Today, I proudly donned by Hotdocs volunteer shirt and did  a volunteer shift.  In volunteer training, we were warned that you can't assume you will get to see the doc screening so I didn't expect it.  But I did get to watch two films!  Volunteering was really fun.

My Grandmother's House
I didn't see this full doc.  As I missed the beginning and left before the end.  It is about a grandmother who is taking care of her young granddaughter.  Meanwhile she is being evicted from her house as new apartments are being built in her block.  I loved the film makers' shooting style and the colours she used.  I found the doc didn't do enough to connect me to her her subject but maybe it was because I missed the beginning?

Arctic Son
Highly recommended.  Beautifully shot documentary of a son who returns from city living to the traditional lifestyle of his father in the Arctic.  The doc shows the father teaching the son the techniques of living off the land.  The son gradually finds himself through this and moves away from his destructive habits (drinking, drugs etc.).  This film really portrays the stark differences between the lifestyle of the Inuit with the southern Whites while leaving you with hope for the future.

Country
Country was made by a Quebec film maker about the phenomena of country festivals in Quebec during the summer.  People who enjoy country music and the country culture (rodeos, shirts with tassles) drive around to each festival all through the summer.  It is a warm environment and the people who participate in the country fair find it lifts their spirits.  This was a beautifully shot documentary that illustrates that even in our mass communication people still are drawn to very personal cultural experiences.

Badal & Inshallah
Inshallah is a Danish doc about a Dane who is Muslim, choses to wear a headscarf and so can't get a job.  It was extremely well done.  I hope it is widely shown in Denmark.  The doc really illustrates how the 'foreigners' in Denmark really live like Danes - they speak Danish in the privacy of their own home, they eat Danish style meals, they use candles to create hygge.  But they chose to practice their faith in secular Denmark.  It was an excellent examination of a challenge in Danish society to truly include immigrants into the country without requiring assimilation.


Badal was about a marriage tradition in Palestine of marrying sisters and brothers in one family to those in another family.  As the doc develops, its clear that badal is used to marry off girls by leveraging the inherent value of the 'boy' child.  It also showed the contradictions of a country like Palestine where those with progressive and traditional beliefs live side by side.

Heavy Metal Jr & Beyond Beats: A HipHop Head Weighs In On Manhood in the HipHop Culture
Highly recommended. Both docs are good.  Heavy Metal Jr. follows a young heavy metal band trying to make it in Scotland.  Losing a bass player is tough but the band pulls together for their big act. 

Beyond Beats was a great examination of hip hop culture.  I am tired of having conversations with people who say they don't like hip hop or rap except they listen to music that uses elements from both.  Beyond Beats looks at hip hop from the perspective of someone who identifies it as their own music but is tired of the gangsta image.  The doc becomes really interesting when it starts to look at how much hip hop is consumed by White audiences and how it became more and more gangsta when the small labels (ie. Def Jam Records) got bought by the big labels (CBS Records).  After watching Rize and now this doc, I am more convinced than ever that we are in a peak of hip hop and something new is about to emerge.


The Duckling
I was unsure of this doc but I wanted to see at least one from Japan, one of this year's featured countries.  At times The Duckling seemed like the video diary of a typical 20 year old, slightly lost and largely self absorbed.  However, at other times it was a brilliant investigation into self-discovery.  It is sometimes brave as well as the film maker decides to confront each of her family members with their emotional affect on her as she grew up.  Her parents for example sent her at 5 years old to a kindergarten for one year where she had to live away from home in a rural and natural environment.  It came out during the Q&A that this was a trend in Japanese society when it went through its rapid economic growth in the '80's.