Welcome to part two of my review of films from the San Francisco International Film Festival. Be sure to check out part one, where I reviewed films from Canada that screened at the festival. One of those films was the Canadian documentary Endless Cookie, which had its debut at Sundance this year. However, it was not the only film to crossover between the two festivals. Last year, four of the five Best Documentary nominees at the Oscars came from Sundance and also screened at SFFILM, so I figured it would be a good idea to potentially get a head start by checking out the following films.
BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions – dir Khalil Joseph
Final Rating: 4/5
So before I get into my review here, I have to admit I perhaps didn’t watch this in the most ideal of circumstances. Intrigued by both the press of how this film was pulled from and then reinstated at the festival as well as the director’s pedigree directing Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar music videos, I decided to rent it from Sundance. Long story short, I ended up watching this late at night on my phone in bed in order to watch it before my rental period ended. While perhaps not a full cinematic experience, it was oddly appropriate for this dreamlike film.
An extension of Joseph’s BLKNWS museum installations, the film explores black history and the concept of who is entitled to take ownership of said black history. Taking inspiration from W.E.B. DuBois’s Encyclopedia Africana, the film is loosely framed around an alternative timeline Afro-futurist museum exhibit on a Trans-Atlantic ship. Frankly, the arc of an undercover investigator and art curator is the least interesting thing about this film.
The bulk of the film is a broad overview of the black experience (and the limitations of how it has been expressed thus far) is far more engaging with its scrapbook impressionistic nature, with rapidfire, sometimes overwhelming references that themselves are entire Wikipedia deep dives of their own.
On top of this, Joseph mixes in his own musings of his own family’s history. Perhaps an apt comparison would be last year’s Soundtrack of a Coup d’etat that itself took the mixed media approach of telling a historical story that was as much about the vibes as it is the content.
If this description is perhaps unsatisfactory for the reader, I completely understand. It’s the same frustration of being unable to recall every detail of the dream one just had that still is still deeply affecting. While perhaps having the liberty to rewatch and rewind the film (which is long by most conventions, much less at 1AM in the morning) to dissect the citations and layers woven together like a Kendrick Lamar verse would allow me to catch everything, letting the experience Joseph has prepared wash over and hypnotize me and seep into my subconscious was I think just as affecting.
Perhaps this is premature but I sense that we are on the precipice of a revolution of how documentary films can be made, and BLKNWS is its forebearer.
The Dating Game – dir Violet Du Feng
Final Rating: 3/5
Based on the dating horror stories I’ve heard from friends/read about online, I feel pretty blessed to have met my wife before the advent of dating apps. Which makes the reality of the legacy of China’s One Child Policy where there are 30 million more single men in China than women absolutely terrifying.
At the center of this documentary are three working class men who partake in a dating bootcamp by a self-proclaimed dating coach, Hao. While at first some of Hao’s advice seems helpful and practical (how to style oneself, how to be more open emotionally and share personal stories when talking), it eventually veers into what I would consider immature mind games for pickup artists (backhanded compliments, or stopping texting mid-conversation to see if she’s really interested).
Things get interesting when we are introduced to Hao’s wife Wen, who herself is a dating coach for women; her job usually revolves around helping women have more realistic expectations in their partners, given they are on the other side of the dating marketplace. Midway through the film they are interviewed together and we get a pretty epic monologue from her on the level of America Fererra’s speech in Barbie.
Basically, it’s a breakdown of how she’s grown frustrated in their relationship, how he has become poisoned by the techniques he preaches. This does have a bit of a payoff at the end of the film that I won’t spoil entirely, but suffice to say is that her view of men needing to better themselves and being comfortable in their own skin as the solution wins out.
Structurally, the film seems split between trying to follow the story of this dating camp, and exploring the broader cultural fallout from the gender imbalance. We get tangents about government sponsored speed dating and women who prefer 2D virtual boyfriends interspersed with the students musing on how the cultural expectations they face as men to carry on their family line while being relatively lower class weights on them.
While the info dumps are interesting, it would have been nice for there to be a bit more focus on one element or the other. Conversely, while I understand why the focus would be on the men’s bootcamp, I’d love to have seen a contrasting perspective of women aside from Wen. I also haven’t seen it mentioned in other reviews, but the score here is unnecessarily enjoyable for a documentary of this nature.
Overall, while it feels a bit rough around the edges, Dating Game is itself an enjoyable enough watch following our protagonists in their quest for love, while also provoking some interesting thoughts and considerations about love even a Western audience can appreciate.
Cutting Through Rocks – dir Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyri
Final Rating: 4/5
As happy as I was to see I’m Still Here take Best International Feature film at the Oscars, a small part of me was hoping that The Seed of the Sacred Fig would upset. I found the story of how the newer generation of women in Iran are fighting where they can for gender equality, even at risk to themselves inspiring. While Seed does incorporate real life protest footage from the urban centers of Tehran, this documentary based in the rural villages follows a real life heroine. Coming to SFFILM after winning Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks tells the story of Sara Shahverdi. Having always been a maverick as a divorced midwife who rides a motorcycle, her advocacy gets her elected as the first woman councilor of her village. Riding high with a sense of purpose, she uses her authority to inspire young girls to promise to stay in school instead of getting married, and to use gas hookups to have husbands formalize their wives’ ownership of houses.
However, as she strives to push back against the patriarchy, the patriarchy pushes back with rumors and accusations and ultimately court investigations that threaten the change she wants to accomplish.
Running at a tight 90 minutes, the film is efficient in immersing us in Sara’s reality and the emotional roller coaster she faces, a byproduct of the masterful editing. Further, there are some truly breathtaking scenes where she takes some girls out on motorcycle rides that are simply transcendental.
Sara’s story on its own merits would be inspiring enough, but it is through this technical mastery that our married co-directors are able to really amplify her mission so that the slow steady work of making real change can hopefully happen a little bit faster. I would not be surprised if a year from now we talk about this film as an Oscar nominee and even potentially winner.
Many thanks to SFFILM for the screeners for The Dating Game and Cutting Through Rocks
