. In the quietest natural landscapes there is always the sound of the wind or the songs of birds, while in the quietest room in the world, one can hear the noises of ones own body, that are usually drowned out by the noises around us.

The film moves through natural landscapes, monasteries and the peacefulness of the Japanese tea ceremony and follows the journey of a man who has made a vow of silence while walking coast to coast across the USA (ironically his route includes some far from silent major roads!). John Cage's silent piece of music 4'3" is discussed.

Silence however is becoming more and more of a rarity in today's world, so the film contains sections devoted to noise - whether the argumentative exchanges of a USA news discussion programme or the sounds of the city centre or a crowded bar. There is a public school in New York that is right by the side of a railway and the noise is so loud the children often can't hear what the teacher is saying. The noise levels in hospitals is rising every year in the US (and probably elsewhere) leading to higher rates of mistakes being made in surgical procedures. Continual exposure to very loud noise has direct impacts on our health and can lead to an increased risk of heart attack.

Luckily some organisations are recognising this, there are bars in New York where no music is played and patrons are requested to whisper, there are organisations across the world dedicated to helping people explore the therapeutic value of natural silence. We need more of these initiatives and we need them more than ever!

My only complaint about the film was that although in some of the peaceful sections the natural sounds were allowed to shine through, in other peaceful sections music was drowning out the natural sounds! Nice, peaceful music but even so! In a film devoted to the value of peacefulness, why would you use music of any sort to soundtrack a section where people sitting in natural settings are talking about the value of natural sound?

That complaint aside it's well worth watching. 

In Pursuit of Silence is showing at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh today.

The Black Hen - film review

Set in a remote area of Nepal during the 10 year Maoist Insurrection / civil war (1996 - 2006), this film follows the story of two friends as they try to get their hen back.

The story is simple but the film is full of telling detail that offers insight into the culture of Nepal at the time. Prakash is the son of the village headman, Kiran is an 'Untouchable' and their friendship is not always straightforward because of this difference in their social origins, which later in the film is complicated by the Maoist insurrection which comes between their families.

The star hen is actually white and the film title seems like a misnomer until quite late in the film! Kiran is very attached to his hen and hides her when the villagers are asked to sell their hens to the headman on the occasion of a royal visit. When the hen disappears though he and Prakash join together to try to get her back.

This is a beautiful film about how people try to continue living ordinary lives even in the midst of social unrest, but how sadly these ordinary lives finally reach breaking point. It sounds very worthy, but it has a light touch in dealing with all the social issues that are present in the story. It's also beautifully filmed and acted and has moments of humour.

The Black Hen is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse tonight at 6.15 (you may just have time to dash out of the door and get to the cinema in time!) and there are two showings tomorrow.

Paterson - a film review

Paterson (Adam Driver)  is a bus driver in the town of Paterson, famous for being the birthplace of poet William Carlos Williams. Paterson himself is also a poet, writing lines inspired by his life, in his basement while waiting to set out in his bus. In between he spends time at the bar and goes home to his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) who flutters from one creative project (making cupcakes) to another (decorating the house in black and white) and their bulldog Marvin who sits on an easy chair and regularly grunts his incomprehension at life.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/film/paterson-review/

Golshifteh Farahani

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/film/paterson-reviewwho flutters from one creative project (making cupcakes) to another (decorating the house in black and white) and their dog Marvin, who grunts his incomprehension of their lives. 

Nothing much happens in this film, the enjoyment is seeing how details change and how by observing these details Paterson is inspired to write his poetry. He seems content just to write, though Laura keeps insisting he should share his poetry with the world.

This is a lovely, gentle film which encourages the viewer to let everyday life inspire their own poetry. Sadly though, I just didn't like the modernist style of poetry that Paterson was writing.

Paterson is showing at the Edinburgh Filmhouse until Thursday 15 December.

Edited to add: here's an article about what every aspiring writer should see this film! 

As ever red text contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

A Street Cat Named Bob (the film)

Having read Jame's Bowen's wonderful book 'A Street Cat Named Bob' (which I reviewed briefly here) I was keen to see the film which was released recently.

The film tells a more dramatised version of James' life as he tried to turn his life around from being a homeless drug user through being a street busker to being a Big Issue seller to being a successful author.

Early on in the film James, who has just been moved into sheltered accommodation discovers Bob who has sneaked in through an open window. At first James doesn't want to keep Bob, but rather just to look after him until he finds the real owner. However Bob turns out not to have anyone so James keeps him. When he takes Bob out busking, crowds gather like they never did when James busked by himself and his music earns more money than it ever did before. (While this is great for James and Bob it offers an interesting commentary on the British character that we will show more concern and interest for a homeless person with a pet than we would for someone in the same situation with no pet).

Bob is definitely the star of the film and I loved the way that much of the film is shot from his point of view (chasing mice or making his way through crowded London streets). Bob is played by a series of cats, including Bob himself!

It's a lovely film, combining social commentary and cuteness in equal degree. It's more sentimental than I remember the book being, but it definitely shows the beneficial effect that caring for a pet can often have on people who are struggling in their own lives.

A Street Cat Named Bob is showing at Cineworld Edinburgh - you can find out more and book tickets here. 

You've been Trumped Too

You’ve Been Trumped Too was largely filmed over the last 12 months, during the most contentious American presidential election campaign in history. The film explores the growing confrontation between a feisty 92 year-old Scottish widow and her family and a billionaire seeking to become the most powerful man in the world.

When Michael Forbes, his mother Molly and their neighbours refused to leave their homes to make way for development of a controversial, environmentally destructive golf course (the Trump International Golf Links), the Trump Organization began a campaign of intimidation and bullying, even bringing in the police to help them. The Trump Organisation cut off the water supply to the Forbes homes and refused to re-connect the water supply, ignoring the law that states that they are responsible for ensuring that the houses are provided with water.

You've Been Trumped Too catches up with the Forbes family five years on from the building of the golf course. The houses are still without water supply and eventually Michael Forbes has to fix the pipes himself, after which task the Trump Organisation send him yet another threatening letter. 

The film is excellent at drawing comparisons between how Trump has treated the Forbes and their neighbours and how he deals with related issues in the USA:

* Trump cut off the Forbes water supply and refused to reconnect it while in the USA he treated the residents of Flint with contempt during their water crisis.  

* Trump built a wall round his golf course in Aberdeenshire and prevented locals from accessing the land (which was previously public land) while in the USA he plans to build a wall on the USA Mexico border to keep Mexican immigrants out. The Forbes and many of their neighbours now display Mexican flags in their gardens. 

* The Forbes family have a history of caring for animals while the Trump family has a history of hunting big game for sport. Donald Trump junior, who shoots elephants and other endangered species, apparently wants to be in charge of the USA Wildlife Department if his father becomes president. 

It was interesting to see the reactions in the USA to the story of the Forbes family. Some Trump supporters in the film remained unmoved by what had been happening in Aberdeenshire while three were on camera stating they would no longer vote for Trump once they heard what had happened. One group of young people hailed Michael Forbes as a hero when they met him when he visited the Republican Party Convention.

Donald J Trump comes across as a man who doesn't care at all for poor people, or for human rights or for the rule of law. He seems only to be concerned about himself and how he can make more money. As Molly Forbes says in the film "You can't trust Donald Trump".
 
You've been Trumped Too can be watched from the You've Been Trumped Facebook page until after the US Elections. 

You've been Trumped Too follows on from You've been Trumped which I reviewed here. 

You've Been Trumped

 For some reason, it seemed a good idea to share this film review again....


You've Been Trumped is a documentary film about Donald Trump's project to build 'the world's best golf course' on an area of rare sand-dunes which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Aberdeenshire. It's a very well made documentary that is at once heartbreaking, inspiring and entertaining. There is beautiful footage of the dune system as it used to be, a vibrant, beautiful areaof wilderness that not only was wonderful for wildlife (hence the SSSI designation, which issuppposed to offer protection against development) but also was a popular place for local people to walk. The film also shows the bulldozers ploughing roughshod over the land, destroying the ecosystem, which can never be restored, due to its uniquely fragile nature. The resulting golf course is one that local people are unlikely to be able to afford to play on, even if they were to want to. (Interestingly, some American golfers who were interviewed in this film as they played on the golf course at St Andrews said that they would not be interested in playing on Trump's course, and they are the target audience).

The film focuses on how local people are being affected by the development - the construction has caused locals to lose their water supply for weeks, has demanded that they pay for fencing and has built sandbanks round their houses to hide them from view of the rich Americans who will be playing on the golf course. A number of local families had been threatened with compulsory purchase orders on their homes, though Trump did back down on this after a demonstration.

The local police are shown to very definitely be on the side of Trump, they harrassed and arrested the film makers and took the side of Trump in every conflict with the local people.

The film also shows some of the positives that rose out of the whole debacle including some excellent arts projects, including these photos by Alicia Bruce.

I've followed the development of this golf course over the years (this link takes you to all the posts I've written that mention the subject). I am still shocked as to how a Scottish Government that claims to support local democracy, be concerned for the environment and be working for an independent Scotland can overturn local decisions (the Aberdeenshire council originally refused planning permission for the course) and basically sell Scotland's natural assets to the highest bidder to create a golf course (as if Scotland doesn't have enough of those already) that will be marketed to rich foreigners.


The You've Been Trumped website is here and their facebook page is here.
The Tripping up Trump campaign has a website here.

Some cinemas have refused to screen this film, claiming lack of audience interest (Trump has been putting out propoganda saying the film isn't worth seeing and there's no audience for it). If your local cinema claims that there is no interest in seeing You've Been Trumped, prove them wrong and ask them to screen it.

**
Edited to add: there is also a follow up film, A Dangerous Game, which both updates the story of Trump's golf-course in Aberdeenshire but also looks more widely at environmentally damaging  golf courses. I reviewed A Dangerous Game here.

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks which take you to other websites where you can find out more.

haiku

a white donkey
on the mountainside -
all is lost

a haiku inspired by the film The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes are Not Brothers

This film is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until tomorrow. 

Neither Wolf Nor Dog - film review

This film follows writer Kent Nerburn (Christophier Sweeney) as he travels with native American / Indian elder Dan (Chief Dave Bald Eagle) who chooses to refer to himself as Indian, and his best friend to find the truth of the native American / Indian experience. It is an eye opening film that doesn't shy away from portraying the cultural misunderstandings between Nerburn and Dan, nor does it flinch from the struggles of the Indian peoples against the white colonisers of their land and the enduring shadow that history casts over communities and families.

I was to some extent confused by this film, I had expected it to be a documentary, which it obviously isn't, then I thought it was a dramatisation of a real life story, but then I read that Nerburn's book Neither Wolf nor Dog is a novel, but after reading reviews of the book I think mostly it's a true story. Certainly the stories that Dan tells of his people's lives are truth, and truth that we all could benefit from hearing.

I do however suspect that in terms of really learning about the history and lives of native Americans / Indians, the book will offer much more than the film, which isn't a criticism of the film, it's just an acknowledgement that a book can pack much more substance into its pages than this film packed into its 90 minutes, insightful though those 90 minutes are.

Neither Wolf nor Dog is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

1805, 24 June at Odeon.

 You can read my other reviews from this year's film festival by following the links below:


Endless Night.

The Lure. 

Homo Sapiens. 

Belles Familles.

The Olive Tree.

 Death is Only the Beginning - my review of The Correspondence and The Library Suicides.

The Mine.

The Islands and the Whales.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople. 

Bugs - are insects the food of the future?

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended free press screenings of these films