London Film Fest 2011 Day 6 - I'M CAROLYN PARKER

Jonathan Demme's documentary I'M CAROLYN PARKER takes a different approach to Hurricane Katrina from Spike Lee's masterful sweeping lament, WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS, or from David Simon's TV series TREME. Rather than looking at the consequences for an entire community, and railing against the political and bureaucratic incompetence and callousness, Demme tells the story of Katrina by focusing on a single woman, and because of her indomitable and positive spirit, the movie comes across as more hopeful than its precursors. 

The documentary takes the form of a interviews with Mrs Carolyn Parker, resident of the devastated Lower Ninth Ward, between 2006 and 2010.  Demme visits her when she returns to New Orleans and lives in the water-damaged shell of her house, newly reunited with her brother and supported by her daughter. As the months pass, we see the arrival of the cramped FEMA trailer - a logistical constraint that doesn't prevent the former Chef from cooking up some amazing fried turkey!  The Federal money eventually comes to start rebuilding her home, but in a familiar tale, contractors are scarce, honest contractors even more so. Finally, through the work of volunteers, the house is eventually put right, but not before five years have passed.   Along the way, we see Mrs Parker battle with local politicians; the Catholic Church; and endure a double-knee replacement.  She tells us tales of segregation and racism; always with a sense of humour that counter-acts her anger.  What amazed me was how she never came across as bitter - her anger is always used constructively. She's an activist in the best sense of the word.

Technically, the documentary is no great shakes, and it's narrow scope might make it seem somehow less important than other treatments of Katrina.  There is no great revelation - although there is an hilarious interlude where some charitable Brangelina backed Europeans are throwing up an art installation.  But the movie remains worth watching and highly memorable because of the character of Mrs Parker - an inspiring and humbling figure.

I'M CAROLYN PARKER played Toronto and London 2011.

Random DVD round-up 5 - JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM THE PLAINS

Jimmy Carter is a man of faith, integrity, and experience in negotiating peace in the Middle East. It has been decades since he was President, and he could easily retire, but he remains passionately engaged in the political debate. This documentary from Jonathan Demme follows Carter on his recent book tour to promote "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid", a book that provoked controversy simply for drawing a parallel between South Africa and Israel. The documentary is on one level a portrait of Jimmy Carter, but it's a lot more than that too. It's telling to see a man making a sophisticated argument confront a media machine used to glib sound-bites and Manichean positions. It's also telling to see the sort of ire he attracts for daring to criticise Israel. It's pretty tragic to seen fine minds spend their hours crawling through transcripts to find any hint of prejudice rather than engaging with the macro arguments.

JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM THE PLAINS played Toronto and Venice 2007, where it won the Biografilm award, the EIUC award and the FIPRESCI prize. It went on limited release in the US in October 2007. It went on limited release in the UK in August 2008 and is now available on DVD.

London Film Festival Day 16 - RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED is in that sub-genre of indie movies that does family dysfunction. Think THE SQUID AND THE WHALE or MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. Think of a middle-class American family gathering for a big occasion, being truly horrific to each other until, hey, they all realise that they are family and they love each other, thus making the first hour's histrionics seem a bit pointless. All this in played out against the background of perhaps the most forced politically correct wedding in cinema history - moreover, in a movie where director Jonathan Demme seems far more interested in the outstanding score that in the narrative arc. He's more wedding planner than engaged director in this film. Nonetheless, the movie is worth seeing for Anne Hathaway's raw performance as recovering junkie, Kym, who is reinserted into family life for her sister Rachel's wedding. Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) resents the fact that Kym is the centre of attention - Kym resents everyone judging her. The arguments between Kym and Rachel build to an almost unbearable crescendo. It's a shame that it all disintegrates into an extended world music video.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED played Venice, Toronto and London 2008. It is currently on release in the US. It opens in Germany on March 26th, in Belgium on April 22nd, and in the Netherlands on April 30th.

NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD - when there is this much talent on screen you don't need pyrotechnics

NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD is one of those rare things - a movie where the audience sits right through to the end of the end-credits and then breaks into applause. This feels right because the movie is essentially like watching a music concert given by a truly great singer-song-writer and a bunch of his old-school collaborators. Sure, for the first ten minutes we have a bit of footage of everyone rolling up the to the auditorium in Nashville. There is some talk of how the different musicians first came to play with Neil Young. There is also some discussion about the Young's discovery that he had a potentially fatal brain aneuryism. But pretty soon we are plunged straight into the performance of the album - A Prairie Wind - that was written by Young in response to this news.

The music is performed by a large group of musicians - including ten guitarists at one point - a small-ish gospel choir, a horn section and string section, not to mention people like Emmylou Harris as mere backing vocals! The songs are acoustic and cover subject matter from 9/11 to Young's father suffering from senile dementia before he died, to Young's daughter leaving for college. In between we get classic songs such as Heart of Gold. When the concert is over, we have Young sitting alone on stage, his back to the camera, singing unaccompanied to an empty auditorium before packing up his guitar and stalking off. Meanwhile the end credits roll.

Although there is a definite feel that we are seeing some real old school high quality music, the concert is very definitely staged. The backdrops are a series of murals featuring sepia tinted prairie landscapes or prairie home interiors. The musicians all wear beautifully designed costumes. I also like the decision by director Jonathen Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and PHILADELPHIA) to shoot the concert with fixed cameras. Foregoing moving cameras draws less attention to the fact that this is a movie and makes it feel more like watching an actual concert. This is reinforced by the decision not to show the audience.

The resulting film is a wonder for fans of Neil Young's acoustic work. I have to say that I was pretty unaware of his music beyond the big hits but thoroughly enjoyed the film nonetheless. It's always a pleasure to see real artisty whatever the genre, and this movie makes a fine companion piece in tone and subject matter to Altman's wonderful A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. Unfortunately this movie didn't get much of an international release so it's worth checking for it on DVD. (Although, clearly, if you hate country music you should probably give it a miss.)

NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD went on limited release in the US in February 2006 and is now available on Region 1 DVD. It was released in Australia in May, Italy, Sweden and France in June and opens in Germany on August 17th. I do not know of a cinematic release date for the UK.