Introduction
James Whitmore said, “The documentary form is something we need more than almost anything else.” Today, that statement is truer than ever. So it is fitting that there are film festivals dedicated to celebrating the art of documentary filmmaking. In the small town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, the annual Hot Springs International Documentary Film Festival is the oldest all-documentary festival in North America.
This year, the festival celebrated its 35th anniversary. What started as a showcase for Academy Award-winning documentaries has now become a major international festival. Not only does the festival focus on international films, but it stays true to its roots by featuring the southern US. Here are a few of this year’s festival highlights.
Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been
This documentary feature, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, focuses on Darlene Love’s life and six-decade career in the recording industry. She recorded background vocals for many of the superstars. Unfortunately, bad management stalled her solo career. The film also includes interviews with recording stars Bruce Springsteen, Dionne Warwick, and Nancy Sinatra.
The movie has all the elements of an engrossing story: Great music, interviews with recognizable celebrities, and a dramatic story filled with heroes and villains. Director Barry Levinson crafts a documentary that combines music from the long list of celebrities she recorded vocals for (from Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles). It’s also a story about a person who triumphs over the many obstacles standing in the way between her and the life she deserves. The audience may be surprised by how many songs they recognize without knowing she had a part in recording.
In interviews with Darlene, the narration guides the audience through the story while the editor sets a measured pace and keeps the music from overtaking the narrative. The result is a well-balanced film worth watching.
Time Warp
This film debuted at Tribeca and tells the story of Kenny Starling and a group of local actors in the small town of Rock Springs, Wyoming, who want to put on a shadow-cast production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The challenge is that Rock Springs is a conservative town, and some of the residents want to stop the production. In a Footloose-style meeting, the cast defends their right to perform Rocky Horror in their hometown. Slowly, the group wins the critics over and even the naysayers in the audience, in order to put on a successful production. In fact, the theater now produces a drag show every year.
Director Allison Berg, a Rocky Horror fanatic, heard about this story and wanted to be a part of this project. She allows the film to take a bit of a centerline by including interviews with some Rock Springs citizens who are against and some who are in favor of the production. But what Alison does well is show the struggles of being queer in a small conservative town. She sets that against the joy the cast members (some queer, some straight) have while rehearsing and performing as the shadow cast of RHPS, which they still carry on today.
Berg and her team got the cinematography and sound, elements crucial to documentaries about music, stage and screen, perfect. The sound from the performances was as clear as clips from the actual RHPS film, and the film was easy to watch whether Berg was shooting an emotional scene or a Wyoming landscape. In the end, the film synergizes into something special that not only RHPS fans but almost all audiences can enjoy, and just maybe learn something.
American Doctors
The film follows three American doctors, one Palestinian, one Jewish, and one Zoroastrian, who volunteered to lend medical aid in Gaza. Upon returning to the United States, the doctors became activists lobbying Congress to get help to people in desperate need.
Director Poh Si Tang does a masterful job trying to educate people throughout the world about the situation in Gaza. At the start of the film, she has a discussion with the Jewish doctor about how to show images throughout the film. That scene lets the audience know they are in for an unfiltered look at the effects of war. As the Jewish doctor points out, not showing the graphic footage would be “journalistic malpractice”. So this is a warning to the audience about what they will see throughout the documentary.
Tang delivers a visually harrowing story. War is a terrible thing, and although there are no winners, civilians should not suffer. The film uses words and pictures to make that point very clearly, and audiences will not forget the courage that these doctors show here at home, acting as advocates against the situation in Gaza.
While these are a small sampling of the documentaries featured, there were many others worth watching if you get the chance. Among them are:
Black Zombie
A documentary that traces zombies back to their Haitian roots and contrasts them with the way zombies are portrayed in mainstream cinema.
My NDA
This documentary shows how the intent of an NDA has changed from a document to stop people from selling trade secrets to preventing someone from talking about any subject the creators of the document wish to keep from the press. The film follows three people with the courage to violate their NDAs for the greater good.
The Cornbread Mafia
A documentary about the rise and fall of the largest marijuana syndicate in American history. Set in Tennessee, the documentary tells the story using humor and is not only informative, but also entertaining.
The Hot Springs International Documentary Festival has grown from a small regional festival to become an important festival on the world stage. It will be interesting to watch this festival as it grows and becomes an even larger force on the festival circuit. If this is a representation of the festival at 35 years old, it will be amazing to see where it is in 35 more. James Whitmore summed it up best when he said, “I think one of the things we are seeking in our society is truth, and documentaries endeavor to really tell the truth.” There is no better reason to celebrate documentaries.
