Gone but not forgotten...
Fahrenheit 11/9 (USA, 2018)
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Cinephile Paradise program
- Michael Moore, director and scriptwriter
Seven days ago and four films ago, I viewed Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9.
Prior to doing so, I had worried a bit that I'd fall asleep during its
screening as it'd be my third at the Hong Kong International Film
Festival that day. Looking back, in doing so, I had forgotten the
maverick documentary filmmaker's ability to entertain and evoking strong
emotional reactions as well as inform and educate.
There's no question that the subjects that Fahrenheit 11/9
examines and the issues addressed in it are pretty serious ones. We're
talking, after all, of topics including money-driven elections,
political corruption, gun control (or, rather, the lack of), lead
poisoning, voter apathy, striking teachers and the rise of White nationalism.
At the same time, Michael Moore proceeds to present them in a film with
segments that can -- and did -- make people smile, snigger and laugh
out loud several times over the course of this two hour work (in
addition to frown, groan and want to cry with frustration at other
points during the screening).
If
truth be told, I'm not sure if many of my (liberal-leaning) American
friends would react in the same manner to such as the opening scenes of
this documentary that showed the widespread assumption prior to Donald
Trump's shock win on November 9th, 2016, that Hillary Clinton would be
elected President of the United States of America. And therein might
explain why it is that this documentary is among Michael Moore's lowest
grossing films ever: for even while it's clear enough that the filmmaker
is no fan of Donald Trump, it's readily apparent right from the first
few minutes of this offering that he's got far more targets than just
the man who is the USA's 45th president, and that they actually do
include individuals on both sides of the country's political divide.
Also impressively diverse and varied are the topics that Michael Moore covers in Fahrenheit 11/9
and manages to weave together in a masterful polemic about American
governance and politics that saw him spending time in places as far
flung as Flint, Michigan (his city of birth) and West Virginia as well
as Washington, D.C., and New York City. More interested in
understanding and making clear the conditions that led to the rise of
Donald Trump and the ideologies he represents than solely throwing
vitriol on him and his ilk, this is a film that Americans seeking to
prevent their continued dominance would do well to view -- and it's a
tragedy that it seems that many of them have, for some reason or other,
opted against doing so.
My rating for this film: 8.5
Putin's Witnesses (Latvia-Switzerland-Czech Republic, 2018)
- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program
- Vitaly Mansky, director and concept
In
the late hours of the last day of 1999, as the Russian people were
getting ready to ring in a new year, there came an announcement by then
President Boris Yeltsin that he would be stepping down from office.
Filmmaker Vitaly Mansky was at home in Moscow with his family when they
heard the news -- and, in fact, in the middle of filming them for what
presumably was a home video originally intended entirely for private
consumption.
Although
reports had it that his approval rate was down to a mere two percent at the time, Yeltsin's shock announcement still upset Mansky's wife and
the elder of his two young children. On the other hand, it's not clear
if his younger child was more upset with her father following her into
the bathroom to continue filming her or the news that they had learnt
via watching Yeltsin's 'live' TV appearance while Mansky himself didn't
seem unduly perturbed by the news -- and appeared to have no qualms to
subsequently take part in the filming of what appeared to be a pretty
candid documentary portrait of the new Russian president in his first
few months of political office and the lead-up to what turned out to be
the first of several electoral victories that has seen him remain as the
country's head of state since that fateful day close to 20 years ago
now.
Among the things that can't cease to amaze when viewing Putin's Witnesses is how freely Mansky appeared able to film Vladimir Vladimorovich Putin. (Indeed,
in the short time that they appear on film, Mansky's family voiced more
objections to having his camera on them than Putin looks to have
done!) Also pretty astounding is how unassuming the man we now
know is perfectly comfortable wielding great power and firmly holding on
to it appeared -- or, rather, took pains -- to be in early on during
his presidency.
A
sign of how much things have changed in the intervening years can be
seen in Mansky and his family now living in exile (in Latvia) and this
film not being listed as a Russian (co-)production despite all of it
having been filmed in the country whose head of state its primary
subject is. One reason for this is, as Mansky acknowledged in a
post-screening Q&A, Putin appears to have changed so very much
from what he had appeared to be like back in 2000. Also worth noting
though is how inadvertently -- and thus chillingly -- revealing the
footage he shot back then (which includes that of Yeltsin and Mikhael
Gorbachev post retirement and also a room full of then Putin advisors
and aides, of whom -- rather disturbingly (and tellingly?) -- only one
of them has remained in his political circle) can be close to two
decades on.
My rating for this film: 7.5
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