From Word To Word

We will be screening Hector Cruz Sandoval’s Kordavision for this month’s Dinner and a Doc on November 13th.  We will be meeting at First Baptist Church, Guelph, which is located at 255 Woolwich Street, eating at 5:30 and beginning the film at about 6:00. Please post a comment or send me an email to let me know if you will be coming and if you would like to bring something to contribute to the meal.

Kordavision tells the story of photographer Alberto Diaz Korda, who is most famous for having shot the iconic image of Che Guevara, but who produced a whole wealth of other powerful photography as well.   Besides his work during the Cuban Revolution, he produced everything from fashion photography to underwater photography and is known especially for his ability with black and white photography and his eye for framing.  The film follows Korda as he returns to the sites where some of his most famous photographs were taken, telling the story of one of the world’s most remarkable photographers.

Here are some links for those who would like some further information:

1) the film’s trailer;
2) the complete film ;
3) a review of the film by Fabian Alfonso.

Lastly, here are some of the films we will be showing in upcoming months:
December 11th – Off for Christmas
January 8th – White Light / Black Rain by Steven Okazaki
February 12th – The Clinton Special by Michael Ondaatje
March 12th – Capturing Reality by Pepita Ferrari

This Saturday, October 9th, we will be having Dinner and a Doc as normal, but with two important changes:

First, due to our numbers lately, we will be meeting from now on in the upstairs of First Baptist Church, Guelph, the space where we ended up meeting last month.  The church is located at 255 Woolwich Street.  People should feel free to park in the church parking lot and should enter through the side doors.  I will post signs to the room where we will be meeting.

Second, while everyone, especially the starving students, should still feel free just to drop by for the meal and the show, we have had many people offer to bring bread or drinks or desserts.  Rather than discourage this, as I have been doing until now in the interests of keeping things organized, I would now ask that people just let me know if they will be bringing something so that I can make sure all the necessities are covered.

So, with those two changes, this Saturday will be our second attempt to screen The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris for Dinner and a Doc.  The film follows the story of Randall Dale Adams who was falsely convicted of killing a police officer. It is one of the first major documentaries to break with the direct cinema mode by using reenactments, and it raised so much publicity about Adams’ case that the conviction was eventually overturned. It is also quite simply an engrossing film.

Here are some links for those who would like some further information:

1) a clip about the film;
2) a very entertaining letter to Morris from the producer Harvey Weinstein; and
3) a review by Ronnie D. Lankford Jr at documentaryfilms.net.

The soup that night will probably be something pumkin-ish or squash-esque.

We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00. As usual, I would appreciate an email or a comment to let me know that you will be coming and whether you will be bringing anything to contribute to the meal.

Lastly, here are some of the films we will be showing in upcoming months:

November 13th – Kordavision by Hector Cruz Sandoval
December 11th – Off for Christmas
January 8th – White Light / Black Rain by Steven Okazaki
February 12th – The Clinton Special by Michael Ondaatje

Because of the very high turn out expected for Dinner and a Doc this Saturday, we will be unable to hold the event at our house as we had planned. Instead, we will be meeting at First Baptist Church (255 Woolwich Street, next to Hakim Optical). There is parking in the lot beside the church, and people may enter through the side doors. I will have signs posted that will lead to the rooms we have booked upstairs.

We will still be eating at 5:30 and beginning the film at 6:00.

Please do pass this information to anyone you may invited but who may not be a regular reader of this blog.

In my post for the last Dinner and a Doc, when we were to have watched Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line, I indicated that we would be watching Hector Cruz Sandoval’s Kordavision this coming Saturday the 11th.  We did not end up watching The Thin Blue Line that Saturday, so I thought I might reschedule it instead of Kordavision for the first Dinner and a Doc of the autumn, but considering that this Saturday will be the ninth anniversary of 9/11, and considering also that President Obama has just called an end to the American presence in Iraq, I have decided to screen something a little more topical.

Why We Fight is a film by Eugene Jarecki.  It explores that historical factors that produced the political situation in the Middle East, a situation that drove some people to fly planes into targets on American soil and that drove other people to invade Iraq in response.  It  is a well-crafted film, and it should certainly allow us to think a little bit about the legacy of 9/11 ten years later.

Here are some links for those who would like some further information:

1) the film’s official site with trailer;
2) an interview with the director, Eugene Jarecki; and
3) the director on The Daily Show.

The soup that night will be a tomato soup of some sort.  I have not determined which kind yet, but I cannot pas up the chance to use fresh garden tomatoes in something.

The event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome. We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00. As usual, I would appreciate an email or a comment to let me know that you will be coming.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing:

October 9th – The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris
November 13th – Kordavision by Hector Cruz Sandoval
December 11th – Off for Christmas
January 8th  – White Light / Black Rain by Steven Okazaki
February 12th – The Clinton Special by Michael Ondaatje

This Saturday May 8th, we will be screening The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris for Dinner and a Doc.  It will be the last Dinner and a Doc of the season, the last until September 11th, the last opportunity to get your documentary fix until the fall, so I hope to see you all there.

The Thin Blue Line follows the story of Randall Dale Adams who was falsely convicted of killing a police officer.  It is one of the first major documentaries to break with the direct cinema mode by using reenactments, and it raised so much publicity about Adams’ case that the conviction was eventually overturned.  It is also quite simply an engrossing film.

Here are some links for those who would like some further information:

1) a clip about the film;
2) a very entertaining letter to Morris from the producer Harvey Weinstein; and
3) a review by Ronnie D. Lankford Jr at documentaryfilms.net.

The soup that night will be Spinach and Mint Soup, a recipe that will let me use some spring produce already growing in local gardens.

The event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome. We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00. As usual, I would appreciate an email or a comment to let me know that you will be coming.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing (Note that we will be taking a break for June, July, and August):

September 11th – Kordavision by Hector Cruz Sandoval (Considering the date, I may substitute a 9/11 doc instead)
October 9th  – White Light / Black Rain by Steven Okazaki
November 13th – The Clinton Special by Michael Ondaatje

This Saturday, April the 10th, we will be screening Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov and also, if we have time, Vertov’s Three Songs for Lenin.  Vertov was a Russian filmmaker and propagandist who pioneered many film techniques, and was among the first to experiment with collage and other avant garde ideas.  He was also tremendously influential on the development of many later western filmmakers.  His approach, which he called Kino Pravda or “film truth”, provided some of the key ideas and the name for the Cinema Vertite or Direct Cinema movement, though his own work often differs from this movement substantially.

Man with a Movie Camera is a collage of images from soviet cities, mostly Odessa, strongly propagandistic, but beautifully accomplished nevertheless, and still powerful in its appeal.  It shows soviet citizens at work and at play, and it visually argues for the role of film in this ideal soviet world by including the camera and the filmmaker themselves among the workers as they go about their business.  Film, it suggests, is an integral part of the strong and healthy and  productive nation.

Here are some links that might interest those looking for more information about the film and its creator:

1) a look at Vertov’s storyboard, perhaps the first in documentary history, by Roland Fischer-Briand at Rouge;
2) an introduction to a participatory “global remake” of the film, with a version of the remade film that is edited daily; and
3) an introduction to Vertov by Jonathan Dawson at Senses of Cinema.

The soup that night will be Green Soup, one of my mother’s creations.

The event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome.  We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00.  As usual, I would appreciate an email or a comment to let me know that you will be coming.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing:

May 8th – The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris
June 12th – Kordavision by Hector Cruz Sandoval
July 10th – White Light / Black Rain by Steven Okazaki

Next Saturday, March 13th, our Dinner and a Doc film will be Arnold Shapiro’s Scared Straight, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1978.  The film follows seventeen young offenders as they are taken to Rahway maximum Security prison in New Jersey where some of the inmates give them a raw introduction to what prison life actually entails.  The experiment so effectively shocked the offenders that the film spawned many similar programs, though there is some controversy as to whether they actually reduce repeat offenses.

Further information can be found in an interview with Karl Shapiro by Kristen Kidder, in this clip from the original film, and in this school version of the twenty year follow up film.

The soup that night will be Cauliflower and Sorrel Soup, a Gordon Ramsay recipe, though I will be omitting the optional caviar as it is a bit beyond my budget.

The event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome, though the film contains a good deal of profanity, so this may not be a great night to bring your kids.  We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00.  As usual, I would appreciate an email or a comment to let me know that you will be coming.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing:

April 10th – Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov
May 8th – The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris
June 12th – Kordavision by Hector Cruz Sandoval

For Dinner and a Doc next Saturday, which is February 13th, we will be screening Lost in La Mancha by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, a film that follows Terry Gilliam during his first attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  It provides interesting insight into Gilliam as a director, and it also draws some nice parallels between the story of Don Quxote and the film making process.

For those who are interested in a little more information, there is the official trailer, an interview with the directors by Rebecca Murray, and a review of the film by Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com.

The soup that night will be Butternut Squash Soup with Brown Butter, which is a Thomas Keller creation with a few modifications.

As usual, the event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome, though please email or leave a comment to let me know that you will be coming. We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing:

March 13th - Scared Straight by Arnold Shapiro
April 10th – Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov
May 8th – The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris

On January 2nd, I wrote my usual preliminary post for the Dinner and a Doc that was upcoming on the 9th of the month.  I indicated that we would be watching The Price of Sugar by Bill Haney, a film that explores the working conditions of Haitians who have illegally immigrated to cut sugar cane on plantations in the Dominican Republic.  It focuses specifically on the work of Father Christopher Hartley to improve the conditions on the plantations in what is now his former parish, plantations that are largely owned by the Vicini family.

On January 4th, several days before the screening, I received an email from the Washington legal firm of Patton Boggs, which is representing the Vicini family.  The email expressed dismay at my decision to show the film and included a forty-five page copy of the legal injunction that the firm has submitted to the courts, outlining the various respects in which the Vicini family feels that the film has misrepresented them and their interests.

On January 9th, I showed the film anyway.

Today, on January 14th, I am now posting the email that was sent to me by Patton Boggs along with the message that I do not intend to be bullied, now or ever, about the films that I decide to screen in the privacy of my own home, and let us be clear: the act of sending forty-odd pages of legal injunction is nothing more than mere bullying.

It has no legal function, since a defamation suit against the filmmaker has no bearing whatsoever on my right to watch the film in my own home.

Neither does it serve to correct misinformation.  Forty-odd pages of legal injunction will never be read by anyone, and any real intent to be corrective would have been much better served by a two or three page summary of the Vicinis’ objections.

It certainly does not provide proof of anything.  That the Vicinis object to their portrayal in the film and have filed a defamation suit proves absolutely nothing, in either direction, and even should the judge rule in their favour, I would still have some reservations about the ability of The District Court of Massachusetts to arrive at an informed judgment on a case whose material evidence lies mostly in a foreign state under the control of one of the interested parties.

The only thing that sending this legal document does  is attempt to intimidate people out of watching and showing and addressing the film for themselves.  The only thing it does is try to convince people that they should censure themselves at the discretion of those with the money to retain large legal firms that will send impressive looking swathes of legal material to anyone who shows up on a google alert.

I will not be so intimidated, and neither should you.  Inform yourself of both perspectives on the question, by all means.  Just do not let yourself be intimidated into letting the question drop.  In fact, I suggest that you go and rent the film this weekend, or even better, you can always borrow it from me.

For those who are interested in further persepctives on this dispute, there have been some interesting articles posted by  The World Socialist Web Site, by The Boston Globe, and by the National Catholic Reporter.

This Saturday, January the 9th, our Dinner and a Doc screening will be of Bill Haney’s The Price of Sugar.  The film explores the ways that sugar production effects the people who grow it in the Domincan Republic, following the work of a priest who is trying to organize the workers to achieve some basic human rights.

More information can be found at the film’s official website, in the official trailer, and in this interview with the director.

The soup that night will be this Roasted Sweet Garlic, Bread, and Almond Soup.  I am looking forward to giving it a try.

As usual, the event will be at my place, 130 Dublin Street, Guelph, and all are welcome, though please email or leave a comment to let me know that you will be coming. We will eat at about 5:30 and begin the film at about 6:00.

Also, here are some of the upcoming films we will be showing:
February 13th – Lost in La Mancha by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe
March 13th – Man or Aran by Robert Flaherty
April 10th – Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov