two more stories i learnt - at RIDM '13
yay i went to a movie festival!
well, i saw 2 movies at a festival, but i guess that counts for something. art is expensive here and artists are still starving. something is messed up somewhere, no? i'm just getting to thinking about these things now. not that i'm an artist, but i want to be aware.
ok, i want to be an artist too, what the hell.
but that's not the point i was about to try making. let me tell you about some good documentaries, is the point.
the festival was RIDM, yes, documentaries, and their byline is "where all the stories meet". i'll put a link here, also because it's not over yet, there are 3 more days (including 2nd showings of both the movies i saw - not that i have readers in montreal, but okay).
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/festival/mission
since i only allowed myself 2 picks, i had to choose things i was closely interested in, as opposed to 'generally liked the idea of seeing', or 'yeah, sounds like a cultural must-do (whatever that is)'. i would have gone to a dozen maudlin ones and historical ones, but instead i chose films that are about quebec/montreal, and very contemporary-themed. see how this happens every time?
1.québékoisie
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/programmation/films/531/quebekoisie
for people who don't click: this movie looks at the relationship between the native population in quebec and the 'white' quebecois. the 2 filmmakers take a bike tour along the northern border of quebec, visiting native communities and talking to people along the way.
i mean it's not exactly news that there is tension and strong segregation between the two populations. (my friend melanie: " it's unbelievable that some quebecois are so ignorant! you're an immigrant and you did know there were autochtones in quebec, no?" - me: "melanie, i worked 7 months at the forum!")
i guess the biggest shock i got out of this was to what extent A LOT OF french-canadians in quebec are actually mixed race, i.e. have a certain percentage of native blood, as a result of the ACTUAL FORMATION OF 'CANADA'. and that it goes both ways, i.e. natives who think they are pure blood discover they have ancestors from Normandy and stuff, which shouldn't be such a surprise, but yeah it is.
i also learned about the oka riots of 1990, which make a perfect example of mistrust perpetrating mistrust - the conflict was around a golf course that was going to be built on mohawk burial grounds.
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/the-oka-crisis-1/the-stand-off-begins.html
so it made me ashamed that i hadn't known specifics about this earlier. i don't have an excuse, even as immigrant, for not reading up on quebec history. one more thing to catch up with.
2. come worry with us
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/programmation/films/590/come-worry-with-us
i knew i wanted to see this as soon as i started reading the summary, just because it's about 'thee silver mount zion". this band is one of the reasons why some of my friends applauded my desire to move to montreal, back in the fall of 2008 - because THE BEST MUSIC OF EVERYWHERE IS BEING MADE THERE NOW!! and it might be true. theirs is not my kind of music, but it's undeniably great stuff and i do love it, especially in certain moods.
also: the title! as a dedicated worrier, i was seduced.
the movie follows the band as two of its members, who are a couple, decide to take their toddler touring with them. they have to tour a lot because there isn't much money in indie music. she doesn't want to be a stay at home mom, because...that's not how she's conceived of her life. so they try it out, the baby seems content on the tour bus, the rest of the band embraces the whole adventure...happy everything, no? except it's also incredibly stressful (very well illustrated too) - the insecurity, the expenses, all with the background of refusing on principle to adopt a more commercially aggressive approach to their music-selling.
there are SO MANY things it leaves you with...especially if you are a 30-something who has ever tried to live outside the box.
and all the music used within it is wonderful and flows with the sequences and everything really well.
(i'm linking here to a song called "microphones in the trees" mostly because the video shows the band playing, but otherwise my favourite SMZ is called "what we loved was not enough".)
i was happy to see the cinema full on both nights, and people asking questions and responding afterwards in the Q&A. these films were both world premieres! in different ways, they are both excellent illustrations of "where stories meet". so i hope that they go on showing in other places in canada and go to festivals everywhere in 2014 and that everybody who was part of them makes some money and that these conversations continue to be had.
c.
well, i saw 2 movies at a festival, but i guess that counts for something. art is expensive here and artists are still starving. something is messed up somewhere, no? i'm just getting to thinking about these things now. not that i'm an artist, but i want to be aware.
ok, i want to be an artist too, what the hell.
but that's not the point i was about to try making. let me tell you about some good documentaries, is the point.
 |
| gratuitous picture i took inside cinema excentris, where both the films i saw were being shown. that's supposed to be a film reel. i think. |
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/festival/mission
since i only allowed myself 2 picks, i had to choose things i was closely interested in, as opposed to 'generally liked the idea of seeing', or 'yeah, sounds like a cultural must-do (whatever that is)'. i would have gone to a dozen maudlin ones and historical ones, but instead i chose films that are about quebec/montreal, and very contemporary-themed. see how this happens every time?
1.québékoisie
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/programmation/films/531/quebekoisie
for people who don't click: this movie looks at the relationship between the native population in quebec and the 'white' quebecois. the 2 filmmakers take a bike tour along the northern border of quebec, visiting native communities and talking to people along the way.
i mean it's not exactly news that there is tension and strong segregation between the two populations. (my friend melanie: " it's unbelievable that some quebecois are so ignorant! you're an immigrant and you did know there were autochtones in quebec, no?" - me: "melanie, i worked 7 months at the forum!")
i guess the biggest shock i got out of this was to what extent A LOT OF french-canadians in quebec are actually mixed race, i.e. have a certain percentage of native blood, as a result of the ACTUAL FORMATION OF 'CANADA'. and that it goes both ways, i.e. natives who think they are pure blood discover they have ancestors from Normandy and stuff, which shouldn't be such a surprise, but yeah it is.
i also learned about the oka riots of 1990, which make a perfect example of mistrust perpetrating mistrust - the conflict was around a golf course that was going to be built on mohawk burial grounds.
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/the-oka-crisis-1/the-stand-off-begins.html
so it made me ashamed that i hadn't known specifics about this earlier. i don't have an excuse, even as immigrant, for not reading up on quebec history. one more thing to catch up with.
 |
| across the street from cinema excentris: last time i passed by, mid-october, this mural wasn't there. |
http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/programmation/films/590/come-worry-with-us
i knew i wanted to see this as soon as i started reading the summary, just because it's about 'thee silver mount zion". this band is one of the reasons why some of my friends applauded my desire to move to montreal, back in the fall of 2008 - because THE BEST MUSIC OF EVERYWHERE IS BEING MADE THERE NOW!! and it might be true. theirs is not my kind of music, but it's undeniably great stuff and i do love it, especially in certain moods.
also: the title! as a dedicated worrier, i was seduced.
the movie follows the band as two of its members, who are a couple, decide to take their toddler touring with them. they have to tour a lot because there isn't much money in indie music. she doesn't want to be a stay at home mom, because...that's not how she's conceived of her life. so they try it out, the baby seems content on the tour bus, the rest of the band embraces the whole adventure...happy everything, no? except it's also incredibly stressful (very well illustrated too) - the insecurity, the expenses, all with the background of refusing on principle to adopt a more commercially aggressive approach to their music-selling.
there are SO MANY things it leaves you with...especially if you are a 30-something who has ever tried to live outside the box.
and all the music used within it is wonderful and flows with the sequences and everything really well.
(i'm linking here to a song called "microphones in the trees" mostly because the video shows the band playing, but otherwise my favourite SMZ is called "what we loved was not enough".)
i was happy to see the cinema full on both nights, and people asking questions and responding afterwards in the Q&A. these films were both world premieres! in different ways, they are both excellent illustrations of "where stories meet". so i hope that they go on showing in other places in canada and go to festivals everywhere in 2014 and that everybody who was part of them makes some money and that these conversations continue to be had.
 |
| i took this picture on a trip in december 2008, but it looks a lot like life these days. artsy-dizzy-greyish-potentially meaningful. |
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