DOCUMENTRRY
on THE All
Paul Dale picks the cream of the documentary crop at this year’s GFF.
‘ln feature films the director is God; in documentary
films God IS the director.‘ Alfred Hitchcock said that. Hitchcock was a stranger to the documentary form. It is rumoured that the MoD asked him to make a propaganda film during WWII to help the war effort. Hitchcock is said to have flim-flammed his way out of his patriotic effort by agreeing to make Sabotage. a particularly perverse tale of a London in the grip of insurgent bombings — but that's another story.
Documentary films by their very nature should form the beating pulpit heart of any film festival. A good documentary will be an illustration of John Grierson's belief that cinema has a duty to ‘get around, observe and select from life itself‘. The programmers of this year's Glasgow Film Festival have managed to gather together an eclectic mix of political and social themed films — all of which have a relevance to the here. the now and. in the case of Alex Gibney's excellent Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (GFT. Mon 20 Feb). the recent, diseased and diseasing past. Although Gibney's film is a highlight. I would also recommend George Best: Football Like Never Before (GFT. Fri 17 Feb) and A Skin Too Few — The Days of Nick Drake (GFT, Mon 20 Feb). Both films deal with two very different cultural icons. neither of whom could quite deal with their own worst enemy — themselves.
If you have a penchant for cult cinema, Stuart Samuels‘ Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (Cineworld Renfrew Street. Sun 19 Feb) is certainly worth checking out.
For anyone who grew up in the UK in the 19705. Keith Taylor‘s Coming to England (GFT. Tue 21 Feb) is a must — mainly because it is children‘s TV star Floella Play School Benjamin's first foray into autobiographical documentary. Time. I think. to sit down in from of the square window.
I A// fi/ms show at GFT or Cinewor/d Renfrew Street
FOUR OTHER DOCUMENTARIES NOT TO MISS
i. K _ I Original Pride: The ‘-. ._’ " Satyrs Motorcycle
1 Club A look into the Satyrs 1. Motorcycle Club and its , ‘ influence on gay culture. \:. “x- GFT. Sat 78 Mar. H-r 4“ I Overcoming The odd world of professional cycling. GFT. Sat 78 Feb. I The Devil and Daniel Johnston Emotive and educational ponrait of US cult smger/ songwriter/artist. Cinewor/d Renfrew Street and Grosvenor, Fri 17 and Sat 18 Feb. I Pablo Neruda Presente! Loving tribute to the great late Latin American poet. GFT, 17 Feb.
18 THE LIST 16 Feb—2 Mar 2006
'1 if“ 13“?”
Nick Cave on set and Guy Pearce (below) as reformed , outlaw Charlie Burns
‘MORAllTY ISA lllllllllV'
The Proposition, a bleak Western set in the early days of Australia’s colonisation, is
Nick Cave’s second screenwriting effort: the last, Ghosts of the Civil Dead, was 17 years ago. The Aussie rocker tells us about bringing this tale of beauty and redemption to the big screen.
On Australia
'Johnny llillcoat is a very good friend ol' mine. He came to me and said. "Would you write a movie about btixhrangcrx in Australia. a lictional story?" It's not something I‘d do under my own steam. but it's something I'd do for him. And three weeks later I sent it oil. It took three weeks to write. l'til‘ .lohnny. /\ll.\li‘illlii had it\ Western \tory as u ell. It had its \Viltl \VLNL and that hadn‘t been exploited cincmatically at all. There \lc‘l‘c‘lid genre films being' made about that period tllilcxx they \y ere biopics of lamous .-\tl\ll‘1llltlli\ the .\'ed Kelly story. the Mad Dog Morgan \tor} or whatever. So this was a rich mine to plumb. We didn't want it to sound like an American Western that had been dumped in Alistralia. There‘s a certain incompetence that exists in the Australian character today. a real sayagery and cruelty behind that kind of attitude. And