Paul Williams: Still Alive (2011)

Starring Paul Williams

Written and Directed by Stephen Kessler

In a year where this critic has personally seen some fantastic music documentaries the likes of Marley, My Father and the Man in Black  and Charles Bradley: Soul of America, I was wary that a documentary about singer/songwriter Paul Williams could measure up. Fortunately director Kessler delivers a very personal, funny and engaging film about not only Paul but himself as well. Paul Williams is indeed alive and very feisty in this film, using shot footage mixed with archival footage as we trace the rise, fall and rebirth of the man that wrote the immortal “Rainbow Connection” amongst other classic songs.

Director Kessler starts musing about how he used to admire the 5’2 Williams as a child. Williams had a very storied career in the 70’s, acting in major television shows and movies like Smokey and…

The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

Directed by Carl Colby

Carl Colby’s father William did not have the average 9-to-5 American job. Part quest to enlighten the masses as to exactly what his father was responsible for and part personal exploration, The Man Nobody Knew uses a multitude of historical footage to tell its story. With Carl narrating we get a series of personalized interviews, many addressing Carl directly instead of just the camera, with many important present and former government personnel and recognized historians to flesh out the history of this man.

Starting with Pearl Harbour and his father’s enlistment into the infantry, Carl describes the ambition his father had and sense of duty. Many years after the family finds out that William is not quite working for the employers they had in mind, when the neighbours he carpooled with noticed him…

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance

Written and Directed by Bob Hercules

Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino were the two visionaries behind the creation and innovation of the Joffrey Ballet. Narrated by Mandy Patinkin, Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance tells the history behind the Joffrey Ballet and the story of these two men. Through archival footage and interviews (both men have passed on) director Hercules attempts to lay out the history of the influential ballet company.

Co-founded in 1956, the then titled “The Robert Joffrey Ballet” was a touring company of six dancers traversing the US in a borrowed station wagon with Joffey choreographing and Arpino as lead male dancer. Eventually Arpino would move into the choreography role himself as the company grew in size and talent. The to men started a school of dance where they insisted on classical ballet proficiency but would then add many other contemporary styles into…

Bloor Cinema Limited Engagement July 18^th and 19^th only

Shut up and Play the Hits (2012)

Starring LCD Soundsystem

Directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern

So you’re in your mid-thirties and you decide it’s a great time to completely self-produce and release an album under the name LCD Soundsystem. It receives critical acclaim and now you’re making a “cover” band out of friends and other musicians to go out on tour with. Years later the band is about to make you and the band massive stars as it is on the cusp of a breakthrough on the charts, yet you decide it’s time to call it quits and end the band. Some call it masochism, others a crippling fear of success, but you are resolute. And you’re going to hold the funeral, a massive last concert, in the most historic venue in New York Madison Square Gardens…

Unfinished Spaces (2011)

Starring: Vittorio Garatti, Roberto Gottardi and Ricardo Porro

Directed by Benjamin Murray and  Alysa Nahmias

The Cuban National Schools of Art was an ambitious project born of the Cuba Revolution and the imagination of its leader Fidel Castro. Years later they were abandoned, deemed frivolous and unnecessary by the Cuban government, so they were left in an unfinished state even though classes were already underway and continued to take place for decades to follow as the buildings decayed around them.

In 1961, shortly after driving Bautista out of office, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, while out and about in Havana, decide to stop in at the most luxurious of Golf courses in the city to participate in a round of “the game of the idle rich”.  While failing to fall in love with the Sport, Castro did fall in love with the land and asked Che what…

Town of Runners (2012)

Directed by Jerry Rothwell

In the small rural Ethiopian town of Bekoji the sport of running has become a religion. Known for turning out Olympic caliber distance runners, runners from Bekoji have produced 8 Olympic Gold Medals, 32 World Championships and have broken 10 world records in the last 20 years. Its runners have also swept the four distances races, male and female, at the Beijing Olympics. Director Jerry Rothwell takes us into this sleepy little town obsessed with running, through the eyes and voices of a handful of its natives to tell us the story behind the success.

Our story focuses on three young people from the town of Bekoji. Biruk is our link to the ever developing town as he explains the impact the upcoming paved roadways will have on the town and his grandmother’s little shop, a kiosk on the side of the…

5 Broken Cameras

Starring – Emad Burnat

Written by Guy Davidi

Directed by Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat

A brilliant premise is behind the filmmaker Guy Davidi’s 5 Broken Cameras. He used footage from said cameras collected over the span of 5 years by Emad Burnat around his village to tell a griping story of defiance and tyranny. He then had the man who shot the footage narrate the goings on all while telling the story of his young family and how they cope with growing up in this war-torn backdrop.

Emad is a villager in the Palestinian village of Bil’in. When his fourth son is born, Gibreel, Emad comes in the possession of his first video camera. Meanwhile the Israeli army has started to encroach on the village’s land and build a barrier to keep the villagers at bay while they illegally build new housing on the these lands…

The Island President (2011)

Starring Mohamed Nasheed

Directed by Jon Shenk

The Island President is the story of the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, and his fight to save his island nation from a natural disaster brought on by global warming.  It follows his history from activist to president, but spends most of its time focused on the first year of his presidency and his influence on the Copenhagen Climate Summit held in 2009. The film has a strong environmental message behind it, but is the film as strong as its message?

The film opens with President Nasheed explaining the situation and dire circumstances of global warming on his island nation. We segue into a brief history lesson of the Maldives and its former dictatorship-like rule under the brutal hand of Maumoon Gayoom. Gayoom ruled for 30 years unopposed, he was compared to the likes of a Mafia Don…