Crosswords, Turtles, Prison - more Hot Docs

Here's a handful of comments on a few more films I saw at Hot Docs:

Wordplay (dir. Patrick Creadon) - this is a fantastic film about American crossword puzzle fanatics, focussing on an annual crossword tournament. A few key participants are profiled, discussing their attraction to the puzzles, their strategies, their fears about the competition, and their lives in general. There is a lot of footage of Will Shortz, crossword editor of New York Times, who created the tournament at age twenty-five, and still hosts it, twenty-eight years later. There are also entertaining interviews with high-profile puzzle afficianados, like Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton. This is a slick and well-done film, witty and uplifting, capturing the fanatacism and camaraderie prevalent in groups with a shared geeky obsession. Actually, the crossword tournament reminded me a bit of the Small Press Book Fair...

The Chances of the World Changing (dir. Eric Daniel Metzgar) - this is a solemn film about a man who risks everything to save endangered turtles. At the film's beginning, its subject Richard Ogust is housing and caring for over 1500 turtles in his New York City penthouse apartment. As the narrative progresses, the viewer follows him after his eviction, as he is forced to move his turtles and as he endeavors to realize his dream of creating a large turtle conservation institute in the country. I won't tell you what happens, but I would argue that this film is about the price of obsession, and compromise, and isolation and about what happens when your own mission is more than what one individual can manage.

Life Inside Out (dir. Sarah Zammit) - This film profiles the daily lives of four over-50 women in a federal Canadian prison for women. Their backgrounds and personalities were widely varied, though they seemed to share a frustration at the lack of programs within the institution. There was a lot of potential here, but ultimately I felt a bit let down by it. I wanted to know so much more about T.A., Judy, Pearl, and Kim, and how they coped on the inside, but the film was barely over an hour, and took a specifically hands-off non-investigative approach. I don't think I like this trend or style of documentary filmmaking; "let's just follow them around with a camera, and whatever we get, that's the film." I'm all for objectivity, but a film is a film, and I still maintain that depth and narrative are important.

I have about half a dozen more to see, and I'll keep you posted. If you've seen any of these, please feel free to post comments!

FOLSOM PRISON BLUES by Johnny Cash

Cheers.